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TennisOne Lessons 
Developing Racquet Head Speed for Serves and Overheads David W. Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne It should come as no surprise that the key to creating a dominant first serve, a consistent and effective second serve, and the ability to intimidate opponents with a wicked overhead have a lot to do with generating controllable racquet head speed. If we are talking about outright speed of a serve or overhead, obviously being able to generate a fast-moving racquet is paramount. Yet, so many players I watch fail miserably in reaching their potential in terms of creating this racquet head speed. I’ve seen hundreds of incredible athletes, extremely strong players, and players who otherwise can play the other parts of the game well, be overmatched by players who don’t seem to possess the natural criteria for offensive serves and overheads. How can players who are less ‘gifted’ be able to do more on serves and overheads? The answer is in technique. In fact, most of the more successful students I’ve taught initially appeared to have less potential than many who indeed were in the gifted category. I’ve had girls as young as 13, serve well over 100 mph; boys who stood less than five and a half feet tall, possess serves that could be described as cannons. Such skill translated into having the necessary racquet head speed to hit huge kick, slice, and hybrid serve. And, it would follow that these same players had potent overheads to match their dominating serves.
How can players who don’t possess natural assets generate such racquet head speed and consequently effective serves? Beyond Speed Before I answer this question, let’s look at spin serve. Usually at the 3.0 or 3.5 levels, players have difficulty returning big spin serves, especially kick serves. Why? Well, quite simply, there are very few players at those levels who possess potent spin serves, consequently, they don’t see a lot of players hitting such serves. The serve, and more specifically, the second serve effectiveness, is a big part of a player’s ability to play at higher levels. Obviously, if a player has a very weak first and second serve, opponents who have respectable ground strokes are going to attack and punish such serves, thus limiting the ability of a weak server to ever move much further up the NTRP levels. This helps explain why so many players simply get stuck at lower levels. A net player with a potent overhead is going to be feared when lobbed. Again, another skill set associated with higher levels of play. Since both the serve and the overhead effectiveness are driven by the same swing mechanics, it stands to reason that developing the skills for one shot will carry over into the other shot.
Spin and Speed Understand that these two terms, spin and speed, are both utterly dependent on not just racquet head speed, but the angle that the racquet moves in the air when making contact with the serve. While the inherent ability to create racquet head speed is the key element to developing serves and overheads, it must be understood that the kind of spin applied will also enable a player to improve his serve. Speed alone, while appearing intimidating, is not the answer to effective serves. If you can increase your swing speed, and use that increased speed to impart more of the right kind of spin, you can increase the effectiveness that spin provides. Imparting spin on slice, hybrid, and kick serves (and the same spin on some overheads), when increased, all improve both consistency and effect. How? The first thing to know if you are going to increase racquet head speed is to understand the relationship between grips and potential speed. Continental Grip The continental grip is paramount to developing speed and spin. One of the biggest misconceptions of swing speed is the feeling of the need for strength. For most beginners and many intermediate level players, the continental grip on the serve not only feels weak, but in contrast, the common beginner grip, the eastern forehand grip, provides a perception of strength when held. However, the eastern forehand grip not only severely limits the potential speed of the racquet; the orientation of the grip prohibits the type of spin available to the player. There is a common misconception that the serve speed is mainly generated by the wrist. While there is a passive degree of wrist flexion associated with the serve and overhead, it is far from the key component to a powerful or effective serve. Serve speed is mostly derived by what is called internal rotation of the forearm…more commonly known as pronation. The continental grip provides the greatest degree of proper pronation.
The eastern forehand grip also tends to promote an arm-swing on the serve and overhead. That is, players bring the racquet to the contact point and beyond by swinging the arm through this phase. While the arm obviously moves to hit any serve or overhead, the fact is that during the contact phase the hitting arm slows down significantly allowing the racquet to accelerate ahead of the hand. (Kinetic Chain) In contrast, the eastern forehand grip actually forces the server to slow the serve down because of the racquet’s orientation to the arm and body. How to Increase Racquet Head Speed Swinging faster isn’t the key to speed. In fact, many players, when attempting to swing harder and faster find their serve slows down in comparison to when they don’t try as hard. A fluid arm, sometimes referred to as a fast-twitch or elastic arm, provides two components of speed: a loose whip-like motion and greater distance in which the racquet moves. The formula for velocity is distance divided by time. Thus, if we increase distance or decrease time, we increase velocity. If we can increase how far the racquet travels, and not add any time to the motion, we increase velocity. The way to increase distance is to allow the racquet to drop deeper into the “collapse” phase of the stroke. Flexibility is a key part of this ability. Improving the collapse is one of the more effective ways to improve serve speed. Keep the Elbow High One of the biggest mistakes players make, usually unconsciously, is pulling the hitting arm/elbow down when trying to swing harder. This reduces the potential speed of the serve and pollutes the racquet angle needed to hit optimal spin. This is particularly evident if the player is serving with and eastern grip. Keep the elbow high when contacting the ball. This will help slow down the arm and speed up the racquet. While it may seem contradictory, the truth is when you try to swing the arm faster, the racquet indeed slows down.
Follow-through One of the keys to a better serve is the position of the elbow and racquet head during the follow-through. The racquet head should lead the arm and elbow from just after contact. In fact, among skilled players, the racquet head should be pointing down while the hitting elbow is still up in the air. The way to test yourself is to serve from your knees. Done correctly, players who serve with optimal arm position will not hit the ground with their racquet. Players using an eastern forehand grip or swinging with the arm can’t keep from hitting the ground. (Be careful with this exercise as you can easily break your racquet if you don’t serve correctly! Try serving on your knees on grass first or using an old racquet) Conclusion While there is much more to developing a potent serve than just these key elements, the idea of learning to hit a better serve is first understanding how to generate greater racquet head speed correctly. When a player is doing this part well, then learning to hit different spin serves and using the legs and the body to add more power can be added more seamlessly.
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