Speed Kills (your opponent!)

It is long established that the serve is the most important shot in tennis. It's the only shot you have complete control over, as your opponent doesn't get the opportunity to affect the ball you are playing. A serve that is a weapon is an irreplaceable asset, and I'd like to explore how to make yours better.

The key element to serve quality is racquet head speed. Whether it's raw speed you seek, or deceiving movement from spin, improving and maximizing your racquet head speed will help get the most out of any player's serve There are three major elements to generating that speed, and we are going to explore each one.

First, let's talk about legs .Leg drive is the biggest source of racquet head speed, as it is generated by the biggest muscles in your body. There are various rhythms and sequences that load the legs in preparation for the driving extension up and through the ball, but they all share the correct timing. That time sequence should be managed so the upward motion of the racquet into the toss is initiated with the legs pushing, or driving off of the ground. That sequence leads to trunk and shoulder rotation which is made faster by the quality of the leg drive. Youtube some videos of your favorite servers. I like looking at Agassi's, as he really maximizes the leg drive. His feet are a foot off the ground when he makes contact! You can research widely varying degrees and depths of leg load ( knee flexion - look at Becker's knee bend!) but they all share the same timing of starting the drive up to the ball not with the hand and racquet, but with the legs

A second major source of racquet head speed is rotation, and there are two axes (I had to check, axes IS the plural of axis) of this rotation. The first is the shoulders rotating around the spine, much the same way a baseball pitcher or a football passer's do. The back shoulder (racquet shoulder) rotates very quickly from behind the server forward toward the target. This rotation is started by the legs pushing off of the ground, and results in the arm and racquet accelerating forward toward extension at the proper toss location. There is some important bio-mechanics and physics in this portion of the motion that is about the deceleration of one mass to accelerate another, but I will save that for another article.

The second axis of rotation is down and up. At toss release, or at the moment coaches often refer to as the "trophy" position, the back shoulder (racquet shoulder) is well below, and in a steep upward diagonal line with the front shoulder and toss arm. As the shoulders rotate forward around the spine, the back shoulder rocks upward as the front shoulder descends, kind of like a see-saw. This second axis of rotation combines with the first to generate critical racquet head acceleration. Take note that the see-saw axis of rotation is one often overlooked and underutilized by club players.

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Now let's look at a third major speed source, one that's a little more physics, and a little less effort. I am talking about extension. In all quality serves, notice at contact that there is a relatively straight line from the back foot up the leg, then up the torso to the shoulder, then up the arm to the racquet and on to the point of contact. This straight line is a lever, creating tremendous leverage as the racquet meets the ball. This leverage creates additional racquet head speed, and assists in transferring the speed generated by the legs. On a player of six feet in height, the proper extension and leverage creates a lever of almost ten feet in length! That creates tremendous racket head speed (see Isner!). If a club or junior player is striking the ball at any height less than full extension, they are badly compromising racquet head speed simply by tossing and striking the ball too low. Toss heights need to be adjusted to ensure contact is made at full extension, with the exception being some players strike the kick serve slightly below full extension. They then 'carry' the ball on the strings up to the highest point of extension.

So get your coach or parent or friend, better yet your video camera (phone!) to take a look at your serve motion. Ask yourself how well am I loading and driving my legs in this motion? Am I timing that leg drive appropriately to initiate the subsequent rotation? Does that rotation utilize both axes? Am I striking the ball at full extension and at the proper toss location so I am getting maximum leverage?

Begin to answer and address these questions, and you will begin to develop a serve for which your opponents will have no answer!