The Power Serve Part 1

Sometimes I am asked if the purpose of my research is to show teaching pros how to teach the serve. Absolutely not! Teaching professionals can teach me how to teach the serve.

What my work does do is break the serve down into its mechanical parts. For teachers or players this means they can have a better understanding of the service action and how to modify technique to improve efficiency or to reduce the chance of injury.

Fluency or coordination of the body parts is the first key to the power serve.

Strength Base: The Prerequisite

If you want to serve with power, you must load the body. But here’s the catch: two places that you typically load the body are where injuries now are occurring in tennis, particularly on the pro circuit. These are the shoulder and the elbow. So, some of the things I want to explain have to do with how you actually reduce the loading on those areas, while still developing the power serve.

It’s very important to understand that, if you want to serve at a high speed, you’ve got to prepare your body physically. You cannot just learn the power serve without a strength…