The Weekly Analogy: The Return of Serve

This week’s analogy is about one of the most important shots in the game but sometimes the one we train the less: The return of serve.

We are talking here about a skill that looks like a forehand or a backhand but with some variations to adjust to the situation. We know that our opponent has total control on the shot he or she is delivering to us, the serve, which in some cases come out of his racquet at 130 mph, and even though it loses some velocity after landing on the service box, going down to approximately 80 miles per hour, it is still very fast.

The bottom line is there is no time!

We need a quick reaction and anticipate the trajectory of the little yellow fruit. In order to do that, the return of serve movement needs to be compact with a short backswing and explosive, so imagine your racquet moving like the “flippers” of a pinball machine.