Tip 1: Take Advantage of The Drop Serve
The drop serve is a great way for beginner and intermediate players to gain consistency on the serve and master serving fundamentals.
A drop serve is when you drop the serve out of your non dominant hand and hit it off the bounce.
Here are a few tips that will help you hit the best drop serve that you can:
- Drop the ball from as high as you can. The drop serve has to be hit from a dead drop; you can’t throw the ball down to bounce it. You have to release it from your hand and let gravity do the work. The higher the ball bounces, the easier the serve will be to hit and dropping the ball from as high as you can will in turn give you the most height on the bounce.
- Hit the ball at the peak of the bounce. As mentioned before, the higher the ball bounces, the easier the serve will be to hit, and the ball is at its highest point at the peak. Also, when the ball peaks, there is a split second where it is neither moving up nor down. The lack of vertical movement makes it easier to time because there are fewer moving parts.
- Don’t drop the ball unless your paddle is all the way back. If you’re swinging backward and forward while the ball is in the air, it will be difficult to hit the ball at the right moment each time. If you wait to drop the ball until your paddle is fully back, all you have to worry about is the forward part of the swing.
Tip 2: Catch the Paddle With Your Off Hand
One of the most common errors on the serve is not following through all the way to the non-dominant shoulder. Many players stop the paddle shortly after contact when the paddle is in front of their chest, or maybe even sooner in the swing. You may be thinking: “How does what I do after I contact the ball have anything to do with my shot?” But how you intend to follow through affects what your paddle does before contact. For you to stop the paddle shortly after contact means that you will decelerate before you hit, which is not optimal. The follow-through is a very important part of the swing on the serve.
Here’s a trick that will help you make sure that you remember the follow through every time:
At the end of the swing, catch the paddle with your non-dominant hand. You should finish the swing above your non-dominant shoulder with both hands on the paddle. It’s not possible to catch the paddle with your non-dominant hand without finishing at your shoulder!
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