If you can't find a partner, ball machine, wall or backboard to practice tennis, you still can burn calories practicing your serve. Depending on the type of serve you have, you can get a worthwhile workout while improving your technique and accuracy. Be careful not to degrade your serving technique or cause a repetitive-stress injury if you try to use serving as a calorie-burning technique.
Beginner Serve
Recreational players use two types of serves: the beginner, "frying pan" serve and more advanced loop serve. If you hold the grip with the lower knuckle of your ring finger on the fat bevel of the grip, you have a beginner serve. This grip limits your ability to turn sideways as you serve to maximize power and spin. You use limited core rotation and knee bend, making this type of serve less effective for burning calories.
Advanced Serve
Intermediate-level players and above hold a Continental grip when they serve, holding the racket like a hammer. This allows you to stand on a 45-degree angle to the net, bend your knees downward, rotate your core and jump up into the air. This type of serve helps you burn more calories because of the deep knee bend and jump each time.
Serve and Volley
One way to improve your serve while you increase your calorie burn is to practice serve and volley. Toss the ball in front of you, jump into your serve, then take several quick steps into the court and split step, or set up for the ball to be returned, shortly after your serve reaches where your opponent would hit it. This will help you practice the timing for serve and volley, since you should not be moving when your opponent hits the ball. This extra running after each serve will help you elevate your metabolism.
To maximize your calorie burning, serving speed and ability to move forward, check that your front foot crosses the baseline before your back foot. This will help you jump higher and accelerate your racket head more than if your back foot swings around and crosses the baseline before your front foot.
Toss
Practice your service motion without hitting the ball to see where your ball lands. Toss the ball as if you were going to serve, then let it land. The ball should land 1 to 2 feet into the court, even with or slightly outside of your hitting shoulder. Because the arm is hinged at the wrist and elbow, many tennis players toss the ball backward and to the left, if they are right-handed. This prevents you from getting your weight into your serve and creates a contact point that can create a repetitive-stress injury.
To maximize your calorie burning while serving, practice moving your toss into the court so that you must move forward to hit the ball. Toss balls to see if they are landing on or behind the baseline or toward your left foot if you are right handed.
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