On a recent coaching qualification, the handbook suggested kids should throw the ball to start the point instead of serving.

I stepped in: “No. Get them serving. Throwing and serving are not the same skill.”

One coach pushed back. He argued that throwing builds the fundamentals of the serve. It’s a familiar belief. But it’s also a misconception.

Misconception 1: “Throwing and serving use the same mechanics.”

Research comparing the two shows otherwise.

• In the throw, trunk twist and elbow extension dominate.
• In the serve, shoulder internal rotation and wrist flexion are the key contributors.
• These movements don’t just differ in size, they happen at different times.

Reid, Giblin, & Whiteside (2015) found the similarities are mostly in the preparation phase. Once the arm accelerates, the two actions diverge significantly.

So, while both look “overhead,” the details that matter most, the movements that drive ball speed and control, are different.

Misconception 2: “If you can throw, you’ll serve better.”

The evidence says no.

Hightower (1983) tested college beginners on serve accuracy and overhand throw accuracy. The result? No significant correlation between the two.

A strong throw didn’t predict a strong serve. Why? Because serving isn’t just about sending an object forward, it’s about timing, intercepting, and coordinating a racquet with a tossed ball.

Misconception 3: “Fundamentals exist outside context.”

This is where theory helps us.

Skill acquisition research shows that skills are context-specific. What transfers is not the movement itself, but the ability to pick up information in the environment and adapt (Davids et al., 2001).

• Throwing a ball affords one set of solutions.
• Serving with a racquet and toss affords a different set.

Change the environment, and the affordances change. The skill has to adapt. That’s why throwing doesn’t “build” the serve, it builds throwing.

What Coaches Should Do Instead

If the goal is to help kids develop a serve, then they need to serve.

• Start simple, but stay specific. Lower the net, shorten the court, change the ball — but keep the action a serve.
• Use constraints. Challenge players to serve into different targets, vary the toss height, or serve under pressure of time or score.
• Embrace mistakes. Kids will miss. That’s part of learning. Every miss is information to adapt from.

By keeping practice representative of the real action, players learn to coordinate their body, racquet, and ball in context.

The Takeaway for Coaches

Throwing isn’t a shortcut to serving.

• The mechanics aren’t the same.
• The accuracy doesn’t transfer.
• The skill isn’t a fundamental that exists in isolation — it emerges from the context.

If we want better servers, we don’t need throwers. We need players solving the problems of the serve, right from the start.

References

• Reid, M., Giblin, G., & Whiteside, D. (2015). A kinematic comparison of the overhand throw and tennis serve in tennis players: How similar are they really? Journal of Sports Sciences, 33(7), 713–723.
• Hightower, A. (1983). The relationship between accuracy of the tennis serve and the overhand throw. Master’s Thesis, Texas Tech University.
• Davids, K., Kingsbury, D., Bennett, S., & Handford, C. (2001). Information-movement coupling: Implications for practice during acquisition of self-paced timing skills. Journal of Sports Sciences, 19(2), 117–127.