A wayward toss makes for an ineffective serve, and the most common error players make in this regard is tossing the ball behind rather than in front of their body. How can you tell if your toss is on target? Try this. Stand directly under an open tennis gate. Then pretend you are going to serve and toss the ball into the air. If it stays in front of you as it should, the ball won’t hit the fence area above the gate. But if it hits the fence, you know that the ball would have landed behind you, which means you have some work to do. To remedy your errant toss practice from this same position but try tossing softer and lower than you normally would until you get the placement right. Then gradually increase the height as your accuracy improves.
There are two benefits to tossing more in front. First, it’s easier to build up racquet head speed and therefore generate power on the serve when the racquet moves through a longer distance before contact. And second, your weight will be moving forward and, if the return of serve is short, you’ll be in a better position to move in and deal with it.