Tennis is a tough game, both physically and mentally, and requires a great deal of effort and dedication to improve. Having said that, by devoting the time to learn new techniques, and consolidate your existing game, you can improve your overall on-court performance in no time. One of the most important aspects of tennis is the serve.

It’s your chance to score heavily, but it’s also your opponents chance to break you down, and smash your spirits. During the serve, the pressure is definitely on, to impress and score consistently. However, by resorting to the basics, and ensuring you remember each vital point, you can work towards establishing a solid routine for more consistent serving.

To start off, you should think about your stance. Although it’s not the most glamorous part of the game, it is definitely crucial to providing a solid foundation for a solid serve. Ensure that your feet are pointing in the right direction, and that they remain around a shoulder’s width apart.

It’s also crucial to keep your knees bent, as this will allow you to generate the necessary power through your toss to give you that strong serve. Additionally, you should probably try to maintain a Continental grip through your first serve to generate raw power through the ball. Although this might not feel the most comfortable, it is definitely worth it, and you’ll find it becomes a great deal easier as you become more used to it.

Another vital aspect of the serve is the toss. The toss sets up the serve and allows you to power right through the ball. You should hold the ball lightly within your fingertips and toss in a vertical path above head height. This should trigger your serve routine, which should involve the bending of the knees, drawing of the arm and the eventual snap through the ball to finish. By practicing the toss, you should end up achieving a consistency that can help set off a stronger and more accurate serve time after time.

Tennis is definitely a challenging game, and improving the serve is one of the trickier aspects. However, by continually practicing, and thinking about routine, both prior to and during the serve, you can hopefully achieve a consistency that will bring better results and improve your game. By improving your serve, you should ultimately improve your chances of winning more service points, which will allow you to refine your skills in other areas of the game.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Education, Science, and Computers

Tennis is a lonely game. It is one of the most gladiatorial sports: one versus one with no team mates to offer support. There is no hiding place on court and those who reach the highest level require a great deal of character to go with their rare talents.

No one can accuse Justine Henin of lacking inner strength; seven grand slam titles and 41 WTA victories were earned through hard work and an ability to handle pressure, alongside of course her devastating one-handed backhand.

And yet she walks away from the game at her supposed peak, 25 years old and on top of the world rankings. This is not due to any mental failings but rather a realisation that there is more to life than tennis. Individual sports require more motivation to excel in than team events - a coach can help guide a player but only the individual can summon the desire to continue on the treadmill of the tour, staying away from home for long periods. It is a lonely place off the court as well as on it.

Henin has had some well-publicised personal issues and she no doubt wants to spend more time with her reunited family and pursuing other interests. Hers is a premature retirement, although it should be remembered that she turned professional in 1999. Women players often have pro careers mapped out for them from an early age - usually in a pressurised and intense parental environment - so these seemingly short careers must appear long to the players themselves.

Players will continue to walk away from the game at a young age, be they number one in the rankings or number 500. Tennis is a tough sport to succeed in, although it has just become a fair bit easier for those at the top of the women’s game. The French Open is nearly upon us but it will not feature the winner of the last three ladies’ titles. Tennis betting is suddenly more interesting - picking a winner at Roland Garros this year is much harder than it has been in recent times.

Always wanted to learn how to play tennis, but have no idea where to begin? The best way to learn is to take a few classes or find a friend who knows how to play and hit the courts. But, if you’re afraid of looking like a novice, look over these basic rules and game tips before hitting the courts:

-The basic equipment needed: a racquet, tennis balls, and a tennis court.

-The lines painted on the court are:
Service Lines: The closest parallel lines to the net (on either side of the net).
Baseline: The parallel line furthest from the net is called the baseline.
The Alleys: The two long strips on both sides of the court, perpendicular to the net.

In singles tennis, the alleys are considered “out” so, if the ball bounces in them, it does not count. But, in doubles play, the alleys are “in.”

-Each game starts with a serve. The serving player starts behind the baseline on his right-hand side of the court and hits the ball into the service box (the box on the opposite side of the court between the alley and the middle court) on the other side.

-The ball must bounce once in this box for it to be considered a good serve.

-A server always gets two tries to hit the box.. If he misses both times, his opponent gets a point.

-If the serve goes in, the person returning must hit the serve either before it bounces (if he knows that the ball would be in) or after it bounces once. If it bounces more than once, the server gets one point.

The person returning must hit the ball over the net, and it can bounce anywhere on the opponent’s side of the court.

-The two players hit the ball back and forth until one person misses -The person who did not miss gets a point.

-The server switches sides for every serve.

-A player wins a game after scoring at least four points and wins by two.

-The next game, the other person serves and they continue to switch off, game after game, until someone wins the set. Generally, to win a set, a player must win at least six games, and two more than his opponent.

-A match is made up of a number of sets with player with the most sets winning the match.

Remember, this is only a basic way to play tennis, there are many other strategies and rules to learn to play a “real” professional style game. Regardless, just batting a few balls around can be fun and a great way to exercise!

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I recently received an email from a 4.5 tennis player in the USA who proposed the following question: I could use some help with a plan to get better. I am a 4.5 rated player in the USA and would like to be a 5.5. For some reason, I can’t find a tennis coach that will help with an overall plan; they just want to work on strokes. Any ideas?

After coaching tennis at a big country club in Texas for over five years I often faced the same question from our tournament players who felt as if they had plateaued and that by just getting out on the court and working on their strokes was just not taking them to the next level. As a tennis coach you need to be flexible and be able to analyze each player and create a plan for their own specific and individual needs. This means taking into account all of the factors or variables that make a great player.

The professional tennis players cover all areas and there is no reason why you can’t incorporate some of their training plans with a club level player. As you will see below I discuss and cover some specific areas from physical, psychological, tactical and so on which are often neglected by a coach who only sees their role as working on strokes.

So for our 4.5 player I would talk to him about focusing on some of the following areas that will help him to get to that next level without working on just strokes.

Psychological:

Game Plan:

Work on your game plan. That is; have you scouted your next opponent? Do you have your own game plan ready so that you can control the match how you want to play it? Do you have a back-up plan in case your first plan is not working?

Concentration:

Telling yourself to concentrate harder will not work. However, if you can put into place pre-game, in-game and post-game routines then you will be able to remain more focused on the task at hand. In between points allow you mind to relax and bring back your focus when you step up to the line to serve or return. The human mind cannot focus continuously so it is pointless to try and do so.

Scout Your Opponent:

If you are in a tournament then go and have a look at your next opponent. Analyse and look at how they play, what is their favourite shot, what are their weaknesses, do they struggle on the big points, do they always go for their favourite shot on a big point, do they have a big shot and so on. Once you have this information then go away and create a game plan to beat this player.

Routines:

Have a routine for in-between points that will help you maintain control and composure when either winning or losing. Once again this allows you to have control over how the game is played.

Goal Setting:

I know, you have all heard this before but I cannot stress enough that as soon as you write down some realistic goals on paper you will immediately feel that you have direction and something to train for. It is a great feeling when you achieve a goal and can move on to the next one.

Physical:

Footwork:

One of the most common problems I faced with club level players was that they had poor footwork which led to poor execution on their shots. Many coaches spend hours and hours trying to teach a player the correct stroke technique when a lot of the time the real issue is that they don’t set up properly for the shot and then as a result being out of position causes the player to use bad technique. Incorporate some of the tennis specific footwork drills that we have provided in our eBooks.

Strength:

Maybe you are lacking the physical strength to gain those few extra miles on your serve. One way to add more power to your serve without just hitting serves for hours on end is to hit the gym! Have an experienced gym trainer develop a weight training program to increase your strength and watch your serve become faster and more of a weapon!

Speed:

Maybe you are not fast enough on the court. Being too slow will negatively impact your strokes. You may not recover fast enough after being out of position, maybe you don’t get to the ball in time and as a result do not properly execute the shot. Speed is a weapon! Just ask Lleyton Hewitt or Rafael Nadal and you will soon see how speed is used to their advantage.

Flexibility:

This is often a neglected area. Besides the known benefits of preventing injuries there are many direct benefits to improving on-court performance. One of my friends, Mark Wellington, trained Maria Sharapova for a couple of years and he always mentioned how he placed great emphasis on flexibility and teaching Maria how to move on the court. Having greater flexibility will help you to recover after each shot and get back in position more quickly for the next shot.

Endurance:

Tennis is often described as an “Anaerobic” sport due to the nature of reasonably short points. However, you need to train your aerobic system so that you can sustain a high level of play right up until the end. Often a player may be losing matches simply because they fade away. All of those hours working on strokes won’t help you if you run out of gas!

Reflexes:

By improving your reflexes you can become more competent at the net as well as improving other areas of your game such as the return of serve. Many players just do not react quickly enough to a fast serve. As a result they make errors on the return of serve or just don’t get the ball back into play.

Tactical:

Have you ever played against someone who was more technically “inferior” to you in the sense that their strokes were not very efficient but they just always had a knack of wining? We all have at some point in out tennis careers! Some players are just match tough. They know how to break down an opponents’ game. They know how to create a game plan that will be successful. They have that ability to win the big points.

So what you need to do is analyze your own game plan. Do you have one when you step on the court? Do you have the ability to stick with a winning game plan but also change a losing one? This is where you can ask your coach to work with you. Spend a whole lesson playing points and have your coach talk to you about how you construct your points. No stroke technique just a “Match Play” lesson. This will give you a perspective from an opposing player of what they see in your game.

General:

Technique:

Make sure that you have correct technique on all of your shots. If you have a visible weakness then you can count on your opponent exploiting this shot.

Matches! Matches! Matches! I can’t stress enough how important it is to play matches. You cannot simply practice or just do lessons and then expect to perform when in a competitive situation. You need to play more matches and as a direct result you will become more match tough, more experienced in dealing with different players and will also be able to see what areas you need to improve on when in a match. You could even have a friend use match evaluation forms to scout your match and then afterwards you can see what areas exactly you need to work on. Remember: be a match play and not just a practice player!

When I coached competitive ladies teams, I tried to build a lot of my drills based around “live ball” or “match like” drills rather than just feeding drills. The more point based drills you do the more comfortable you will be in a real match as these drills simulate match play that includes the unpredictability rather than the predictable ball fed by a coach.

Practice Partners:

Train with players better than you! If you are a 4.5 - are you always playing with 4.5 players? If so and you want to get to a 5.5 then go out and play with those better players who will help to raise the level of your game. If your practice partner is not pushing you hard enough then find a new one. Join a drill session that has these better players. You will soon be forced to raise the level of your game in order to compete with these guys.

Many clubs have a Saturday morning group training session for men. You could ask your club coach what other drill sessions you could join.

Variety:

If you practice with the same players all the time then you will become one dimensional and become accustomed to their game styles. Unfortunately, when you are in a tournament and face a totally different game style you will not know how to play them. So, get out there and play as many different players as you can. Some the same level as you and some better at the 5.5 level.

Consistency:

Way too often matches are lost by the player making too many simple and unforced errors. First become a strong consistent player and then work on the big shots. If you continuously beat yourself with simple errors how do you ever expect to win? Force your opponent to beat you. Reduce your errors by making having shot selection.

Big Shot:

once you have developed consistency then you may just need a “big shot” to beat those 5.5 players. Ideally work on a big serve or a big forehand. Even developing a great kick serve can be used as a weapon. A big shot will intimidate your opponent.

Drills: When training use more live ball or match play drills. Set specific goals for each session and then use our GSC drills to build on your strengths and also improve on those weaker areas. There are hundreds of new drills in our eBooks or on our site so use them! If your coach just wants to feed all of the time then you will not be reaching your full potential. Choose drills that are based on point play and simulating match play. The transition into real matches will be much easier for you.

Summary:

Improve on the following areas:

Game plans

Routines

Improve on the “mental aspect” of the game

Concentration

Goal setting

Play more matches

Improve shot technique

Play against various players

Improve your speed, strength, flexibility, reflexes and footwork

Improve consistency

Develop a big shot

Join an extra league for more match practice

Add more shots to you game (eg. slice backhand, kick serve or drop shot)

Scout future opponents to get a jump on them

Play with better players than you to help raise your level

Find a great practice partner with similar goals to you

The beauty about the game of tennis is that there is always something to work on. The hard part is to know when you are wasting your time on the wrong things. Are you a match player or a practice player? Quite simply, conduct a review of your entire game and then analyse each area. When I worked with elite athletes as an Exercise Physiologist I would have to conduct what we called a “Needs Analysis” which was quite simply conducting and reviewing every area involved with the athlete and their sport. Then devising a plan to improve every aspect or variable.

Good Luck and take control of your own destiny!

David Horne is a former professional tennis player who has created several online sports web sites including which is the Ultimate Sports Directory for all sports fans! Check out the global web site for Tennis Coaching at Global Sports Coaching

Tennis is a great sport, but not without a few foibles. Tennis was a game I remember playing from a very young age. Not really sure, what prompted me to pick up the game, but my younger brother and I use to head over to the local public tennis courts quite a few times during our summer vacation. Quite a few very competitive matches ensued during those long summer days, and a number of them evolved into some very competitive and verbal matches. Ala John Mcenroe vs Jimmy Conners kinda stuff. Not the same tennis skill level of course, but some of the tennis style disagreements certainly did.

There are a few things that are kind of annoying about the game of tennis, especially whey you play at the very beginning skill level. One has to be learning to hit a decent tennis serve. Certainly tricky, hitting the ball with just the right power to get it over the next, and still land it in that itty bitty little square of a service box. Certainly makes you look in awe at the tennis pros, as they pound the tennis balls at over 100 miles per hour just barely over the net, and paint the lines of the service box. Of course thousands of hours with a tennis racket in your hands hitting balls till there are callouses on your callouses helps develop a great tennis serve.

Tennis Serving Wenches

The other thing that kind of annoys me about tennis, is all the time spent chasing errant balls. All those tennis shots, that should have been great, but somehow ended up flying over the fence, orwhacking the guy two courts over, or the really sneaking ones that zipped out under the hole in the fence into the big bunch of bushes. I think every tennis court, public or otherwise, should come with a full time staff of ball boys or ball girls. I love watching those kids on the big televised matches running around fetching balls, handing out towels, at the beck and call of the players. As I’ve gotten older, and hadchildren, I’ve tried to encourage them to take up the fine and honorable of career of tennis ball girls, but to no avail. There must be something about chasing all my wild tennis shots, that just doesn’t appeal to youngsters these days.

Tennis Graduation Days

I don’t play a whole lot of tennis these days. Occasionally I’ll play with friends and family while on vacation, or at resorts that have tennis courts available. I’ve taken up other racket sport activities. Played racquetball for a while before moving on to the game of squash. There is something to be said for playing in a court with no net, and no chance of the ball slipping under or over the fence. Helps to save my energy for running down my opponents shots, instead of traipsing through a pack of bushes look for that pink tennis ball, that should be oh so easy to find. Although, I’d have to thank my early days on the tennis courts to develop my affinity for other racket sports. Their all fun in their own way, a great game to play with family, and quite a racket.

For more on tennis visit tennisopenonline.com or read other tennis articles at foolishmumbles.com/category/tennis

It’s certainly no coincidence that many of the players who reach the top in the modern tennis game are powerful athletes and this owes much to good core stability. In sports science, core stability is a relatively new idea that many athletes have not yet fully grasped but tennis is a great example of how it can benefit players.

Firstly, good core strength improves speed and what tennis player wouldn’t want to be able to move around court that little bit quicker? In tight games where every point matters, core stability training can give competitors the edge over their opponent. Stronger core muscles send quicker signals to the muscles in the legs meaning they can move faster and more powerfully.

Reactions can also be improved with increased core stability, meaning those backhands you’ve been a second too late on can start to fire. It also means that changing direction comes much easier so you’re much sharper when racing around the court or stretching forward to reach the drop shot.

The explosive power that good core strength can offer also means that your serve can see a direct benefit. The core muscles run all the way along the torso and tightening them up means a much more compact serving technique which in turn leads to increased power and better accuracy.

These are just a few of the ways that core stability can help athletes in tennis. Name nearly any other sport and I can list a similar number of benefits, which tell you why it is so important to embrace this new training regime.

There’s more information on core stability as well as a free report at Sports Injury Bulletin.