How To Hit Perfect Tennis Return of Serves In 3 Simple Steps

[Applause] everyone Simon here from top tennis training and in this video I want to help you hit the perfect return of sod in three simple steps so step number one to hitting the perfect return is the ready position and you'll split step timing now there's a big debate about when you should split that on the return of serve and a lot of it depends on the opponent you're playing so if I'm pulling someone with a weeks of I don't have to time my spread step perfectly or as if I'm serving if I'm returning sorry against someone with a really big serve my split step timing has to be almost perfect otherwise I'll be late for the return and I just won't be in position so first thing the ready position you want to have a wide base when you're waiting and when you go into the split step you want to have a wide base and also be quite low so a distaff letting position that you hear a lot of coaches talk about so from the side it's going to be something like this that's what the response is going to be here now that's my waiting position prior to going into the split step if you look at players like Federer and Djokovic when they're waiting so fellow is achieve changes the way he goes into that split step sometimes he steps forward and does a step and then a split [Applause] and sometimes these split steps on the spot now some players like Annie Murray to take a big step forward and then they go into the split step and players like Djokovic they stay on the spot and they just go from here into that small one or two mini footsteps before the big one whichever one works best for you keep doing that if you prefer a step forward that's great and if you prefer the more Djokovic or Agassi style when you're waiting on the same spot and the momentum is only going forward after the split step that's also fine but you need that split step now the timing of the split step once again will be determined by the opponent you're playing but in general you're landing when they make contact so when your opponent makes contact on the other side of the court that's when you're landing that's when you're able to then push off because if you're returning a player who has a big serve you've got about a 0.5 seconds to return out so if I'm playing someone like when we filmed with Sam Groth I had even less time so if my timing is a little bit off I'm gonna be late for that return so it's crucial that I timed that split step when the person makes contact or around the time of contact I'm landing now it could be slightly later but not too late because if the balls are really traveling over the net and you're still in the air you're going to be late on their return now the ready position you want to be holding the bottom hand so regardless if you're one hander or two Honda you want to be holding almost a forehand grip now many of you might be thinking but the player is gonna serve to my back end so shouldn't I be holding it in my backhand grip well even if you're a single hander you've got that top hand to help you but on the forehand side it's a hard change to go from let's say an Eastern backhand grip over to semi-western forehand grip so the reason we hold it with a forehand grip is because you've got that top hand this is my left hand because I'm a right-handed player I've got my right hand in the forehand grip if it comes to my forehand it's easy I don't have to swing with my left hand holding the throat I can let go very early and I can prepare the racquet head with that forehand grip if it comes to my backhand I have that top hand which can help me change the grip so I've got my 400 now it comes to my backhand I'm a one-handed player I change it over and then I can hit the return if I'm a two hander I've got the left hand holding the grip from my double hander and I've got the bottom hand holding the grip of my forehand grip so I've got my forehand grip on the bottom and I've got my backhand grip on the top if it comes to the fore end once again I release and I'm ready to hit if it comes to my back end I've got the top hand to help me change the grip over that's the reason we hold it in the forehand grip now if I hold it in a backhand grip and I'm a single hander this is what's going to happen if it comes to my back end great if it comes to my forehand now this is quite a hard change to do especially if you don't have much time it's the exact same thing for the two handles if I'm holding with the backhand grip in that ready position and the opponent surfs in my back end okay that's fine if they surfed in my forehand now now I have to change and once again it's just not ideal so the ideal waiting position is a nice wide base your timing your split step when the opponent makes contact and you're holding the bottom hand in the forehand grip so that was step number one to having the perfect return step number two is now the swing on the return of serve so once we land on the split step we should start to see where the ball is going we should start to see if it's coming to our forehand or to our back-end that initial step will always be forward we don't want to be chasing the ball backwards and to the side we want to be cutting off the return by going forward now the only way to do that is by having a short backswing if I have a big backswing I just will be simply I'll be late so if I have a big backswing if I take my normal backswing and I try to make contact in front on a fast serve there's zero chance of me doing that on a second serve or if my opponent has a weak so if that might be possible but in general you want to keep your return of soft swings the exact same if the first or second because difference is if I'm playing someone for big serve on the first serve I'm going to block it and on the second serve I'm also going to take time away from the room from the server and I'm going to be doing that by moving forward and taking their ball early that return might be in a shortest ball I get in the whole point so why not take advantage of it straight away and put pressure on my opponent so once again the best so you can have the best visual that you could have for this return of serve is going to be behind me there's a brick wall or there's something like a fence that's blocking me from taking that racket too far back so here I'm waiting for the return I've done my split step and now the swing should be shorter than this smaller than this if I hit the friends it means I've gone too far back so ideally I want to keep the racket just here on side of me and if I can I'll use that rotation to generate the swing now if I swing with my arm and I make contact slowly late the the ball is quite heavy on the serve there's not going to be much supporting that racket head whereas if I turn with my shoulder now I don't do anything with the hand I just turned the body and I come forward the racket always stays out in front of my stomach so on the forehand side the rack is now in front of my belly once I turn and I use that shoulder rotation and that hip rotation instead of for the arms swinging on its own I use that rotation the racket always stays in that same position now it's easy for me to rotate quick compared to swinging quick with my hand so once again the swing is coming from the rotation not the actual arm [Applause] there might be a slight swing from the arm but the main power source is going to be that rotation so what the forehand side is going to go from here spy rotation and then forward and on the back end same thing slight rotation forward if your one-handed player exact same thing slight rotation and then going forward always on the return we want to feel that we're going forward to meet the ball out in front so once again it's crucial that we're not swinging too big on that return you're imagining that there's a war behind you and you're keeping the swing very compact and just going out to meet the ball almost like you're catching a ball if someone was to throw a ball to you you wouldn't go here and then go forward to catch it you would simply go right to the ball to meet it out in front and that's exactly what we want to do on the return we're under pressure the time isn't that much against the bigger servers we have to go forward to me that ball so that we can hit it out in front and actually use our body for the power instead of just the arm and step number three - having the perfect return of soft is the intention on that return so on the first of your goal is to make the player play that's your goal your goal is to get it back in it doesn't matter how you do it if you have to chip the return that's fine if you're under pressure they've had a really good sort of just chip it back in get yourself into the point make the opponent hit a big shot off that first strike but don't give them a free point by missing that return your goal in that first serve is to get it back in play and get yourself into the point if you can get it into a neutral position where you've hit a decent return that has neutralized play perfect if you can only make it still great make them hit the next shot that should go on the first serve on the second serve you have options if it's a ball that's a little bit higher and you have a two hander and it is on your back end you can always hit that ball a little bit more aggressive if the players are serving in a pattern so you see that they're always serving down the middle and you have a big forehead sometimes you might run around and hit your forehand just to keep them honest so you have options on that second sub the other option is you can come in you can use the chip and charge or you could drive the return and come forward that's something that I like to do a lot because it puts a lot of pressure on that server when you see someone hitting that second serve and coming forward that's a big pressure on the brain so the more pressure you can put on the server perfect and one of the ways to do that is by hitting that second serve on the right and coming into net and once again on that second serve you have options you can be aggressive or you could have that same mentality of let's get myself into a neutral position I don't have to be super aggressive but I can be a little bit more aggressive than on the force of and get myself into a position where it can be attacking all I can be in a neutral position for that next shot so you have your free step step number one your ready position and timing the split step step number two a compact swing on both sides so you're ready to go forward to meet the ball you're ready to cut off the angles and step number three your attention on their return on the first serve you're trying to get yourself into the point and on the second serve you have options you can be more aggressive or you can have that mentality of getting myself into a neutral position to begin the point hope you guys enjoyed the video if you do give it a thumbs up leave a comment down below as well which part of your game do you struggle with the most and if you haven't done so already subscribe to the channel and turn off the notifications because otherwise YouTube just isn't sending people who are subscribed the so make sure you turn on the notifications and see you guys soon signing off Simon from TTT

Channel: Top Tennis Training - Pro Tennis Lessons

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Keywords: How To Hit Perfect Tennis Return of Serves In 3 Simple Steps, tennis return of serve, tennis return of serve technique, tennis return of serve drills, return of serve tennis, return of serve technique, return of serve slow motion, how to return serve in tennis, how to return fast serves in tennis, returning fast serves in tennis, tennis return of serve lesson, top tennis training, return of serve, simon konov, top tennis training return of serve, simon top tennis training

Id: 2SJcJVjag8M

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 17 2018