Return of Serve Tennis Guide: Technique, Drills to Improve, & Key Tactics
Every point in tennis starts with a serve, and a return. Your success as a player is highly dependent on your ability to execute these two shots successfully.
A big mistake many players make is thinking that the return is just another groundstroke and that practicing groundstrokes is all you need to return well. The reality is that returning serves successfully requires a very specific set of skills that you can only develop by practicing very specific technical elements over and over.
This tennis lesson will help you understand the nuances of the return and will provide you with several ideas to help you practice and improve this important shot.
- 7 Steps to a Great Return of Serve: Technique & Fundamentals
- How to Hit Different Types of Returns of Serve
- Drills to Practice Your Return of Serve
- The Best Return of Serve Tactics
7 STEPS TO A GREAT RETURN OF SERVE: TECHNIQUE & FUNDAMENTALS
The main difference between a groundstroke and return, is the speed of the incoming ball.
When returning a slow serve, there will be very little difference between the swings, but when returning a fast serve, you will have to make several adjustments. Here are the main elements of a solid return of serve:
STEP 1: SPLIT STEP
A well-timed split step is essential when returning serve, since not starting to the ball on time is a sure recipe for failure. Letโs take a look at how to achieve this.
