Teaching the Serve

[vmiller]

John,

Can you offer any drills or advice for teaching someone the proper racket path for the serve?

Even though I had my wife serve with the continental grip as soon as she started playing, which was over a year ago, her swing path still resembles the waiter serve. I'm pretty sure she's not switching grips mid way because she's still at the continental after the serve.

I can get her to swing properly without a ball, but that's as far as it ever goes. She uses her arm too much and drives the swing by bringing her elbow down and forward which is pretty much how you do a waiter serve. The only way I can get her to not do this is when I have her try to hit topspin serves, but she has very little success with that and I worry that it's too much to teach her at this point.

I've explained the mechanics of the swing to her, have showed her video of pros serving, and have even showed her video of herself. She knows what she is supposed to do and knows what she is doing wrong, but she can't correct it.

I know it takes a lot of practice to learn a good serve, but when I take her out to practice, she only seems to be re-enforcing poor technique.

Any suggestions? I'm becoming frustrated and would greatly appreciate any advice.

Vin

[johnyandell]

How about finding someone else to teach her? Just kidding but not really. I reduced one of my ex-girlfriends to tears trying to teach her how to throw a dry fly. Don't discount the transference dynamics in impeding learning.

Honestly, some things just happen at their own rate, or even not at all. You seem to be doing all the right things. The only drill I can suggest would be to have her choke up to the throat of the racket and serve from the drop position. It's hard to push the ball in that way and sometimes this gives a feel.

My real advice is to leave it for a few weeks or even months--let her get more confident with the current serve and try again.

[vmiller]

Well, I was very close to searching for someone to teach her how to serve, but we went out to practice tonight and she made a lot of progress. Over the past year or two she's done pretty well at picking up the other stuff I've taught her. She must be a great listener because I know I'm not a great teacher. I think it works because she's patient and I'm persistent.

I stumbled upon Scott Murphy's serve article earlier and it worked out pretty well. I had her start off holding the throat and swing from the drop position as you mentioned and she had success pretty quick with it. By the end of the night she was hitting some nice serves from the drop position holding the racket at the bottom of the handle. She was even hitting some good spin without even trying!

If she hit a good one from the drop position, I'd let her start from the trophy position until her swing deviated and then I'd have her go back to starting from the drop position. I think we made a lot of progress so I'm happy. So is she. Although I think it will be a while before she can handle a full swing.

[johnyandell]

She must like being married to you! Congrats.