Tennis Serve Grip

The best tennis grip to use to speed up your serve is the continental grip. This is the tennis grip most professional players use in their first serve. Although some players are using other grips continental grip is normally used by players who are well known to have powerful tennis serve.

Each variation of spins on the tennis serve are used by players in every tennis match, although some are used at a lesser frequency like the slice serve. The most commonly used serve especially in professional tennis matches is the topspin serve.

Toss preparation

To be effective in your tennis serve speed improvement you should have the proper toss preparation. The best way to hold the ball when you are about to toss the ball is to place it on the tips of your tossing fingers (fingers of your left hand if you are a right handed players). If you place the ball near the center of your palm, there is a possibility that the ball won’t be properly tossed.

To improve the serve accuracy with high speed, you have to toss the ball in a straight vertical line. If you don’t bend your arm slightly, it can happen that the ball toss will be in a curve pattern instead of a straight line which can make the timing of the ball release difficult and the toss will not be done accurately.

Wind up movement

Another technique to increase tennis serve speed is to add explosiveness to your serve. Players can choose variations to the wind-up to create a faster serve. Some players prefer to bring the racket up and back eliminating the classic wind up (which is to bring the racket down and back.) If you do the full or classic wind up, your serve will be smoother but if you do the shorter version, you will have an explosive serve (Roddick style)

Toss release

The toss release is also important because it can affect the power of your tennis serve. To increase the speed of your tennis serve, release the ball as high as possible or up to the farthest point your tossing hand can reach. Then naturally open up all your fingers all together and have your eyes glued to the ball.

Knee bend and body arch posture

An important aspect to increase your tennis serve speed is to bend your knees more than what other players do, and at the same time accentuate this by aligning your body correctly for the serve. These movements allow your legs muscles and torso to accumulate energy. The speed of your tennis serve comes from the high racket speed caused by the power you have stored while doing those movements.

Elbow up and racket drop posture

The next important racket and hand posture is when the elbow is bent upward with your racket hanging down. In this case, the racket speed is attained when the elbow starts to strengthen from the bent position. With the elbow fully bent up and the racket hanging down at your back gives you an assurance that a high point of contact (when the ball comes in contact with the racket face) is attained. As your elbow is straightened at the same time your legs lift and bring your body upwards. These movements (elbow straightening and legs lifting from ground) create force to make your wrist whip the ball at a very high force.

Legs thrust and lift from the ground

As mentioned above, the upward movement of the legs or the lifting motion of the legs adds force that creates powerful force in the wrist. The more force you exert on your legs the more powerful your tennis serve will be.

Start of racket upward swing

The way you swing your racket upward can also affect your tennis serve speed. To increase tennis serve speed, the upward swing must occur on it’s own accord once the rest of the body is beginning to uncoil. The result is that the mass of the racket resisting against the upward movement (a downward pull) is created in your wrist, and your forearm (which is originally was facing sideways) is then stretched in a forward direction. The stretching movement of your forearm will add power to your racket head speed.

Racket-edge approach before ball contact

Another technique for tennis serve speed is to approach the ball with your racket edge first. This means that instead of the racket face (strings) facing the ball; it’s the edge or side of the racket head that is facing the ball. And then seconds before the actual contact of the ball and the racket face, you have to execute pronation with your forearm changing the direction of your racket face from edge position to the position wherein the racket face is facing the ball. One thing to remember here is that you should loosen up and relax your wrist and forearm at this stage of the serve. If you do this you will be able to execute the pronation naturally without exerting any effort. The pronation is produced due to the forces exerted largely by you lower limbs (legs), the torso and of course with you upper arm.

Full stretch point of contact

Another feature to consider in tennis serve speed is the point of contact between the ball and the racket face. To get the most power in the tennis serve a player must reach to the point of contact at full extension or the highest possible point. Different players vary on how they execute their tennis serve in terms of how they do the wind up, how they thrust their legs and even how they grip the racket. But the most basic thing in adding tennis serve speed is the point of contact between the ball and the racket face.

To create more tennis serve speed and at the same time create a mixture of sidespin and topspin in your serve; try to brush your racket head upwards and across the ball at a certain angle. By doing this you’re not only producing a very powerful tennis serve but also the ball can kick or bounce very high which can be very difficult for your opponent to return.

Furthermore, to add more power in moving forward to hit the ball, it is also ideal to lean slightly with your body in a forward direction. You need to practice this technique often because if you lean your body too much, it can be very difficult to hit the ball correctly.

Follow through for the Tennis Serve

The follow through will not contribute much tennis serve speed but rather, the pronation process still continues and this results to the change of direction of your racket face from your left side to your right side. The follow through completes with the downward movement once you hit the ball, eventually the racket face will complete near the left side of the body.

Body posture up high

Last, but not least, the way a player will hit a powerful serve is dependent upon how you carry your body on the follow through. You will know if you used the proper technique to execute a powerful tennis serve if the upward and forward momentum of your legs brings your body into the court.

Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer

If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.

The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!

Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

The post Tennis Serve Speed – Learn to Add Power on the Tennis Serve appeared first on Tennis Instruction.

Andy Roddick, Isner and Ivo Karlovic are just a few of the extraordinary examples of pro tennis players that have overwhelming racket head speed on the serve with seemingly little effort.

A lot of players attempt to increase tennis serve speed in the wrong ways, by either muscling the tennis serve or by using unorthodox techniques in hopes to generate the power on the tennis serve.

The majority of club players realize that that tennis serve speed comes from proper technique rather than pure muscle power, but not that many tennis players can develop the correct serve technique.

By watching the best tennis servers in the world, we can subconsciously understand that tennis serve speed is a matter of utilizing the proper tennis serve technique rather than a magic “swing” or by using pure “arm speed.”

The Realities of Generating Tennis Serve Speed

When we think of great servers, we often think of the fastest servers. While tennis serve speed is not the only barometer for serve greatness, it is a major factor that makes a serve difficult to return.

Obviously, the less time your opponent has to return your serve, the better your chances are of winning the point outright. You can hit more aces and service winners. You will also find yourself getting a lot of opportunities to put away short returns or volleying away floating sitters. To increase your tennis serve speed, the most important thing to look at is your technique.

You may think that you are hitting the ball very hard already because you feel like you are putting a lot of effort whenever you hit a serve. But somehow, the ball doesn’t threaten your opponent. You should better assess what you are doing incorrectly or insufficiently in order to correct any errors in technique.

Increasing Tennis Serve Speed through Proper Technique

The first thing to look at is your toss. If you are going to hit a fast, flat serve, your toss should be forward and a little to the right if you are right handed. However, do not hit it too far forward or to the right that it makes you chase after the ball. On the other hand, if you don’t toss forward enough, your forward momentum will be inhibited.

Tosses above the head are for kick and twist serves, not flat serves. Aside from the position, you should also assess the height of your toss. If you toss too low, you will not be at full extension at contact. If you toss too high, you will have to wait a long time for it to drop to hitting height, thereby stalling your motion.

Dissecting the Tennis Serve Stances

Next, ask yourself: are you hitting from the proper stance? If you are turned too much that your back is facing the net as you start your motion, you might be inhibiting your body from uncoiling and transferring weight forward into the shot. John McEnroe used this technique and he could get away with it because he was quite flexible.

Besides, although he could serve hard, he was really more known for accuracy and consistency. On the other hand, if you are too forward on your stance, you can transfer weight into the shot, but you cannot take full advantage of the kinetic chain involved in the production of a powerful serve.

Utilizing the Forces of Coiling & Uncoiling to Generate Tennis Serve Power

Another thing to look at is how you coil your trunk and shoulders. Ideally, you should be coiled enough that you are showing your back to your opponent. However, not everyone has this much flexibility.

The main point is that you should coil as much as you can comfortably coil. Going beyond your limits can only result in injuries, although these limits can be increased by stretching and flexibility exercises.

How is your knee bend? All great servers have considerable knee bends at the trophy pose phase of their service motions. A deep knee bend allows you to push harder off the ground and launch up more into the shot. This will provide greater leverage, which is another key to increasing tennis serve speed.

You will notice that among the fastest serving pros, many of them are tall or above average in height because they have greater leverage. Height is not something that can be taught but proper technique will allow you to maximize the kind of serve speed capable with your physical build.

How do you take your racket back?

You should take it back in a way that feels comfortable for you. You can use an abbreviated motion like Andy Roddick or a more classical wind up like Pete Sampras. You can also use something in between. One thing to note is the position of the elbow on the take back. Current men’s number one Novak Djokovic used to take his racket back with his elbow really low which resulted in a hitch in his motion.

On the other hand, Rafael Nadal used to have his elbow up really high on the take back. This allowed him to build more racket head speed later in the swing but it compromised his accuracy. A very long and elaborate swing is difficult to time and the gain in speed is usually not worth the trade off in consistency.

Roddick’s secret to hitting fast serves is to simply have a fast motion. This is why he looks jerky and ungraceful. But he is actually just moving too fast for the eye to fully appreciate.

You might not be blessed with the ability to move as quickly so you are better off doing other things to increase your tennis serve speed. One such way is to keep the arm loose and relaxed so that the muscles can help make the arm function as a whip.

The Role of the Kinetic Chain in Tennis Serve Speed

Great serves rely on the proper movement of the body through the so-called kinetic chain. This is a series of motions that start from the ground all the way up to the racket. The knees bend and the feet push off the ground. The legs extend and launch the body up into the air. The hips uncoil, followed by the trunk and shoulders.

The hitting shoulder which started below the opposite shoulder starts to go over it and bring the upper body face on to the net. The racket is taken up, back and down as the hitting arm first points the elbow backward, externally rotates and then points the elbow upward.

The wrist cocks back. The elbow then extends, with the wrist and racket trailing. At contact, everything is fully extended. The wrist and forearm pronate through the ball. Body weight is transferred forward into the shot.

There are many things in the motion that can result in hitches along this chain. If your hips aren’t uncoiling and you are remaining sideways as you hit the ball, then you will be relying only on your upper body and arm to produce speed on your serve.

If you take the racket head back before you toss the ball, it might help your consistency and control but you will break the continuity of the motion making it tough to build maximum racket head speed at contact.

Improving the Tennis Serve Follow through

The last part of the swing is the follow through. Like any other stroke, if you don’t follow through completely, you will lose power and control. To guarantee a higher tennis serve speed, you should extend forward first and then bring the racket head down on the opposite side of the body as you land inside the court.

To improve your technique, practice the serve as much as you can. Many instructors recommend that you hit at least 100 practice serves a day.

Off Court Body Strengthening to Help Tennis Serve Speed

Increasing tennis serve speed is also dependent on your physical strength. All muscle groups are involved in hitting a powerful serve. The legs must be powerful enough to launch upward to the ball. Weight training and plyometric/jumping exercises are used for this. The core muscles are also greatly involved in the serve.

The coiling and uncoiling motion requires abdominal, oblique and lower back strength so be sure to do the appropriate exercises for these areas. These include crunches, oblique crunches, medicine ball twists, back extensions (good mornings) and Superman exercises.

The shoulders need to be strengthened with overhead presses and lateral raises. The rotator cuff is also crucial for the serve.

These are strengthened by using light weights and doing internal and external rotations. For the arm, the triceps extensions and bicep curls are useful. For the forearm, wrist curls, wrist circles and pronations can help make whipping the racket head faster through the ball. Aside from strength, flexibility is important for the serve.

You should focus on stretching the trunk with twists, lower back stretches (touching the toes), abdominal stretches (back bends and side bends). The shoulders, triceps and wrists should also be stretched.

Theory on Using Different Rackets to Improve Tennis Serve Speed

The racket that you use can also be a factor in increasing your tennis serve speed. Heavier, stiffer and bigger rackets provide more power. But for the serve, since you are going to generate all of the speed all by yourself, you should use a racket that is also easy for you to swing.

Usually, this is a lightweight racket. But lighter rackets also don’t plow through the ball as much. The best option would then have to be a reasonably weighted but headlight racket.

Remember, though, that the serve isn’t the only shot you will be hitting with this racket. So take all other factors into consideration before you make any changes in the kind of equipment you use. String tension also affects ball speed. Lower tensions pump out more power and higher tensions are more useful for better control.

Visualization & Practice

The last tip for increasing your tennis serve speed is to mentally visualize being able to hit blazing serves. Visualization and positive reinforcement can go a long way to help you improve your serve. With practice, you will have more confidence and develop a more aggressive mindset to really go for big serves during your matches.

Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer

If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.

The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!

Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

The post How To Increase Your Tennis Serve Speed appeared first on Tennis Instruction.