What does the typical practice in tennis look like? If you’re someone that’s been around the game for many years, it probably follows a pretty similar structure - mini-tennis, groundstrokes, volleys/overheads and lastly, serves and returns. 

But what if a player’s priority is to improve the serve? Does it make sense to hit for an hour (or like in many tennis settings, beyond an hour) prior to serving?

Take former number 1 in the world Andy Murray, as an example. After an on-court session at the 2019 Rogers Cup with ATP player Marc Polmans - I carefully observed Andy’s practice (something I always do at tournaments).

After completing a really quick and light warm-up (about 5-10min of hitting where he started with volleys and progressed to some groundies), Andy went straight into serve and return practice (with Marin Cilic). They exchanged serve and returns - along with some pattern-play, for a good 30-45min. Then they played a few service games each and called it a day. 

Oh and Andy wore a GPS monitoring device (vest) for the entire duration of the practice...but that's a topic I’ll explore another time. 

It’s almost the complete opposite of what many players are currently doing, isn’t it? They seek constant affirmation from their groundstrokes - “I need to find my rhythm” they say...but by the time they get to the serve, many are completely gassed. 

The Physical Demands of Serving 

Before we go any further, let me provide a quick energy system lesson. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is our ‘energy currency’. In a nutshell, ATP is broken down into ADP (adenosine diphosphate and P (phosphate) - which releases energy to be used to perform some desired energy requirement (in our case, we are mostly concerned with muscle contraction). 

The problem with ATP is that we have a limited supply of ‘free ATP’ (ATP which is stored in the body and ready for immediate use). We only have enough to supply about 2 seconds of work (coincidentally, that’s about the time it takes to complete the service action). 

And because ATP is in low supply, we must continuously regenerate it - this regeneration from ADP to ATP is derived from the breakdown of fats and carbohydrates (from what we eat and digest). 

In any case, when it comes to producing energy to continuously contract muscle, this system - when analyzed in isolation - is obviously flawed. That’s where other energy systems step in and provide ‘backup’ support. 

Now, when we talk about energy systems for tennis, we can’t look beyond the ATP-PC (PC stands for phosphocreatine) system. The system encompasses the ATP reaction we discussed above and it functions without oxygen (which completely contrasts the aerobic system - where oxygen is required). 

But let’s look at a few key features of the ATP-PC system. Before complete exhaustion, it can only sustain about 30 seconds of maximal effort/work; it’s the predominant system during the first 5-6 seconds of an explosive muscular effort and finally, it takes between 3 and 15 minutes to replenish creatine phosphate stores. 

In tennis, most movements are explosive in nature - hitting groundstrokes, changing direction or running down a drop shot. But serving, which is similar to pitching in baseball (from a physiological perspective), is predominantly driven by the ATP-PC system. 

So if our goal is to develop the serve to a greater capacity (either by increasing the speed at which we can serve or by maintaining speed and improving accuracy), wouldn’t it make sense to begin certain practices - where the focus is on serving - with, well...serving?! You know, prior to depleting all of our ATP and CP stores? 

Yes, I’m aware that this is a simple representation of energy systems - and the truth is, research (Bogdanis et al 1998) has shown that all 3 energy systems will contribute, at different percentage rates, depending on the task. The aerobic system, for example, is extremely important in the replenishment of ATP.

Irrespective of that, from anecdotal experience, players don’t get the most out of their serve practices when they are performed during the last 30 minutes of a 2 hour session.

To finish my argument on this topic, let me reiterate this - the serve is the most physically demanding stroke in tennis. Unlike any other stroke, it stresses numerous joints + muscle systems in a very short period of time - and in particular, the tissues surrounding the shoulder. The stress on the muscles of the shoulder are cumulative (because of the repetitive nature of the stroke).

So apart from being inadequate from an energy system perspective, do we really want to hit serves after the shoulder has already gone through hundreds of (micro) stressful encounters from hitting countless groundstrokes? 

I think the answer is pretty clear, don’t you? 

Serving is a Complex Skill 

If you’re not convinced that there are times when serving should be placed earlier in a tennis practice because of the physical demands, then what if I told you there’s another reason why you should consider it. 

It’s effect on learning and retention. 

Tennis shots, in isolation, are called discrete skills - this is so because there is a clear beginning and end to each stroke in tennis (contrast this to long-distance running, which is referred to as a continuous skill; there’s more of a flow of movements that occurs).

Schmidt and Lee (2014) have reported - not surprisingly - that when given short rest intervals during continuous skills, performance tends to drop off gradually. When discrete skills were experimented, even a rest interval as short as 300ms also did not have a negative impact on performance. 

Good news for us right? Let’s just hit ball after ball with no rest in-between efforts. Not so fast. 

You see, when we group many tennis shots together (or many discrete actions), the skill seems to reflect more of a ‘continuous’ skill pattern (termed serial skills). So if you keep hitting crosscourt forehands over and over, with breaks that are few and far between, are you really performing a discrete skill? 

Here are 2 recommendations by Schmidt and Lee (2014) to consider:

1) Longer rest periods generally lead to more skilled performance during practice. 

2) The positive effect of longer rest intervals on performance remains large on retention tests. 

What this means is that a) having long rest periods will help with learning while you’re in the middle of a practice and b) this positive learning benefit is retained better over time (i.e. in future practices and matches).

And I’ll add one additional comment here - the serve is the most complex stroke in tennis from a learning perspective. Even if you think your serve is a good one, it DOES NOT mean you have mastered it. Nobody has. Every single player I’ve ever coached or ever seen, continuously practices the serve.  Whether that’s trying to add speed to it. Or spin. Or finding a target more consistently. Or a combination of these qualities.

And I’m sorry to break it to you but trying to practice all these subtle variations just doesn’t work well if you’re fatigued. Learning is best performed in a fresh, alert and motivated, mental state. This probably means serving - or working on any stroke that needs added attention - early in the practice. 

Give it a try. Go out, warm-up and start serving sooner in your practice - preferably within the first 15-20min. Or schedule some dedicated serve sessions (that’s what we do). Set some objective measures - like hitting 75% of your first serves into a specific target area - and aim to beat that target during that session and on subsequent practice outings. You might just be amazed at what that’ll do to your game.

In Beyond the Swing (BTS), the Course, there are a vast array of drills and insights on how to best improve the serve - arguably the most important stroke in tennis. Things like:

• How to practice the serve in a deliberate and purposeful manner - one that will facilitate an accelerated rate of learning.

• The base ingredient in having an effective service action.

• Where to place the serve - based on real stats and percentages.

• Dozens of serve drills that you’ve probably never seen before. Ones that are realistic and will best prepare you for the match court.

And the BTS, the Course, is on sale for only $188 - just use promo code MP30 to get the added 30% discount.

THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL INSTRUCTIONAL TENNIS SITE.
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