Hey everyone, Simon and Alex here with top tennis training, and in this video we're going
to help you achieve more power on your serve, in particular, we're going to discuss the five main
sources of power on the serve so that's the leg drive the shoulder over shoulder the rotation
the supination and pronation and a fast rack your head speed
now before we get any deeper into the lesson if you're serious about improving your serve
make sure you click on the link below this video and download our free serve pdf in the first step
we're going to cover the shoulder over shoulder this will allow you to get your power going into
the right direction now common error with many players is they think that the power and their
force has to be going towards the net towards the other side of the court but actually it has to be
directed upwards because that's where the ball is that's the object that you're trying to hit
and that's where you have to direct your power later on in this video we'll show you a simple
drill to help you get more power on your serve now if simon's shoulders are level he'll be generating
all his power from simply his shoulder and his arm he won't be able to engage the side of his body
he won't be able to engage the obliques of his body the long muscles that will allow him
to get more power and easy power if you're ever struggling and you feel that you're not getting
enough out of your serve it probably means you're using your arm too much and imagine when you're
feeling a little bit tight or nervous on those big points if everything that you're getting is
out of your hand or your arm or your shoulder when it's getting a little bit tighter all of
a sudden you're going to start missing because you're dependent on that power source as your main
power source so why not let a bigger muscle group take some of that power and give you more power
out of that oblique and the side and it all starts with the throw so in this example simon's simply
going to direct his power towards the net and he's not going to go up and use only use his arm
you can see that it's very tough to generate that lift on the serve
yes he's getting some forward momentum but he's simply not getting enough power he's
not getting enough lift on that serve now we're going to work on the tilt and it's all going to
start with that toss so he's going to throw the ball up and as he's throwing the ball up
he's going to make sure that his left shoulder is above his right shoulder and it's in the line so
he wants to get that l shape between the racket the elbow and all the way up to the throwing arm
so that l is very important so it's that trophy position that you know and it's
exactly the position you want to be in in order to get that shoulder tilt and now engage this
muscle you should really feel the stretch here in the hip and the side so now the energy should be
directed towards the contact point so there he got a lot more lift he got a lot more power he cleared
the net but he also was relaxed power because the bigger muscle group was taking most of the force
now before we get on to step two make sure you press that subscribe button and the notification
bell it'll help you get more lessons from us in the future the second power source we're going to
discuss is the leg drive now when you think about the serve you want to hit the ball as
high as possible at the highest possible spot now this is only possible if you drive off the court
using both legs as equally as well as each other now a common error that a lot of players do is
they focus so much on getting in that knee bend but they actually don't come out of it explosively
what you want to be doing is going down and up as explosively as you can as quickly as you can to
create that ground force the kinetic chain on the surf starts from the ground if you go down and up
explosively on that surf you'll be kick-starting that power in an effortless way and also using
the major muscle group in the body which are the legs so in this first example alex is going into
the knee bend but he isn't driving up and this is a common area we see a lot of players doing
they stay down so they've got a really good knee bend but they don't have that explosive power
going into the ball now when you stay in that knee bend position the longer you stay in that
position the more explosive power you're losing from the leg muscles the leg muscles and all
muscles in the body work best and fire best when you use them in that explosive and elastic way so
a quick rapid fire will help you to produce more power so in this example alex is going to go
down and up as quickly as he can and really drive into that ball because remember from
power source one the point of contact is where all your energy should be directed you can use
two different stances on your server and tennis the pinpoint and the platform stands the platform
stance is used by players like pete sampras roger federer novak djokovic this stance allows
for maximum rotation through your body but it also allows you for maximum upwards momentum
in order to hit that shot it's a great way to stay balanced and a great way to get that seesaw action
with a shoulder over shoulder because you're doing it in a controlled way now the platform stance is
great for using your legs because it allows you to use both of your legs at the same time
those players are struggling with leg drive that are not using the back leg enough and it's a very
common issue with many club players you want to be doing more of a platform stance so they can start
to generate that power from the ground up now on your platform stance you want to have both of your
feet on the ground stay tuned on the ground and you want to have them around shoulder width apart
we also have the pinpoint stands used by players like kevin anderson
eva karlovic and john isner some of the biggest servers in the world now the pinpoint stance is
where you start with your feet apart so roughly around one and a half to two shoulder widths apart
and then the back foot will lift off the court and join the front foot so as we can see with
alex he's starting in that wide base then his back leg will lift off his right his right foot will
lift off and join into that pinpoint stance onto the left leg now some players will drag that back
foot and other players will lift it whichever one works better for you you can stick to that now the
major benefit we have with that pinpoint stance is that body momentum you're starting with your
body weight on the front foot then you transfer onto the back leg and then as you go into the
pinpoint stance you have that massive weight shift so you're getting a lot of power from that body
transfer upwards and into the court now normally when you use the pinpoint stance you'll throw the
ball slightly further inside the court and land further inside because of that body momentum
now if you use that pinpoint stance make sure you're using your back leg to drive
as well as the front leg now often players will go into that front leg too early
and the back leg ends up dying so make sure that that right leg
is joining together in that pinpoint stance but you're driving with both legs up into the contact
point the next step is the power of rotation this is when you separate your shoulders from your hips
and your hips from your feet now the way it looks is when you're throwing the ball up and this is
helped by your legs by that leg drive by going down you're now able to release your hip so you
can turn and wind your body up a lot more now when i throw the ball i want to get that left shoulder
turning like this where i'm showing a little bit of my back towards my opponent i don't want to
simply be throwing the ball up like this where i have no turn that rotational power you store the
energy in your body that you're able to release up and forward into contact so first the shoulder
turns against the hip then the hip goes down and turns as well so not only am i showing my back
but i'm also sticking my hip out and forward into the court this gives me that maximum rotation and
allows me to get more power more storage of power in my body so that i can release it into contact
the stance that you use will determine how much of that rotational power you're able to achieve when
you use the platform stance you're able to go down and turn your body a lot more against your feet
when you're in pinpoint stance what you lack in that rotation you'll get with the forward
body momentum so it's a lot more difficult to turn your body in that pinpoint stance
but it's not unachievable so you can still do a nice rotation in pinpoint stunts but you'll
have slightly less of it compared to the platform stance and that's exactly why players like pete
sampras and roger federer have such great serves and why they use it to such great effect now
the next power source we're going to speak about is supination and pronation
so during that contact point we want to have a fast racket we want to create that rackhead speed
so by using pronation during the point of contact we're able to keep our racket moving quickly
through that zone now prior to contact if you're using a continental grip you should have your
racket on edge leading with the side of the racket towards the ball now in this position my palm is
facing my head so in this position here i'm now in a supinated position i start to pronate when
i'm going towards the point of contact so my palm goes from my head towards the ball
so this part i'm already pronating and then after i make contact i pronate fully
by turning the palm away from my head so prior to contact palm is facing the head contact point palm
is facing forward and then after contact palm is facing the right side of the court and with the
racket it will look like this so supination here pronating into contact full pronation
all the way out and the quicker we can achieve this the quicker we can achieve this supination to
pronation action the more power we'll get through that contact zone now we use supination and
pronation on all three serves the flat slice and the kick but the angle of the strings will change
slightly on all three but we're still going to use that full range of motion from here to here and
then all the way out now if i isolate just that motion i can still generate quite a lot of power
just from that forearm rotation so the pronation during that point of contact
so i'm not using my hips there i'm not using my rotation i'm not using the leg
drive i'm simply using that pronation and i can achieve quite a lot of power
if i work on that motion now step five is all about creating a fast racket head speed
the first four steps we're all working towards it and this is the final element
it's all about getting that racquet traveling through the air as fast as possible into contact
so the last segment of this is your arm you need to have a continuous motion in order
to achieve a fast stroke you need to allow the arm to go back and through contact without any
stopping a common error for many players around the world is there's a break in that fluid motion
and that's where they lose most of their power now one of the most common errors in breaking momentum
in the serve is stopping in that trophy position if you hold that position for too long you'll be
unable to generate the power needed and unable to carry the momentum through into contact
by pausing in that position for too long you're losing power that you started to generate
through the other segments of your body another common error is by stopping the racket when it's
in the loop behind position so behind your back and then generating the power from there it's even
worse because now you have even less racket head speed less racket momentum and you're relying on
going only from behind the back having a toss that's too high will make you do that because
you'll have to wait for the ball to come down and a lot of players will wait in this position this
is equivalent to you starting in that position and simply throwing the ball up and then hitting
it you're not going to gain anything but doing all of the other parts that you've done in the serve
so in order to get all the segments working together everything's synchronized you need
to get the timing right of your toss but also have that smooth motion with your arm and through
contact remember you're not stopping at the end of the contact so you're not stopping after you've
hit the shot you're allowing the arm to continue through naturally to the left side of your body
now i can have the same service motion but using different speeds so if i go through my motion very
labored and very slow all the way through i'm not actually creating that momentum but i if i
start off quite slow gaining that rhythm and as i get into the trophy position i speed up
so that slow to fast momentum that will help me to generate that effortless racket head speed
so slow here but then speeding up and driving into the point of contact creating that power
now in order to generate more power with that throwing motion
alex is simply going to be throwing a tennis ball but instead of throwing it forward he's going to
pick the ball up by dipping his right shoulder his left shoulder comes up now and his energy
on that throw will be up over the net so instead of throwing it forward he's throwing it upwards
and forwards so he's picking up the ball getting into that power position and throwing once again
dipping the back shoulder and throw now notice he's not driving with his legs he's
bending the legs but he's not driving now we're going to include the legs so he's going to use
that leg drive that power source from the ground up as well now because he'll use his legs more
he'll be able to rotate the hips much more against the feet so i've placed the cone further behind
him now he'll get that rotational power as well as that shoulder over shoulder power so he's rotating
the shoulders he's turning the shoulders and he's also having that shoulder over shoulder motion
during the throw now we're going to get alex driving off the court of his legs he's not going
to stain that knee bend he's going down picking up the ball and throwing it explosively off we go
so down and up he's going down he's going up down up now notice when he gets into that power
position he has a bent elbow what we don't want to do is pick up the ball and do a cricket ball
we want to make sure that we have that bent elbow to around the 90 degree angle
thank you for watching the video we hope you've enjoyed it and learned something new now if you
have enjoyed the video make sure you smash that like button and subscribe to the channel make
sure you leave a comment under the video let us know how you're getting on with the serve and
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and produce more videos like this for you in the future all the best simon and alex see you soon
you