Tennis skills : different throws for serving

A good server is not one who serves as hard as possible. They are also players who vary their serves and hide their intentions.

So how do you achieve a good throw, so you can find all the angles and all sorts of spin?

That's what we'll talk about in these tips. Come, let's go serve!

First of all, let's analyse the three ball toss techniques that most players use:

• toss to the right of your body: used for slice serves, at the body or at the T at 0-15.
• straight up toss, slightly to the right: perfect for flat serves.
• toss slightly behind you: used for the kick serve, and generally for second serves.

Those are the three tosses for all serve techniques.

However, these three types of tosses are fairly visible, and if your serve isn't perfect, you can give your opponent a chance to go on the offensive.
If what you want is to cover your tracks when you serve, you'll need to go for a neutral toss, a bit like the toss for a flat serve.

It's the toss that will let you do anything. Of course, you'll need to compensate for this neutral toss with good technique, a much greater push with the legs, and a stronger shoulder rotation.

For a slice, for example, with a neutral toss you'll need to hit your ball much higher with a powerful push through the legs.
That way, you'll open up a much greater outer slice angle. Your shoulders will also need to move strongly along with the motion in order to provide rotation to the ball.
During a slice with a right toss, it's mostly your arm that provides rotation. So you'll need to compensate here by rotating your shoulders.
Your wrist plays a role too - you'll need to put in a greater effort towards the inside to put spin on the ball.

Doing a neutral toss isn't complicated. The hard part is to compensate for your toss with a flawless technique.
Try working on the different aspects of your toss, and to hide your serves more and more using a neutral toss.


Your turn to play!