Now serving: Aggie tennis’ Carolyn Larsen goes step by step through her serve
Keys to a good serve:
Carolyn Larsen, a sophomore on the women’s tennis team, gave the following as keys for a successful serve.
The toss
“The toss is the thing that’s going to make or break your serve, well, one of the preliminary steps to making or breaking your serve,” Larsen said. “If your toss is off, there’s a very slim chance you’ll get [your serve] in.”
If the toss is off, a player can retoss as many times as necessary. Having a successful toss is developed through repetition, she said.
Spin
Putting spin on the ball helps to make sure it drops down over the net and is in play, Larsen said.
“When you hit the bottom right side of the ball, when you carve around it, that generates top spin,” she said. “That’s why your knees are bent, so you can go up, and your racket is going up, so everything is going up over the net, but then, what pulls the ball down into the court is that carved top spin that you made with your racket.”
Follow through
The follow through is the key to getting in position for the next shot, but also helps put spin on the ball.
“People think that the follow through isn’t that important,” Larsen said. “It is, because that’s what makes the ball come back down into the court.”
Additionally, Larsen said having a good follow takes pressure off of the arm and helps prevent injury.
“It also helps my ball so I don’t have to use all arm, so I can use my body to help me with my pace,” she said. “And that helps a lot. The full swing also helps a lot with pace, because if you chop off the swing, you have to generate a lot more from your arm, and that can really put pressure on your arm and hurt it.”
Be loose
Larsen said a player can’t be tense on the serve.
“One thing that helps me when I have to [serve], is I have to make sure I’m totally loose,” she said. “I like to tighten up. That’s bad by the way. You’re not supposed to do that. It just takes away your torque so you can’t get as much pace. If you’re totally relaxed, it’s like crack the whip.”
Basic serving rules
* A player serves to the box crosscourt to them. The target box alternates on each serve.
* The serve must be made from behind the baseline and must land, across the net, in front of, or on, the service line. If a player steps on the baseline before the ball is hit, a foot fault is called.
* A player gets two chances to hit a serve in before a point is awarded to the opponent. A bad serve, called a fault, occurs if it doesn’t land in the service box, or if a foot fault is called. A ball that hits the net and lands in the box, called a let serve, is served again and does not count. In men’s college tennis the let serve is allowed.
Compiled by Landon Olson
THE SWING
THE TOSS
PREPARING TO TOSS
THE SETUP (Photos by John Zsiray)