Chess Serving

This will be first of a (hopefully) weekly series on technical/tactical/mental aspects of the game--in particular, skills the coaching staff are working on with the Kohawk players.

The serve may be the hardest shot to master, but it is also one of the, if not the most important shot to every players' matchplay success. Now, of course, there is a huge technical element to the effectiveness of the serve, in particular the proper form necessary for hitting with power and the different spins. What I would like to discuss is something that pretty much everyone can improve immediately: placement, and the chess-like mindset that goes into placement.

One of my best coaches gave me this advice in high school: the goal of serving is to create movement. My own understanding of the concept has evolved into placing the ball to an area in order to illicit a specific return (or eliminate specific returns). By forcing your opponent to move a certain direction and/or hit from a particular wing (FH or BH), you can more easily predict where their return will go, as well as position yourself so as to exploit the space that has opened up. While this may sound very simple, it is amazing how often this thought process is often ignored. Many players think about placement (and often, power) as a way to make the return difficult for their opponent (or even better, unreturnable), but fail to plan and position themselves effectively for the next shot. Tennis tactics are like chess--the more moves that you can plan/predict ahead the better. So why not take advantage of this on the first shot, which you get to hit from a stationary position in the middle of the court while the opponent is forced to one side?

The most basic example of this (see video here) is the tried-and-true wide serve followed by a volley to the open court. Let's break down this play: the goal is to pull the opponent off of the court and wide enough to reduce the possibility of an angled cross-court return, then to close toward the direction of the serve, and finally volley to the opening made even wider by a well angled serve.

Really, all effective serve-and-volleying is determined by this type of shot planning followed by moving in the direction of the serve and positioning to hit a volley away from the opponent (or in doubles, to allow the servers' partner to predict and pick off the return). The fact that serve-and-volleying is less common now in singles does not mean, however, that this same mentality is irrelevant. In fact, the strategy is used in exactly the same way by high-level players, only instead of playing a volley off of the return, players set up for an aggressive groundstroke (usually forehand). Roger Federer serves more than 70% of his 1st serves in the deuce court out wide, usually in order to set up an inside out forehand to the open ad court. See how Roger sets up this point. Even though he does not get a particularly weak return, by hitting the wide serve and anticipating the stretch return down the line, he is able to set up his forehand and gain control of the point.

It may seem that I am overlooking the body serve, but that is only because it is a more dangerous serve to hit if it lacks adequate placement, pace, and/or spin. A slight miss to either side of the body can give an opponent a ball that is directly in their strike zone and which they have not had to move to hit. This serve is much more effective in doubles because the return area is more restricted; however, I try to be more specific, aiming for either body-forehand or body-backhand, and planning accordingly (doubles example, server's partner anticipating body-backhand return cross-court). Here's a clip of Federer again, hitting a serve that turns out to be body-backhand and quickly moving to attack the expected cross-court reply. The next 2 points are further examples of excellent placement of the wide and T serves (and positioning himself correctly afterwards, in case Djokovic had made the returns).

There are many variables to consider when choosing service placement--your ability and feeling on the day to hit certain spots, your opponent's return positioning (stance), your opponent's return placement tendencies on certain serves, court surface effects, et al. But this basic framework is always a great point to start from--directional serving, anticipating the return, and positioning to take control of the point.