Hit A Perfect Serve (Powerful Tennis Tips).

So the first thing we talked about was your grip. So I drew that terrible hand on the screen. So I decided to put the spots on my hand with that line again. So this is my right hand. In fact, let me just go like this so you can see this. So here's my hand. And what you want is to take this knuckle, the knuckle of your index finger, and your heel pad, and there's a straight line that's drawn between those two spots. Well, what you want to understand is that on the serve, there are, well, first off, on any shot, there are eight sides that you have to worry about. So it's an octagon. You always want the racket straight up and down on its edge when you're counting the bevels. Bevel number one is on top. Bevel number two is the diagonal on the top right. Bevel three is on the side. Bevel four, bevel five is the very bottom, then six, seven, eight. As a right-hander, you really don't use six, seven, and eight. Those are more for the lefties, or if you're a two-handed backhand, that would be for your left hand. What we want to understand is bevel number two is the bevel you need for your serve. That's the diagonal bevel on the top right. I even drew a diagonal line on that bevel. So what I want to do is I want to take this line that I drew on my hand, and I want to put that line on the line on my racket. You can even see if I just kind of peel off my hand, I'm taking that line and I'm putting it, the line on my hand, I'm putting it on the second bevel. If I open up my hand, notice you can not see the line. The line is covered up by the racket. There's the line. I'm putting that line on bevel number two. That's called a continental grip. We want to use the continental grip on the serve for two main reasons. The first is because it allows us to lead with the edge of the racket. You remember, and I'll discuss this in more detail, you'll remember as I was swinging up to the ball, I was leading with the edge, almost looked like I was going to hit the ball with the edge of the racket. That's a good thing because it allows us to hit spin. The second reason is it forces what's called pronation. Again, I'm going to go through all of this step-by-step, but I just want to explain why we need the continental grip. It forces pronation. Pronation is what a quarterback uses to throw a football. It's what a baseball pitcher uses when they're throwing a baseball to accelerate the hand and the forearm at the very end, the very last move in the kinetic chain of the body. It's the accelerant at the very end that just fires the ball, whether it's a football or baseball, out of your hand. Or in tennis, the tennis racket fires toward the net and really accelerates. So it is going to be vital that you use the continental grip from this point forward. Now, when you walked up to the line, you bounced the ball. So you had the ball in your hand. You bounced the ball, and then you served, right? So you bounced the ball, and then you served. And what that led to is using a either, and I couldn't tell exactly what the grip was. I think you're actually in between an Eastern and a semi-Western. You look to be on the line. So you actually looked to be here on the corner between three and four. So like the corner, we've got to be all the way up here with the line. So when you do that, that's what leads really to every other inefficiency in your swing, from your feet to the racket strings facing up to pulling down as you hit the ball. I know you've been working on collapsing. Like you've been working on not collapsing and like keeping your head up and your chest up. Believe it or not, the grip will actually force you to pull down because if you swung up and kept your chest up, the ball would go way out because you just aren't using the correct grip. So it's going to be really important that we understand the grip. So what I would do is I would draw the line on the middle of bevel two. I would draw the line on your hand, and I would just practice lining up those two lines. And even while you're watching TV or watching the US Open or watching Wimbledon or whatever, watch tennis on TV while holding your racket with a continental grip, just to really get used to it. When you bounce the ball, only bounce it with your hand. Only bounce the ball with your hand. And when you start, have your racket slightly open. Having a forehand grip will lead to the strings pointing down. Again, I use the racket face as a way to know what grip somebody has. You want to have the racket slightly open, not even straight up and down where you could balance a ball on the edge, but slightly open. That's going to encourage you to use the correct grip. So you've got bouncing the ball only with your hand, setting up to serve. You can see I have the racket resting on the ball, and the racket is slightly open. Now, the beginning of the serve, your feet were great. Let me actually make sure, sometimes my camera moves, and I want to make sure that I can see the baseline. Yeah, that's pretty good, okay. So when I start serving, or when you started serving, you were like this, and then you began the serve, and you moved your foot over. It's going to be really important that you keep your feet where they are, and that you really almost think this direction rather than that direction. So you actually want to get your mind thinking of swinging to the right of your court. It'll make more sense in a little bit when I explain side spin, but I want you to keep your feet where they are, or where they are at the beginning, rather than moving your feet over during the serve, because you didn't realize why you were doing it, but the body is smart, and you're super athletic, so your body knew what to do. Your body knew to move the foot over. So we want to make sure that that foot stays there. So that would literally be just the first thing you need to go out and do, is just have your grip. You need to hit serves, and don't move your feet. Make sure that your feet stay still. Now, it's going to be awkward, because you're used to jumping, and that foot kicking up, but you should just hit serve, after serve, after serve, with the correct grip, and the feet staying where they are. You really want to go in order. The order in which I explain these ideas, it's going to be the order in which you want to work on these ideas, because the first thing you do affects the second thing. The second thing you do affects the third thing. So it's just going to keep going. So you've got the better grip. You've got the better feet that are going to stay that way. Now we have to work on the backswing. Let me get some balls. Again, as you're working, don't get too, don't judge yourself too much, right? What I explain is, it's kind of like baking a cake. When you put the flour in the bowl, and you're baking a cake, you don't eat the flour and go, this doesn't taste like chocolate cake. There are a lot of ingredients that have to go in. You got to mix it up. You got to put it in a pan. You got to put it in the oven. You got to bake it. You got to let it cool. You got to put some icing and some sprinkles on. There's a lot of work that goes into it before you get to taste it and see how it goes. It's the same thing with your serve. So you're going to be working on your serve. Please don't judge what happens. If you have the continental grip and the ball goes way over there, don't worry about it. That's expected. That's like tasting the flour or the raw eggs, and you haven't even baked the thing yet, or put the cocoa in, you know? So be patient with yourself. Don't judge yourself. Throughout this process, because at the end it's going to be a delicious cake, you know? So the next thing is, after you go across your feet, because you had the forehand grip, you went across your feet and the tip of the racket pointed straight at the camera. What should happen is this. You should be able to put a ball in the throat of the racket, and the string should be pointing down, but there should be an L between your arm and racket. The racket tip should not be pointing at the back fence. You would go across, your foot would move. You'd go across your feet. The tip of the racket would be like this. What I want you to do is keep your right foot where it is. When you go across your feet, and literally like down across your feet, you could feel like you're touching your toes. As you bring your racket up, the tip of the racket should be pointing down. I'm sorry, the string should be facing down, and the tip of the racket should be pointing the direction your chest is facing. So you're going to go down across your feet, and the strings are down, and the tip of the racket is pointing the direction of your chest. You'll notice that gives me the elbow the enemy idea. Now you do not have to think of elbowing someone. It's not like that. It's just as you go across your feet, and you lift up, the elbow is back, the strings are down, and the tip of the racket is facing where my chest is facing. So once you use the grip for a week or two, and you practice hitting serves where your feet don't move, and you want to do that literally for a week, right, you take your time. I said this whole process, I want it to really take a couple months. The slower we go, the faster you're going to get this. I want you to go across your feet, and I want you to toss, don't catch the ball by the way. Do not catch the ball because then you're worried about the catch. Don't worry about the catch. And you want to pause in this position. I've got my grip, I've got my feet the way they are, or the way they should be, and I can actually put a ball in the throat of the racket, strings are pointing at the ground, tip of the racket is pointing over there, my elbow is back. Before I go any further, let me quickly show you Roger Federer in this exact position. You're going to see his strings facing down and the elbow back with the left arm up. All right, so I'm so glad I got to show you Federer. After he goes across his feet, his racket was in this position. His strings were pointing down, elbow back, left arm up. Again, as I told you, you could put a ball in the throat of the racket. That's what you want with the strings pointing down. This move right here is something you want to practice over and over again. Toss the ball and don't catch it, because students catch it and they go like this. And they try to catch the ball, which isn't part of serving, and then they forget about their racket, so then the racket does what it normally does. You want to have a new way to swing. Racket's slightly open, I've got my continental grip, my feet are going to stay the way they were for you at the beginning, you're going to go across your feet, and you're going to pause right here. String's pointing down, elbow is back, tip of the racket pointing over there. Now, this leads us to the next idea. And this is a little bit of a signature way I teach the serve. Every one of my students, both adults and juniors, have practiced this here at the club. Every single one of my students. Mandatory, they must do this. Is they must practice, practice knocking a birthday hat off of their head. Now, if you were to hit serves right now, you would not knock the birthday hat off of your head. Using the forehand grip, the forehand ground stroke grip, the tip of the racket points at the back fence, and then you go this way. Roger Federer knocks a birthday hat off of his head. So what Federer does, is remember, he went across his feet, strings are pointing down, elbows back. What he does is he brings the racket in over the head from the front to behind. If Federer were to wear a birthday hat, if Djokovic were to wear a birthday hat, Kyrgios, Isner, Raonic, they would knock the birthday, and many others, they would knock the birthday hat off of their head. Let me take you right now back to Federer. I want to show you how the racket on Federer passes in over his head, knocking off the birthday hat. So now I want to practice knocking off the birthday hat. By the way, for your parents and for Alex and Xavier, you must go out and get a birthday hat. So this is mandatory. Go out and get a birthday hat, and hit serves with the birthday hat. And what I want you to do for the first drill is it'd be nice if you just shadow swung knocking off the birthday hat, but I want you to hit serves while knocking off a birthday hat. And what I want you to do is I want you to do two drills in one. I want you to go down. Remember, the racket's slightly open. You got the continental grip. Your feet are going to stay still. You're going to go down, toss, then grab another ball out of your hand, but don't move the racket. And you're going to toss another ball, knock the birthday hat off of your head, and then hit the ball. So let me do the whole thing together. So that was pretty easy to see that I knocked the birthday hat off of my head from in front to behind. Sam Groth, if you don't know who Sam Groth is, he has the fastest recorded serve of all time, 163 miles an hour, I believe. He's played fetter at Wimbledon. He's from Australia. Huge serve. His racket comes right in over his head and makes that move. You don't want to make this move because that's not a throwing motion where the hand is way behind the elbow. You want the elbow and the hand pretty level, which is what gets the strings pointing down, and then you make that move. So you're going to have to practice numerous serves, and I mean thousands of serves, knocking the birthday hat off of your head. Down, toss. Strings are pointing down. Don't move. Strings down. Notice my position. It's like I'm a quarterback, right? This move. Strings are down. After I toss, after I toss, I knock the birthday hat off my head, and then I serve. So then, once you get the hang of this, I hope you're keeping track of these drills because they're very specific, the drills I want you to do. The next thing is you've got to do these drills or those drills together, where you're just hitting the birthday hat off of your head in one swing. Only bounce with your hand. Set the racket. Make sure it's open. Make sure your right foot is a little back from your left foot, as you had at the beginning. You're going to go down, toss. I loved your toss, how it was to the right, and it wasn't super high. It was awesome. Strings are down. I'm in this position. I'm petting the head of a tall dog. My palm is down. I've got my line on the second bevel, which is continental grip. And then, after I toss, I knock the birthday hat off my head. Hey, thank you. I always have people telling me about the birthday hat. They're like, happy birthday. All right, so let's talk about what happens after that. After you knock the birthday hat off of your head. Oh, my fault. Wait, did I already show you? Yes, sorry. I already showed you Roger Federer knocking the birthday hat off. So, after you knock the birthday hat off of your head. Sorry, I totally forgot where I was. After you knock the birthday hat off your head, what needs to happen is the racket needs to come around on edge. This is called supinated. I had mentioned in the video how the palm needs to face you. Another way of practicing this is when you come around to hit the ball, your thumb needs to be pointing down. You can see my thumb pointing down. So, if I'm serving that way, it looks like this. Thumb is down. So, what I want you to do is practice hitting serves with the edge of your racket. Because I want you coming around like this and hitting the edge like this. Actually hitting the metal of the racket up against the ball. Where most players come around and they're like this, you really need to be like this, hitting the edge. So, I don't want you pointing your strings up at this point. I need you coming around on edge and you're only going to do that if you come around with your strings pointing down over the head. So, after you're here, you toss, you knock the birthday hat off your head and you come around on edge. What I want you to do is actually hit the serve only hitting the edge of the racket. So, it's going to look like this. You may actually swing and miss just because of how narrow the racket is. But the goal, there we go. The goal is that the ball goes flying because you actually are coming in like this. That's going to force you coming up in this position. If you're trying to use the strings, most likely you're going to come around like this. But if you try to actually hit the metal of the racket against the ball, when you knock the birthday hat off and you come around, you'll actually come around in that supinated thumb down position. Watch it again. Good. So, you just want to hit thousands and thousands, literally, of balls where you're just practicing hitting the edge over and over and over again. Again, this is all a progression trying to go from beginning to end and give you drills in order to learn this. Let me show you right now, Roger Fedder coming around. You'll see his strings pointing down. You'll see his racket knock the birthday hat off and then watch Fedder come around on edge like he's actually going to hit the ball with the frame of his racket. So, I'm sure you saw how not just he leads with the edge, but that here his strings were down, here he knocked the birthday hat off the head, and then he came around on edge. Now, why do you want to come around on edge? Like we talked about at the beginning of why we want a continental grip is it gets the racket leading toward the ball with its edge so that you can put spin on the ball. So, I've got this little device. It's actually a broken apart, what's called Topspin Pro. It's actually something we have here for our students to practice their topspin. But if you take it apart, you can actually work on serves. So, I'm going to put this right in the middle of the screen and I want to show you how you can actually learn sidespin with this. Now, I'm sure you can see it spinning. This is how you want to hit a tennis ball on the serve. You want it spinning like the earth, Xavier. What you don't want to think of is flat. You want to think of spinning it like a basketball player who's got their finger under the ball spinning it. So, as you hit the ball, you want to learn to get the ball rotating, which is called sidespin. Now, on the serve, it's also called a slice, a slice serve, where you are, now, backspin on a ground stroke is called slice, but on the serve, sidespin is called slice. I want to clarify that. You want to lead with the edge and then slide along the ball. You want to lead with the edge and make the ball rotate because you're spinning with the ball. Let me show you really quickly a drill that I want you to practice so that you can learn sidespin correctly. So, Xavier, what I want you to do is just have your racket on its edge. Again, like you could balance a coin. I just want you to toss and then slide along the ball to make it rotate. So, you're going to feel like you're sliding along the right side of the ball. The ball should go left. That is normal. Toss, slide along the ball. You're not trying to get the ball over the net. In fact, you can see I choked up on my racket. I just want to learn how to slide along the ball to get the ball to rotate. Again, you're used to your strings pointing up, so this is going to feel very weird. It's going to feel like you don't have a lot of speed on the ball, which is right. You're not going to have much power on the ball right now. What you want to learn is how to lead with the edge and slide along the ball, getting that ball to rotate. So, now that we've worked on making the ball spin, now we have to talk about what's going to happen after you hit. Remember, we're going to lead with the edge. We already talked about hitting the ball with the edge of the racket. Now we need to hit sidespin, but then what's called pronate. So, I'll show you this. We're getting the ball to spin, so right. You understand that now, getting the ball to spin. And what I want you to practice is after you hit the ball, turning your racket with your palm facing out. Spin along the ball and then turn your palm out. Spin along the ball, turn out. So, you want to do that as you're hitting the ball. You want to spin along the ball, turn your palm out. Spin along the ball, turn your palm out. Again, you're trying to get that ball to rotate. So, the drill you're going to do is what you just did, making the ball spin. Again, you're going to choke up on your racket. Make sure that that line between your knuckle and your heel pad is on bevel number two. Again, draw the line on your racket. And then what I want you to do is I want you to toss, slide along the ball, and then turn your racket so that your palm is facing to the right. Your racket's on edge. Toss. Here you go, here you go. You're going to toss, slide along the ball, then turn your racket. The goal is to understand that that's actually what's going to be happening as you're striking the ball. Watch this video of Fedder and watch how he's leading up with the edge. And then after he makes contact, how he points his palm off to the right. So, now we want to start combining these ideas. We want to work on and understand what's happening here. And then we want to understand what's happening here. So, wear your birthday hat. You got your continental grip. Your feet are set. Racket's slightly open. You're going to go down and toss. Your strings are pointing down. You're going to knock the birthday hat off your head. You're going to come around on edge, slide along the ball, and then turn. Again, we're not even trying to hit the ball over the net right now. The goal is to understand that as we're hitting the ball, we want to be leading with the edge of the racket. The goal is not to get the ball over the net. We are just trying to slide along the ball. If when you come around and knock the birthday hat off your head, if you come around like this, everything you did to that point is lost. And you won't be able to fire the forearm and pronate as you strike the ball. So now we need to talk about what happens with the body. Let me grab another ball here. What you saw when you were going into the court, Xavier, is you were going into the court like this, and you were jumping to the left. Remember, we want to be hitting side spin. And so what happens is if you swing toward the box, the ball's going to go to the left. So you need to be swinging to the right. That brushing of the ball will get the ball to actually go toward the court. But that means we want to be jumping and exploding that way, not jumping and exploding to the left toward your target. And it doesn't matter if you're on the deuce side or ad side, you're going to be swinging off to the right of your target. And so the goal is when you explode into the court that your body goes forward and to the right, because you want your body going across. See, if I swing toward the court, the ball goes to the left. If I swing to the right, look where the ball goes. I swung to the right and the ball went in the box, because the ball goes where my strings point, not where my racket travels. Let me say that again. The ball goes where your strings point. So right now my strings are pointing the box, but I'm swinging off to the right, leading with the edge to get the ball to rotate. The racket speed is going to be built from this motion that we just used. The control is going to come from the spin that we add to the ball. And the faster we can swing, the more spin we can put on the ball and we gain that much more control. So to reiterate, we've got our line on our hand. We've got the line on the grip. You're going to go down across your feet and you're going to learn to point your strings down. We're going to, from this point, knock the birthday hat off the head. We're going to come around on edge, slide along the ball, really swinging off to the right to get the ball to rotate. You already tuck your left hand beautifully, so that's great. We're going to follow through on our left side and we're going to do that while going forward and to the right with our body.