Coaching Tip - February 2018

    Serving into the Sun
    Tips that will prevent your Serve from becoming a liability

    Playing tennis in bright sunny conditions can be very difficult.
    In particular when facing into the sun your serve can quickly go from a weapon to a being a real liability.

    The following tips will hopefully help you overcome the glare when you are serving into the sun.

    • Make sure that you have a cap, hat or visor in your bag ready to wear when the Sun becomes a factor during matches, coaching and training.
    • Similarly have a pair of Sunglasses in your bag so that you can wear them to help block out the sunlight.

    You will need to wear the sunglasses during your other on court training sessions so that you get used to wearing them during Tennis matches
                 See my October 2018 coaching tip for further information

    • Try serving from a different position

    i.e either from closer to the centre line or wider out towards the tram (doubles) lines to change the angle of the sun and hopefully reduce the glare.
    You may find that you score some bonus points as your opponent may take a while to adjust to the new angle presented by the change in your serving position

    • Change your serving stance

    Move your feet and body position so that your chest is facing towards the court or more to the sideline or anywhere in between to reduce the sun glare in your face

    • Change your ball toss

    Experiment with the following for your toss
    Either from your left to your right
    Out in front of you or back above your head
    Try a lower ball toss with a quicker racket swing
    to avoid the glare of the sun

    The tips above will hopefully help you overcome the difficulties involved when serving into the Sun
    but there may still be times when you have problems.

    When/if  the tips above don’t work for you just remember that you need to have a fall- back position
    In order to get the serve in at all costs

    • Simplify your serving action so that you use the Toss & hit principle to push the ball over the net and into the correct Service box.

    You are then able to get the point started and use your strengths to pressure your opposition and win the points with groundstrokes.
    Once your serve has become consistent then you can try to revisit the tips above to help you serve into the sun.
     
    Tennis the game of a lifetime

    Coach Steve
    Email steve@stevejamestennis.com
    Website www.stevejamestennis.com