thank you what's up athletes in this video you're going to learn how I hit 110 mile per
hour serves without launching and before we get into the video let's talk about the elephant in
the room you may be thinking hey tree every Pro on TV launches and we've all heard the phrase
power comes from the ground up and the point of this video isn't that you don't need to
launch or that your legs aren't important on the surf or that you don't need these
gorgeous biceps quite the contrary see most players don't understand how the
legs and the hips truly generate force on the serve and hint hint just jumping or launching
isn't gonna tap into the full power of your body unless you do it in a very specific way
if you just jump you're gonna look like a toaster strudel that's just being toasted that's that's
right guys it'll look like a toaster this leads most players to either not utilizing the kinetic
chain at all fixating way too much on the arm arming the serve and overall feeling tight or they
complicate the surf adding in all these movements like the limbo snapping the front hip and they end
up looking like an acrobat so this video is about eliminating those things that waste our energy
and waste our time quite frankly so that we can simplify the serve and really focus in on these
key fundamentals that lead to the real results on the court so with that said we're going to cover
three keys that are prerequisites to launching they're gonna help you to start generating more
power and more importantly transferring That Power from your legs to your trunk all the
way to your racket for that effortless whip like pop look let's get into the video the first key
is to develop a well-coordinated swing if you've ever felt like even when you try to serve harder
or sling faster you're just not able to squeeze more juice out of the towel or the shirt this
tip is going to help see ideally you're able to generate most of the power on your serve without
feeling like you need to generate any of that force from your arm and your arm is just there
to stabilize the rocket and provide the basic structure to your swing developing coordination
in your swing won't just equal more power it's also critical for injury prevention one of the
worst things you can do for your tennis game is habituate a harmful technique this is a technique
that doesn't just decrease your performance but it puts unnecessary stress on your body because
a lot of the time you can get away with it for a little while you don't feel anything in your body
but by the time you feel that shoulder or elbow pain it's too late your body has a Breaking Point
and by the time you feel the pain you've already habituated the technique which means now all you
have to do is step onto the court not think and then you're on a road to getting injured
and this is why whether you're playing for fun or you're really serious about improving your
game we recommend improving and prioritizing the efficiency and coordination of your swing
first develop good swing mechanics develop a super comfortable contact point and then start ramping
up the speed through the full body kinetic chain it's like you're carving a path for the water to
flow before you let the dam loose and of course the more comfortable and more relaxed your swing
is the more you'll be able to ramp up the power in your serve without risking injury now we're going
to cover a few tips in this video but we obviously can't cover everything related to perfecting your
surf swing mechanics which is why we rolled out our five day serve power challenge if you haven't
checked it out already what are you doing what are you doing with your life this is the ultimate
five day video series with all the techniques and all the drills you need to develop an efficient
swing that allows you to generate that power and generate that control without risking injury so
go check it out by clicking the first link in the description below now here are a few tips
that you can immediately take away in this video so step number one is in the title we're gonna
start learning our swing without launching and this is going to help us prevent problems like
over rotation and falling to the left which are so common on the serve step number two is to
think of your swing as a pull instead of a push I see so many players thinking of their sling as
a pushing motion where they're trying to hit as hard as possible from the shoulder or from this
wrist snapping motion and a lot of the times that causes tension because a push by definition means
that you're directing the force behind the object so little pushing motion on the serve of course
means having a shallower rocket drop and falling victim to this Infamous waiters Trace serve so
instead try to relax your arm as much as you can and really focus on pulling your racket up from
the butt cap letting the racket lag for as long as possible and then you'll feel this natural
release if you make contact high and far into the court and finally tip number three for your swing
mechanics is to utilize the three finger drill it's pretty simple all you're going to do is hold
your racket with your thumb your pointer finger and your middle finger just like so with your ring
finger and your pinky finger off the racket just like that this is going to be the ultimate test to
the efficiency of your swing ideally you're able to hit within 90 of your maximum surf speed with
just these three little fingers and if you're struggling with this drill it means you've got
a lot more potential for power alright key number two we're getting into the good stuff is going to
be all about getting more body rotation and this is actually one of the core movements of so many
sports you're done that's it three strikes you're out wait shouldn't there be two strikes though
now the first one counted as two oh but most Rec players on the serve struggle to utilize body
rotation as a power source either not rotating away enough or over rotating at contact so to
learn how to utilize more of this hip and trunk rotation on your serves I'll try to explain it
as simply as possible and in fact day has made a full video on the role of body rotation on the
serve which I'll link in the description below you can go check that out as well at the most basic
level when you start with your trunk and your hip pointed toward the side and from there you
push your back leg this causes your hips or your pelvis to rotate forward and this initial impulse
of force from your back hip and the subsequent rotation of your trunk can help you generate tons
of power and this is one of the big takeaways I want you to have from this video a lot of players
don't fully utilize this back leg or back hit pushing from the ground to initiate their Excel
generation even if you're launching you might be falling to the left you might be pushing too much
from your front leg instead of that back leg or a big one here is you might be miscoordinating the
timing of your backlit push with your racket drop either tightening your arm up and not allowing
this hip rotation to fully rotate your arm back or dropping your racket early and again in this case
not allowing this hip rotation to be the thing that causes your racket to flip into that racket
drop position so one of the best ways to feel how your back leg push or your hip rotation can help
you create power in your serve is to Simply start in your pre-throw position we've talked about this
in our previous videos but this is going to be a position where your arm is to your side like
so about 90 degrees you're going to have your armpent about 90 degrees and you're going to
want to make sure your hand is pointing forward or even slightly down like this just shake your
arm and relax it hold your racket like so and from here focus on getting this powerful push from your
back leg that's going to rotate your body forward and what you should notice if your arm is relaxed
and you rotate your hip is that your racket is actually naturally going to flip back like so
this flipping motion is very similarly to a throw what allows your arm to then release forward later
in your swing and again by eliminating your launch while you learn to access this hip rotation as a
power source you're going to prevent problems like falling to the left and over rotating with your
body it is starting to rain so we are going to get out of here it rained us out and the last time we
tried to record in the rain did not turn out too well still want to record and then [Laughter]
all right here's one of my favorite drills that you can use to start getting more hip initiation
and utilize that rotation as a power source on your serve you're going to want to start by
step one simply getting into a semi-open stance if you're on court step up to the Baseline and simply
get your feet about 45 degrees to the Baseline now step number two pull your hitting elbow back until
you feel the stretch in your oblique when you combine that with rocking onto the ball of your
feet getting this slight knee Bend and extending your tossing arm up you should feel like you're
ready to explode up into your shot now from here we're going to get rid of this racket because
for step number three we're going to be using our handy ball to throw it at our favorite cameraman
part of the script bro all right so you've got your semi-open stance ball in hand you're going
to do the same thing simply pull your hitting elbow back until you feel that stretch in your
obliques and from here try to push from your right leg as hard as you can what you should
notice just like if you were loaded up potato forehand is when you push from your right leg
you'll feel this powerful hip rotation being initiated just like this so I'm pulling the
elbow back I'm going to push that right leg and that's going to cause my arm to flip back and
release forward and then you could try the same exact thing with your racket for step number four
simply get into your pre-throw position pull your hitting elbow back until you feel that stretch in
your oblique press hard from that right leg and you should feel yourself starting to get that
powerful hip rotation into your service all right and tip number three is to utilize more
forward momentum on your serves which you can see a player like Sam Groff doing here in this serve
speed challenge instead of launching he's taking this huge step forward like a pitcher would and
pushing hard from that back leg now we of course can't mimic this forward stepping motion because
we would foot fall and we need to generate tons more upward racketed speed for that consistency
but we want to utilize the same power source of that forward momentum how good question first we
need to focus on eliminating the things that might be hurting our forward weight shift so
the next time you're on court check for these common mistakes number one you might be staying
too upright with your body in the load and this is commonly done when players want to try to feel
on balance like they're posing in their trophy position for Vogue magazine oh my God foreign
number two you might be shifting your hip forward but equally leaning your upper body back again to
try to stay on balance or number three you may be making contact with the ball directly above your
head with your body relatively upright when you view it from the side all three of these
mistakes are happening because you want to have that feeling of balance instead of feeling like
your weight is moving or falling forward into the court but if you look at Elite servers you'll find
a few keys that allow them to get this powerful way shift while still being able to get that just
as powerful initiation from that back hit so here are a few Keys you can use to start utilizing that
forward weight shift as a power source number one we need to make sure that our toss is dialed in
if you're tossing right above your head like so then it'll be impossible to make contact into the
court and therefore everything else is going to be more vertical as well number two you want to think
of your serve as a forward trust fall so instead of trying to stay on balance imagine that if you
weren't going to acceler if you aren't going to hit the ball you would actually fall forward like
so and then at the last second right before you're about to fall that's when you want to execute key
number two which is that powerful push from the back leg and trust that this push is going to
initiate your swing and allow you to transfer that forward momentum into tremendous racketed speed
at contact now one important note here is that it might feel like tip number two and three are
contradictions because if you shift your weight forward then more of your weight is going to be on
that front leg right so it's going to feel easier for you to press from that front leg and it's
almost like the back leg is along for the ride not really doing much if you wanted to maximize the
push of that back leg you would get all of your weight on your back leg but of course we don't see
any pros or any high level servers getting their weight backward like so so it really is a balance
of these two techniques I recommend shifting about two-thirds of your weight on your front leg while
making sure that your back leg is still connected to the ground and feelings stable enough to get
that hard press here's a great explanation of how this is done in baseball by shred Athletics
foot is driving into the ground there still right I have all my weight
over that and I think that's where some guys kind of lose this technique a little bit like
even if they find a good loaded position they start coming away from it and now when they
actually like want to go and turn this leg has lost right that's the that's the triple
extension or just early extension so to practice this for yourself I recommend again starting in
that semi-open stance and getting used to that feeling of initiating from your back leg first
and from there get into your neutral stance and as you serve you can actually step that
back foot around to the side and run through your serves now when you start pushing from your back
leg and you start utilizing that forward momentum powerfully enough you'll notice that you naturally
get off the ground and you've executed a good launch now to implement this onto your serve I
recommend again starting with those semi-opa stance serves and this is going to allow you
to first get the feeling of initiating from your back leg once you get used to this get into your
normal stance and as you implement the forward momentum to your serve simply step your back
foot or your right foot in front of you after you hit your serves and what you'll notice is if you
start implementing this back leg push and this forward momentum powerfully enough you'll almost
automatically start getting off the ground except now you'll no longer look like a toaster strudel
and hopefully you'll be feeling way more coordinated with that hitting arm action
so you can transfer the forces from the ground all the way up to your racket for that whip like pop
now if you want to Fast Track your progress and start seeing way more power and way more control
on your serves in record time then go check out our five day surf power challenge it's got all
the techniques and all the drill progressions you need to take your surf to the next level
so go check it out by clicking the first link in the description below and as always athletes
do you guys notice the the bug sounds that have been ringing this whole entire time
so peaceful so peaceful I love the nature bro [Music] [Applause]