Improve your return of serve in tennis with these easy to follow tips 

Do you have trouble returning serves? Especially big first serves? Watch this video for tips on positioning, adjusting and using your opponent's power to your advantage!

Holy cow, it works. I'm your average club-level player and when playing with similar level players we all usually return server from inside the baseline. Today I played as you suggest, starting further back and approaching when ball is in the air. Huge difference, returns are much easier, almost effortless. Geez, if I knew that sooner I would be winning US open by now :) Thank you for creating videos for regular mortals, many coaches stick to teaching as if we are all young professionals.

Hey - that is a GREAT video, putting together some really important singular points together. Things I've been working on the last 1-2 years (and having some good success with. I like how you broke down the individual important components into a sequential chain (which I haven't seen done so well before) : 1) move forward when they start serve motion -> 2) highest point of split-step at contact -> split as we see where ball is going -> get back-foot (outside foot) into position behind the ball -> 3) then transferring weight forward onto front-foot. I used to focus on getting on the front-foot, which is helpful. But recently, I've shifted to concentrating on getting that back-foot into position, stable and loaded early .. which then gives me stability and balance. Then, if I have time, I can push forward onto the front-foot for good weight transfer. Makes a huge difference to my tennis. The cost is needing to put the early energy in, to get the back-foot into position. The benefit comes in terms of balance, weight transfer and quality of shot, which gives me a better chance at the next shot. Love your work!

Awesome tip, today I tried your recommendation as to start moving forward while the server is initiating the serve and split stepping right after, it works wonderfully !! I've always been thought to split step as the server is about to make contact, but it never felt right and dynamic. Thank you so much it makes a huge difference on returning !!

Excellent as always! 👍Meike, could you please consider adding some future content on how to effectively return a lefty’s slice serve to the ad court? I’d love to see some video on this. Thanks!

I absolutely love your presentation in this lesson on returning serve. I was fortunate to have been trained by a teaching professional who had been a skilled tournament player. Part of his method was to teach me to use my strengths to my advantage. Being 5’ 6” and 140 lbs with good footwork and speed and strong skills on ground strokes he instilled that aggressive mindset on returning serve. I never hit many aces but I hit lots of strong returns and broke serve often. You have to play your return to the point, game and set score. On add out on return be aggressive, move around and make the server think about the consequences of loosing the point. Now that I am a high school and USTA Junior coach I train my players to follow the score when making shots. Yes there are some players who have very good serves but so many more players who can benefit by practicing and developing strong returns. We frequently practice returns with one player serving from the service line to their practice partner. The short distance helps you adapt to reacting quicker. By stepping into the return with a shorter backswing you can use your opponents pace against them. On second serves you can possibly intimidate them into a double fault.

Probably the best coach on youtube.

I find your videos the most helpful out of myriads of videos on RU-vid. Thank you coach

Excellent instruction on footwork to make returns more powerful. You are a superior tennis coach. Thank you.

Great advice, love your coaching and engagement.

Thank you!

Love all your videos so far. Looking forward for more! Thanks for sharing your knowledge & expertise. I particularly enjoyed your interview with Mark! 👍😍

Thank you for this great lesson. Appreciate!

Thanks for this information practice lesson 👍

Just discovered this video - awesome tips and instruction. New subscriber!

Thank you

Good tutorial.

This was great instruction and even better returning. Thanks for sharing. 👏

Great pointers!!

thanks

Nice tips on the footwork & timing for the split step so will adjust my current return technique accordingly. Thanks for the tips & post & the always excellent coaching/communication delivery👌

Great instruction as usual. What do you think is the best forehand grip for returning serves

My clubmates tend to laugh at me when I repeatedly say something like "If it's yellow and flies...", cause I just hit a volley that would have flown straight to the fence. But as you said: If it's yellow and flies around... Also, my returns are always spectacularly good when the serve is out, cause I don't care about it anymore. When it's important, the result varies way more.

Great lesson, thanks! Can you please tell me what strings and what string tension you used in this video? I like the sound of the ball bouncing off the strings. Thank you!

Great point "placing the outside leg behind the ball". It appears you hit sometimes off that outside leg, sometimes off the front leg. Does it matter as long as forward momentum is created by stepping in with the "inside" leg either before or after striking the ball?

Thanks Meike, great video, as all the others from your channel. I am a new enthusiastic subscriber! One question: what do you mean with “move your leg behind the ball” Thanks ;)

This should go to everyone’s watch daily folder directly 👍🎾🎾🎾

Great lesson... When I play the Deuce court in Doubles, and the serve comes to my one handed Eastern backhand (I prefer one handed drive return , not slice), I have to hit my return cross court and away from the net player. This is considered to be one of the more difficult shots in tennis. I do okay with this inside out one handed drive return and often hit very sharp angles but I don't really know what I am doing. I want to drill it. Typically, the serve is not that fast and I have time to adjust my feet. So all I think about is hitting the "inside" of the ball so I can direct it cross court. To do this, I create lot of space by moving away from the ball (towards the Deuce alley) so I can hit the "inside" of the ball... Not sure how to exactly describe it and maybe I'm doing it wrong but maybe we can see a video on the exact footwork pattern for this shot: the one handed backhand inside out return on a serve down the Deuce T. And whether it's okay to change the stance to direct it sharply cross court away from the net player.

Awesome video! I like to full swing at out serves during match play. Kinda helps with timing, but I like to think it’s draws more double faults. Is that bush-league? 😜

Good video. However why do you use the continental grip to return instead of using the eastern backhand grip if you have a one hander ? Or are you adjusting to the eastern backhand if coming to that side?Thanks

Hi, can you work on one handed return serve. The split step forward motion is brilliant.

@8:56 💪 nice serve fazal

What grip shall I have on return of serve? I'm right hand, 2 hands backhand

Confused Which leg is the outside leg vs inside leg? JL

Faisal has the most casual kick serve in all of tennis

When you say shorten the swing you really are eliminating the loop in the swing on the forehand.

So sad that someone has placed pickle ball lines on these courts.😢

Hmm. What means the outside foot behind the ball... where is the ball... where is behind... 🤔🤷‍♂