The most important part of any tennis serve is the toss. The service is the only shot in tennis where the player is in control of the ball. The toss must be accurate if the serve is to be accurate.
On the service start position both arms should be out in front of the body with the ball resting in the tossing hand. The racquet will be resting on the lower fingers of the tossing hand. This resting position of the racquet will allow your muscles to relax instead of pinning the ball against the strings.
The toss arm should be at a 45 degree angle or less to the baseline. If your using the continental grip (and you should be), your toss will be slightly over the left shoulder if your right handed. This means your toss arm angle will be almost parallel to the baseline before it begins its upward motion.
As you begin the service, you will let the tossing hand drop down and it should swing back with the racquet arm. This will create a good shoulder rotation if both arms are moving in the same direction.
When holding the ball for the toss, the fingers should cradle the ball without the ball resting in the palm of the hand. Do not squeeze the ball but rather let the ball rest on the fingers to reduce muscular tension. The palm of the hand should be facing more to the side than up toward the sky. This will help eliminate most of any wrist movement on the ball toss.
The arm motion should be smooth and the arm should be straight not bent at the elbow. Do not bend or use the elbow to aid in the toss, this will only cause a ball throw instead of a ball “lift”. The stiff arm and stiff wrist motion keeps your ball toss more consistent.
If you consistently put the ball toss in the right place your serve will be consistent also. Next tip I will talk about how changes in the toss will affect the placement of the serve.
Doug Hofer, USPTA January 3, 2004
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