Tennis: Sight Through Your Fingertips on the Service Toss

Dick Moss, Editor, Physical Education Update

If your students are hitting too many serves into the net, the cause might be a premature dropping of the shoulder of their tossing arm. This will cause them to hit down on the ball, instead of hitting out.

How to Fix
A simple coaching cue will cure this problem. Instruct these players to sight the ball through, or off the end, of the fingertips of their tossing hand as they make their service toss.

This will automatically keep their front shoulder elevated and prevent them from hitting down on the ball. And it will produce several other benefits:

It will keep the player's head up.
It should allow a higher service toss.
It will improve visual focus by providing an intermediate reference point between the eyes and the ball.

Reference: 1. Updated by Dick Moss, PE Update.com in May 2008. 2. Fred Stolle, "Look Up for a Better Delivery." World Tennis Magazine. 3. Bill Patton, The Art of Coaching High School Tennis 2nd Edition: 88 Tips, Tricks, Skills and Drills for a Magical Season, 2nd Edition, 720 Degree Coaching, 2015.

To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now