How many balls and serves do you need to hit to start getting a sense of a tennis serve? 200!

I was early for my tennis class today. There was no one at the courts, but one huge basket of tennis balls lying on the court. I’ve always wanted to be able to practise my serves all alone with no one to judge or waiting for you to serve the balls to him. Of course the whole inviting basket of balls was great, like a dream come true!! And there I went throwing the balls and hitting them. Hah- it was disastrous with 1 in 15 balls ending up as a decent valid serve! 5 minutes were all it took to settle all 50 balls. Then I picked up all the balls again and served from the other side of the court. 2 more rounds of this! Sweet! I must have looked like a fool to those kids playing at the playground (there is a childcare center next to the courts). Yeah- but what the heck…

I’m finally getting it I must say. 4 consecutive valid serves! Yay!

A few things I realized from today’s practice:

• Hit the ball with arm almost fully extended.
• Where the ball contacts the racquet face is darn important. At least for my Wilson Hyper Hammer, it’s about 3 inches  from the top.
• There is kinda a rhythm to the whole prepare/toss-ball/raise-arm/hit sequence.
• Bend the knees a little before tossing the ball and straighten them after tossing for that ’sweet spring’ upwards.
• Where you toss the ball is critical. With your left foot pointing towards the right net pole, the ball should go straight up in line with an imaginary line between your left foot tip and the right net pole. At least this is what I’m comfortable with.
• Consciously aim.

More tennis and more practice! I’m loving this game.