Andy's Busy, Now What?

Knee Bend or Wrist Snap?
A secret I have found to more powerful serves is have Andy Roddick hit them for me. However, there are so many times when he is not available I am forced to serve on my own. I guess it's time consuming being engaged to a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. Bummer.

In the reader questions area of TENNIS magazine about two years ago someone asked what had a bigger impact on service speed; wrist snap or knee bend/jump? When watching the pros it's easier to identify the knee bend and jump into the court, they all do it. But watching the wrist snap is harder to see.

To answer this question, TENNIS magazine referenced a study about wheelchair tennis players. Since there is obviously no knee bend, all the service speed can be attributed to arm and wrist motion. They found that wrist snap is responsible for more service speed than an able bodied player bending their knees and jumping.

Personally, there are so many moving parts on me when I serve I often forget about this last necessary step but if you can coordinate many things at once, try BOTH the wrist snap and a knee bend that will propel you into the court after you hit the ball.

Keep in mind that service speed is probably overrated. Consider these stats from Roddick and Federer from the Australian Open, semi-finals: SERVING STATS

.................... Roddick .....Federer

Avg Speed -1st .....128 ........117

Avg Speed - 2nd ....107 ........97

First serve % .........65 .........66

Aces ....................8 .........16

Dbl Faults ..............2 ..........0

Looks like the bigger server should have won, but of course Fed prevailed 6-2, 7-5, 7-5. And despite serving slower than Roddick, he had twice as many aces. Placement of serves and varying your serve, especially at the high school level will yield many more service return errors than the big 100 mph heater up the middle, or into the body.