More Serve Power Tip: Fix Your Elbow Position

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Are you ready to maximize your serve power?

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The correct movement of your elbow plays a crucial role in developing serve power and in recent clinics we have seen a lot of problems with this.

In this video OTI Instructor Gregg le Sueur explains in detail how your elbow should be positioned to maximize serve power and how to avoid the most common mistakes.

Getting this right can easily add 5-10 mph to your serve!

[RomanoAmericano]

Nice work Greg (and Florian). I have one suggestion, having been successful in developing a powerful serve thanks to online instruction over the years. If you say “when you drop down the racquet” the amateur player focuses on that as an “action”, meaning something he “has to feel”. In reality, the head of the racquet drops down as a result of the elbow leading up. If the focus is the elbow (as you correctly point out in its structural importance for the throwing motion) the hand and forearm can stay loose, relaxed, and ready to do their part. If we think of having to drop down the racquet behind our back, the whole arm stiffens.

[CJZM]

Great video. I think another way to communicate the timing of the elbow's move forward is the elbow should stay up and in line with the shoulder's UNTIL the leg fire and rotation starts forward. Watch the video's and the elbow starts when the legs fire. Vic Braden taught to start rotation into the contact area when the hitting arm reached parallel with the ground 50 years ago. What he taught is fairly consistent with modern serving technique.

[EventHorizon]

I have been struggling to develop my serve for a while now. I tried your elbow technique out this morning for an hour with a basket of balls and I feel my serve has so much more power now without loss of accuracy. Now that I have that technique understood I feel I can gain more power easily by adding a bit more coil & leg drive etc. I note you use a pin-point stance and I may give that a go to see if that helps. The very slow motion at 2:40 is really useful to see your whole service motion including the ball position. Thanks

[tomroot]

Thanks!!! This video helped me to RECOGNIZE instantly how my elbow was off by 30 to 40 degrees while starting my forward motion!

[Tennisjeddah]

Thanks, This is quick fix of my very long problem .

[douglashagan]

Right now at this point he has the high elbow position I have where he's pulling the arrow out of the basket right it's exactly what I do and this gives me really awesome tops and kick

[douglashagan]

I'm using a higher elbow in the serve and I'm serving way better now

[douglashagan]

Had a secret to my service my elbow position

[gerardperlas]

Do you consciously try to move the elbow forward before hitting the ball?

[Laminator]

I like how the video was only for my right ear

[jackspradlin]

What can I do to make sure the elbow comes around as I actually have the problem of making right to left and elbow comes around too late, any solution?

[stevegordonson]

This was a good tip, I know ideally to keep the elbow back, but sometimes lose that focus. It also may be that as the shoulder gets fatigued during a match, perhaps I'm getting tighter and not able to pull the elbow back as far, at least not without conscious effort . What exercises / stretches do you recommend to increase the flexibility and strength for this motion ?

[drbonesshow]

This is not entirely necessary for a power tennis serve. An alternative is bringing the golf-swing to the tennis serve. Once you understand the physics the function starts to become clear.

[douglashagan]

Yeah like pulling an arrow out of a basket

[ahmeddmild]

Lost my left ear watching this video 😟