42 - The Serve - From hi-techtennis.com - Introduction: The Kinetic Chain - A Different Kind of Power

 Introduction: The Kinetic Chain - A Different Kind of Power

When looking at someone serve, an immediate giveaway that something is wrong is that there is way too much movement at the start of their motion. The feet are moving, the arms start to fly around. Everything is quick and rushed. The entire shot occurs in one single, undifferentiated movement. The server is trying to force and muscle the shot.

What is striking about all top servers is how incredibly SLOWLY and GRADUALLY their shot unfolds. In fact, their serves look downright LAZY. What you will come to see is that the serve is a classic example of the kinetic chain. Energy is stored up in the core of the body and then gradually passed up the chain, from one body part to the next. Like ripples in a pond spreading outward, it takes time to build up this sequence, so you have to really learn to be patient and to hold back and to let the power build up over time. You can't just step up to the baseline and think you are going to just blast your serve in one motion. It doesn't work that way. Power will be generated from flexibility, from one movement leading effortlessly into the next, and from releasing all this stored up energy in the form of pronation, which we will learn about.

Power comes INDIRECTLY. You have to first store up the energy and THEN let that energy travel from your core all the way out into your hand. Check out Arazi here. Doesn't his serve look completely effortless. Almost lazy? The more you can effortlessy transfer energy from your core to the racquet, the smoother the motion and the bigger the end result. The biggest servers in the world look, ironically, like they aren't doing much at all!