And so Does Yours.

I'm looking at some of your survey returns and noticing a pattern. Most of you are unhappy with your serves. That's good—I'm unhappy with them too.

I'm also unhappy with mine.

So many moving parts!

For a serve to be effective, everything has to work perfectly and in sequence. One failure along the way and it's time for your second serve. Let's take a look at what has to go right.

1. The grip—a true continental grip is mandatory for a good serve. It provides the spin you need to keep a hard serve from sailing long and over the fence.
2. Your front foot (left if you're right-handed, right if you're a leftie.) should not be facing your opponent, but should sit on about a 45° angle to the baseline. That is an estimate and one of the variables you will have to choose depending on where you want your serve to land.
3. Your toss must be close to perfect, part 1. The height of your toss is the one you choose, but whatever it is—three feet, five feet—be sure to hit the ball just as it starts to come down. Don't bend your elbow when you're making the toss. Just...don't.
4. Your toss must be close to perfect, part 2. The ball must come down in front of you, at least a foot onto the court so that you must lean forward to hit it. A ball tossed straight up* will reduce your power, and a ball tossed behind you will pop into the air.
5. Your toss must be close to perfect, part 3. Most pros recommend tossing the ball about a foot to the right. This allows you to impart some extra spin. Master #'s 3 and 4 first, though.
6. Once you contact the ball, snap your wrist. If you're not getting any power, that's half of the reason. Now some pros believe there is no such thing as the wrist snap—that the wrist has to snap when you bring your arm around. I disagree, but I may be wrong. All I know is "snap your wrist" is one thing I tell myself when my serve is failing. It usually works.
7. Follow through with a step onto the court, split step, and play.

*some players with enough strength can get away with this, reaching high and hitting over the top of the ball.

How much should you practice?

One-hundred serves a day. You asked, so I'm telling you: 100 serves a day.

That's if you want to be good. If you're aiming for decent or okay, I wouldn't practice at all. But then why are you reading this? In our team practices I can't provide time or space for every player to serve 100 times. In addition, serving that much, especially early in the season, can put a strain on your shoulder.

One way to get better.

When you're out hitting with your friends, serve twenty times. By that I mean deuce court, first serve. Then deuce court, second serve. Now move to your left and repeat first serve, second serve. Keep going until you've served ten turns from each side; then have your friend do the same. Try to critique each other and look for problems. You're not only practicing your good spin serve, but you're also adding some pace to your second serve. In this exercise you will hit 40 serves, half of them at full speed. You can probably repeat the whole routine two or three times. Rest in between.