The Secret to Serving

by Stephen Tuck
(Sydney, Australia)

Just last week I was playing a match and I just couldn't seem to get a first serve in. I was hitting a lot of serves in the net.

I adjusted the way I was hitting the ball and for a while I was getting my first serve in again, but than the same thing happened and most of my first serves were either going into the net or over the service line.

It was only after the match that I remembered that when it comes to serving, everything depends on that moment of contact with the ball. Somehow I had become distracted from that split-second moment.

What I need to do was re-focus on that moment so that it slows down and I see the moment my racquet makes contact with the ball clearly and see myself hitting the ball at precisely the right angle for it to fly clean over the net and into the service court.

It all comes back to the most basic rule: Keep your eyes on the ball. I have seen this with the champions in slow-motion video.

They are so focussed on that moment of contact that they are in no hurry to see where the ball has gone. They know where the ball has gone from seeing the way they made contact with the ball.