1. Drills
  2. Tennis
  3. Serve

Serve to Either Half

Split the service box in two and serve to the half you call before you toss.

By Coach Evan Waechtler Youth coach (U11, Cache Valley, Utah) and founder of SSTracker Updated October 30, 2026

Set up

Put a cone on the middle of the service line.

Core: Medium. Beat your own best out of 10.

Ages
11 and up
Time
12 min
Players
Just you
Space
Gym or court
Bring
Racket, balls, court, cone or towel
Level · skill
Developing · Serve

The steps

How it works

  1. Put a cone on the middle of the service line.
  2. Call "inside" or "outside" before each serve.
  3. Serve 10 from each side of the court.
  4. Count the serves that land in the half you called.

Coaching point

Pick the half, then commit.

Safety: Warm up your arm first. Stop if your shoulder, elbow or low back hurts, and keep serve sets short.

Make it fun

Play it, don't drill it

Game version

Target-box serving: two teams of two take turns serving into target boxes. Each team counts only its own boxes hit.

Challenge

Pick a box: Less (big), Core (medium), More (small). Beat your own best out of 10.

Story

You are opening the match with a serve that lands exactly on the line.

My best

Beat your own count

Beat your own best out of 10. Only your own number counts: today against last time.

Practice makes progress

Print it now, or save it free

Free for families and teams

Save this drill to your child or team, free

Sign up and the free tennis week for this age opens in your child's planner, kept to healthy limits. A coach can send this drill to the whole team as homework, and parents see every session logged.

14 days free for a family, no card · Running a team is always free

Does your child's coach know about this?

An email from you to the coach, with the words ready. Nothing is tracked and nobody is rewarded.