The Most (Over-emphasised) Important Stroke in Tennis

What is the most important stroke in tennis?

Ask any junior and wannabe tennis player this question and pat comes the reply: The Serve.

 

 

Do you agree?

What do you think is the rationale behind the serve being considered the most important stroke in Tennis?

Is it because you take one swipe at the ball and the point is yours?

Is it because of the thrill (and the ego) involved in hitting the ball hard (very hard)?

Or is it because it is the stroke you start the point with?

Let’s face it: The serve (except on the Men’s tour) is nowhere close to being a weapon that it should be. You see players on the WTA tour making a lot of double faults. (No offence meant, ladies. Just stating a fact and analysing it for the future generation)

Junior circuit, Women’s tour – The serve is not a major weapon.

In fact, next time you are watching a national level match, count the number of free points a server wins. Free points won on service will include aces and service winners. And compare it with the number of free points that the server ‘donates’ (read double faults). Don’t be surprised if the points won and points donated are roughly equal.

And here’s part of the reason for the poor performance on the serve: It is one thing to say, it is the most important stroke in tennis, it is another thing to practice for it as if it is the most important.

Do you practice your serve enough?

If it is the most important stroke, shouldn’t you be practicing your serves more than other strokes- say forehands and groundstrokes?

Forget more than other strokes, do you think you practice it enough?

 

Isn’t this the common scenario in your practice session: You warm up your groundstrokes, mini-court and then from the baseline, hit balls back and forth for about 10-15 minutes and then it is time to start the match.

And you skip the service practice and start the match. Most players play the match with the option of ‘two more’, meaning, if the first point is a double fault, you can replay the point, beginning from the first serve!

Is this the way you should be warming up for the most important stroke?

One of the reasons serve takes a long time to master is because it is a very complex stroke. The service motion involves the whole body. And hence getting the rhythm right on the serve will take more time, more warm-up, not less.

And players skip the warm-up serves! (Brain-dead!)

And if you see players warm-up or even practicing their serves in a coaching lesson (assuming right-handed players), which side do you think they practice most the serves on?

Answer: Deuce court.

They will serve most of the serves in the deuce court. Before the start of the match, the scenario will look something like this: six serves to the deuce court, may be one or two to the ad-court and they are ready to begin.

Now: Answer this: Which side does the right handed player have the most trouble serving? Which side is the right hander uncomfortable serving? Deuce court or ad-court?

Naturally, the Ad-court since it is the non-natural side for the right handed player to serve in!

And they end up practicing their serve less to that side. Another example of being brain-dead.

Do they assume some sort of miracle will happen when they start the match? Or are they worried that they will exhaust their quota of great serves to that side, hence they are saving it for the match?

Let’s put our thinking caps on and get down to serve!

Best wishes

 

cr: Devinder Singh Bhusari