You have two chances to serve the ball and get it into play, and tennis experts agree: the second serve is more important than the first serve. Obviously, you need that second serve to start the point if you make an error on your first serve; and if you have a good second serve, you can afford to be more aggressive on the first serve. Unfortunately, however, not everyone has a good second serve (even at the professional level), and though that is a pretty major weakness, all is not lost!
Here are some great tips on how you can overcome this weakness and win more games!
One way to approach the problem of a poor second serve is to focus on landing the first serve so that hopefully, you won't need your second serve. You can do this by:
- Taking a little pace off your first serve (not too much) in order to get a higher percentage of them in. This will allow you to at least start the point and allow you to play until you see an opportunity to get aggressive and put it away. And if you're playing doubles, make sure your partner stands further back so they aren't a sitting duck at the net should your opponent be able to attack it.
- Increasing the pace of your first serve and adding spin. The added spin will bring the ball down faster, so you need to increase your racket speed to keep it from landing in the net. The spin will also make it more difficult for your opponent to return for a winner.
And if you must hit your second serve, don't just poof it over the net without caring where it will land. Try to place it at your opponent's weaker side, usually the backhand. Even if they run around their backhand to hit it, they are still having to multitask, which is more difficult than simply standing there waiting for it to land in their strike zone.
While these tips will help you make the most of your weak second serve, the best thing you can do is to put some effort into improving it AND your first serve. Get out on the court with a bucket of balls at least once a week and practice, practice, practice! Work on increasing speed, adding spin, and improving placement, and before long you'll have a second (and first) serve to be proud of!
And if physical strength (or lack thereof) is to blame, then be sure and check out our fitness section for some simple exercises that will help strengthen those muscles :-)
