49 - The Serve - From hi-techtennis.com - Lesson 3: The 'Seesaw' Motion, Racquet Drop, and Launching Pad

Lesson 3: The 'Seesaw' Motion, Racquet Drop, and Launching Pad

We have seen how the pros store up energy in their core. They sink down and wind up, and delay the racquet by having it point straight up to the sky. Now it's time to see the kinetic chain in action. The energy that is first stored up in your body coil will unwind and travel upward into an internally rotated hitting arm. I call this the "see-saw" motion. See how the shoulders "see-saw" upwards. The left shoulder, which starts titled up high, ends titled down low, while the right shoulder, which begins low, ends up high. Their positions have reversed in a see-saw motion.

The racquet simply drops as the shoulders see-saw upwards and begins to be passively pulled upwards in the last few frames. Once again, I stress that the racquet is still completely passive. It is being dropped and pulled. The racquet is very much just "along for the ride". It is not in any way an active part of the swing. This is one of the biggest difference between good servers and average servers. Good servers use their bodies to store up energy when they serve, and then transmit that energy from the pulled body part to the delayed body part, letting the racquet passively trail behind. Poor servers attempt to execute the serve with only the racquet and arm.