Simple Tennis Serve Power Trick - Serve Tennis Lesson

Simple Tennis Serve Power Trick - Serve Tennis Lesson

Creating effortless power on the serve in tennis requires you to use the right technique and power sources.
However, many players have very good technique on their tennis serve, yet they struggle to generate power.
Why? The main judgement point for most servers is miles per hour or kilometres per hour.
The top servers in the world routinely serve over 130 MPH. Some can hit serves over 140 MPH and even 150+
Sam Groth holds the record for the world's fastest serve in history, he hit a 163MPH serve at an ATP challenger event in Busan, South Korea in May 2012.
If you're someone who is just focused on how much power you can generate, you could be losing out big time in serve power and disguise.
What many of the top servers have in common is not just the power generated, but the speed of their service motion.

To measure the speed of your service action, time your serve from the start of the swing until the point of contact.
This will give you a good measuring stick when comparing to the pros.
Over time, aim to reduce the time it takes you to get from the start of the action to the contact point.
A faster service motion will not only give you more power but more disguise.
For the majority of clubs players, it takes between 1.5-2.0 seconds to make contact on their serve.
However, many of the biggest servers complete this motion in under one second.

The Quickest Motions in Tennis
Below, you'll find the times of some of the top servers to compare your action against:
Nick Kyrgios: 0.9 seconds
Roscoe Tanner: 0.8 seconds
Goran Ivanisevic: 0.9 seconds
Sam Groth: 0.9 seconds
Andy Roddick: 0.9 seconds

As you can see, all of the above players use a motion that takes under a second to make contact with the ball on their tennis serve.

Higher Ball Toss vs Lower Ball Toss
This faster motion won't work for everyone. There are some massive advantages but also a few negatives.
When it comes to timing, it's much easier to get through your service motion if you toss the ball higher.
A lower toss takes time away from you, so you'll need to make some adjustments in order to pull it off.

A Higher Toss
Using a higher ball toss on the tennis serve gives you more time. It also allows you to see the ball for longer in the air and can give you that sense of a calmer motion, since you don't need to hurry through the action.
However, a higher toss can lead to loss of power, consistency and makes it much easier for your opponent to read your serve.
Not only that, but the higher you toss the ball, the faster the ball will be dropping when you try to make contact.
This makes it much harder to time on the sweet spot. You'll also struggle in windy conditions.

A Lower Toss
Using a lower toss on the tennis serve will give you a few massive advantages.
Serving in the wind will become much, much easier. You'll give your opponent much less time to read your serve, increasing your serve disguise. It will also help you to have cleaner contacts since you'll be making contact much closer to the apex of the toss.
When you first try to use a lower toss, you may struggle with timing and feel rushed. This is normal and with practice, you'll be able to adapt your service action to a lower toss.

Effect on Power
Most players who use a higher ball toss on the serve will have breaks in the motion. This can occur in the trophy position or even in the racket drop position. These breaks in the action will lead to a loss of power and momentum.
It's almost as if you have two or three segments, instead of one continuous action.

When you use the lower ball toss and time it close to the apex, you'll be forced to use a continuous motion and this will help you build momentum from the start of the swing, right up until the point of contact.

You'll also be using the muscles in a much more explosive way. When you pause in the knee bend, for instance, you're losing explosive power from the major leg muscles. The longer the pause, the more power is lost.
When you use a quick action, especially the down-up motion with the legs, you'll create much more explosive power and you'll be able to reach up higher.

Video Timeline:
00:00 - What You'll Learn In This Serve Lesson
00:22 - Speed of Serve vs Speed of Motion
1:40 - How To Time Your Service Motion
4:24 - Can You Get Under One Second?
5:56 - Continuous vs Breaks In Motion
8:30 - How To Get More Disguise on Your Tennis Serve
9:30 - How To Adapt To A Faster Service Motion

#Tennis #ServePower #TopTennisTraining

[dmitryprivate]

When I serve, my opponent has no idea where I will serve; neither do I. This is the perfect way to hide a serve. Thank you for the video.

[-Munditimum-]

Simon, the first few seconds of the video, I had to take a second look at my playback speed to make sure if it was on normal, LOL. You have a legal weapon there and your bullets are the yellow projectiles called tennis balls. Thank you for this invaluable information. Never looked at the serve quite like from your point of analysis. Cheers!!!

[ACEYOU]

A tennis instuctor who believes in hitting the serve at the apex instead of waiting for it to fall down from too high of a toss. I went to Vic Braden's Tennis College in Coto de Caza years ago and he preached this every day - and used Roscoe Tanner videos to emphasize it. I recently touched bases with a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years, and he said, "Oh yeah, you're the guy who hits his serve like Roscoe Tanner, almost as soon as after you toss it!" Thanks!

[alexabney]

This is one of the most intuitive videos I’ve seen from you guys! Very concise and easy to learn from :) exactly what i needed to get back on track from last year this spring

[TanNguyen-ftfc]

Another great post. You guys really have the best training content online

[jeffhermida]

My club pro told me that you know you are serve properly if your ball hits the back fence or curtain on one bounce. The higher it hits the better. Simon, your serves are hitting that fence at least 3-4 feet! Amazing serve. Thanks for the tips!

[cacaoperesoso]

Dude, I have seen your videos and have to say you are one of best instructors...thx much

[jiggssingh]

Thank you all sounds amazing, im gonna try this plus tips from your other serve power video starting today.

[bmanbusee]

It's interesting you made this. I've been doing the exact same thing with limiting my pause and just swinging through with a lower toss. It gives me a rhythm now when serving too and much more consistent. It takes multiple reps and find doing shadow swings at home beneficial. Cheers

[patrickweston]

Great lesson! I watched myself on video after watching the pros at Miami the other day and it looked like all my shots were on slow motion. Speeding up preparation is something to work on.

[TikiCat]

Great tip, Simon. I can hardly wait to put this into practice! Thanks!

[rwanderful]

Hi Simon - love your videos, so helpful. Have you done any on the ball toss?

[LAVAxTDM]

Cool video...youre my favourite channel...thanks for your great content...❤❤

[Perionian]

If Zverev watched this video, he'll be unbeatable

[Jon_Dang]

Still 'mirin', your serve is BEAST!! 💪

[basslin]

Dear Simon,
Your instructions are more realistic way to approach for the real improvement step by step !!! - Tks
Congrats !
Pls advise the link to download the serve pdf

[newmennium]

This is interesting...guess it's time to rework my serve motion again

[accuratedatanetworks]

Great video Simon. So many important points that you highlighted in this video and I completely agree on the fast serving motion being a huge advantage to any player. Would you mind explaining how top players with high serve toss overcome the delay in serve motion? Steffi Graff is one famous example for a very very high toss.

[TheLukeguy]

These videos are so bloody awesome!!! Simon you legend :) so helpful. Where is the link to the pdf serve guide? I can’t find it

[lionelbidois]

Thank you for this video very useful 🎾👌