How to Return a Tennis Serve

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Scott for Expert Village and now we're going to talk about how to return a serve. You've already served, say you've gotten the game and your opponent is going to serve. What you want to do is, you're standing back right behind the baseline. If he is serving to the ad box you are standing on the left side of the court serving to the deuce box you're standing on the right hand side of the court. The way I usually play it is the hash mark and the sideline if you are playing singles try to be one or two strides from the sideline, that way they're not going to burn you hitting one down the sideline and they're not going to burn you hitting one down the side of your backhand side. So you get into your ready position, somewhere around the baseline, a stride from the side, then basically all you are going to do is get your racket face up waiting for the serve. They hit the serve, the ball comes and you turn to see which side the ball is coming. All you are doing is taking your step and following through...turn... follow through...turn...follow through. It's a good idea, I know I angled my head, but a lot of beginners will tend to throw their heads like this and that totally throws off your vision where you're going to hit the ball. You will want to keep your head perpendicular to the court, straight up and down so when you're turning you've got a good field of vision for where the ball is going to go and where you want to hit the ball. Same thing with the backhand side, the ball comes; you're just turning your body and following through"