Tennis Lesson | Hitting a powerful serve

Now my fastest serve was around 137 miles and I will show you how it's done. In order to have a powerful serve, you need the three elements. Legs, arm, and body weight. Alright, first thing you want to do is you want to focus on the upper body part, which is right here, right? And that consists of your shoulder, your arm, and your chest. People don't believe that using your chest can actually activate a lot of body weight into the ball. First thing you're going to do, you can put your racket right here, okay? Then what you're going to do is you're just going to release your arm. You're not using any tennis ball, you're just kind of going like that. Hold it, hit. The motion is to get your racket back behind your back and then hit. Now what you're targeting is that sound, that whip sound. I don't know if you can hear it through the mic, but you're trying to create this kind of like a whip, whiplash sound. Alright, second thing you're going to do is you're going to bring in your left arm and you're just going to hold that angle and repeat. Just try to move your left arm away as fast as possible. Hold, release. Right, now this is the upper part. Alright, so now the second part, you're not going to use any racket, but you are going to stand the way you're standing. Now, tennis players, when it comes to serves, there are so many varieties, right? Some players, they start like this, they start like that. Some even, you know, as soon as they toss the ball, they put their legs in. So there's so many kinds of technique and that doesn't matter. What matters is this part, alright? Right now, my weight is right in the center, right? So it's not going to the right, it's not going to the left. My weight is right here. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to lean back, right, onto my right leg. I just lean back and then go forward, alright? You're not moving too much, you're just leaning back, leaning forward. Once you drive your body right to left or shift your body weight, the next thing you're going to do is the launching part, alright? This is quite a confusing part, but what you're going to do is I'm going to put all my weight on my right, right here, right? And as I'm coming to my left, the one thing I'm going to add is my chest, alright? So if you notice how I'm going down, just exactly how I was doing before, and then I'm going like this, and I'm holding that position, alright? So I'm going down, I'm going up, alright? And you're always leading with your right, okay? So you go right, weight on the right, chest up, left, okay? You're going to repeat this around 10 to 15 times just to get used to that body weight shifting and get your chest up, alright? Because I've been coaching for many years, and the one thing that players struggle with is to get their chest up, you know? When they think, I need to add power, I need to hit the ball hard, they come in and all their shoulders are just shrugged, and the only thing that goes up is their racket and their arm, and they end up going like this instead of coming up like this, alright? So very simple, right, weight shift on the right, chest up, over the line, and back. Now, once you're able to do those, the next thing you're going to do is you're going to stand in your serving position, alright? Racket up like before. Now, the difference is, instead of tossing the ball and serving, you're just going to hit it on the ground and let it bounce as far as possible, alright? So I keep my racket right here, toss the ball, and hit, alright? So as you can see, I'm deliberately smacking the ball on my side, letting it bounce all the way over to the other side. Now, if you can get the ball past the baseline on the other side, that's really good, but if you can hit the wall on the other side, that's even better. So I'm going to do a few of these, alright? Serve position, set, toss, smack. And obviously, you're going to try to hit it as hard as you can, so up, now that you've done that, the next step, you're going to take a ball, you're going to, right, again, set yourself up like a serve. Imagine you have a racket, alright? And you're just going to get into your serving rhythm. One, two, hoop. But now, as soon as I start tossing the ball, instead of hitting it with my hand, I'm going to go and catch it, alright? So it looks kind of like this. So you want to catch it with your hitting arm, alright? So you're going to do a few of those. What's that going to do is, it's going to get your body to launch to the ball, alright? A lot of players, they end up going here, they wait for the ball to come to them, and then they hit. And it's just all arm and no body, alright? So this drill, it's going to help you kind of launch all the way up to the ball, alright? So you're going to repeat that around 10 to 20 times, or until you feel like you're able to kind of launch your chest and your body to the ball. So once you've done all of that, the next thing you're going to do is your proper serving routine. So you're going to put that all together into one. Now, every player has their own style of serve, so the way you come up with your racket and stuff. In another video, I'll explain that which kind of routine benefit for faster, powerful serve, alright? I'm just going to get into my routine, alright? So go back here, weight to the right, alright? And I'm ready to toss, up, and chest up. Alright, let me repeat that, alright? So, alright? Body weight back, chest up, and hit. The question I get a lot is, how high you should take off from the ground? Well, it depends on how tall you are. If you're a tall person, you're already up there, so there's no need to really get much more height. But if you're a shorter guy, then you need that elevation, you need that height to give yourself more projectile. And that's going to give you more of a height so you can smash the ball down. So now you've got the legs, alright? That will launch you to the ball. You got your chest, that's going to direct you to the ball. And then you got your arm, alright? That's going to create that speed, alright? And all together, from your legs, your chest, to your arms, you're going to combine them into one, alright? And that one is going to become the body weight, alright? So that is the key of a good serve, alright? They're not working individually, they're working together to form that body weight. Next time you're ready for a serve, you picture this in your head. Your legs, your chest, and your arms. One, two, and three, alright? You're driving from one, alright? Two, stabilize and shifting your weight forward. And third, your arm, with that extra speed and the weight of the arm, carrying everything into one motion. If you can picture that, you can hit a fast serve.