About Chris Expertise I can answer most questions on coaching stratigies, drills to improve your game, tactics for singles and doubles, help in setting up coaching businesses, where to go to learn to play tennis or to become a coach and more.
Experience I have been playing tennis for the last 14 years or so.
Organizations Belfast Boat Club, LTA, Tennis Ireland and PTR-UK.
Awards and Honors PTR qualified coach. I also string tennis, squash and babmington rackets, and can answer questions on this as well.
In trying to get more power in my serve, I notice that the pros pronate their wrists at contact so that the palm winds up facing out. I find this almost impossible to do, as I brush over the top right edge at about 1 or 2 o'clock. What's the trick in this move, which seems to impart more power to the service stroke.
They also all leap across the baseline with their lead foot, also something I know adds power, but that I find impossible to do.
Thanks....
Answer Hi,
Thanks for the question. What you say is almost correct. Yes it is true that all pros will have quite alot of pronation on their serves, however, this is not where the majority of the power comes from. Pronation aids in the production of spin as well as aiding the players ability to control and direct the ball the the required place. What you say next is true. Alot of the power in the serve comes from the legs. A good leg bend on the serve will help alot, however, only if it is used correctly. By that I mean that your knees bend as much as they can but only to the degree that there is still sufficient strength in the legs and lower back to explode up and through the ball.
The other major source of power is in the racket head speed at time of impact. This is aided by strong wrists and forearms.
If you are looking to improve the power on your serve, my advice would be to keep it simple. Use your whole body to generate the power. Alot of people make the mistake of trying to generate all the power with their arms and shoulder. This will more often than not lead to tennis elbow. Instead, look at you ball toss. Throw the ball to the hieght where you are going to cantact it at its highest point and that it is slightly in front and to the left of you.
If you still wish to get pronation on your serve, I would advise you to book a lesson with a coach, for the simple reason that I havent seen your serve and therefore cant comment specifically on it. One way of practicing pronation is to put a ball into the fence at the side of the court and the point were you would like to contact the ball and practice the internal rotation of the wrist onto the ball. This will of course only work if the correct grip is used, (namely the continental grip, found by pretending that you are shaking hands with the racket.)
I hope that this has helped to some degree. If you have any further questions, or any questions on what I have said here, please let me know.
