Climb the Serve Mountain Greek God Style

In Greek lore there is a story about a man who was sentenced to pushing a boulder up a mountain for eternity, but if he was able to get the boulder up and over the mountain then he would be set free.  We use this story as our hook for a classic game to help students master the serve at different lengths of the tennis court. Ultimately being able to serve from the baseline on whatever court length they are playing on.
We start everyone at the 1/8 line. In order for the student to be able to move back and ultimately break the spell, they must have the karate serve grip, the ball must bounce twice within the boundaries, and they must hold their follow through for the two bounces. If that happens, they get to move up the mountain two steps. If it goes cross court, they get to move back four steps. If they miss into the net or out of the court after the 1/8 line they move up two steps to try again from where they had earlier success. We tell our students we want two bounces (or more) because no matter where you are on the court, if you can get the ball to bounce two times on the other side it will always land in the service box.  We want our students to hold the finish so they work on balance, taking time, and becoming aware of their movements. Once a student has moved to the baseline they break the spell and everyone gets to move back and serve from the baseline. We adapted this game from the Canadian Tennis Association. I have attached that here as well. This game is loved by everyone in our lessons because they are working on a learning goal of being able to aim higher over the net to be able to serve from the baseline. We sometimes will do this with a time limit as the students become more confident and competent in their serve. I hope you will use this in your practice regimen towards mastery and be able to break the spell.




Climb the Serve Mountain
Goal: To understand starting the point with an overhead serve.
Rules of the Game: Players are in teams. Each time a server comes
up they attempt to serve the ball into the service box from a different
distance from the net. If they get it in, the next time they come up to
serve, they move to the next distance. Points are gained for the team
by getting the serve in from different distances (climb the mountain):
 Base: Middle of their service box (short distance) = 1 point
 Summit: ¾ distance (medium distance) = 2 points
 Peak: Baseline (long distance) = 3 points
Place a target in the service box to point the racquet face at (they
don’t have to hit it but there is a bonus of 2 points if they do). First
team to 25 points wins. Switch teams being on the Ad or Deuce side
for the second game.
Note: This activity can be done on Red, Orange (shown), or Green
courts.