C8L4: Effortless Power on Serve

The toughest thing to get your juniors to do on the serve is get out of their ego and really use the mechanics of the serve to make power happen. The best way to do that is to think in slowness you want to feel as if your inner body is moving in slow motion. You're biggest effort really in the serve is not swinging at the ball but holding the coil in your arm while you do your full figure 8 in the center right. You want to hold your coil while you while hold your balance is really your main objective right. Watch Warren here, you see a lot on the outside but if you look on the inside its very slow. See his hips they stay very continuous slow all the way through. If you hold your arm coiled firmly thats when you feel that sling shot that catapult effect because the longer you can hold your arm back from actually hitting the ball see look at Warren he is already up into the 45 with his hips and his arm is way trailing behind him so he is already at the 45 and that arm comes last that is when you get that big flap of a monster serve. Not by trying to hit your serves as fast as you can because that is when the arm juts ahead of the rest of the body and all you do is pull yourself off balance. The best thing you can do on a serve to gain power is try not to hit the ball. Hold your coil, feel your balance work on things other than the power you want. If you are thinking power then you are just going to be hitting that ball with your ego and arming it. So the more you can say to yourself just go through the motions slow and steady and balanced and leave your coil alone hold your coil. Watch Djokovic a much improved serve see he is coiled, he is coiled he is coiled he is still coiled look at his arm his hips are around and they really snap at the top because of all that tension built into the stroke. Once again on these serves be super slow, super slow and really focus on holding the coil in your arm, hitting arm and moving on balance right screwing down into the court, look at the coil, screw up and let the arm come last. That is all I have to say on this idea of super slow on the serve. If you start thinking about the power you want to generate that is when everything goes to hell. Focus on your balance and holding your coil and letting your arm come when it comes. That is when you will get your biggest serves. That is when your players will get their biggest serves so that is the point I want to stress to you. That is the point I want you to stress to your players. Don't rush to hit this serve right the faster you swing the worse it is going to be. The more out of control you are going to be. The worse your disguise is going to be and you are not going to have that coil that gives you that spring loadedness at the top of the serve. Here is a shot of Steve pretty nice looking serve, look at that beautiful coil still held still held all the way through that serve. That was a second serve so he hold that coil and doesn't even get that pronation at the very top of the serve. Thats is where you want the pronation is at the very top. No back scratcher positions for us.