srv.md

In joeheywood/tnsinp: Tennis Input

In a recent match against someone in my club, both of us were known to have 'big' serves. I won the toss, but didn't want to start serving with the sun in my eyes, so choose the other end. He tapped the balls over the net, saying he wanted to return. It was a tight game. By 5-5, we had each held serve just once. Why? Even our second serves are pretty decent. He is around 6'4" and realistically the best shot I can do from either of his serves is a defensive tapto the baseline if he was staying back or a low shot if he was serve-volleying. Yet, I found it easier to win points on his serve, rather than mine. The answer is that while we were both serving 'big' we were not serving well. What I'm going to argue here is what constitutes a good serve - using data from a range of different levels.

When people are known to have a good serve at my club, the first thing people think is how hard you can hit it. You could measure how good someone's serve is either with a speed gun (if you happen to have one lying about) or by the number of aces. This is a big serve. A lot of people trying to improve their serve are looking to make their serve bigger, not better. The smarter people in the club talk a bit less about the speed of the serve, and more about how often the first serve goes in. Variety. Different types of spin. Accuracy. Intelligence. The measure of a good serve is how well it's translating to winning points. If you hit a 120mph ace down the T, you get one point. If you hit a solid serve, 1 foot in from the line and follow up with a good shot after.

joeheywood/tnsinp documentation built on Aug. 3, 2020, 8:35 a.m.