Topic: serve choking in game

[xixix]

I am just wondering if theres any good way to solve my problem.

It may just be a mental thing but my serve chokes quite often.

I have a solid serve at some times.  Its been clocked at 95 a while back but i think it may be a little faster now.  I usually dont hit flat on though, a little bit of spin on it.  I go through the standard pre-toss dribble, go through the actions try to toss over my right shoulder, bend my knees and back, and snap over the ball.  

I throw in a twister at times and 2nd serve is usually a slice but i will occasionally hit my 1st serve to mix it up a bit.  My slice is fairly consistent so i can afford to miss my 1st serve but.... my problem is in practice, i can hit it 100s of times and get it in almost every time then when i get in games, i have bad streaks and i will just start missing.  I think it may have somehtingf to do with it take a little off and dont do the entire wrist snap and entire movement.  

Well, my serve when good gets me a lot of aces as well as bad returns that i can easily put away but my problem is i often have streaks in games when i can't get it in for many tries in a row.  Anyone have any tips to fix this choking?

[MC ill Logic]

Develop a top spin second serve, so the harder you swing on it the safer a serve it is.

The only way to stop choking on the second serve is to practice it SOOOO much, to make it SOOOO reliable, that you have complete confidence in it.

[Arcforce]

Gosh, I can relate. I go practice my serve at least 4 times a week and it seems like it still hasnt gotten any better after nearly 9 weeks. How frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Seems to me that you may me too "worried" about the outcome of your serve. That usually makes one choke.

The solution is to observe your mental state when you practice and become aware of your thinking - if there is any at all. Do you have any expectations when you practice? Probably not. You just hit serves and observe what's going on.

The next step is to become aware of your thinking - or your expectations or your reactions to misses - in matches.

When you become aware, you have a choice. When you are not aware, you run on autopilot.

What do I mean by choice?
You can choose whether you will be thinking about the outcome, mistakes or expectations or whether you will focus only on the process of serving. You need to let go of the outcome and just serve - the way you serve in practice.

How do you convince yourself that you won't think about the outcome?

In my next post.