Are you one of those players who feel nervous during the first serve? You always feel that you could do it better with enhanced power but couldn’t make it due to some reason. Willing to add some power to your first serve, hit the ball faster and expend less effort?
We see many professional tennis players hit the serve at 120 mph while the club players could make it to 90 mph and struggle to serve with the same speed consistently. You may have tried to serve faster for some more miles/hour on the first serve but couldn’t make it satisfactory.
You want to smash it harder. Who doesn’t, right?
Well, it is tough and complicated but with some technical aspects, it is possible. First, you just stop overthinking. Trying to hit hard without considering some basic tips is nothing but just a mess of your efforts and to mechanics you follow.
Let’s understand with some simple aspects and tips. Follow them to add some magic power to your serve effortlessly.
Feel Like You are Throwing a Racket
The basic rule to add more power to your serve is to feel like throwing a racket at the ball. Along with that, you can do all other technical aspects like bending your both legs, raising the arm higher as much as possible, body rotation, etc.
All these technicalities wouldn’t work effectively until you have no idea of the fundamental motion of throwing the ball. Believe that most professional tennis players have a strong racket drop to enhance the serve power. While the majority of club players do not perform racket drop well. Believe that throwing a racket trick is the biggest issue for beginners and club players.
Sorry to say but if you are not a master at this, the chances are less for the faster serve speed in your game.
In simple words, just throw your rackets at the tennis ball.
Control Your Toss
Another key component is to make the service as fast as possible. It is vital to control the power of your racket. So, if the ball is in the wrong place while throwing it up, your body rotation, timing and serve motion will go in the wrong direction and your ball won’t travel as you expected. Sometimes, it may hit the net.
So, the question is, how high should I throw the ball?
The answer is simple “Just toss it as high as your racket reaches when you jump to smash”.
When you toss the ball higher, the chances are also higher for bad timing. So, it is necessary to toss the ball as high as you reach to hit with your racket, no higher and no lower. Toss it in front to your right is a good placing position to add more power to your serve.
Keep Your Body in a Balanced Position:
You might have often watched players in an awkward position after serving. This is a result of not being in a focused position towards the court.
This leaves a player in a weird position as he overlooks the essentialness of toss & motion. Due to bad service motion, a player is left off-balanced. So, better to stay in a balanced position by pausing for 3 seconds after a smash. This simple trick will bring reliability & quality serving.
Being a Tennis player, you must be fit to keep your body balanced. Want to know how professionals keep them balanced and maintain their body strength?
Put Your Legs in the Action:
Do not underestimate the power of pushing legs. It provides extra power to your service.
Yes, it’s true. Legs provide energy to your serve & then supplemented with your faster arm swings. That creates an impact on your serve speed.
Once you have got a good toss, better-throwing action in a balanced position, then bring your legs (both legs) in the action. Some players put their weight on the back foot only that won’t help get momentum for the effortless serve.
Start it by synchronising your legs up to get a better service motion that ends up with a faster serve.
Follow Through:
Have you ever noticed club players who suddenly stop their both arms after smashing a ball? Such a kind of follow-through causes muscle issues. The whole serving should be done properly from tossing the ball to a dead stop. It’s simple science, as soon as you stop an arm after hitting, the slower racket speed you get. The slower the racket speed the slower the serve.
The Most Important: Keep Practicing
We know the fundamentals of adding power to first serve like the professionals do. But knowing is not all. Working on it and putting them into practice is what makes the difference on the court.
Well, it is common. You may get injured while practising. Read further: Proven Remedies for Tennis Injuries
Train yourself with these fundamentals and surprise your opponent with your unexpected fasting serve.
Happy Hitting!