The final step is to simply reach and strike the ball using the still relaxed wrist to make any final adjustments from serve to serve.
Step number five is the hit. Since each of the five phases is critical, it helped Colindy feel the rhythm to say each of these five parts.
Finally since retention of information and skills go way up, when we teach someone else, I also had Colindy teach me the phases while I served. This little exercise helped to accelerate her learning tremendously.
Thus far you have only seen Colindy hit first serves, let's take a brief look at some kick serves to help encourage other 12-year-old girls who may want to give it a try themselves.
The commonly recognized benefit of kick or topspin serves is that it allows greater margin for error since the ball will pass higher over the net and then dip with the topspin into the box. For Colindy to initially get a feel for this serve we used a device with a rotating ball; we call it the Spin Doctor. We then had her hit from a modified starting position to continue really focusing on the feel for brushing up the back of the ball. Finally we had her integrate the kick into the full service motion. Great job Colindy!
We have covered a lot on the serve but haven't even gotten to discuss target areas. The main point is to focus your practices exactly as you would like to focus in a match. Let's listen in.
Of course just hitting serves one after another is not ideal, after all in a game the ball comes back. So take a look at how to make serving practice even more realistic. One way is to have Colindy serve and immediately recover on balance to get ready for the next ball. The next step is to actually toss her a ball to simulate a return she might expect.
In this example Colindy is serving wide in the Ad court to a right handers backhand. We are presuming the receiver will often hit an effective serve late and down the middle of the court. Colindy then gets the opportunity to take charge of the point and hit an inside in forehand to the open court.
The final word on this serve is consistency. It's critical to get the technique as correct as possible. After all players will become consistent at whatever technique they adopt, since practice makes permanent they might as well be doing it right.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services