Frankie Dell: Hi, I am Frankie Dell; I am a professional Tennis Instructor. You are watching ‘How to Serve’. Next I’ll show you the proper toss and the backswing. So now we’re going to start off with both hands up, both hands are up then they go down together and separate. Up, down together and separate. On the separation you want to keep your racquet palm facing down. And then the front arm goes up into the toss. So, up, down together and separate, up together. On the up together is when you’re going to actually release the ball and the racquet arm comes into an L, just like that.
Now, on your toss, you just want to open your fingers and release the ball very gently. You don't want to put spins and letting it roll off your fingers because then it tends to go off to the sides. You want the ball to go straight up without any spin. Think of it like if you are in one of those Egg Toss games where you are trying to toss the egg very gently to the other person without it breaking. Same way you want to toss the ball, very gently, arms go down together, up together, down together, up together.
Now, how high do you toss it? Well if you watch this serve tell me when I make contact, is my arm bent or is it straight? My arm was straight when I made contact so that tells you your toss has to go at least that high but you don't want it to go much higher than that, maybe a few inches. You want to just practice, you can even hold your racquet there. Try to toss it right in front of the strings, maybe 2 or 3 inches higher. The ball should be out in front of you so as if you didn't hit it, it would land maybe a foot in front of you.
Up, down together, separate, up together, toss, hit. That's the toss and the backswing.
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