Trouble Shooting Choking Under Pressure When Serving
Posted on Dec 09, 2007 under Individual Skills |Most players train serving technique, but they don’t train serving tactics or serving under pressure. Therefore, when the player is put in a pressure situation such as serving for match point, the player chokes. As the coach, you can train your players to serve successfully under pressure.
Have your team get on one side of the net. The goal is to have your team serve 15 balls in a row in bounds. If a player misses the serve the whole team does a sprint and starts the drill over again. Have the player that missed serve first. If your team consistently gets their serves in, then make it more challenging and have them serve to one half of the court or a specific area. However, don’t penalize the player for getting the ball in but not in the specific area. Just don’t count that serve as one of the 15.
The other way to train for pressure serving is a drill within a drill. During any 6 on 6 drill you can train your players for pressure serving. Stop the drill in the middle of it and have one of your players serve. If the player misses it the whole team does an incentive (a sprint or loses a point). If the player makes it the team gets a point. Do this with 3 or 4 players a day. These drills should help your players feel more confident with serving under pressure situations and will allow them succeed more often.
