St. Johns Racquet Center

Tennis Tip Tuesday: You Are Only as Good as Your Second Serve!

The average game time that Roger Federer has on his serve is just over a minute – and he has been able to maintain that for almost 15 years. His first and second serves are extremely consistent.

If you have a good consistent second serve that goes in 99% of the time, you get so much freedom on your first serve that you can hit it with as much power and direction as you like. This will not only make your first serve stronger, but also frustrate the opponent on the other side of the exchange.

Work on your second serves as much as you can. No matter what skill level you are, a good second serve is going to benefit you more than any other shot in tennis.

Thank you for your support this year!

Tennis Tip Tuesday: Short court practice is valuable!

When warming up or coming back to the game after a break, some may find the first bit of hitting to be frustrating. The game may feel a little too fast, which is understandable.

A way to combat this is to focus on hitting short-court and keeping the ball in the service boxes while rallying at a slower pace. This way, you can focus on things like keeping your eye on the ball, getting yourself in the correct body position and making small adjustments to your stroke at a slower pace.

By focusing on adjustments and getting into a rhythm, you give yourself a better chance to succeed and have more fun on the court.

Tennis Tip Tuesday: Play people with a lower ranking!

A Catch-22 of tennis players is that many of us always want to play against people who are better than us, so we can get better - and not being willing to play with players with a lower ranking.

There is nothing wrong with practicing with a 3.5 if you are a 4.0, or a 2.5 if you're a 3.5. These rankings reflect results in league matches and are not sole indicators of somebody's skills on the court! Playing with players who aren't at the same level means you can work on things that may be more difficult than with a higher level player, like your groundstroke control, place, and consistency. Maybe you could work on only hitting second serves, or running around your forehand to hit more backhands.

Tennis is a game where you can create practice at any moment. Take advantage of that while getting to know somebody you may not have played with otherwise!