Great video, in the past I’ve been able to hit big serves and never knew how. Been struggling lately with power but after watching this and remembering the advice, halfway through a set I hit one of my biggest serves that left me quite bewildered that I could still do it. Just last night I was firing them with ease. It’s basically the complete opposite of how I thought I generated serve power. Thanks so much mate for giving me this understanding.
Excellent. Very few coaches talk about the stop of the hand to accelerate the racquet. The concept of a part of the chain locking up is also very important to understand and avoid, and keeping the chain working through the follow through.
Good video - but after trying for years to get this “snap” I finally achieved it but through one of your previous videos (where you keep the lower half from rotating with top half and creating some separation). Snap came effortlessly after doing the drills in your previous video (the one with the lesson) 👍
Tom I've started using a Tennis Whip to help focus on the continuous movement, the service rhythm, and leading with the side of the racket up to contact, and it's really helping. Another way of helping to focus on that continuous motion aspect you show at the end. 👍
Really quite advanced concepts in the vid - you've done a great job explaining them. I wouldn't have appreciated them a few years ago 😅 More importantly, you got the blue flappy thing in the basket without breaking flow 😊🎉
Well explained. Yes when the arm is fully extended at contact there is no pop & the shoulder is strained to get power. Should the arm be slightly bent at the elbow before contact & then snap.
I’ve got an idea, Tom. Do you think a change in mindset like this could help with getting a good snap: how can I swing this racket head as fast as possible without swinging my arm fast?
The whip is a snap ile. 0:02 ... "pronation" whip/snap ... same thing in my mind. All the mechanics you state is what I expect to transfer to my students also and I agree. We're not agreeing in how we say it .. but it's okay.
The snap on the serve is a great concept that I find works really well. Do you think there’s an equivalent for the forehand? For the 2 handed bh it feels to me that I can use my left hand to accelerate the head to generate more topspin but I don’t use this on all backhands (only if whipping at the feet for example). This is a bit like a snap but more a flick. How about on the forehand?
You suggested you might make a video that addressed the topic of reversing the kinetic chain, and you were as good as your word. Beyond that, this is original as all of your video analysis is, and there is so much to be said for being natural and conversational. Of course this video is not going to help everyone, and it may not even help ME significantly considering my spondylos (fused and tilted vertebrae at 83). But I am eternally optimistic and out there at every dawn to serve one basketful on every day when I don't plan round robin doubles. A second ready made idea that permanently aggrieves me is using opposite arm to brake bod so arm accelerates. Is that even a good idea if one aspires to the very specific whipping action you illustrate here? Surely a player gets to whip only once per serve and must choose carefully when and how. Ivan Lendl once rejected kinetic chain for a forehand by saying his shoulders rotated before his hips. Whether that's useful to a mortal I don't know, but am finding in the front leg predominant serve you espouse for most people in which grounded rear heel SLOWLY spirals up, the hips turn that enables this is now for support and balance, not propulsion. And the transverse stomach muscles that are going to rotate the upper bod fast and far need to start immediately from a full load. What's the best cue for this-- fire gut or fire shoulders? I say fire right shoulder since it's nearer to the ball. Always, I have thought KC, while sound bio-mechanics, is harmful to overly inventive geezers who would do better by sticking to their old strokes no matter how flawed in construction. What's wrong with KC is its then and then and then. The geezer or any student if allowed to think overly much about it is apt to make every link too much like every other and also fail, as YOU point out, to get everything going and finishing together as in a natural throw. What I most like about this video is that it is telling me to imbed a harsh whipcrack in silky smoothness before and after.
What if arm started straightening then pulled back, the way a wet towel cracks? Can the arm not get completely straight before it "stops" (or slows)? To this let us add what Simon Konov and Patrick Mouratogalu say. The phrase "Simon says" always compels. Simon says to keep knuckles up while compressing (needling) the arm. He says to lead with the heel of the hand while performing triceptic extension. Let us remove any trace of me from this instruction. Keep knuckles up and lead with heel. Patrick meanwhile says to let wrist action lead the arm. That wrist action is ulnar deviation. Again, remove me from the instruction. Let wrist action lead the lasso but combine this with stopping the hand. Where? When? How? How certainly has nothing to do with the left arm but rather is stoppage of heel of hitting hand. So, to follow the logic of this, one wants a soft gooey total bod motion that includes arm beginning to swim open. The when and where of hand stoppage is determined by what feels and works best. A part of the mystery is that knuckles up plus leading with bonking edge of hand dictates an almost rough change of direction within the molasses. It's too easy to cop out and circle off path to hit right edge of ball in a downward direction rather than left edge going up. I submit (publish) this before I try it since almost inevitably I will be disappointed. But not always.
Somebody (Tom in this case) describes the most complex part of the serve, the "kernel" that has sent thousands home moping for a hundred years. Does it not make sense to rephrase into one's own words and then head for the court? What is the cue that will best stop or slow the hand? Apt to be personal right? When I thought the elbow was what I wanted to stop, I imagined a chain link fence having practiced gently poking elbow into a real one. But now, though still using that form, I'm swimming through the transition to arm extension helped by internal shoulder rotation. And the idea of pulling back heel of the hand as in snapping a wet towel was just too rough, distracting and difficult to blend with my natural throw. An image comes to mind, a photograph in RACKET WORK: THE KEY TO TENNIS, in which the author, John M. Barnaby, is bonking a netpost with the heel of his hand. One wouldn't want a completely straight arm for that. So now I'm bonking a netpost that somehow got higher than my head, a steel one and not varnished American ash like the one at Wimbledon that Novak Djokovic recently dented. Another way of putting this is that I am imagining a precise spot in space where the heel of my hand, having smoothy circled up to the ball, stops This snaps ulnar deviation combined with last inches of arm extension which continues in the same direction but turns into fast pronation to inside which in turn triggers slow arm bend and twist that is beginning of the reverse kinetic chain or follow through or deceleration.
Will a full bonk with heel of hand be too powerful too soon? One can bonk a little but lift back of hand a little at same time to dilute this premature power. One fools around to find an effortless snap. "The racket overtakes the arm," Tom says in discussing a topspin forehand but lets this instruction apply to serve as well.
Throw the shoulder Throw the elbow Throw the racket Stop the hand for ulnar deviation combined with passive arm extension to right and active pronation to the left over decelerating rotating bending arm and decelerating shoulder and decelerating hips and decelerating knees. So with four full discs of deceleration why weren't there corresponding discs in the acceleration phase? Because of asymmetrical design in which ulnar deviation pulled and pivoted the left leg. In which transverse stomach muscles throwing the shoulders also threw the hips and right knee preceding ulnar deviation. From lopping off the toes with straight arm follow through during toss the arm should pull and bend and raise to knuckles up position with strings no higher than parallel to court. This count two of three allows shift from rear leg to front with coiling of both as the heels come up. All this action allows arm maintaining continuity to squeeze during shoulder throw and finish squeeze during the elbow throw. At that point the action looks as if the heel of the hand should lead a circular bonk around front to the ball but that would be too strong. It's a nice idea in need of dilution. Do this by pawing upward like a dog or cat as you bonk. This in turn will enable one to make contact lower on the ball. My personal consciousness turns off after the first three instructions (shoulder elbow racket). The rest must be pre-learned and drilled unless you are such a natural that all you need do is ask which way to the beach even though the water is 100 degrees.
All this must be fluid-- the seemingly endless changes along with the motion itself. The "pawing" I spoke of, e.g., may not be necessary if one has developed a straight ahead throw and then modified it to 45 degrees upward through no other device than the addition of body tilt.
A tenet of kinetic chain theory is that each link firing slows down the link just before it. If that's true perhaps one oughtn't fret too much about how to stop/slow hand-- not if it's going to happen by itself if you're not swinging too hard and you do the fast ulnar deviation to pronation one-two combo with last instant arm straightening thrown in.. KC theory says this will slow arm bend internal shoulder rotation blend now a goal I never dreamed of thinking whenever I saw it that it must be fast. Tom certainly sets this up in a video where he discusses forehand and service pronation at the same time. In the forehand with everything far in front the hand cranks before the whole arm does. Same thing on the serve. What's also producing a change is Tom's succinct instruction to throw shoulder then throw elbow then throw racket. One always is looking for a repeatable breakthrough in one's serve not to mention one Tina Turner serve better than all the rest. To claim any big breakthrough in tennis however sounds silly. Do it and most likely you will be struck by lightning. If not that you will lose at the earliest possible chance. But a series of small breakthroughs each building confident effectiveness would be okay.
The best serves I've hit is when I "try" the least. Everything is fluid, I don't even realize I hit the ball hard. Unfortunately this doesn't happen very often :P.
The snap isn't a power source, the snap is the part that gets the ball into the box. If you dont snap the ball into the box the serve goes long. Its all math. The whip refers to how loose and relaxed you are, not the racquet being mimicked like a whip, or a fly swatter, etc.
The snap is a power source ... along with everything that lead up to it. Why do they say throw and football or throw something ... without the "snap"/pronation there is no pop...
No nonsense? This is nonsense. You should know, but do not know that the neutral wrist serve is faster than the pronated serve based on simple anatomical arguments. You will notice that I said faster - not necessarily more powerful as Power (P) = Force (F) x velocity (v). Yes, this is the whip that you seek, but do not understand or appreciate because your assertion is devoid of physics knowledge in connection with human anatomy.
@@TomAllsopp Forget? I've forgotten more than you will ever know. Know this: the neutral wrist serve will be demonstrated on CBS News before the 2023 US Open. If you take your head out of your arse long enough to see it - that would improve your understanding.
P=F*V? wow I learned that Force=Mass*acceleration so I'll refrain from name calling but you don't know much about physics and certainly nothing about tennis...
@@ElSupremo5 El Supremo? You must be Mexican't because you can't understand that Power = Work/time and Work = Force x distance and velocity = distance/time. Now try to put these relationships together if you can to prove that Power = Force x velocity. We both realize that you don't know anything about physics. And probably only what some tennis turd taught you about tennis. Now go away before your mental dullness wears off on me. Returd.
Ok look it. You have your follow through all wrong, that's why you fear going 100% at a serve "FYI it's 100% on the world tour for every serve". Your not snapping deeper into the court and also the racket usually ends aound the hip or below, depending on your jump angle. THIS IS FOR FLAT OR HYBRID SERVES ONLY!!! ITS ALL ABOUT THE MATH!!! And yes you should extend as far as you can, that's a major power source, full arm extension. FIX IT!!!
Make sure you read the poem in the description…. And there’s a free kick serve video for you!
Thanks for this free and very informative lesson❤ Be following you for more lessons.
Great video, in the past I’ve been able to hit big serves and never knew how. Been struggling lately with power but after watching this and remembering the advice, halfway through a set I hit one of my biggest serves that left me quite bewildered that I could still do it. Just last night I was firing them with ease. It’s basically the complete opposite of how I thought I generated serve power. Thanks so much mate for giving me this understanding.
Excellent. Very few coaches talk about the stop of the hand to accelerate the racquet. The concept of a part of the chain locking up is also very important to understand and avoid, and keeping the chain working through the follow through.
Good video - but after trying for years to get this “snap” I finally achieved it but through one of your previous videos (where you keep the lower half from rotating with top half and creating some separation). Snap came effortlessly after doing the drills in your previous video (the one with the lesson) 👍
Excellent tip, will give it a go in the morning Tom, thank you very much 😉✔️👋🏼
BEST tip Ive ever heard about the serve. Thanks so much Tom.
You are poetic about tennis! Bravo! One can learn even from your poem!😊
The real test is whether my video transcripts are so clear that chat gpt can make a poem out of it! Haha
@@TomAllsopp this I don’t comprehend :)
Edited the typo
@@TomAllsopp ah, this was chat gpt... quite humanized :-)
Tom I've started using a Tennis Whip to help focus on the continuous movement, the service rhythm, and leading with the side of the racket up to contact, and it's really helping. Another way of helping to focus on that continuous motion aspect you show at the end. 👍
What’s a tennis whip?
Need to get my, "Tom helped me crack the whip" tennis T-shirt. great content.
'Racket as additional link' very helpful idea 🙏
Really quite advanced concepts in the vid - you've done a great job explaining them. I wouldn't have appreciated them a few years ago 😅
More importantly, you got the blue flappy thing in the basket without breaking flow 😊🎉
You are so good with these details that upgrade my game
Great video. One question: is it better/easier to use a light weight racket to stop the hand? Regards
Thanks for the video. I am not fully able to understand the stop part. Is there another video that explains bit more?
Well explained. Yes when the arm is fully extended at contact there is no pop & the shoulder is strained to get power. Should the arm be slightly bent at the elbow before contact & then snap.
I’ve got an idea, Tom. Do you think a change in mindset like this could help with getting a good snap: how can I swing this racket head as fast as possible without swinging my arm fast?
The whip is a snap ile. 0:02 ... "pronation" whip/snap ... same thing in my mind. All the mechanics you state is what I expect to transfer to my students also and I agree. We're not agreeing in how we say it .. but it's okay.
It’s not the first choice way of explaining it to players either
@@TomAllsopp I think it's perfect and I so happened I used the same word(s); like throwing any object with speed/acceleration.
Thanks , Tom. Explained very well. Should this snap thing be done/practiced actively, deliberately at least until it becomes automatic?
Yes, most things have to be done actively until it because natural. Takes time
May i know every serve need to stop? such as kick and side spin serve?thank you
Very good explanation!😊
I find these helpful; thanks.
The snap on the serve is a great concept that I find works really well. Do you think there’s an equivalent for the forehand? For the 2 handed bh it feels to me that I can use my left hand to accelerate the head to generate more topspin but I don’t use this on all backhands (only if whipping at the feet for example). This is a bit like a snap but more a flick. How about on the forehand?
I’ll see if I can do something on this
Man. Thank you coach🎉
You’re welcome
Tom the link to the mail list is not working!
Which one?
The witty-cretor one
You suggested you might make a video that addressed the topic of reversing the kinetic chain, and you were as good as your word.
Beyond that, this is original as all of your video analysis is, and there is so much to be said for being natural and conversational.
Of course this video is not going to help everyone, and it may not even help ME significantly considering my spondylos (fused and tilted vertebrae at 83). But I am eternally optimistic and out there at every dawn to serve one basketful on every day when I don't plan round robin doubles.
A second ready made idea that permanently aggrieves me is using opposite arm to brake bod so arm accelerates. Is that even a good idea if one aspires to the very specific whipping action you illustrate here? Surely a player gets to whip only once per serve and must choose carefully when and how.
Ivan Lendl once rejected kinetic chain for a forehand by saying his shoulders rotated before his hips. Whether that's useful to a mortal I don't know, but am finding in the front leg predominant serve you espouse for most people in which grounded rear heel SLOWLY spirals up, the hips turn that enables this is now for support and balance, not propulsion. And the transverse stomach muscles that are going to rotate the upper bod fast and far need to start immediately from a full load.
What's the best cue for this-- fire gut or fire shoulders? I say fire right shoulder since it's nearer to the ball.
Always, I have thought KC, while sound bio-mechanics, is harmful to overly inventive geezers who would do better by sticking to their old strokes no matter how flawed in construction.
What's wrong with KC is its then and then and then. The geezer or any student if allowed to think overly much about it is apt to make every link too much like every other and also fail, as YOU point out, to get everything going and finishing together as in a natural throw.
What I most like about this video is that it is telling me to imbed a harsh whipcrack in silky smoothness before and after.
❤ Perfect ❤
What if arm started straightening then pulled back, the way a wet towel cracks?
Can the arm not get completely straight before it "stops" (or slows)?
To this let us add what Simon Konov and Patrick Mouratogalu say. The phrase "Simon says" always compels.
Simon says to keep knuckles up while compressing (needling) the arm. He says to lead with the heel of the hand while performing triceptic extension. Let us remove any trace of me from this instruction. Keep knuckles up and lead with heel.
Patrick meanwhile says to let wrist action lead the arm. That wrist action is ulnar deviation. Again, remove me from the instruction. Let wrist action lead the lasso but combine this with stopping the hand.
Where? When? How? How certainly has nothing to do with the left arm but rather is stoppage of heel of hitting hand.
So, to follow the logic of this, one wants a soft gooey total bod motion that includes arm beginning to swim open. The when and where of hand stoppage is determined by what feels and works best.
A part of the mystery is that knuckles up plus leading with bonking edge of hand dictates an almost rough change of direction within the molasses.
It's too easy to cop out and circle off path to hit right edge of ball in a downward direction rather than left edge going up.
I submit (publish) this before I try it since almost inevitably I will be disappointed. But not always.
Somebody (Tom in this case) describes the most complex part of the serve, the "kernel" that has sent thousands home moping for a hundred years. Does it not make sense to rephrase into one's own words and then head for the court?
What is the cue that will best stop or slow the hand? Apt to be personal right? When I thought the elbow was what I wanted to stop, I imagined a chain link fence having practiced gently poking elbow into a real one.
But now, though still using that form, I'm swimming through the transition to arm extension helped by internal shoulder rotation. And the idea of pulling back heel of the hand as in snapping a wet towel was just too rough, distracting and difficult to blend with my natural throw.
An image comes to mind, a photograph in RACKET WORK: THE KEY TO TENNIS, in which the author, John M. Barnaby, is bonking a netpost with the heel of his hand. One wouldn't want a completely straight arm for that.
So now I'm bonking a netpost that somehow got higher than my head, a steel one and not varnished American ash like the one at Wimbledon that Novak Djokovic recently dented.
Another way of putting this is that I am imagining a precise spot in space where the heel of my hand, having smoothy circled up to the ball, stops
This snaps ulnar deviation combined with last inches of arm extension which continues in the same direction but turns into fast pronation to inside which in turn triggers slow arm bend and twist that is beginning of the reverse kinetic chain or follow through or deceleration.
Will a full bonk with heel of hand be too powerful too soon? One can bonk a little but lift back of hand a little at same time to dilute this premature power. One fools around to find an effortless snap.
"The racket overtakes the arm," Tom says in discussing a topspin forehand but lets this instruction apply to serve as well.
Throw the shoulder
Throw the elbow
Throw the racket
Stop the hand for ulnar deviation combined with passive arm extension to right and active pronation to the left over decelerating rotating bending arm and decelerating shoulder and decelerating hips and decelerating knees.
So with four full discs of deceleration why weren't there corresponding discs in the acceleration phase?
Because of asymmetrical design in which ulnar deviation pulled and pivoted the left leg. In which transverse stomach muscles throwing the shoulders also threw the hips and right knee preceding ulnar deviation.
From lopping off the toes with straight arm follow through during toss the arm should pull and bend and raise to knuckles up position with strings no higher than parallel to court. This count two of three allows shift from rear leg to front with coiling of both as the heels come up.
All this action allows arm maintaining continuity to squeeze during shoulder throw and finish squeeze during the elbow throw.
At that point the action looks as if the heel of the hand should lead a circular bonk around front to the ball but that would be too strong.
It's a nice idea in need of dilution. Do this by pawing upward like a dog or cat as you bonk. This in turn will enable one to make contact lower on the ball.
My personal consciousness turns off after the first three instructions (shoulder elbow racket). The rest must be pre-learned and drilled unless you are such a natural that all you need do is ask which way to the beach even though the water is 100 degrees.
All this must be fluid-- the seemingly endless changes along with the motion itself. The "pawing" I spoke of, e.g., may not be necessary if one has developed a straight ahead throw and then modified it to 45 degrees upward through no other device than the addition of body tilt.
A tenet of kinetic chain theory is that each link firing slows down the link just before it. If that's true perhaps one oughtn't fret too much about how to stop/slow hand-- not if it's going to happen by itself if you're not swinging too hard and you do the fast ulnar deviation to pronation one-two combo with last instant arm straightening thrown in..
KC theory says this will slow arm bend internal shoulder rotation blend now a goal I never dreamed of thinking whenever I saw it that it must be fast.
Tom certainly sets this up in a video where he discusses forehand and service pronation at the same time. In the forehand with everything far in front the hand cranks before the whole arm does. Same thing on the serve.
What's also producing a change is Tom's succinct instruction to throw shoulder then throw elbow then throw racket.
One always is looking for a repeatable breakthrough in one's serve not to mention one Tina Turner serve better than all the rest.
To claim any big breakthrough in tennis however sounds silly. Do it and most likely you will be struck by lightning. If not that you will lose at the earliest possible chance.
But a series of small breakthroughs each building confident effectiveness would be okay.
The best serves I've hit is when I "try" the least. Everything is fluid, I don't even realize I hit the ball hard. Unfortunately this doesn't happen very often :P.
2:04
Love the socks
The snap isn't a power source, the snap is the part that gets the ball into the box. If you dont snap the ball into the box the serve goes long. Its all math. The whip refers to how loose and relaxed you are, not the racquet being mimicked like a whip, or a fly swatter, etc.
Your knowledge hasn’t improved. I appreciate your effort though.
@@TomAllsopp and why's that?
The snap is a power source ... along with everything that lead up to it. Why do they say throw and football or throw something ... without the "snap"/pronation there is no pop...
No nonsense? This is nonsense. You should know, but do not know that the neutral wrist serve is faster than the pronated serve based on simple anatomical arguments. You will notice that I said faster - not necessarily more powerful as Power (P) = Force (F) x velocity (v). Yes, this is the whip that you seek, but do not understand or appreciate because your assertion is devoid of physics knowledge in connection with human anatomy.
Did you forget I’ve seen your serve, and demo of this wrist action. Ridiculous
@@TomAllsopp Forget? I've forgotten more than you will ever know. Know this: the neutral wrist serve will be demonstrated on CBS News before the 2023 US Open. If you take your head out of your arse long enough to see it - that would improve your understanding.
Haha can’t wait. Can you post a video talking about this please? I’ll pin the link
P=F*V? wow I learned that Force=Mass*acceleration so I'll refrain from name calling but you don't know much about physics and certainly nothing about tennis...
@@ElSupremo5 El Supremo? You must be Mexican't because you can't understand that Power = Work/time and Work = Force x distance and velocity = distance/time. Now try to put these relationships together if you can to prove that Power = Force x velocity. We both realize that you don't know anything about physics. And probably only what some tennis turd taught you about tennis. Now go away before your mental dullness wears off on me. Returd.
Ok look it. You have your follow through all wrong, that's why you fear going 100% at a serve "FYI it's 100% on the world tour for every serve". Your not snapping deeper into the court and also the racket usually ends aound the hip or below, depending on your jump angle. THIS IS FOR FLAT OR HYBRID SERVES ONLY!!! ITS ALL ABOUT THE MATH!!! And yes you should extend as far as you can, that's a major power source, full arm extension. FIX IT!!!
Another brilliant comment. Thanks!
@@TomAllsopp 🤣