With the 24-serves drill, the player hits 12 serves from the deuce court and 12 serves from the ad court. At the end you have a number out of 24, like 15 out of 24 for example, that you hit to the correct place and you can even calculate your percentage if you want.

Starting from the deuce court, the player will hit 4 different kind of serves. A first serve down the middle, a first serve to the body, and a first serve out wide. Afterwards you hit a second serve anywhere in the box. You repeat this process three times so that you hit 12 serves overall from the deuce court. Now you proceed from the ad court and again hit a first serve out wide, a first serve to the body, and a first serve down the middle, followed by a second serve. Repeat three times and you are finished with your 24 serves.

Now there are different options on how to count. Let's say you are supposed to hit down the middle and the serve ends up being to the body. With most players I will let them redo that particular serve but you can of course count it either as a hit target or missed target depending on how tough you want to be on yourself!

With your number you have a reference point that you can always compare yourself against. You can of course calculate your overal percentage (x out of 24), first serve percentage (x out of 18), and second serve percentage (x out of 6). With my high performance players my goal is to get them to consistently serve around 18 out of 24 serves. Assuming that you do not miss second serves that leaves you with 12 out of 18 first serves or 66.7 %.

I often have my students do this drill two or three times a day so that they hit roughly between 50 and 75 serves a day. I do not like them to hit more practice serves on a given day because of the risks of shoulder injuries.

At the end they always have their numbers in mind and they love to compete with each other. Just make sure you don't cheat yourself when counting ... it will undermine your self-confidence in the long run!

For really advanced players the coach can also start calling out the serve placement while the ball is in the air!

Have fun practicing!

Florian Meier

www.onlinetennisinstruction.com