A tennis player can serve hundreds of balls comfortably in practice.
Then a match begins. The toss becomes unreliable, the arm tightens and the second serve feels like a movement they have never performed before. Some players decelerate to avoid missing. Others rush, freeze before starting the action or catch the toss repeatedly because nothing feels right.
This is often described as the tennis serve yips.
The player has not forgotten how to serve. The difficulty is accessing a familiar action once attention, consequence and anticipation become attached to it.
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What Are Tennis Serve Yips?
Serve yips describe an involuntary or difficult-to-control disruption to the service action. They are usually most obvious on the second serve because a further miss immediately loses the point.
A player may experience:
- Repeated double faults.
- Freezing before the toss or racket movement.
- Tossing too far forwards, backwards or sideways.
- Catching several tosses without feeling able to continue.
- A sudden jerk, pause or loss of rhythm.
- Slowing the racket dramatically to guide the ball in.
- Serving normally in practice but struggling during matches.
- Fear before important points, service games or particular scorelines.
- Feeling unable to trust an action that previously happened naturally.
An occasional run of double faults is not automatically the yips. The term becomes more relevant when fear of the serve itself begins to alter the movement and maintain the problem.
Why the Second Serve Can Feel So Threatening
The player starts the serve without an incoming ball to react to, leaving time to think about the result.
After a first-serve fault, the mind may produce one urgent instruction:
Just get this one in.
That can change the intention from serving towards a target to avoiding a double fault. The grip tightens, racket speed falls and the player consciously supervises the movement.
This connects the problem with performance anxiety in sport and fear of failure. The threat is not only losing one point. It may be embarrassment, letting a partner down or confirming the belief that the serve has disappeared.
Is It Technical, Physical or Psychological?
Not every serving problem is psychological. A drifting toss, unsuitable grip, poorly coordinated action, fatigue or an attempt to create spin without the necessary technique can produce double faults. Shoulder, elbow, wrist or back problems may also change the motion.
This is why a qualified tennis coach should assess the serve. Pain or physical restriction may also require an appropriate healthcare professional.
However, technical searching can become part of overthinking in sport. Even a functional action becomes difficult when every part is consciously controlled.
The question is not simply, “Is this technical or mental?” A technical disruption can damage confidence, while anxiety can alter technique. Both may need attention.
What Professional Players Show Us
Aryna Sabalenka provides one of the clearest modern examples. In 2022 she recorded 428 double faults across the WTA season. At two Adelaide events she produced 18 and then 21 in consecutive matches, at times serving underarm.
Her recovery was not based on one motivational phrase. Former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis encouraged her to stop controlling everything and trust the movement. Biomechanist Gavin MacMillan then helped rebuild her toss arm, take-back, wrist position and weight transfer. Sabalenka also spoke about greater self-respect and reminding herself she could handle difficult emotions. A year later, she won the 2023 Australian Open. She double-faulted on her first championship point but recovered rather than treating it as proof that the problem had returned. The Australian Open’s account of her turnaround tells the fuller story.
Ana Ivanovic’s experience shows why assessment matters. After becoming world number one, her powerful serve became associated with an erratic toss and falling confidence. A thumb injury had affected her ability to hold the racket, and she later experimented with a shorter take-back. Physical, technical and psychological influences overlapped.
Former world number three Guillermo Coria suffered extreme double-faulting spells and never consistently recovered his previous level. His story prevents easy promises: there is no universal method or guaranteed timescale.
The Serve-Yips Cycle
The pattern often develops like this:
- The player double-faults at an important moment.
- They assign greater significance to the serve.
- The next second serve triggers anticipation.
- Attention turns inwards towards the mechanics.
- Tension or deceleration disrupts the action.
- Another fault appears to prove the serve cannot be trusted.
Every practice session can then become a test. This damages sports confidence because good serves bring temporary relief while every miss feels like evidence.
Rebuilding Trust Without Constantly Testing the Serve
Recovery usually requires coordination between technical coaching and psychological work. The exact progression should suit the player, but useful principles may include:
- Establishing whether a genuine mechanical or physical issue exists.
- Simplifying the action to one relevant technical cue.
- Serving initially without scores or consequences.
- Using comfortable targets and different levels of pace or spin.
- Gradually adding second serves, scorelines, an opponent and match pressure.
- Measuring commitment and routine as well as whether the ball landed in.
- Allowing occasional double faults without immediately rebuilding everything.
The objective is to create evidence that the player can serve with uncertainty present. This is a practical form of trusting your training.
Attention, Routine and the Inner Voice
Good concentration in sport is selective. A player cannot usefully monitor the toss, knees, shoulder turn, elbow, racket drop, wrist and landing simultaneously.
A simple external intention—such as shape, height over the net or a target—may let the movement organise itself more naturally. The technical coach should select the cue.
A pre-serve routine can support the transition from decision to action. Breathing, choosing the serve and using a brief cue may help. Restarting until everything feels safe can turn it into a checking ritual.
Developing Inner Voice Awareness™ may help the player notice instructions such as “do not double fault” or “everyone knows I cannot serve.” The aim is to replace noise with one useful intention and permission to execute.
Responding After a Double Fault
A double fault does not have to decide the next service game.
The player can acknowledge it, check whether a genuine adjustment is required and return to the next point. Learning to recover after mistakes means resisting emergency changes and predictions of another fault.
Sabalenka double-faulted on championship point, yet continued competing and won. Trust does not mean never missing; it means the miss no longer controls what happens next.
How Sports Mindset Coaching May Help
Mindset coaching may help when anticipation, judgement and conscious interference are maintaining the problem. Work could include:
- Mapping the scorelines and situations that trigger the disruption.
- Identifying what the player fears a double fault will mean.
- Reducing shame and catastrophic predictions.
- Simplifying attentional cues with the technical coach.
- Creating a flexible pre-serve routine.
- Designing gradual practice under realistic pressure.
- Rebuilding confidence from specific evidence.
- Developing a dependable response after mistakes.
The wider work may include reducing self-doubt, understanding choking under pressure and restoring the freedom described in tennis performance psychology.
Coach’s Insight
The player usually asks:
How do I make sure I do not double fault?
A more useful question may be:
What helps me choose the serve, accept the risk and let the action happen?
The serve cannot become trustworthy while every attempt is treated as an examination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are serve yips the same as poor serving technique?
No. Technical problems can cause faults, but serve yips involve anticipation, loss of trust or involuntary disruption. The two can overlap.
Why can I serve normally in practice?
Practice often contains less judgement and consequence. Match scoring can change attention, tension and the player’s intention.
Should I use an underarm serve?
It may sometimes be a legitimate tactical or temporary option, but it does not identify or resolve the underlying cause by itself. Discuss the broader plan with a qualified coach.
Can mindset coaching cure tennis serve yips?
No responsible coach should guarantee a cure. It may help when pressure, fear and conscious interference are maintaining the pattern, alongside appropriate technical or physical support.
How long does recovery take?
There is no universal timescale. It depends on the cause, duration, severity and the support required.
Trusting the Serve Again
Serve yips can make a capable tennis player feel helpless before they have even struck the ball.
Progress begins by identifying whether technique, pain, pressure or learned anticipation is disrupting the action. The player can then stop chasing certainty and build trust through appropriate coaching, manageable pressure and repeated evidence.
The goal is not a serve that never misses. It is a player who can commit to serving without supervising every part of the movement—and who knows that one double fault does not define the next point.
Tennis Serve-Yips Coaching in Reading and Online
Matthew Exell provides sports mindset coaching for tennis players in Reading, Berkshire, as well as online across the UK and internationally, when serving has become affected by freezing, double-fault anxiety, an unreliable ball toss or loss of trust. Sessions may help identify the situations and scorelines that trigger conscious interference, simplify the player’s psychological focus and rebuild confidence through appropriately graded evidence. This work should complement assessment by a qualified tennis coach, particularly where technique, pain or physical restriction may be contributing. The aim is not to promise a serve that never misses. It is to help the player stop organising every second serve around fear and reconnect with the broader principles of tennis performance psychology.
Call +44 07807 540142 or email me