The perfect tennis ball toss on serve
Improve your tennis serve with your ball toss
The perfect tennis ball toss on serve
Every tennis player wants to open the point with a quick and placed serve to put themselves in the best possible playing position. When serving, the right ball toss is the key to success.
In the following, we will tell you how to toss the perfect tennis ball on serve so that you can win as many points as possible with your serve – enjoy reading.
1. Importance of tennis ball toss
The perfect tennis ball toss is an important skill for all tennis players, as it allows them to catch their opponent off guard and on the wrong foot.
The world’s best tennis players always toss the tennis ball the same way, so it is impossible for the opponent to anticipate the direction of the serve. Thus, the opponent can only react as soon as the server has hit the tennis ball, and then it is already too late at service speeds of over 125 mph (200 km/h).
In particular, ball tosses by tennis beginners are often comparatively easy for experienced tennis players to read and thus return, so that the server, who should actually have an advantage due to the possibility of opening the player, is pushed into an unfavorable position.
2. Ball toss technique
It is important to mention that the ball toss should be more like a ball lift. In the normal serving motion, the tennis ball should be lifted into the air with an outstretched and straight arm.
It is important to grip the ball correctly and lift it with enough force and speed so that the ball is higher than you with the tennis racket extended upward. Note that the ball is hit as it drops.
A common source of error in tennis ball tossing is releasing the ball too early or too late. To avoid this, you should hold the ball in the open palm of your hand and release it only at the last moment. In an emergency, it is better to stop the serve and catch the tennis ball again and start serving again. This does not count as a serve and is allowed according to the tennis rules.
3. Choosing the right place for the toss
The correct position on the baseline is also important. There are different positions on the tennis court that are more suitable for the shot than others. For example, in doubles it is better to position yourself a little further out, because from there you can play a better angle with your own doubles partner at the net.
The starting positions for the ball toss and thus the serve can thus be used as a tactical variation.
- The farther you stand near the center line, the less likely you are to hit a well-placed serve to the outside.
- Conversely, a position further out is less likely for a well-placed serve through the middle.
Of course, the opponent also knows this and usually already prepares himself for a corresponding serve, so play the improbable variant sometimes, so that the opponent cannot prepare himself for your serves.
4. Non-readable ball toss exercise
To learn how to toss a tennis ball perfectly, it is important to practice regularly. With enough practice and patience, you will eventually be able to lift the ball exactly where you want it, making it difficult for your opponent to return.
A popular ball-toss exercise among world-class tennis players is that coaches call out to the players where to hit the serve only after the ball has been tossed. This way, the same ball toss is practiced over and over again and it becomes impossible to anticipate the direction of the serve based on the ball toss.
5. Summary and conclusion
The tennis ball toss is crucial on serve, because a perfect ball toss makes anticipating the direction of the serve almost impossible. This puts the server in an excellent starting position after the serve, since the opponent can usually only react late.
We recommend not only tennis beginners to practice and improve the ball toss again and again to make your game more varied and surprising.