We’ve all been there: standing at the baseline, paddle in hand and suddenly the simplest shot in the game feels … simply impossible. The yips are no joke. They can shake even the most confident player's rhythm, but I’m here to tell you that they don't have to be permanent.
This week I decided to test out some of the strategies people swear by. I’ve always been a task-oriented player, so target practice was my obvious first stop. Instead of trying to nail a perfectly deep serve, I started aiming for the middle of the net and the center of the service square. Nothing fancy. That tiny adjustment took so much pressure off. I could feel my shoulders relax and my arm began swinging freely again. Funny enough, once I stopped chasing that perfection, my serves actually got better right away.
Next up, I tried singing the intro to “The Hey Song” before each serve. Its timing felt right, and I thought it would get me in the zone and keep my brain from spiraling. And, it kind of worked. My accuracy improved but I kept getting caught up in the song that I wasn’t ready for what came next. Overall, not a fan of this technique.
Strategy #3 was going back to my tennis roots with a simple pre-serve routine:
- Bounce the ball three times
- Squeeze my shoulders up, then let them drop
- Deep breath
- Say the score out loud
- One more deep breath
This approach felt like hitting a reset button every single time. Your brain loves something familiar when nerves kick in, and a consistent routine gives it exactly that. The key is consistency. It doesn’t have to be elaborate; it just has to become automatic. Big thumbs up.
Last thing I tried - and I can’t believe I didn’t catch this earlier - I was holding my breath right before hitting the ball. Every. Single. Time. That tension was sneaking into every part of my body. Now, I focus on exhaling on contact and it makes the whole motion so much smoother. Less forcing it, more letting it happen.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned through all of this is that the serving yips usually aren’t about bad technique. More often, they’re about tension, pressure, and getting stuck in your own head. The good news is those things are manageable. Sometimes all it takes is one small adjustment to break the cycle and start trusting your serve again. Hope this helps!