Teaching Girls to Serve in Tennis

If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “You throw like a girl,” you’ve probably conjured up a picture of the typical American girl, standing straight on and throwing a ball straight ahead, barely more than a few feet. But if you think back, this is the exact same way little boys throw when they are very young (three years or younger).

Believe it or not, females have the same physiology as males when it comes to the parts of the body required for the throwing motion (used in passing a football, pitching a baseball, throwing a javelin or serving in tennis). Note that the football motion is more sidearm than an overhead baseball pitch, according to Dr. Ben Kibler, one of the USTA’s sport science advisors. However, the late Vic Braden recommended a more sidearm serve motion based on research performed at the Coto de Caza research center!

Why then, does it seem like your high school girls can’t serve like the boys? The answer is simple. Before you can learn a proper serve, you must have a mature throwing motion.

Boys grow up throwing rocks, sticks, snowballs, mudballs and anything else they can get their hands on from an early age, and hence learn the correct mechanics for throwing without being taught. Girls, on the other hand, generally do not learn to throw properly, and therefore have more difficulty serving when they pick up tennis.

If you’ve ever tried to change a girl’s service grip from a Western to a Continental, because the Continental is the “correct” grip, you may have faced resistance from your student, because the new grip made it more difficult to serve.

In fact, if your player was standing straight on to her target, using no upper body rotation when she served, the Western grip may have been a better service grip for her! Remember, changing various parts of a girl’s service motion to conform with a more conventional serve may be inappropriate if she does not have a mature throwing motion.

If you would like your girls to learn how to serve like your boys, the first step is teaching them to throw. If you have your girls practice throwing each day, they will be able to develop the mature throwing motion they will need for an effective serve.

Don’t “Teach”
Your first rule of thumb when teaching girls to serve is to remember that people acquire and retain motor skills more quickly and more efficiently if they learn by doing, rather than being told what to do.

If you try to demonstrate the correct mechanics of throwing, including upper body rotation, weight shift, pronation, etc., and then try to get your girls to duplicate those motions, you will make the learning process take much longer.

Use Targets
Begin your throwing sessions by having your girls stand at either the singles or doubles serving position, then having them throw to various areas in the service box (crosscourt, just like a serve). Have them throw to the left side of the service box, down the center of the service box and to the right of the service box. Have them throw short angles and deep balls, as well.

You will see that some of the girls will have trouble even getting the ball to the net. Some will not be able to get the ball over the net, while others will have no ability to control direction (left and right).

If you allow your girls to continue this way for several minutes, they will begin experimenting with different body movements to get the ball over the net and to the correct target areas you have designated.

Some girls will start shifting their weight into the throw; others will turn their bodies prior to throwing; others will begin throwing the ball with a higher arc. This is classic problem solving and is the first step to learning.

Demonstrate
Once your girls have had five minutes to practice and experiment , you may now demonstrate some mechanics that will help with their throwing. Rather than showing all of the various mechanics involved in a throw the first time, pick one at a time to work on.

Following are a list of mechanics which you can demonstrate to your girls, one at a time, to help them improve their throwing.

#1 Turn Sideways – – Make sure your players are turned sideways to their target when throwing or serving, rather than directly facing the target or service box.

#2 Throw with an Upward Arc — Have players throw the ball from below their ear moving straight up, rather than a horizontal “push” throw, starting below the ear and moving parallel to the ground. It is impossible to serve down into a service box. The serving article in our database explains this further.

#3 Rotate the Upper Body — When you are receiving serve against a good server, you will actually see the server’s back during the serve, because they rotate their upper body so much.

According to Dr. Kibler, supported by photos of professional male and female tennis players just before ball contact on the serve, under-rotation by females is a major reason females don’t serve as hard as men. This under-rotation leads to women using a “pull-through” motion on the serve, while men use a more aggressive “push-through” motion.

#4 Bend the Knees — The kinetic chain starts with the feet, then a deep knee-bend, with an upward push from the ground. Have players use their legs to generate power.

#5 Use the Hips — Have players “throw” their hips into the throw or serve. This movement facilitates internal shoulder rotation, which is where more than 50 percent of power comes from on a serve.

#6 Pronate the Forearm — There is no such thing as a “wrist snap.” Forearm pronation (the outward turn of the forearm and palm) releases the energy from the lower body and trunk and is a crucial part of the serve. Start with a “tomahawk chop,” ending in a “high-five.”

#7 Follow Through — Although the follow through has no affect on the direction of the ball, telling players to follow through in the direction of their desired target area helps many people get the ball where they want it to go.

After you have had your girls work on one skill, with one or two minutes of throwing, stop them, explain one of the new skills, then have them go back to throwing with the new skill.

There is no way a human can learn and retain seven new skills in one session, but remember, some of your girls will already know to throw low to high, but need to learn to use their hips, etc.

Practicing the throwing motion each day at the beginning or end of practice and reviewing fundamental mechanics for each girl, based on her problems, will ensure that your girls develop the necessary base to develop correct serving mechanics and own a weapon very few high school girls have.

FOLLOW UP

After this article first appeared, we received an e-mail from Ellen Katz, who coached at Hastings high school in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. Here is what she had to say about her use of throwing practice as a precursor to improving her girls’ serves…

“Hey Steve. I’ve been using your article on Teaching Girls to Serve with my Girls JV team. The skill level of the team is really quite low (e.g., a forehand and a forehand volley look the same). We’ve been throwing balls into the service box since the first practice on August 20. We’ve been working on developing that mature serving motion one step at a time. And guess what — it’s working. My girls are consistently able to throw the ball into the service box and their serves look pretty good — a nice fluid motion, good racquet movement and deep placement. They’re actually serving better than many of the Varsity players. Thanks for your help. Ellen”

At any stage in your season, you can still work on serve improvement by beginning each practice with throwing practice, and giving your girls a chance to serve with a more natural motion.

Click here to read the article Teaching Girls to Serve.