The Strategy Zone:
Serve Control

Nick Bollettierri with Lance Luciani

The great players win because they understand not only how to hit the ball, but where and when. There are 3 phases to master in developing these same abilities, what we call: Control, Hurt, and Finish.

In the last article we looked closely at how great players develop Control in baseline rallies. (Click Here.) Now let's continue to develop our understanding by looking at how you can use your serve to develop control from the first ball of the point.

Remember Control means your ability to stretch your opponent and knock them off balance. It's one thing to hit aces, and yes, when your opponent does not touch your serve, you don't have to worry about how to win the rest of the point. Few players, even at the top of the pro game, are blessed with this type of serving ability.

In fact the two best players in the world, Justine Henin and Roger Federer, hit relatively few aces. Instead, they use the serve to set up and take control of the point. Andre Agassi was a master of using the serve as the first shot in a sequence that allowed him to dominate using his incredible ground game.

This is the strategy that players at all levels must master: gaining control by using the serve as the first shot in a sequence. Every serve must be hit with a purpose.

Our statistical analysis has proven that the player that takes control in the point first wins seven out of ten times. If you can learn to use your serve to do this, you will have a higher winning percentage than you could ever dream of hitting aces and unreturnable serves.

As with all the shots, it's one thing to identify the patterns, and another to execute them in match play. Too many players acquire new information and believe they can implement it immediately in competition. This is a recipe for failure.

To develop the foundation for building your strategy zone system, you must work in progressive levels of drills. First you must master the placements serving from the basket. Then progress to working with a return partner. Only then will you have the true ability to incorporate these patterns into matches.

Wide Serve

Everyday at the academy we emphasize the wide serve in both the deuce and ad courts. The wide serve allows you to stretch out your opponent. Often with the wide serve, you take control from the very first ball.

How do we measure an effective wide delivery? The ball must move on a flight path that crosses the doubles sideline before it reaches the baseline.

This forces the returner to make contact outside the doubles alley. Even if he is able to make the return from this position, the server is left in command of the court.

Visualize Placement and Path

The key to developing great placement is your ability to visualize the path and target area of the serve, and also the path of your racket as it moves upward to contact.

In the deuce court, you must imagine that you are leading your swing with the edge of the racket. Visualize that you are using the edge of the racket to literally cut the ball in half. This will create the additional sidespin or slice necessary to hit this shot. Remember that even though you come to the ball with the edge of the racket, there will still be some pronation in the finish.

In the ad court the image is different. To get the ball wide with a kicking action you should visualize that the racket face is brushing up the backside of the ball, similar to a topspin groundstroke. You most also visualize the path of the shot, again that the ball travels wide enough to cross the doubles sideline before the baseline.

T Serve

The other basic serve for taking control of the point is the T serve. Again, you don not need to hit a 140mph ace to use the T serve to tremendous advantage.

Why? The T serve travels in a straighter line, which gives the opponent less time to move to the ball and execute a return. Even if he is able to put the ball back in play, quite often he will give you a defensive shot. Once again you have accomplished your goal of taking control from the first ball.

There are actually two variations of the T serve, one hit flatter, and one hit with more spin so that the ball runs from the opponent. Again in developing these placements you should learn to visualize the path of the shot and also the target area. It's important on the T serves that the toss be somewhat into the court and not too far back or too close to the player.

Justine Henin hits the T serve like a magician, and then hitting two more balls in various combinations, she consistently finishes her opponent. That's what it's about. We tell you more about those shot combinations in future articles, but first you have to set them up with that T serve.

Tennisplayer provides a phenomenal resource to help players at all levels learn to visualize these two things: the swing path, and also the path of the shot. For virtually every player in the Stroke Archive, there is a section on serve location.

These clips show front and rear views of the toss, the motion, and also the flight of the ball, down the T and also wide, in both the deuce and ad court. There are sections for the first serve and also for the second.

Watching the controlled service placements of your favorite players will help you develop you own visual image and feeling for these critical building blocks.

The Control Challenge

As a starting point you can test your ability to hit the two wide serves and the two T serves. If you set up targets or "runways" as shown in the animations, how many serves out of 5 can you get to land in the target area?

On the wide serves, can you hit the target area but also with enough angle and spin so that the ball crosses the doubles sideline before it reaches the baseline?

The shorter the ball lands within the runway, the wider off the court it will take your opponent.

Similarly, in serving down the T, the closer the ball to the service sideline, the further it will pull your opponent to the center, resulting in more weak returns and reducing his or her ability to create angles.

Can you vary the spins at will? This means more slice on the wide serve in the deuce box, and more topspin in the ad. Can you hit down the T with both a flatter and a heavier spin version?

Working on these types of basic drills may seem boring to some players. But it is amazing how many club players cannot find the runways with any real consistency when serving from the baskets, much less with an opponent to hit a return. Without the ability to control the serve placements, you cannot progress effectively to the Hurt and Finish phases. If you are willing to do this basic work to develop control the results could be huge in terms of your results.

In the Strategy Zone package, we also outline a comprehensive series of additional drills and games that will let you develop this ability step by step. (Click Here.)

Different Placements: Same Toss

A final point regarding the toss and the disguise of your placements. Eventually every player should strive to hit all the serves we have discussed, both wide serves, and both T serves, off of the same toss. Why? The answer is disguise. If a player varies his toss when he goes for different placements, this telegraphs what is going to happen to the receiver. This greatly increases the chance that the receiver will be able to put the return in play, or possibly even take control of the point himself.

This may not be possible when first developing your ability to serve consistently wide and down the T, especially for young players. For example, it may be easier to serve wide in the deuce court with the ball slightly to the right, and easier in the ad court with the ball further to the left. As soon as you have developed control of your placements, however, it is very important to work on standardizing your toss and achieving control without allowing your opponent to know where you plan to go with the serve.

Next, we'll take a look at developing control on the return. Stay tuned.