Watch "Flat Serve vs. Slice Serve": kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d89md9OH3qfKlI0.html

Great great great lesson! The tennis community needs more of this and not these wacky so called tennis coaches that have watched video, broken down serve motions, and made them into artificial mechanical checkpoints.

I've subscribed to a good few coaches on here, and I've learned a lot, but, having just discovered your site, I've already decided you're one of the best. Thanks, Meike.

One thing is missing from this lesson which greatly helped me. Ball toss timing. My mental picture was wrong. You DON'T toss the ball and then begin your service motion. That creates a mental lag moment that forces you to CATCH UP to the ball in the air. Instead, your service motion BEGINS with the ball toss. The toss STARTS the tempo of the rest of the motions in the serve. Roddick is the best example for rec players. His racket is stretched in the starting position behind him, and service motion follows right behind the toss.

1 year later, after so many little changes, i will now work on #3. going up instead of going forward like a baseball throw. thanks.

Dear Meike, thank you for this advance tutorial, soooo helpful, i used to step forward my left leg after loading and swinging the ball [i am lefty], aside from it looks awkward, this fixes my leg movement which you perfectly pointed out, it is paying dividends so far! BlessYa / subscribed too !

This is the best take on the serve on youtube I’ve found, and I have watched quite a few

I’ve been working on my serve for months now and was over-rotating a lot when I was initially learning….. I fixed it mostly, but this video (and your other serve videos) really drilled down the details and information I need to have a proper serve. Thanks for creating this YT channel!! I only wished I discovered this information sooner! Can’t wait til your channel hits 10k and many more!

Thanks for this lesson Coach Meike! Great video!

You are such a great passionate coach, thanks! 👍 now I understand hip over hip, stay sideway, chest up, and many tips! Can't wait to try!

Thank you so much! From someone who is totally new to tennis (as an adult) and has watched a lot of videos,, this is by far the best and clearest video I have seen on serving.. I have been very confused til now, as I've heard nearly all of these in the short time since I started (including a couple of in-person lessons). You have clarified SO much in one single video, and it's very exciting! I'm so glad I came across your channel, and am very excited to start practising again, with clearer cues and a lighter head! Congrats on your excellent teaching style and thanks again, I look forward to learning much more here.

This video contains good information. When I was trying to stick my hip forward I began to get back pain, that was the end of that. I agree that loading the legs and the shoulders is key, it has meant an enormous improvement on my serve. Before I didn't use the legs :-(. The "back scratch" part maybe could be explained as follows: Imagine drawing a letter U behind your back, where the tip of the racquet goes down near the left shoulder, and goes up outside the right shoulder. Also when the racquet is going down, the right shoulder should start going up. Thanks

That hip pushing forward was drummed into me in the 90s and I remember thinking even then as a teenager ‘I can’t load my legs properly when I’m pushing this bloody hip forward’😂 glad I figured that out naturally…The ‘throw’ though not exactly a pitchers throw, I found through my years coaching kids was beneficial in their understanding to not stop and ‘scratch their back’ if that’s what they were doing…I’d simply ask them to throw a ball(up on an angle) and if their throw was good I’d just say to pretend you’re throwing your racquet at the ball…that really worked well actually but I understand what you’re saying with the exact biomechanics of it all..that ‘back scratch’ analogy ruined so many kids, unless they were really natural they just couldn’t break the habit without a hell of a lot of work

Meike, great video but the tennis serve is very much like a throw if you tilt the axis up as you said. Nick Bolleteri produced a video decades ago and actually tilted a baseball pitcher upward and super imposed it over a tennis player hitting a serve. The motions were very very much alike when they were overlayed. A baseball pitcher is on a mound and is actually throwing down to a target 60 feet away. A tennis server is hitting over a 3 foot net and the ball is landing roughly 60 feet away. The tennis serve is like an upward throwing motion. In reality, the racket swing path is upward and to the right of contact for a right handed player. A baseball pitcher does open up more because they are throwing downward. But, if you put the pitcher's arm path in line with the server's arm path, you would see the motions are almost identical.

So wonderful to hear the myths along with the correct mechanics. Great video! ❤🎾

That’s nuts! Squirrel in the background. LOL😂

Great lessons - logical, and clearly explained!

"Cocking position" ?! It took me such a long time to figure it out myself and I just couldn't explain that feeling. "Cocking position" just sounds perfect. Thank you so much for all the advices.

Great instruction. I never followed the whole notion of “it’s like throwing a ball.” That visualization never worked for me. I learned so much from this video - now, I have to implement into my motion. Thanks, so much! /s/ Alfonso Faustino

So glad I discovered your channel today. Finally someone is using the most important word in tennis: CUES

You have lived my nightmare with regards to just using the arm and trying to increase the racket speed.... At one point i was even using the wrist. I think i would start to load instead. Start all over again. Thank you for your knowledge.

Excellent. Thank you 😀

excellent information thank you

Coach Meike, this is a great lesson on the serve. For a free lesson, I think we the viewers get our “money” ‘s worth ! 😄 About two months ago, a pretty well known online coach claimed in his video titled “ the serve is definitely a throwing arm motion “ that the serve, well, is definitely a throwing arm motion. And I think it is his response to another well known online coach who said that the serve is definitely NOT a throwing arm motion two weeks earlier. I think, for now, the good guys won, 2 to 1. 😄 What you said in this video is convincing. The serve in some aspect is similar to throwing a baseball, but there are major differences that make the serve unique, as you pointed out. Also, as the other coach who is on your side said, “ the serve is using a tool, the racket, to strike a ball, not to throw at the ball”. One may argue that the two motions are close enough. I disagree, because as people who have played more than 2 years would know, a little difference in swing path can produce quite a big difference in outcome. Thanks a lot, coach Meike ! Looking forward to more good teaching.

Thank you for this video! Your breakdown of the serve is clear and concise. Please continue teaching us. Your channel will undoubtedly continue to grow 👍🏻

What a great video Meike! 🙏🏼🙌🏼

Thank You for creating this channel. I love watching Your videos. This is kind of knowledge I was looking for, simple, easy to understand and full of details at same time :) I improved a lot by watching them. Thanks again 👍

Hi Such a helpful video. I’m rebuilding basic stroke fundamentals (no games for now). At John Craig’s suggestion, I threw thousands of balls up at my contact point to learn the shoulder over shoulder motion & pronation with my non dominant (left) side due to R shoulder pain. Oddly, as my shoulder improved, I found that my right side learned the motion as well or better with no practice. Having success placing the ball into the swing vs chasing the toss to “hit” the ball. Thanks for reminder on kinetic chain. Cheers Jeff

Great value, great content, I subscribed

You are a breath of fresh air with this video I know your generalizing the serve but should I do what your saying for slice or flat or both serves.

Looks like I have my Spring/Summer project - what a fantastic and clearly explained video!

This is the best explanation I’ve seen on the 3 steps! Love this, and will be using this with my left arm😄!

Great advice. I've been trying to analyze and improve my serve, and I think all your points fit into what I've experienced.🏆

Great video!

To bardzo mądre i cenne uwagi, będę stosował w praktyce!

Excellent video 🤗

I am somebody who learned to serve from you guys in the youtube era. I might say that the old school tips where not wrong, but that they were *almost* correct. I suspect that in the future we may say that "stay side-on" was also a myth. A lot of things are happening in the modern serve because of body rotation, but it is not the same rotation as the pitcher's rotation.

Great - wonderful break down of serve mechanism so much misinformed until now. Thanks for your professional content shared here. I am the one who found a true joy of life through tennis lately at my senior age in San Francisco. I will definitely subscribe your load from now on.

This is a great video from clearly someone who knows the score. I would pay to see more from you. Thanks. 🙏👏👏

I agree and endorse your advice on the serving techniques you demonstrated. Being only 5’6” and 140 lbs. I learned to use my legs and core to help generate power/ pace on my serve and ground strokes. Being 5’6” I had to hit up on the serve to get in over and deep in the service box. I played a lot of basketball so I understood putting an arch on the ball to make it drop. One of my drill that I have used when teaching the serve is to have players stand outside the court fence and try to hit a serve up and over the fence. Then bring them in side and have them try to hit serves from the back fence over the net. The objective of the drill is to instill the idea of hitting up and using your legs to generate the up idea that you explained.

Nicely laid. Thumbs up

Amazing lesson. I always thought those tips were wrong especially the up together. I am going to look at you site to see if you have a video on the ball toss while you are loading.

Thanks Meike, you look really smart and this lesson is one of your best ones. It is going to help lots of tennis players

love this channel, thanks meike

It's amazing thanks. Can you please explain how to toss when serving from right and left?

The throwing thing is more about getting the elbow away from the body, not focusing on the lower body, which I totally agree with you on. Some players keep their elbow too close to their bodies. By getting their elbows up into a throwing position they can get the feeling of where the elbow should be in relation to their bodies and can get more velocity and smooth motion in their service motion.

Best KZfaq lessons. Thank you

I'm so glad i found your channel.

its very helpful thank you

Super helpful, Meike! I had been struggling for months with hitting serves long. Good serves, just consistently long. By concentrating more on loading my back leg and moving up and out, BAM, right in the box. Consistently. Thank you so much for the help!

Thank you Meike!

Great! Thank you! Vielen Dank!

Danke Meike, this is a great video. Best regads

ALL TRUE. FACTS. IMPRESSIVE

Excellent stuff

THANK YOU. I teach the serve exactly the way you talk about it. There are a few male teaching pros on KZfaq who should really study your video. I saw one in particular talk about the throwing motion for 10 minutes. I noticed that the pro he was with in the video was very polite but didn't really agree. Then there's the pro who says 90 to 95% of serve power comes from the arn and all of the time he is de emphasizing the legs. Thank you so much for this. It should be required viewing for everyone.

Thanks Meike for your increadible analysis. Extremely helpful. Ich habe Meikes Channel seit November 2021 abonniert, weil ich mit 66 Jahren zumindest im Tennis immer noch lernwillig und lernfähig bin. Ich spiele seit 52 Jahren Tennis (mit 14 Jahren Unterbrechung) und geniesse jetzt die vielen Senioren-Turnier-Angebote. Meikes Videos geben detaillierte Einblicke in die biomechanischen Bewegungsabläufe des modernen Tennis und liefern wertvolle Tipps für Mannschafts- und ambitionierte Hobbyspieler. Das Aufräumen mit veralteten, aber immer noch weit verbreiteten Tennismythen hat mir sehr geholfen. Lernbereitschaft, Zeit, Ballkorb, Handy bzw. Digicam + Stativ, und natürlich Meikes Videos, machen den Aufwand überschaubar. Meikes Expertinnen-Wissen -als ehemalige deutsche Weltranglisten-Spielerin- hat deutlich mehr Abonnenten verdient. Immerhin ist der deutsche Tennisverband mit ca. 1,4 Mio. Mitgliedern der wohl größte auf der Welt. Hier liegt also noch jede Menge Potential. Daher habe ich bewusst auf Deutsch geschrieben, obwohl Meike aufgrund ihrer beruflichen Basis in Colorado sich tendenziell eher an die amerikanische Zielgruppe richtet. Wish you all the best, health and success.

Dear Babel, good evening, I always tried to learn how to correct my service, I watched many videos and lessons on the internet!!!, but until today I had not found something so precise, clear and understandable in detail !!!! Thank you for transmitting your knowledge!!!! Thank you very much, I write to you from Argentina, and I greet you very cordially. I'm sorry, I'm having trouble with the language.

Gracias . cuando se utiliza la lógica de la mecánica la cosas se comprenden mucho mejor.

Excellent

I have shown this video to my son a few times. Good job. Where are you based for lessons in case we are ever traveling and want some lessons for my son and daughter. Thanks and keep up the great work.

Great video. Speaking of Boris Becker: can you explain how he brought his right leg forward during his serve motion? Also, and more importantly to me, can you discuss his pronation? Thank you!

such a wonderful video shall be shared and viewed by more tennis players.

Good video. A certain famous European coach teaches the serve as a throwing motion. He had multiple IG videos demonstrating it.

Nice work, and tragic that so many coaches (especially those who themselves grew up in an era where they should not have heard these cues) are still cueing, and this seems more evident in the top 10-50 WTA players in the past decade. Nice to see less of it in the youngest of the top 20 now, especially less of the exaggerated lateral hip shift. Some further details I hope will add clarity that what we say as coaches has to the be both the yes and the no for each analogy we hope is a short cut to student understanding (does a picture tell a thousand words, or can it only remind us of ones we already understood?). The confusion around the hip shift should be corrected by a "no" regarding the point in the total range of motion of a joint where the agonist muscle has maximum contraction; it's not at the point where it is most stretched. We can use lifting objects across simpler to understand joints, such as in a bicep curl to help the doubters believe by feel, that there is a point mid range that controls the greatest weight and force. The serve arm is exactly like an effective overhand throw (gets them nodding in agreement), but only in the arm, not even in the scapula. Explaining how making them in the same plane would negate the value of having an extra lever in the serve has worked well for me. "Up together" is a very good first step while correcting the hip misconception, but only to a 10 and 2 clock position, especially to show how the later resulting elevation of the tossing hand to 11/11.30 (for RH player) almost always simultaneously relaxes the hitting arm elbow. If needed a small addition of weight ie an indian club to the racquet hand aids understanding that the vertical forearm is the easiest to prepare for nt needing a back scratch. The sad thing about "back scratch" is that even the examples in coaching manuals of the 70s didn't really do it. A recent fb sequence of the "classic" Newcombe serve had people questioning whether he was back scratching; when a rear view would show the distance from his back. The point in the racquet where his inversion takes place has further changed in the modern serve. The side view did show the lesser hip action and leg drive you explain so well as necessary for speed in the arm.

Never followed you before…but I am doing this now😀I saw plenty of plenty videos about serve, and many of them showed that you suppose to throw the racket, but it is not correct😀thanks for good inspiration😇

i'm so happy you are debunking those myths. I see still a lot of people teaching those tips. I totally understand where they are coming from (because it is a 3.0/3.5 beginner instruction channel, etc) but misinformation shouldn't be implied, it should be explicit. People who are fed those information should know that those are only because it is there to help guide them, but not as the ultimate truth.

Hey great stuff here :) Appreciate your love for the game :) I'm tennis coach (30yo) doing this job for a life for a few years and your advices are pretty cool :) Always in mood to learn from experienced coaches :) Cheers :)

Hello Meike, I have a question: It is about the position of loading and releasing energy. The first part when you explain it with the feet apart, I understand the sequence perfectly, now I would like to please detail a little more that sequence (charge and energy release), when in the last part of the video you join the feet together. Thank you very much!!!! Greetings!!!!

good stuff

Great helpful video on a very difficult topic --- the serve. I've been playing for 30-40 years; during last 2 years I've gone back to taking lots and lots of lessons, to correct flaws here and there so I can play tennis better with more fun. One common source of problem I notice is the problem of communication between coaches and students. The choice of words and phrases used by the coach are often not the best way to describe what the coach wanted ... hence the wording is misinterpreted by the student who is literally following those words. For example, yesterday, as I was practicing serving a basket of balls working on serving wide on the deuce court, my coach said "toss further out front". After a few unsuccessful improvements until I finally got it right, we later discovered it would have been more precise to say "toss further to the left". From where the coach stands as a viewer, "toss further out front" is not exactly wrong since the ball is indeed further into the court area; but from my perspective as a server, its more accurate if he said "toss further to the left" (for right-handers). Inexperienced players / beginners can often cling for years to the words a coach uses such as "pitcher's throw" or "back-scratch", therefore choice of words is important.

Brilliant

pros like frances tiafoe do arms up together, and carlos alcarez brings hip over baseline, that's why its hard to train these habits out of amateur players. patrick mouratalglou also teaches baseball throw. there needs to be a tennis association that gets everyone on one page

Excellent Excellent Excellent

Thx

I’ll go with Sam Groth as most extreme load. As far as pitching they tend to cherry pick their examples. Tim Lincecum and other pitchers who throw overhand are more similar to serve motions. I did something foolish as I was about to play the finals of an old guy tournament. I tried using my 2nd serve (topspin/kick) load for my first serve. Normally I tend to get the hip out and open early on the first serve, an old habit from being taught the serve in the serve and volley days. Surprisingly it worked well.

The last line is the key to serve.

Good video as usual. Question, what is the best way to make sure weight is on rear leg during loading? Should I have it planted on ground? See pros have heel off ground but they have extreme coils. I’m older though so not that flexible. Lol thanks

You are det best teachet i hever hathe i, 73 fantastic

What a nice way to start the week with such a great video ! Excellent tips about some myths that fall apart regarding the correct execution of the serve and perfect exemplification. Really good Meike !

Hi! I love this video! I’ve been having trouble with my racquet drop and getting into that cocking position. Do you have any recommendations on getting a deeper drop. All my coaches keep telling me to do the back scratch to try and fix it, but now I know they are wrong!

Do you have a video on how to get the correct loading position and transitioning to the racket drop into contact? I always have trouble doing this motion naturally

Good points. I want to ask about a couple of things I've seen in other instructional videos from others. One is 1) there's no jumping at the ball during serves (your momentum forces you up like a jump) 2) Pronation...one guy says to pronate, the other says it comes natural. What say you?

Thanks for the great lesson Meike! I'll have to admit, knowing you have had shoulder troubles, I cringe every time you take a swing! Stay healthy!

Wonderful instruction. The only pro I can think of who actually does do down-together-up-together, or a motion very close to that, is Stan Wawrinka.

Is this filmed in my local court?! Palmer park in Detroit!

Would you please show where the toss should be for topspin serve ? thanks

Do I flick ( flex ) the wrist in a down movement or do I keep it strait?

The one big wrong information I was taught by coaches was scratching the back. Back then I could not imagine how that would be done without feeling awkward, so I resorted to watching TV to see how the pro served. McEnroe was too unconventional, so I looked at Lendl, but throwing the ball as high as Lendl didn't work for me, as amateur tosses are always bad with a high toss. It's not until I watched Ivanisevic that I found the motion that worked for me in a consistent manner. Of course I don't have the speed, but I was able to control placement and achieve consistency much better and with a speed that is fast enough to get aces when I hit the spot.

Stan the man still uses arms up together 😄

I’m still modernizing. Unfortunately, I feel like I’ll be modernizing until I can’t play anymore. Lol, good lesson here. I don’t like to get into the throw-no throw argument, but instead focus more on where the energy is sent and how best to send it. 👍

Would it be possible to start running before tossing?

More like a football throw. But lots of elements of throwing a baseball overhand not 3/4 or sidearm are definitely the same.

Based on your teaching/analysis, specifically to the variation of the stands; platform or pin point, do you think one or the either has a better advantage in terms of loading the hips?

Isner, Opelka ... ? Ooo, why not Federer, Thiem, Roddick, Becker and Johnny Mac ? Mac demonstrates emphatically why the arms raise up asymetrically not together as one.

Hi. Sometime when i serve, i fell on the left side. Im right handed. How can I correct that? Thanks

Regarding mistake #4 - I have footage from the W&S tournament of Stan Wawrinka bringing both arms up together. I wonder if he's one of the few players who do this? Everything after that looks great and "normal".

Thank you for the video that forces to clarify the ideas. I partly agree. A throwing motion is indeed not exactly like a tennis serve but it's a good basis and there a good fundamentals, just throw more up in the air and it's much closer. Hip in front is not a bad advice in my opinion, the rest of the motion has to be checked. Scratch your back is definitely a bad advice, because nothing needs to be done consciously during the racquet drop. Arms up together is not bad either if you stop the hitting arm before the tossing arm, up together does not mean at the same height together ; the feeling is that the racquet goes up at the same time the arm tosses the ball. All the power does not come obviously from the arm, we need to use the whole body but a lot of power comes from the pronation and the internal shoulder rotation. If you push with your legs, rotate the trunk, and don't do the following well, the ball won't go fast.

Awesome job! What if your knees are shot and you really can’t load, or you can load and not explode? Asking for a friend.

Great lesson - but Venus and Serena threw a lot of footballs growing up (and I think they still might) - and it hasn't seemed to hurt their serves.