May 31, 2006
Normal, Ill. -
"Hit up. Fast racket. Bold shot to big spot." That's what Illinois State women's tennis coach Chris Hoover shouts frequently during practices and matches.
That tennis lingo might not make too much sense to an outsider, but it helps guide the Redbird women's tennis players to consistent serving, which sets the pace for winning.
"We say `hit up' a lot because we like to hit kick or top spin serves," said Hoover, a four-time Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year. "That's the most consistent serve. The spin will pull that ball in and still carry it up over the net."
"Fast racket" is self-explanatory. The "bold shot to the big spot" is Hoover's way of encouraging his players to hit the ball strong to the most-advantageous spot on the other side of the net.
The three different types of serves in tennis are: a flat serve, a kick (or top spin) serve, and a slice serve. All three offer advantages with different spins.
"A flat ball doesn't have much spin," Hoover said. "You're trying to get the racket really flat right behind the ball and hit straight down into the server spots."
The Illinois State Redbirds typically use a kick serve for consistency. The racket needs to come up from behind and below the ball and brush up and spin the ball so it rotates and comes down.
"The kick serve is a consistent serve because it allows you to hit higher over the net and still keep the ball coming down into the service spots or into the court," Hoover said.
The slice serve is hit from left to right around the outside of the ball, producing a side spin rotation.
"A slice serve comes in, hits and spins away from you with that spin," Hoover said. "With a kick, or top spin, it hits and kicks up."
The three types of serves are hit by attacking the ball a little differently, and perfecting each one is difficult for a player.
"Probably the higher you go in our line up the more you will find someone who can hit with a slice and maybe can hit with a flat serve," Hoover said. "I would say, generally, we are a top spin or kick serve team."
After a player chooses a serve and plays it, she must decide how she will play the rest of the match. An all-court player is what the Redbirds strive to be.
"The top two or three players in our singles lineup end up being all-court players. They have to be able to come and take the net and put balls away," Hoover said. "Our four, five and six players tend to be more of baseliners and grinders. They have good ground strokes and they run down a lot of balls and make people play a lot of balls."
Aggressive play and high serve percentages are qualities that Hoover demands from his players.
"We like to attack and play within the lines, which is an aggressive kind of attacking game" Hoover said. "We usually start with a good first serve percentage and good directional ground strokes."
Hoover says that a common mistake tennis players make is to think that they need to hit with power--that isn't always the smartest way to play.
"Consistency, placement, spin, hitting a high percentage of first serves will help you win a lot more points," Hoover said. "So you want to try to do that ... and that doesn't always mean power."
One of the best Redbird servers is Michelle Rabinovich, a junior from Upland, Calif. Rabinovich agrees with Hoover and recognizes that great serving and playing is not all about power.
"It's all about mechanics, not power," Rabinovich said. "For example, you always have to make sure that your body weight goes up instead of going forward first."
Rabinovich considers herself a serve-and-volley type player but would like to be an all-court player.
"When I serve and volley, it's more effective to use a kick serve because it gives you more time to act," said Rabinovich. "So you're able to run in because of the way the ball stays up in the air."
Rabinovich's first serve is usually a flat serve, while her second serve is a kick serve.
"A flat serve has more pace on it. It makes you look more intimidating right away," Rabinovich said. "A kick serve as a second serve is more effective. A lot of girls don't know how to take it because it bounces up and awkwardly compared to a flat serve."
Each player has her own strategies for winning, and those strategies have worked well enough for the Redbirds to win four straight Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championships.
Good strategy from left-handed, Australian-born Nicole Schneider helps the team too.
"I feel that being a left hander, I'm at an advantage because right handers play against other right handers," Schneider said. "So when they come up against a left hander they have to change the way they are going to play."
Schneider thinks of herself more of a baseline server but she does like to go into the net sometimes and serve and volley. She considers her groundstrokes to be strong and that she has more power play from the back of the court.
"I would say I serve more of a slice serve so the ball goes into their body and gets them out wide," Schneider said. "But every now and then I can put one down the middle and do a flat serve."
The variety and depth of the Redbirds women's tennis has put together winning season after winning season at Illinois State. Hoover recognizes that without good serving, the team wouldn't have had that level of success.
"Serving is 50 percent of the game," Hoover said. "You want to try to first serve better than 50 percent. If you can get in the 60 percentile range of first serves that's pretty good. If you're doing that you're probably winning some games, which is what we've been doing."
And, with five conference titles in the last six years, Hoover's players and teams have enjoyed plenty of success...starting with a serve.
