The Optimal Tennis Serve Toss Technique
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มี.ค. 2021
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The tennis serve toss is such a complex movement that even elite tennis players struggle with it. In today's video, I explain toss fundamentals and demonstrate the optimal way to hold and release the tennis ball.
This video is not sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links which means if you buy something, I’ll receive a small commission.
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#intuitivetennis #servetoss - กีฬา
What to do with the toss arm once we start approaching the contact 👉 th-cam.com/video/g65JysBvGoE/w-d-xo.html
Hey Nick, do you ever receive videos for analysis?
how high to throw it? I was waiting for that the entire video..
This guy is one of the best online instructors in the Tube
Excellent and mostly overlooked by teachers.
Best tennis teacher on TH-cam. Thank you for all you do.
Thank you Ali
Watched this video yesterday and played last night using the ball holding technique discussed at around the 4:30 mark. Served better than I have in quite a while, much more consistent and accurate. Thanks so much for the guidance, you have a new subscriber in me!
Your advice is truly 5 star, but really and truly, I need a shrink to help with my toss. I've had the yips for 20 odd years.
Ha ha, I've not heard that before. The yips, is that regional (i.e. where ya from)? Well, I am the King of the Yipsies (apologies to Romani readers). I have THE WORST toss in Western recorded history, I need to contact the Guinness people. The only thing that I find helps - because nothing could possibly make it worse - is: DON'T THINK ABOUT YOUR TOSS. You know your toss sucks, where's the surprise? Expect that there're gonna be a few (ha!) bad ones, but just let 'er rip and throw that $#;+ up there!
Practice? Sure, if you want to throw a hundred perfect tosses in practice. That will _really_ make you feel better about your toss when you begin your one-ball circus clown juggling act the very next match you have the pleasure of participating in. Going hoarse from saying "Sorry!"? Stop saying it! Your opponent knows you're over there boiling in Dante's Cauldron of Shame. Is he getting pissed? You bet he is. Boo hoo. It's not against the rules to "try, try again", just catch it and start over. DON'T HIT A BAD TOSS.
One final note: disregard absolutely everything I've just said. I am THE LAST guy you want to be taking advice from. In fact, you'd probably do well to take everything I've said and do the exact opposite. Hey, anything I can do to help. Well, best of luck with your toss. Rest assured that there is someone out here with a toss that'll make yours look absolutely Federesque...
Thank you Nick! First Coach to ever show a close up camera view of the ideal hand and ball grip. Love your detail! So helpful!
Nice extended lesson on the toss! Very important to have that flat release!
Great job, Nick, by far the best instruction on the serve toss I've seen.
Thanks. I'm right at this stage of learning the correct toss so this was super helpful.
I’m “returning “ to recreational tennis which I absolutely adore !! And I have to say “tossing “ correctly is my biggest challenge.., hard to believe… the coach told me to throw it over the head… we’ll see! Thank you!
One of the best tennis channels out there by far. I feel like you're so underrated but all your videos are great for teaching and brought back my motivation to keep playing and improve every time!
Great dissection of the toss. Thank you.
AWESOME Nik. I've had a very inconsistent spinning toss, and I'm sure it'll now greatly improve after watching your great instruction. 👍👏🎾🎾
👏🏻👏🏻 thanks coach! I’m having a lot of trouble with my serve and I just realized how I toss the ball is one of the problems.
your video to explain the toss hold and release is the best I have seen!
This is an excellent lesson thank you so much!
great lesson, as always!
Great lesson, Nikola! Leaving the hand parallel to the ground was such a great tip. It helps me open my fingers more smoothly, letting the ball float in the air with almost zero spin. Thank you so much!
🔥🙌🙏
This video, especially the part on how to hold the ball in your hand, has helped me cure my toss. For years my toss drifted behind me no matter which motion or grip I tried.
No trainer has ever told me these tips. Simply amazing. Thank you
I’ve been struggling to get my serve consistent and started to study my serve techniques and motions and realized having fundamental flaws. This lesson is something taking teaching and demonstrating very fundamentals of serve to next level. Thank you for explaining this in fine details.
I can’t believe I solved my toss problem watching your video !!! Amazing , I am so great full . I have been struggling with tossing the ball since 1977 when I started playing . You are a super coach !
Thank you. Glad you found video helpful
Great video.
Excellent explanation !
Great video Nick. This will help me when I get back on court. 👍
Absolutely amazing. I've said it over and over but your channel is the best I have see with instruction
🙏🙏
Thank you so much for this video. I love it! The toss release has been a challenge for me ever since.
Amazing flat release Nick. Always something to learn in your videos. Thanks!
This is excellent. Great detail on holding the ball properly.
Awesome video, very detailed
Well explained,
I had this problem for years.
Thanks.
Thank you so much Nick. I used your toss technique and improved my serve by more than 20%!
This is what I really need to solve it for years. And this video really improve my toss problem. Many online coaches discussed this issue but no one likes you explained so clearly, and it's really worked and helpful. My serve become better and better after watching this video，thanks!
🙌🙌
Best tennis channel on youtube by far. Greetings from Germany. Keep up the good work!
Danke Matze 🙏
this is really helpful and I am gonna share this with some friends! thanks!
Great advice. Thank you!
Great 👍tips on the toss! I have been struggling for longest time and hope to make improvements following your tips!
Hi Nick! Your videos are very helpful! I'm myself a tennis coach in Reunion Island and I often use your videos to explain some techniques to my students... Thanks and take care !
Thank you Laurent 🙏
Awesome stuff Thank You!
Excellent, thanks for sharing!
Super useful tips!
You are great man.
Being an old high school tennis coach I really appreciate Nick’s lessons. Personally I emphasize that the toss is really a “ placement “. The serve is the only shot in tennis that a player is allowed to place the ball in a position that they want to hit it. If you’re not satisfied with your toss placement you can do it over. I also coach my players on how to read their opponents serve toss to get an advantage on the return. Some servers have definite tells that gives away where they are placing the serve or which type of serve they are going to hit. It’s like a baseball pitcher telling you that they are going to throw a curveball.
Finally found this. You have so many serve videos.
Great video. Thank you very much. It helped me alot and it came just before a match I had. I won it because of my serves :). High percentage first serves in. I found the contact point very well with this toss technique.
This year I'd like to take my tennis to the next level. These videos are great resources!
Do it 🔥
thank you, this is so important
You always have excellent instructional videos. Like many players, I struggled with an inconsistent toss as a beginner. I saw a tip early on from Vic Braden that pretty much fixed it for me, though. He mentioned thinking about holding and tossing the ball like it was an ice cream cone. Basically instead of turning your wrist so that the palm is up while tossing, instead keep your wrist neutral (bringing the arm up and just letting go of the ball around eye level) so that there's very little wrist or finger action going on while tossing. That was my issue early on, too much wrist and/or finger action leading to very inconsistent tosses. I've always thought Vic Braden was an excellent instructor.
Great video! Not having the Flat ball was my problem. He showed how to do it.
great video - thank you
I needed this video.
Thank u so much coach
I prefer to grab the ball with three fingers, as if it were a cone. And I've been doing well. I remember that in a match I made 11 aces and already made aces in at the game point and in the 2nd service at the set point. I am satisfied. Thanks for the video.
Excellent explanation!!!! Thanks a lot!!!!! :-)
very good lesson thank you
🙏
THIS IS GOLD!!!!!
I have a Lot of problems with my service and specialy my toss. The Nicola's vídeos have been Help me in This way to fix my service. Thnks Nicola Aracic
Please stop making these outstanding videos, Nick. They're too helpfull!! 🙃
🙏🙏
Wow..... very persuasive!
Thanks!
Thank you 🙏 Much appreciated 🫶
Went through many videos , did not help, You are the best to explain this theory.
the toss is everything
I’m struggling in my toss due to some instructions. I will try that technique and probably stick to it.
I had trouble with toss before watching this video. The flat release is very suitable for me. Most Japanese coaches don’t teach the detail of toss in amateur level.
This is good info, tho' I recall having some v.g. service days when I could finger-roll the ball; seemed like I had exceptionally fine motor control those days.
Amazing instructional content! Thank you so much for posting such premium content for free here. Can you recommend/teach any drills to perfect the ball toss?
th-cam.com/video/Va9uJMa_QtQ/w-d-xo.html
Great video Nick !!! I always like to pretend I am Spider-Man shooting a web to the ball after release :)
So you make this 🤘gesture after your release? Lol
Nice tip 🤟🏻
Thanks. I struggle a lot with my toss
Hi Nik - A big fans of your channel. I am 41 and have started learning tennis a year ago. I am very passionate about it and spend 4-5 days a week with my coach and/or friends on the court. My biggest weakness has always been service and in matches i lose most of the points due to Double Faults.
In service, my biggest mental block has been the coordination of various body parts in this complex motion especially when i take back the racket ( and in the process shift the body weight backwards) and then try to toss - the ball always is outside the court and i tend to contact the ball behind my head.
When i try to correct it, the ball tends to go too much forward into the court and i end up either attempting the ball ( and in the process hitting it into the net) or leaving it out.
When i focus on the toss, the rocking motion gets compromised and when i focus on rocking motion - the toss tends to be erratic. When these two fall in place, the racquet path tends to be very shallow drop.
Even after working for months, there seems to be no progress with my coach, nor many of the videos on you tube are helping me ( Except yours ).
I have now reached a breaking point where i have to either give up tennis or change the coach ( which i would hate to do as i am very emotionally attached to him) - Please suggest and if possible, help with a video or drills to get this problem sorted out.
Your problem is individual, I don’t know what’s wrong wo seeing it
@@IntuitiveTennis Got it Nik... I am inspired by the video you released today.. My takeaway from that is " Tennis reveals your character" and I am not going to give up and keep fighting :)
On the retention of the ball before the release:
I totally recommend the tecnich for wich the thumb presses the ball against the center of the palm in order to block it and then remove the thumb just a split of a second before the real release. The ball spin is due to the ball slicing down the extended hand when the arm is already beyong the horizontality before the release or also by the rotation of the wrist itself. A ball closer to the wrist and previosly blocked minimizes ball spin. My point.
Fantastic
💯
I've never seen a good explanation of the base of the fingers toss before. I settled on palm up, holding the ball with the pads of the fingers. Sometimes it does feel awkward though, so I'll give this a try again.
I'm a convert now. Holding with the ends of the fingers is more likely to result in spinning or flicking the ball. The base of the fingers hold helps with this.
Thank you. I was serving really well for the last few months and all of a sudden, during fatigue and pressure moments, my toss would stick to my fingers and roll too far over my shoulder. It became a nervous tick and the more it happened, the more it got to my head. I applied your tip and I was able to regain confidence in my serve again. I didn't have problems with the toss before, but for some reason I began tossing the ball with my finger tips without realizing. Keep up the great content.
Omg, the same thing happened to me. My serve was very good but all of a sudden I could not toss the ball properly. And indeed the more it happened, the worse and insecure I started to feel, also I was panicking whether this time I will be able to toss it properly. I am glad that I share the same experience with someone, and glad that you managed to overcome it. I really like this channel, so the next time I play tennis I hope I can fix it.
very good instruction as always. I see many coaches 'teaching' kids to serve but rarely cover the toss fundamentals
I think the coaches must watch thi channel too. :)
I hold my hand like I have an invisible ice cream cone and the ball is the ice cream held lightly between index finger and thumb. Prevents any finger-related spin on the ball and I barely have to move my thumb and index finger to release the ball instead of all 5 fingers. Works for me and I can get a pretty consistent toss.
I liked the video. The service toss is very important. Very useful. I would like to see a video to improve my attention on the ball and eye coordination. I once saw in a tournament that the player was with the coach doing some exercises in which the coach threw the ball at him and the player grabbed it with his hand. I think that's what I'm talking about. What other exercises can be done to improve my focus on the ball?. Thanks for your videos.
Thank you. I planning a video on ball tracking...
@@IntuitiveTennis That will help. Thanks.
This is an excellent video indeed. Clear, concise, thorough. I have been struggling with the toss for years. One question: it is said to release at the height between chin and forehead but in the slow motion it shows clearly that the release is when the arm comes to its highest point, thus significantly higher than the head of the body. Please advise.
th-cam.com/video/tH2fowVHLUQ/w-d-xo.html
Excellent video Nick. The ball usually spins when I toss it and its something I am working to minimise. I have question please. Would you agree that hitting a ball that is not spinning results in a faster serve? I would think it does, as the few times I have hit a dead still ball in the air the serve speed seemed faster.
Could be a little faster on flat toss
@@IntuitiveTennis Thanks, that's what I thought. As you say its the control you get which is the most important benefit though. This video has inspired me to do more serve practice with the focus on the toss. Just have to wait until 29th March here in England when the current lockdown restrictions end on outdoor tennis (indoor tennis still won't be allowed until a few weeks after).
Hi.. Thanks for your tips and knowledge!!!... My question is What should we do with the arm-hand after tossing the ball??? (keep ot near the body as most players or take it back as Andy Murray??)... Thanks again and all the best!!!
Try this Javier 👉 th-cam.com/video/g65JysBvGoE/w-d-xo.html
Do whichever is most effective 👍🏻
@@IntuitiveTennis Thanks!!!.. I was looking for this!!!
Thank you for your deep explanation about serve toss and great enthusiasim . I have a problem in tossing the tennis ball inside the court while I am trying to toss it into 12:30 in the same time as a right handed. Usually the ball goes way behind to my left side or on the other side I toss the ball to 12: 30 but only on the baseline, not able to land it inside the court.. I wonder if I should try tossing the ball when my weight is on the front foot (left foot) which means that I have to make less coil and short take back as a platform stancer ? I usually try to toss the ball when my weight is mostly on my back foot ( right foot) because ı was taught to load my back foot to generate power. I'll be glad to hear your comments about the topic. Thank you ,sir
I have a video on that coming soon...
GREAT NEWS . @@IntuitiveTennis
@@IntuitiveTennis We are waiting for it?
Bu kanal çok iyi değil mi? Hangi şehirdensin?
@@IntuitiveTennis Do you have a link to that video?
Parallel to the ground ( palm release ) is a solid technique
What are your thoughts on Mouratoglou recommending a palm toss for consistency?
Hey Nick, when you say toss forward, how far forward from you (estimate)? Thank you.
Hi Nick. I've watched your both videos, this video and "platform stance vs pin-point stance" videos twice. But I think it's not clear, in which stance we should choose which toss types. For example in lateral platform stance should we choose paralel toss? You told about five different platform stance and two pin-point stance. And now you say we have three toss options. How will we match them? Thanks.
He does omit that information. Yet you can perhaps investigate and make assumptions. For instance Federer has a basic platform stance and has a parallel toss.
This is a great tutorial, but I’m struggling with the flat release. Even when it seems like I let go without it rolling off my fingers, it spins. Any advice?
Hi Nick I know someone already asked you about the glass of water style of serving. I would appreciate if you could give your opinion on this way of performing the toss. Thanks
There some pros with this style, however, I don’t recommend for rec players with toss problems.
Talk about what you do with your legs and body when you toss. I think that's very important.
Great video! Question about the forward toss though. You didn't mention what kind of take-back style it fits. Is it more for an Andy Roddick, short take-back? The forward toss feels more natural to me but i have a semi-abbreviated take-back.
th-cam.com/video/R02cutZsVaE/w-d-xo.html
👍
how do you make sure the height of the toss is consistent?
How do you toss when the sunlight is in your eyes? I been struggling with this for a long time ago. If you have any tips with tossing. I will be much appreciated.
👉🏻 th-cam.com/video/7lq6RAycy9g/w-d-xo.html
Toss has been my greatest weakness in serve
One question. Does the palm of your tossing hand face up or sideways during the toss?
Ideally yes
Great tips, but you left out one important point: learn to catch a bad toss. So many players swing at terrible tosses, but the rules allow us to catch as many tosses as we want. Patrick Rafter once commented that his toss was sort of erratic, and that meant he didn't exactly know where some serves were going to go. But he reasoned that his opponent also didn't know, so overall, it wasn't such a bad weakness to have.
I don’t recommend doing that 👉 th-cam.com/video/S-vtW3_IwSc/w-d-xo.html
Hi God, I have the toss somewhere like 3:48 style invented by myself when the time I didn't do any research, none issue for me any time, and somehow I think it's ok if someone got a sweaty hand. Could u respond to this thx~ (the ball release from between index finger and thumb, invented also by me XD)
If it works it works 🙌
@@IntuitiveTennis Appreciated 😄
A good and consistent ball toss along with trophy position, arm lag and forward momentum is such a critical element. I have always found(excluding slices) that when I hit a ace or solid middle of height of fence serve that the ball toss quality was key.
Say you are in poor wind conditions though do you recommend a lower ball toss and more towards your body?
In wind lower toss is necessary
@@IntuitiveTennis Ak
I notice the pros occasionally catch a bad toss and redo it. On 📺 is the redo unlimited until the clock expires? At the recreational level, I just hammer a miss toss and hope for the best. 😆
No limit really, and clock resets at each toss as you have clearly started your serve motion. Will people want to play with / against you afterwards when you keep re-tossing? Probably not, so invest some practise time 😁
Are you in lantana Florida?
Does higher toss equate to more service power? I have a consistent serve but relatively low toss. Ppl told me that if I can toss higher, I'll be able to serve more aces. Thanks.
It’s always better to toss too high than too low 👉 th-cam.com/video/G-KTKa-h8XE/w-d-xo.html
No, it does not. You want to hit your serve right when the ball is about to drop. You don't want the toss too high because as the ball drops, you're fighting against gravity to hit your serve. If you toss it too low, you won't get much extension and your fighting against the ball's momentum going up. When that ball is suspended in mid-air between going up and going down is the best time to hit the serve. Good luck!
My toss is low but I always strike it at mid- air. Just wanna know if the contact point is better at high point or low point.
High toss is the way to go
I'm a wee bit confused here. I recently watched one of you previous ball toss videos and the ball was kept in place with your thumb with outstretched fingers.