Three Keys For Correcting Tennis Serving Mechanics

• By Grant Young

For those who have been playing tennis for a long time, improving your tennis serve can be a tricky task. 

For one, the serve is an intricate motion that requires the seamless synchronization of multiple body parts, including the legs, core, and arms. Even the slightest flaw in this coordinated effort can lead to ineffective serves, making it essential to address several components simultaneously. This complexity can overwhelm players, especially if they struggle to pinpoint the specific mechanical issues affecting their performance. 

Muscle memory further complicates the correction process. Players often develop deep-rooted habits over time, which, although familiar, may hinder their effectiveness. Breaking these established patterns demands time, patience, and relentless repetition, as the body must essentially retrain itself. This can lead to frustration, as progress may feel slow or inconsistent, causing players to doubt their ability to improve. 

While feedback from coaches and seasoned players is invaluable for identifying necessary adjustments, integrating this guidance into practice takes time and effort. Psychological barriers, such as lack of confidence and anxiety, can also impede a player’s focus on mechanical changes during competitive play. When a player's mind is preoccupied with worry about their serve, it limits their willingness to experiment and embrace new techniques. 

Athletes must appreciate that incremental improvement is an integral part of the development journey and, with commitment and perseverance, they can unlock their full serving potential. However, this potential can be reached much sooner with an open mind and the knowledge of which tips and drills will be most effective when trying to fix any mechanical flaws with the serve.

This is why we’ve pulled three key serving lessons from the clinics of three proven tennis coaches that will help put you on the right path to fixing any mechanical serving flaws you may have accrued during your career. 

Jeremy Malfait - The Contact Point

Jeremy Malfait has an Elite Certification with the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA). He has spent the last 13 years studying stroke technique, while looking at the smallest of details, and has experience coaching high school tennis and teaching high-performance players. 

For 3 of the 4 years when he played high school team tennis, Coach Malfait was undefeated without dropping a set. As a top junior in the United States, he played in nationals and was victorious against several players who are now on the pro tour. 

In his ‘Serve Fundamentals’ clinic, Coach Malfait discusses why nailing the contact point during a serve is crucial. 

He explains that the key to nailing the contact point is loading and unloading properly. If these two aspects of the serve are synchronized, along with making sure the upper body and lower body are in sync, the server will be in a much better position.

He also notes that focusing on the contact point isn’t something a player should be worrying about when actually executing the serve (unless they want to use the contact point as a reference.) 

When it comes to ensuring synchronization before the contact point, the timing of the racket drop and the legs coming up need to occur at the same time. According to Coach Malfait, this is one of the biggest keys to ensuring the correct timing on a serve. 

Gilad Bloom - Practice Tips for Improving Serves

Gilad Bloom played on the ATP Tour from 1983 to 1995. Having competed in the Davis Cup on Israel's behalf for 11 years and represented his home country in the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games, Gilad reached his highest ranking as a pro at No. 60 in 1990.

In his ‘Master Your Serve in Tennis’ clinic, Coach Bloom discusses some of his key practice tips when trying to improve the serve. 

One is that the focus should be on two things: keeping your repetition down and putting more quality on your serve. Quantity over quantity, in other words. This is because if a player is just trying to hit as many serves as possible, their focus and attention to detail will dwindle, which will lead to bad habits getting formed. 

Therefore, a coach should ensure that with each practice serve, the player knows the spin and direction they want the serve to go. The best way to do this is by setting up tape or cones on the court, giving a visual representation of where the shots would go. 

Cosmin Miholca - How to Correct the Racket Back Drop

Cosmin Miholca is a certified tennis coach who has been playing tennis for over 30 years and teaching it for more than 20 years, both in Southern California and more recently in Europe.

Coach Miholca has developed many online tennis courses to share his knowledge with anyone who wants to enjoy tennis, regardless of whether they're a coach or player, or whether they want to play recreationally or competitively.

In his free ‘How to Correct the Racket Back Drop’ clinic, Coach Mihlca provides details on doing exactly that. The racket back drop is a common mechanical flow where an athlete will open up their racket face too early before serving. 

To address this, Coach Miholca suggests a drill where the athlete is standing with their back against a wall. From there, they will get into the trophy pose. And if their mechanics are correct, the racket won’t be touching the wall or fence during the entirety of their backswing.