Serving into the lights

Damon S Asked 9 years ago

Hi Alois,

I have trouble serving if there is a ceiling light in the way when I serve. I'll sometimes lose the ball, but even if I track it through the serve, I'll see flashes in front of my eyes for a few seconds, making my third ball reaction very difficult.

I've tried serving from different positions, but it doesn't seems to help. I can do a low toss serve, but it throws off my timing. I can do a backhand serve, but my main set of serves is based on the forehand, so I feel adding another serve might detract from the time I spend practicing something else.

I guess my question is what do you think the best approach would be? Learn to do my main serves with a low toss? Add the backhand serve to my repertoire? Learn to just deal with the lights? Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Damon

Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago

Hi Damon,

The lights can be a problem.  Try to find a place where you can throw the ball up without losing directly into the lights.  Before you serve take a look up and try to find a position.  It can be difficult to start with.  The other option is then to do a low toss serve as you suggested.

The other thing is to really just focus on the ball.  The more you think about the lights, the more it seems to effect you.

Often at major championships, players on the first day will complain about the lights and the positioning of them.  As the tournament progresses, no one mentions it.