There are many aspects of a good serve, but one of them – which I’ve written about before – is the importance of serving low. This puts tremendous pressure on the opponent, especially if he wants to attack your serve. Even on passive returns he’s forced to lift the ball a bit, which causes a loss of control and a greater likelihood of popping the ball up.

But how do you know if you are serving low? One way is how often you serve net serves. (Technically, they are let serves, but for this article I’m going to call them net serves.) Some players likely pride themselves on “clean” serves that never nick the net, but I’d advice the opposite. If you really are serving low, then you will get a higher number of serves that nick the net. You are unlikely to actually serve into the net too often, assuming you are practicing your serves, but if you want to serve really low, the ball’s going to brush the net sometimes. Make it a badge of honor!

Here’s a serving drill. Get a box of balls and practice serving low, short, spinny serves. When you feel comfortable with the serve, try serving so the ball does nick the net. You are used to serving with enough net clearance to cleanly go over the net, but perhaps you are giving it too much clearance, leading to a higher serve, which makes things easier for your opponent. See just how low you can serve and get it over the net – and the best way to do this is to actually try to serve as low as possible while still going over the net – and that’s a serve that just nicks the net. Do twenty serves and see how many net serves you can do without actually serving into the net!