Tuesday Tennis Tip: The Second Serve

With Mondays through the winter being taken up with match memories, time for something special for the Tuesday schedule. Each Tuesday throughout the winter, I'll post a tennis tip. It won't be so much mechanics as much as strategy, mentality or a focus. Unless I decide it will be about mechanics, because this is my post and I'll post want I want to. Okay, that was a poor reference to an old song...now onto the post.

TTT #1: The Second Serve
This is probably the most underpracticed stroke in all of tennis. We all love our first serves so much, the glory of pounding an ace past someone, the pulling out of the radar gun and seeing if we can hit it 100 mph yet, which of course we can't. The first serve is seen as attacking and aggressive. We all figure that the second serve we'll just spin in and then start the point from there.

The truth is that the second serve is one of the most underrated strokes in all of tennis as well. The second serve is what keeps us from being broken on a consistent basis. We all have games where we get all of our "super serves" in, but more often we have games where we can't seem to find the first serve. We must have an aggressive second serve then.

That's the key then, is establishing a second serve with some bite. That means working on a serve that has a bit more spin, but is still struck with full pace. That means developing a serve that you swing through instead of push. That means consistently practicing the serve so that you have confidence when you hit it. That means a lot of work and concentration, noticing mistakes and making small adjustments. But it can be a big payoff.

In college I began to realize the power of a second serve. Throughout my sophomore and junior years, I began to change my service game so that my second serve has hit just as hard as my first serve. What I found that I had to pay attention to, in order to hit a consistent, attacking second serve was my service form.

This attention to form transformed my second serve. It became a weapon in and of itself. In fact, over the last two years of my college career I had more aces on my second serve than my first, because opponents expected me to simply get the second serve in to begin the point. When I didn't do that, it became a problem for them.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we all go for aces on the second serve. But here are some tips on form to make the second serve a more consistent yet still attacking stroke.

1. GRIP: You should use a continental grip, which is similar to the backhand grip. The butt of your hand should be on the bottom edge of the handle.

2. TOSS: To hit a kick serve, the toss should be directly above your head. To hit a slice serve, the toss should be slightly in front of you and out to the hitting side of your body. The toss must be consistent from serve to serve! In order to maintain a consistent toss, do not flip the wrist at all in extended the ball upwards. Simply lift and release. This causes the ball to not spin and stay in the same general area.

3. TOSS-HIT RHYTHM: As you practice, pay attention to your most comfortable rhythm of toss and then hit. When this rhythm is on, we usually do our best serving. It is different for everyone, so notice how long it takes for you between toss and hit on a good serve, then strive to continue that rhythm.

4. SET POSITION: Backswing should occur in your hitting motion that brings the weight and momentum to a set position, which weight centered in your legs and hips and hitting arm coiled in a raised position. If there is no build up of potential energy, it is difficult to create spin and pace.

5. EXTENSION: The main energy of the service swing should be directed upwards, not forward. The natural spin put on the ball will bring it back down. Focus during the swing phase of the serve should be on swinging up to the ball. Nick Bollettieri (a famous tennis coach) describes the service motion as "pitching upwards," using the same basic arm ideas as throwing a pitch in baseball but going upwards instead of out. I think that is a good mental image.

6. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE: Take time to make concentrated practice of the serve. Everybody hits a little differently, but knowing the keys of your service motion will help you under pressure.

That's it for now. Back for more tips next Tuesday!