By Tom Allsopp

This video (shot in 2010) is a great way of practicing returning topspin or ‘kick’ serves. When someone hits a kick serve there are a couple of problems for the returner. Firstly, and most importantly, the ball is shoulder or head height, maybe higher if you are playing John Isner or Ivo Karlovic. This is a major problem for small players or players with a one handed backhand. Secondly the ball ‘kicks’ to the left when it bounces (when right-handers are serving.)

I decided to separate the height and the spin elements of returning the kick serve and work exclusively on the handling the high ball. I decided to stand on a table in order to get the ball to bounce higher than usual. This simple progression helps the player to develop a rhythm and feeling for returning high balls and allows the returner to work on their technique in a controlled environment. The server can also be more accurate and not have to hit difficult kick serves for long periods of time (not that I’m lazy!!!). Once the player is handling the high ball we can move on to adding spin where they will need to move their feet more and often cut off angles.

Thanks to Emira Stafford for allowing me to use this video.

It is not breaking news that women don’t have great serves and that it is primarily linked to them not throwing regularly as children. Boys often spend hours throwing baseballs, cricket balls and footballs to each other for fun (or throwing stones at things). Not many young females participate in these activities and their throwing motion suffers, leading to them having poor serves.

There are a few exceptions in the women’s game; Sam Stosur and Serena Williams have great serves but that’s about it. In the men’s game you won’t find a male player that is second favorite to win the game when serving against an equally ranked opponent.

I hope you enjoy the video and it helps your throwing motion and serve.

Advance Tennis Footwork by Yann Auzoux from YouTube user FifthSetlntl.

This is a great video that I enjoyed and I think my viewers can learn from. Yann and his pupil demonstrate some advanced footwork patterns and make them really easy for everyone to understand.

These exercises will really improve your balance and help you to transfer your weight effectively, ultimately improving your groundstrokes. The footwork patterns and skills Yann shows are:

• Walking Step – forehand and backhand
• Open Stance
• Closed Stance
• Pivot Move
• Power Hop
• Shifting weight
• Body and Balance Control

Try these moves and your footwork, balance and game will improve. Good luck!

By Tom Allsopp

This is my second video with Rori and her 5^th coaching session. I decided to teach Rori topspin and slice forehand and backhands. I am curious to know what you think about this concept and I look forward to reading your comments. Before you form your opinions I would like to explain why I structured the session in this way:

This was only 10 minutes of an hour session that was primarily based around ball control and coordination, similar to my previous lesson with Rori. Click here to watch.

Rori won’t be hitting topspin for a while and slice for even longer. This wasn’t about her incorporating topspin or slice into her game. It was a challenge aimed at learning new skills that will accelerate her development, more so than just hitting balls aimlessly.

I believe that I got the concept of spin across to my pupil as simple as possible. I also allowed Rori to discover things for herself: She changed grips from topspin to slice, and closed and opened her racket face to use different spins. At 4:15 in the video she imitates me, not for the first time, and rolls her wrist over, windshield wiper style forehand. I’m sure if I had told her to do a windshield wiper action the result of the shot wouldn’t have been as successful.

Teaching topspin and slice to a beginner like Rori seems like throwing her in the deep end. But there wasn’t any chance of her drowning. It simply sped up her learning curve and helped her to understand how the racket is part of her hand, and how we are in control of what happens to the ball.