As we have said before you cannot practice enough the "return of serve".

This practice is for points and in a way it is also a game that can be played out between 2 or more players.

The idea: To become consistant on the service return

The server only has one serve,if the serve is out the receiver wins 1 point.

The receiver first of all must return the serve cross court as in the diagram below.

A return deep cross is worth 2 points

A return short cross(inside the service box) is worth 1 point.

A return into the wrong half of the court or out is worth 1 point to the server.

A return in the net or a return not touched is worth 2 points to the server.The net is really where we do not want the return as you are not allowing your opponent the opportunity to make a mistake.

So the game could be "the first to 15 points" and lets assume the receiver wins 15-11,then they have a +4 result.

Server and receiver then change and the same game is played,but now the receiver is trying to win by more than +4.

Then as in the diagram below you do the same,but now the return is hit as a down the line shot.

Of course after this you change the serving to the other side and so on.

Variations: You can have two serves and a double fault counts 2 to the receiver.

You can make the point scoring, 2 for short returns and 1 for deep, and so practice short angles off the serve.

As a team game:For example with 4 players.One player is the receiver and the other 3 take it turns to serve.Using the same scoring system to 15,assume the 1st receiver wins 15-9,then the others take it in turns to receive and try to beat the +6 scored by the first receiver.

It also makes the serving team try and work together on finding the receivers weakest stroke.