The most common mistakes people make on their serves are to open the shoulders too soon and not turning the shoulders enough on the serve. Let me explain.
To hit a good serve one must position oneself at approximately sideways to the net or at a 90-degree angle to the baseline. The feet are sideways as well but toes might be slightly pointed towards the baseline. The first motion is to turn the shoulders back 15 degrees. So if the shoulders are at a 90-degree angle to the net they should turn away from the net 105 degrees. This slight shoulder turn allows the body to fully use its rotational forces when hitting the serve. Some of us knew how John McEnroe stood to serve and then turn his back to the net on the toss. He was very good a using his body to serve.
The second common mistake is to open the shoulders too soon. I see many players turn their body open towards the net before the arm pulls the shoulders through the contact. The best method for me to help someone is to have them hold their toss arm up longer than normal. This is because when the toss arm drops, it tells the body to start rotating. The tossing arm is critical because it’s the first movement of the body after the toss is completed and it’s the first movement towards striking the ball. Holding the toss arm up longer allows the racquet arm to build speed bring the shoulders around.
It is also important that when serving that the shoulders are tilted. When the toss arm goes up that shoulder is higher than the hitting arm shoulder. As the toss arm drops (it should drop down towards the midsection of the body) the shoulders are not only turning up shifting places. Now at contact the racquet arm shoulder is at it’s highest point and the toss arm is down low, almost pointing to the ground.
Doug Hofer, USPTA July 16, 2005
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