Tennis Serve drills
Learn to serve under pressure

The purpose of tennis serve drills is to teach the player how to empty his mind and how to serve with focus. There are also situations where a player must serve under pressure and needs to shut this pressure off so that he is able to serve at his best.


Serving in a row

Divide both service courts in two halfs. The server has to serve one serve into each half starting from left to right.

a) He needs to hit four serves. Count how many he needs to complete the sequence.b) He needs to serve two in a row in each half of the court. If he hit every serve, that would be 8 serves.c) He needs to serve 3 in a row. That would be 12 serves if he hit every time.

Variation:
– make player serve in thirds of the court.

Benefits:

This drill is different from usual target practice drill because the player is under pressure. He needs as few serves as possible and he starts from 0 if misses a second or a third serve as mentioned in points b) and c).

He of course practices precision serving but he is much more focused in this drill than if he just practices target serving.


Psycho serve

This is a drill similar to the above one with the added pressure of playing against a partner.

2 players serve one against each other cross court. Player A serves first, then player B. If A hits the court and B misses, A wins a point. If A hits the court and B hits the court, neither gets a point. If A misses and B hits the court, B wins a point.

The game is played to 3 and then they switch serving order. The second server is under more pressure!

Can be played with first serves only, second serves only or both.

Variations:
- Mark half or one third of the court to aim for
- Have the first player call out where he'll serve and the second player needs to follow
- Have both players on the same side of the court alternating serves

Benefits:


Serving under pressure (Jimmy Connors drill)

Players play a set where the server always starts at 30:40.

Variations:
- Play no-ad
- The server has only the second serve

Benefits:



Finish the set - the Grand Slam version

Players start from 4:4 and play the best of 5 sets.

Variations:
- Best of 3 (if you don't have a lot of time)
- Players play tie breaks – the best of 3 (5)

Benefits:

Win More Matches When It Matters Most

Most tennis matches are decided not by a better stroke but by a better tactical play and by a stronger mind.


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