The racquet path of a tennis serve if very different to a racquet path of a forehand or a backhand.
Applying the same racquet path that you use on groundstrokes to the serve is one of the most common mistakes that rob you of power on the serve.
While it seems logical to move the racquet through the ball in a very similar way on all strokes, you’ll see a slow motion side-by-side comparison of a serve and a forehand groundstroke and the difference will be clearly visible.
The video above shows you how the serve is different from all other strokes and why we can apply a different principle of accelerating the racquet.
This is the second sample video of the full Serve Unlocked video course. The third sample video is coming soon…
Me likes these blog so much and for so good instructions you have to give us. Thanks to you man
Tomaz, your blogs are real gems.
I have been trying to improve my ground strokes and serve by feeling and adjusting where the axis of rotation of the racquet head is.
I imagine that “circular” vs. “linear” racquet head direction is dependent on one thing: the distance from the head to the axis of rotation, and that the big picture for all strokes is that the axis dynamically shifts from the feet/foot (ground contact) towards the racquet head until contact with the ball.
The axis stops somewhere around the shoulder for ground strokes and volleys as your example video shows. However, “advanced” strokes may bring the axis out to the hand (e.g. pronation and wrist flex).
As your serve video shows, the axis must shift all the way to the hand for a fast serve.
One might think that the fastest racquet head would be achieved furthest from the axis of rotation. That would be true if there were enough strength to “brute force” it, but I think, for the human body’s location of joints and relative strengths of muscles,
a synchronized sequence of actions that gradually shifts the axis of rotation toward the racquet head is required.
Thank you for letting me share my ideas here.
Spot on, Walt!
Yes, I feel most acceleration when I try to shorten the circular path – similar to what an artistic skater does when they do a pirouette and then bring their arms closer to their body which speeds up their rotation.
Here’s an example:
So this principle is what all good servers use to accelerate their racquet.