The Seven Steps of a Great Return

Vision and Technique

The case can be made that the return of serve is the most complicated groundstroke in all of tennis.  A major reason for this, of course, is that incoming serves vary greatly.  Speeds, spins, lefties, kick serves, serve-volley players – all of these create distinct challenges in seeing and striking the ball.

Returning a serve forces a player to react to a ball from a unique spot in the field of vision, at speeds ranging from 60 miles per hour all the way up to 150 – and from a height roughly 5 ½ feet to up to 10 feet (1.7–3.0 m). Added to that are the ways spins such as slice or kick create rarely seen bounces.  All of these differing speeds and bounces will drastically alter a receiver’s contact point.

The words “see” and “watch” are not accurate ways to describe how a player learns to hit an incoming tennis ball (and the same holds true in baseball). Refined seeing is a learned skill, involving thousands of hours of practice and competition.  The receiver learns to make a swift, educated guess about how to organize his body and move the racquet properly. Over time, the…