Lsmkenpo
Hall of Fame
I would like to give a very important tip to improve nearly everyone's serve in a very short time regardless of their form.
There is a lot of discussion and videos on this board breaking down service motions with people asking for advice to improve their serves.
We have pages upon pages of discussion on wrist snap, pronation, knee bend, kinetic chain and so forth, but very little on perhaps what is the most important first key to maximizing your current serve.
What is this overlooked aspect? It is RELAXATION
This is perhaps the number one mistake that hinders not just a serve but nearly any sports activity that requires explosive movement.
A muscle must relax before it can fire quickly Try this experiment for yourself, tense up your arm and throw a punch out into the air, now relax your arm and throw that same punch out. The second one will be much faster. This is a key concept a player should incorporate into their service motion, before they move onto other technical aspects of the serve.
Here is how to incorporate this concept and check your serve to see if it is hindering your motion.
First step, before you even start your motion, take note of any muscle tension in your body, some people start off right from the start with some tension in their shoulders or arm. This muscle tension needs to be eliminated before you even begin your service motion. Start bouncing the ball a few times before you serve, use this motion to note tension and allow yourself to relax, your movement will become more fluid when you are relaxed properly, you will be able to tell this just from how you are bouncing the ball. Watch how Federer bounces the ball before he serves every time, you can tell he is very relaxed and fluid before he even begins to starts his motion every time he serves.
Next, take note of the location and how you hold your racquet and the ball to start your motion, does it cause some tension in your shoulders or arm, if so adjust until you find the spot that allows your shoulders and arm to relax. I have found some people hold their racquet somewhat high with a bent elbow to start their motion this often puts a little tension in the shoulder of their hitting arm, because they bring their hitting shoulder up with it before they even start their motion.Check this, if your shoulder feels tense let your arm and shoulder drop until it is relaxed. Find the location for yourself that feels comfortable. Take a deep breath and let the tension in your body go when you exhale.
Now, take the motion one step at a time to check for tension, just toss the ball up a few times, and feel if you are tensing any part of your body during your toss. If so make a note of it, try to relax that muscle the next toss. Keep practicing just the toss until you can do this and not feel any additional muscle tension in your body from your tossing action. Some players tend to tense their shoulder or chest right before they toss.If you are one of them, try to eliminate it, by concentrating on using just your arm as a hinge from a relaxed shoulder. No additional movement is necessary to toss. Just move your arm.
Once it seems like you have a routine and a tossing motion that allows you to remain relaxed to this point, move on to a full serve.
Don't try to hit the ball hard just concentrate on trying to remain relaxed all the way to ball contact. After every serve stop and take note if you felt some tension in your body during your serve and at what point this occurred. This tension is a rusty link in the kinetic chain that is hindering your fluidity and racquet speed. Don't try to hit the ball hard and muscle it, you will serve harder when you remain relaxed and your motion is fluid.
Once you master this, you will get more speed with seemingly little effort compared to muscling the ball and trying to hit it as hard as you can. Racquet head speed will start to increase significantly, as you eliminate these rusty links of tension in your motion.
The most common mistake during the serve is perhaps tensing the hitting shoulder prematurely during the motion, raising it in an effort to muscle down on the ball. If this is you,allow your hitting shoulder to remain relaxed and let the fluid cartwheel motion of the kinetic chain bring your shoulder up and do the work for you.
Continue practicing, take your time, and don't rush between serves when you are practicing this, force yourself to slow down and make sure
you are relaxed before you serve again.
No one but yourself can really tell if you are doing this right or wrong, this is the main reason I feel it is an overlooked aspect of coaching the serve. It is based on feeling, you need to monitor this for yourself and make the changes by feeling where the muscle tension is and eliminating it.
If you can put this concept to work, it will improve your serve even if your form is not picture perfect you will still see results from this quicker than almost any other technical aspects of the motion we could discuss.
Learn how to relax ,it will not only improve your speed, spin and consistency,but also stamina during a match. You will be able to hit serves with greater results with half the effort and less fatigue.
There is a lot of discussion and videos on this board breaking down service motions with people asking for advice to improve their serves.
We have pages upon pages of discussion on wrist snap, pronation, knee bend, kinetic chain and so forth, but very little on perhaps what is the most important first key to maximizing your current serve.
What is this overlooked aspect? It is RELAXATION
This is perhaps the number one mistake that hinders not just a serve but nearly any sports activity that requires explosive movement.
A muscle must relax before it can fire quickly Try this experiment for yourself, tense up your arm and throw a punch out into the air, now relax your arm and throw that same punch out. The second one will be much faster. This is a key concept a player should incorporate into their service motion, before they move onto other technical aspects of the serve.
Here is how to incorporate this concept and check your serve to see if it is hindering your motion.
First step, before you even start your motion, take note of any muscle tension in your body, some people start off right from the start with some tension in their shoulders or arm. This muscle tension needs to be eliminated before you even begin your service motion. Start bouncing the ball a few times before you serve, use this motion to note tension and allow yourself to relax, your movement will become more fluid when you are relaxed properly, you will be able to tell this just from how you are bouncing the ball. Watch how Federer bounces the ball before he serves every time, you can tell he is very relaxed and fluid before he even begins to starts his motion every time he serves.
Next, take note of the location and how you hold your racquet and the ball to start your motion, does it cause some tension in your shoulders or arm, if so adjust until you find the spot that allows your shoulders and arm to relax. I have found some people hold their racquet somewhat high with a bent elbow to start their motion this often puts a little tension in the shoulder of their hitting arm, because they bring their hitting shoulder up with it before they even start their motion.Check this, if your shoulder feels tense let your arm and shoulder drop until it is relaxed. Find the location for yourself that feels comfortable. Take a deep breath and let the tension in your body go when you exhale.
Now, take the motion one step at a time to check for tension, just toss the ball up a few times, and feel if you are tensing any part of your body during your toss. If so make a note of it, try to relax that muscle the next toss. Keep practicing just the toss until you can do this and not feel any additional muscle tension in your body from your tossing action. Some players tend to tense their shoulder or chest right before they toss.If you are one of them, try to eliminate it, by concentrating on using just your arm as a hinge from a relaxed shoulder. No additional movement is necessary to toss. Just move your arm.
Once it seems like you have a routine and a tossing motion that allows you to remain relaxed to this point, move on to a full serve.
Don't try to hit the ball hard just concentrate on trying to remain relaxed all the way to ball contact. After every serve stop and take note if you felt some tension in your body during your serve and at what point this occurred. This tension is a rusty link in the kinetic chain that is hindering your fluidity and racquet speed. Don't try to hit the ball hard and muscle it, you will serve harder when you remain relaxed and your motion is fluid.
Once you master this, you will get more speed with seemingly little effort compared to muscling the ball and trying to hit it as hard as you can. Racquet head speed will start to increase significantly, as you eliminate these rusty links of tension in your motion.
The most common mistake during the serve is perhaps tensing the hitting shoulder prematurely during the motion, raising it in an effort to muscle down on the ball. If this is you,allow your hitting shoulder to remain relaxed and let the fluid cartwheel motion of the kinetic chain bring your shoulder up and do the work for you.
Continue practicing, take your time, and don't rush between serves when you are practicing this, force yourself to slow down and make sure
you are relaxed before you serve again.
No one but yourself can really tell if you are doing this right or wrong, this is the main reason I feel it is an overlooked aspect of coaching the serve. It is based on feeling, you need to monitor this for yourself and make the changes by feeling where the muscle tension is and eliminating it.
If you can put this concept to work, it will improve your serve even if your form is not picture perfect you will still see results from this quicker than almost any other technical aspects of the motion we could discuss.
Learn how to relax ,it will not only improve your speed, spin and consistency,but also stamina during a match. You will be able to hit serves with greater results with half the effort and less fatigue.
