A common question I hear from coaches of young teams concerns troubleshooting for new servers who lack power and struggle to get their serves over the net.
Before getting into some helpful hints, it is important to remember that our coaching priority is helping new players fall in love with the game. With that in mind, coaches should be very deliberate when choosing a serving distance for players. I often see young players standing behind the endline and serving a bunch of balls that barely reach the net. The ensuing discouragement was difficult to watch.
We should always test our players’ strength by seeing how far they can throw the ball. Players should begin at the 10’ line and move back a step every time they are successful. You will quickly see which players have thrown before and which have not. Those weaker athletes should never attempt to serve from a distance that they cannot cover with a throw.
For players who are very weak, I have resorted to the torque (not underhand) serve. This is a sidearm technique, and we use the same key words as our overhand serve (see below). Of course, players often dislike the stigma that can accompany the torque serve. To combat that, I’ll teach it to all servers.
In addition to teaching the torque serve, what follows are my tricks of the trade for helping young players increase their serving distance.
1. Throw every practice
This is a simple way to help players coordinate the kinetic chain, that is connect a single left step with a hip rotation, shoulder turn, elbow extension, and wrist flexion. With one step, how far can they throw? This is a key activity for helping players understand the importance of arm speed.
2. Use key words: Ready, Lift, Step—Swing
Key words allow coaches to chunk information and helps us from overloading players with verbiage. There is nothing magical about mine, though I have discovered they help simplify the serve for new players. At the beginning of the season, we’ll do “dummy serving”, that is completing the serving motion without a ball. I’ll ask the players to do this together while the recite the key words. This helps teach them the necessary rhythm.
3. Start with feet together at 45 degrees
Many players will initially begin with their feet facing the net. Moving them to 45 degrees (not perpendicular or parallel to the net, but halfway) helps generate rotational power. Similarly, if the feet are too far apart, the player cannot take a step and transfer weight. I’m a…
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