Most players are told to “snap the wrist” on serve. But what actually creates racket head speed?
In this video, I break the serve down into a simple progression:
• Locked arm (no segments) • Wrist snap only • Elbow + wrist • Full arm sequencing
By isolating each component, you’ll clearly see how racket speed is not generated by one joint—but by the sequencing of segments in the kinetic chain.
This is the principle of proximal-to-distal acceleration: energy transfers from the larger segments (shoulder) to the smaller ones (elbow → wrist), amplifying speed at the racket.
If your serve feels forced, slow, or inconsistent, the issue is usually not strength—it’s sequencing.
This video gives you a simple way to feel and build that sequence immediately.
Hi guys and welcome to OneMinuteTennis.com. In today's session I want to talk to you about
the arm action on the serve and I want to show you that even if we totally isolate the arm action
that if you get the arm action right, if you get a truncated segmented stroke into your serve,
then you can hit with tremendous power even sitting in a chair, even without using any
part of your body. Most people watching this video will be creating service power by muscling the
ball instead of creating momentum to the ball and to create momentum, to create real leverage,
we have to break the arm into as many segments as possible. So let's look at the possibilities.
I have my upper arm here, I have my forearm here, I have my hand and then I have the racket.
So we have potentially four component parts and those component parts will create a kinetic chain.
Now a kinetic chain is exactly like a normal chain. If I had a piece of chain here with one
link and I hit myself, nothing's going to happen. If I put the same energy in, the same momentum,
the same force with two links and now I'll feel it, three links that's going to hurt, four links
that's going to hurt a lot. Now let's try and look at the serve in the same way. I'm just working
with the arm here, so I'm now going to from here move as much as possible with one unit. My arm and
racket are going to be trapped together and probably 80% of the people watching this video,
that's your service action and it's tremendously limited. It is going to create a fraction of the
power that I can actually get when I segment the stroke. Now I'm going to break the stroke into two
and I'm going to make a wrist snap. So I'm going to keep my arm straight but I'm going to create a
wrist snap. Now for those of you who are the coaches out there that say we shouldn't use a
wrist snap, this is not true. There should be a wrist snap but it should be a byproduct of the
elbow snap. It shouldn't be a movement in its own right but it should be present. So now I make the
stroke and I add the wrist snap and when I add the wrist snap instantly I have much more force
because now I have two links in the chain. But now we want to add the third link and so the third link
is the elbow and I'm going to try and make sure that my elbow turns and bends as I make contact
with the ball, again working entirely with the arm. So now and this is a much stronger movement.
The sound is different, the speed is different and it's easier but there is still the potential
for the fourth link in the chain and the fourth link in the chain is the separation of the upper
arm from the lower arm and to do this we have to pronate. So what I'm now going to do is allow the
wrist to snap. It will be a byproduct of the elbow. I'm going to break the elbow so that the upper arm
and the forearm are in different angles and different positions and I'm going to rotate my
hand outwards and to do that the easiest way is to feel the thumb going downwards. So first a shadow
stroke and now the serve and this is way faster and much much much easier. Let's just go through
a shadow with all of them in this direction. Non-segmented, isolating the wrist, allowing the
elbow to break and pronating. When I segment all four parts then what happens is when I swing
without the racket you should be able to see a kind of juddering movement of the elbow as energy
is delivered out through my arm and in this case into the hand. I had the racket, it's delivered
into the racket. I had the ball and it's delivered effortlessly into the ball. So test your service.
If you can serve sitting in a chair and still make a successful, powerful, consistent serve then you
know you've got the correct arm action and you're going to have a great serve. If you like my ideas
on tennis check out what we're doing online. I'm helping players all over the world with a unique
blend of video analysis and one-to-one coaching or check out our books on Amazon. We have books on
every aspect of the game and the books break down the strokes into the biomechanics and the science
of the strokes and then super simple solutions with great illustrations. Everything we do is
designed to help you become the best tennis player you can and become the best version of yourself.
And when I break the serve down into a segmented stroke with the racket, the hand, the forearm and
the upper arm totally independent of one another then even sitting in a chair I can make a solid
quality high-level serve. Apply these into your serve and I don't suggest you use the chair but
even sitting down you'll have more power than you do today. Thanks for watching and see you
next time for more unique tennis lessons that really worked.
