3 drills to improve your tennis serve

The serve in tennis is arguably the most important part of a player's game. It's where one side has the clear advantage, and must hold serve to win against most opponents. So the stronger you can serve, the more formidable you will be in every tennis match you play. Here are a few simple drills to improve your tennis serve, hopefully making you a fearsome player.

• This drill will require a number of tennis balls and someone to watch (and ideally help you gather them), but is an excellent drill for beginner tennis players who are trying to discover and focus the basic overhand serve.
• With a basket of balls, practice tossing and serving overhand from one service box to the other.
• Serve 25 in a row, and then move to the neighbouring service box and serve another 25 in a row, counting how many land "in."
• Then, switch sides and do the same thing.
• You will have served 100 balls at that point and will have an exact percentage of how many of your serves land "in" and how many land "out."
• Try to improve upon this percentage by doing this 100 serves drill on a weekly basis, if not more often.

• As you serve to the opposite service court, try to focus on this area and do it on a regular basis.
• Divide the opposite serving court evenly in half with a chalk line, rope, or piece of tape.
• Then, try to serve into each half twice in a row, starting on the left side and moving to the right side.
• Do this in each service court and see how many serves can be hit "in" in a row.
• To make it even tougher, try dividing each service square into thirds.

• Similar to the drill outlined above, this service drill requires another player, allowing two players to work on their serve at once.
• Each player serves intermittently from one side of the court and one service box.
• If one player hits the serve in and thenother does not, the player who hit it in gets a point.
• If both hit it in or both miss, neither gets a point.
• After one serve each, they switch service boxes and then switch sides.
• Games are played to three or five, so every serve really matters, adding that pressure players feel during games.
• For even more pressure, play the game to one!