Increasing serve speed?
Question:I know that theoretically, the higher you toss the ball and the looser you keep your wrist, the faster your serve is *supposed* to be.
That hasn't worked for me, and my fastest serves come from flat, muscled short tosses.
What muscles should i develope to increase my serve speed?
Answers:
If my friend and I are playin tennis against my bf's friend, who do you think is gunna win?
I have been playing for over 30 years and have been a teaching pro since I was 16, so you're getting the benefit of real life experience here. The best examples I can think of would be Roger Federer and Pete Sampras. These guys are the epitomes of maximizing power and spin on their respective serves with minimum physical effort! As with any individual sport/activity, there are numerous factors and things to consider as they relate to the individual, but here are the basics:1) relax (let physics work for you)
2) stand with feet shoulder width apart relatively perpendicular to the net
3) weight ought to be on back foot at the set stance and transferred to the front foot during the toss
4) toss the ball as high as you are able to reach with your racquet and then add a few more inches of loft to that (the ball toss should be such that it would land 2-3 feet inside the baseline if not struck)
5) have a comfortable knee bend (not too deep or you run a significant risk of injury)
6) leap forward and up toward the ball to strike it (this is so you gain a greater downward angle into the court); during the swing, try to focus on flexing/contracting your abs like you're doing a crunch, and
7) land and then split-step to prepare for the return or continue with your forward momentum to the "T" where you will split-step at the moment your opponent makes contact and react accordingly.
All that being said, you DO NOT SNAP YOUR WRIST ON A SERVE! This leads to very painful tendonitis in the forearm. Everything should be loose (but controlled) except the wrist. It may sound odd but the wrist should remain relatively straight with no pronounced "snap". The swing should be a fluid motion with no herky-jerkiness to it. Go with the flow. You should have a nice smooth finish. Don't abbreviate the swing artificially as this will also lead to tendonitis.
What muscles should you develop to increase your serve speed? Every tennis player must focus on good overall strength and flexibility but most importantly, a tennis player has to have a great deal of CORE strength (the abdominals and pectorals). This not only contributes to your serve but every groundstroke you hit during a match.
Work on these things and I GUARANTEE you will see a great improvement in your game. Best of luck!
Could Bill Tilden beat Roger Federer?
It starts with the legs.Get a good knee bend.
Rotate your hips.
Rotate your torso (using the abs).
And snap your wrist at point of contact.
Serving requires kenetic energy. That means each part of your serve is designed to increase racquet head speed.
If you have a hitch in any part of your service motion, you essentially stop the kenetic chain at that point.
You push off with your legs, which starts your hips rotating, which gets your torso rotating, which should add to the speed of the raquet head as you're extending your arm upwards and outwards. As the raquet head is coming through the point of contact, you snap your wrist.
If your motion isn't smooth or isn't transfering energy through the kenetic chain, then you're essentially starting from the point where your hitch is.
The toss has nothing to do with your wrist being loose or stiff.
You want to toss the ball so when it stops at the apex (point where upward momentum is stopped by gravity), it's in your reach with your arm extended fully out and a tiny bit towards the net.
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