A little while back, I wrote a post highlighting the need to serve earlier in practices - if you haven’t yet, you can check out that article here.
I also discussed this on the BTS podcast with PhD in Sport Science, Jaime Fernandez, who recently published a research paper on this exact topic. His conclusion - serving should happen at some point in the first half of a tennis practice AND NOT at the very end of a session. This will benefit players both from a development standpoint and from an injury mitigation point of view.
In this post, I want to provide a practical look at how to organize a dedicated ‘serve session’. These serve sessions are designed to work primarily on serve speed but they can be modified to tackle accuracy (or a combo of the two). And as we’ll see below, there’s an added benefit of improving serve timing.
I know what I just said might sound counterintuitive to many - “how can we work on so many things at once?”, you might wonder. Stay with me for a moment and you’ll soon find out.
Serve Speed Sessions - Why They Work
There isn’t a lot of research on serve speed development in tennis - especially if we compare it to the research on max velocity throwing in pitchers.
In any case, I’ve reviewed just about all of the research on both serving AND pitching - so while I would not consider myself an expert, I’m well versed in this area.
On top of that, I have spent the last 5 years or so implementing serve speed sessions with a number of players - and advised many coaches as well. I’ve made some early errors but I have tweaked my process along the way. And every player that walks through my door adds both speed and accuracy to their serves.
Before I outline how I organize serve sessions, I’d like to address a couple topics + debunk a few myths:
If you don’t have high intent during serving sessions, you probably won’t add any speed to the serve. That means really going after the serve - relaxed aggression is the key cue.
If you don’t use a radar gun, you probably won’t add speed to the serve. Visual feedback is a key determinant to increasing performance measures, including pitch speed and bat speed in baseball players. Seeing a number is an absolute must!
When the aim is to serve big, timing actually improves. I know this sounds odd but again, I've done hundreds of these types of sessions - with players of varying levels. If you don’t hit the ball in the center, with good rhythm and an acceleration through contact, you WILL NOT hit your best serves. If you’ve ever played golf or baseball, you know what I mean - when you hit the ball clean/centered, it travels further (even if the swing speed is slower when compared to an off-centered strike).
When timing improves, accuracy improves as well. Again, a bit counterintuitive but if you hit the ball centered/with good timing, the ball generally goes where you want it to.
It takes time for these 3 variables to improve - speed, accuracy and timing - and there’s a lot of variability from session to session. But I have found that having all 3 in mind results in better serving long-term.
Note - if you’re a complete beginner then this information isn’t really relevant as you need to have some basic mechanics in place (along with some consistency in striking) prior to adding speed + accuracy into the mix.
Here’s an example of a serve speed exercise using a radar gun. This pro player started with a serve in the low 100s and over a 2 month period, we were able to reach 111 mph.
Speaking Practically About the Serve
From a practical standpoint, I actually like to conduct ‘serve’ only sessions a couple times a week (these do not include regular practices that also include serving). Generally, these are structured in a way that considers both physiology and motor learning. The prerequisite here is freshness + alertness. If you try to improve speed, accuracy (and even technique), doing so at the tail end of a 90 minute practice is anything but ideal.
Truth is, I work with many older juniors, college players and those transitioning to the pros (and advise coaches worldwide). Many players - and especially those in their late teens / early 20s - have not developed the power required to serve at a high level. I’m talking about serves in the 110s and up (miles per hour - MPH).
In today’s game, that just won’t cut it - even on the women’s tour. So the initial part of our dedicated ‘serve session’ will focus on improving speed/power, irrespective of direction + accuracy. In other words, I’m not overly concerned if a player misses the service box. We still use a target (this is based on some of the work by researchers like Wulf + others in motor learning), but the primary aim is to hit the ball with maximal intent and high levels of racquet speed.
Serve Session Structure
While it still will depends on the goal of the serve session, we typically go through the following sequence:
General warm-up
Specific warm-up
Serve warm-up
Specialized serve drills
Max effort serves (about 10-20 per side - i.e. deuce + ad)
This takes about an hour in total (maybe longer) as we have to respect certain work to rest ratios. We don’t want to serve all out one after the other with no breaks in between. Rest is needed (about 10-20s) between each max effort serve. I know some college coaches that actually ask their players to take even more rest than that between efforts. Because remember, if you’re able to hit harder, it’s more demanding on the body (similar to more weight on the bar during a squat). More demand = more rest needed.
If we’re aiming to work on accuracy with targets, I actually might get players to go through some light hitting up the middle, along with their netplay warm-up (volleys + overheads) prior to serving and returning.
The reason behind this is simple - if we’re working on target practice, we’re probably going to do some point-play of sorts afterwards. For example, we might work on hitting wide serves during our serve session and then play a game immediately after which constrains the server to only hit wide serves. It’s more predictable for the returner but because we play competitive points, it’s still more realistic.
Here’s a competitive serve target drill. These can also be combined with speed (radar gun) feedback.
Limit Basket Serving
Also, I’m not a big fan of doing ‘basket’ serving for too long. Usually, our practices involve 2 players (if it’s individual, this might vary but I often step in as the returner myself). You see, while it’s relevant to get some traditional ‘target practice’ in on the serve, it’s still not as realistic as serving against a partner. We need to make sure our serves are effective when someone is staring us in the face. This is obviously more specific to an actual tennis match.
You may ask, why not just use matches as the ‘specific’ serve target practice? Well, because matches come with a lot of other factors - pressure + tactics just to name a couple. Which doesn’t provide us with a real opportunity to focus on hitting our targets against a returner.
Matt’s Final Point
I believe we need to close the gap between each end of the spectrum. So while serving from a basket is on one end, and matchplay is at the other, there’s a lot we can do in-between to bridge that gap.
My hope is that this has given you a bit of insight into how we attack the serve in a practical way - especially when the aim is to increase serve speed. There are other ways to do it, but I’ve seen great results with this approach.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for players to gain 4-8 mph in a 6-8 week timeframe. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that there's an actual aim to serve fast (coupled with real-time feedback). The other is that there are some neural adaptations occurring - serving is a high-powered, ballistic action. And with these types of tasks, it’s the nervous system that is primarily involved - increasing rate of force development being the main one.
Lastly, it’s a surprise to probably zero long-time readers of Mattspoint that we prioritize strength and power training with our players. There's even evidence to suggest that the serve will improve because of this (Kraemer et al 2003). This longitudinal study found that 9 months of resistance training can elicit as much as 29% increase in serve speed in female collegiate players. Not bad if you ask me! But we’ll save that topic for another day.
While you’re here, check out Live Ball, my new resource. Live Ball is all about the practice court. How to bridge the gap between getting the reps needed for improved skill, tactics, movement + more - and then implementing that into the matchcourt.
We also dive deep into both serve and groundstroke speed development - this includes specific guidelines, drills, video examples and some.
Live Ball is currently on sale for only $39 (use code LIVEBALL20). This promo will end Sunday May 1, 2022 - so don’t miss out!
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BY MATTSPOINT