The Racket Drop Drill
Around half the club players I see do not have racket drops on their serve. The racket drop is the part of the serve where the racket is completely inverted in what some people think of as the “scratch your back position”.
It’s very important to achieve this position to generate momentum on your swing and pace on the serve. Many people struggle with this part of the serve. This is one of the many great tennis drills to do alone and is fantastic at correcting that issue. Here’s how to do it.
Stand in your normal serve stance with your racket in hand and hold the continental grip. Raise your hitting arm to your side with elbow bent. Your racket should flair out to your right (if right-handed) and vice versa for lefties. Move your hand and racket upwards by bending your elbow joint. The racket will then move behind your head. Move your elbow higher up and use radial deviation to allow a full racket drop. For the sake of this exercise, allow the edge of the racket to touch your back. Your racket should be completely inverted at this point. Begin to raise the racket upward by straightening your elbow joint. It’s key here to bring the racket up on edge. Just before the racket is fully extended pronate so that the strings face the ball. Your torso should be slightly to the side. Once contact with the ball is achieved (there is no contact in this drill, you’re just visualizing it) continue pronating until your palm or the hitting side of the racket is facing away from you. You can stop there or continue the serve motion, following through at your side.
Do as many reps as you want, morning and evening. You can also do this as a warm-up on the court when you do get to play. Even now, I’ll do 25-50 reps at a time while watching tennis on TV just to keep my motion sharp.
This drill will help players with a waiter’s serve develop an advanced serve, those with a shallow racket drop to develop a deep one and add mph to your serve speed and with less effort.
