The Best Hack for a Better Tennis Serve for Tennis Players at ANY LEVEL
If you’re struggling with your tennis serve consistency, in this video I’ll show you the one “tennis hack” that I love: The ABBREVIATED serve motion.
If you have trouble getting into the correct loading position reducing the tennis serve to its absolute basics is the way to go.
Watch this video if you want more drills for the correct loading position: • How To Serve With MORE...
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What a great teacher!! Wish I had a coach like you here! Congrats and thank you!
When serving, thinking of too much info could be detrimental. I only think three things: toss high, reach high and snap my wrist. Toss is everything for me. If I can toss to the one o’clock position and little in front of me, I will have a good serve.
Yes, keeping it simple
That is what works for me. Also, thank you Meike for this excellent tip!
You are 100% correct. Very well explained. 1 o’clock and just a little bit in front and pronate.
@@awa3374 pronate is 1/3rd of the movement though…
Hi, you are an amazing teacher. Your energy and enthusiasm are very contagious! Thank you 🙏🏻
great video again, i'll try next time as the full service swing in not helping me to serve. Half service does not mean weak serve. And welcome to Spain
Yes, so true! If it helps you make your serve more consistent you’re on your way!
What a brilliant idea! As long as you get to that ‘loading position’, it doesn’t really matter how you get there. Thanks, Meike.👍
This is awesome Meike!! Thank you!!
another great lesson ! thank you very much, and great video too
How thankful for this! Comfort in thinking that the abbreviated method is a problem with such highly accomplished players, too
Very very good. Simple and basics as u explained definitely goes well. I'm 74 years old and I practice to serve every day. I' ve achieved my dream. I love you.
this is an excellent video I have tried Garcia's serve before with mixed results. I tried again today, maybe 25 serves and not bad. Getting into the tilt position and keeping feet stationary helps. I am only 4.0 NTRP and my serve always my weakest shot. thanks for video
Great video! Many thanks! greetings from BCN
Hi, yes, great video. Interesting to me, because I've been working on correcting late trophy position (and not much racquet drop). And I saw a Patrick Mont.. vid, where he just did some serves starting from the trophy position. They were just smooth, relaxed semi-powerful serves. So I tried that and it was an excellent exercise. I think it teaches us the muscle memory for that part of the serve and we can always add before it, once we get used to it. Thanks for sharing.
I always practice this.and I always do this with my students, but after 10 years I learned a few new new things and I'm excited to learn more......
Iga abbreviates her serve now too
Incredible work, I really appreciated that you are videoing it on a lesser perfect court !
Yeah, it’s not a great court but you take what you can get
I love your clear explanations, thank you
Thank you
Hello Meike. Welcome to Spain. I love your videos and I hope you the best here at your new home.
Cool explanation. I'll try it
Thanks for a great explanation! Super helpful!
You’re very welcome
amazing tips like always Meike. I would like to play on that court. it has personality on it and it would be interesting.
Hello Meike, this is a great video. I'm a good player (4.5 US - 15/1 France) in my fifties and the serve has always been a strong suit in my game. But your video made me realize that I was loading equally on both legs, if not slightly more on the front leg. I consciously focused on loading on the back leg on a match I played last night, and got an instant bump in speed as well as consistency. I guess that not loading enough on the back leg means "falling" into the ball and not clearing the net as well, and also hampering the weight transfer which takes away power. So now, I am basically down to only 3 things I really focus on when I serve: 1) keep my (left) tossing arm high as long as I can, 2) keep my (right) hitting hand and wrist as relaxed as possible, 3) load on the back leg. If I do these 3 things, I am going to serve well. Funnily enough, my right hamstring is a bit sore today. I must have been doing something right ;-)
This is brilliant
Thank you so much. ❤
Congratulations and so exciting on your new move!
Thank you!!
Love your videos - your skills as a pedagog are really the best - This video and Ryan's "birthday hat serve" are two videos I can comfortably share with any of my tennis friends who struggle with serve, knowing they will get a lot of things resolved - I hope you will have a wonderful time i Spain on your new tennis-academy
Wow, thank you!
Just gave you a thumbs up for acknowledging how difficult & complicated serving is in tennis. Thanks
I struggled with it a lot so I know the pain!
This really works - I have been doing it for a few months and 1st and 2nd serve percentages have gone way up. Just need to do the topspin serve a little differently but there is no other drawback that I see yet.
Good points. I find I can serve just as well if not better with an abbreviated action. Going for placement is more important than power
I agree!
Phenomenal video. Thanks.
Glad you liked it!
Hola! Happy to see you going to Spain! And yes, great video! I actually had those same problems as you express and explain here and I did start using the new Garcia serve style and my toss is consistent…and now I’m serving like 90% to my targets and people keep saying I have a great serve. Crazy! But I’ll take it! I’m working on it with your advice and it’ll keep getting better each time I do it. Gracias Entrenadora 🎾
That is so great to hear!
What a great video! I’ve always had a big serve but as I’ve gotten older (54 yrs old now) I have instinctively moved my ball toss closer to the baseline because I no longer have the leg drive I did when I was younger. I love your García and Roddick examples. Older and recreational players listen to this lady she is speaking the truth!
Thank you! And we all have to adjust :)
Brilliant
I was washing dishes ... my video finished and this started. Love Spain...delivered a yacht to Banus in 1980 and purchased there. Was a member at Puente Romano tennis club. Borg was the pro for the month of August during the early 80s, and later Manolo Santana. Was trying to figure where you are...doesn't look like Andalucia...enjoy.
I’m in Gijon, a bit tricky for tennis because of the rain but we love it.
@@MeikeBabelTennis Sounds great...should you find yourself in the CR Panama border area have a great club with covered courts
Interesting that I have been doing this or the “half serve” and it just feels much easier. Was blasting serves with little work. No worries about the swing and timing! I can even pronate better into contact this way. I think even Iga starts a little higher at the beginning of her motion these days as well. Good stuff
Meika I’ve watched your videos and really like your simplistic methods…I agree with everything you coach apart from the one thing you’ve mentioned in your serve videos which I’m conflicted on due to the many differing opinions between coaches about loading the back leg and in particular when you’ve said ‘back heel’…I coached 15yrs and always had a pretty strong serve as a reference that I’m not a beginner spitting rubbish😅😅…I never thought about which leg I was loading much in my younger days until a friend of mine mentioned his coach was telling him to put all his weight on the back foot and drive from there, so we tried it for a while and realised it’s actually not really possible, I saw one comment on one of your videos asking how to toss the ball then if your weight is going to the back foot...and that’s a struggle, the ball toss doesn’t go up as you rock back and nor can you toss as your transferring weight forward and then get your weight back to the back heel, that’s just not natural at all…then slow motion video came along and you can see that no one actually does that, not even Boris Becker(who I thought did)they certainly load the hip as you’ve stated but it certainly looks like everyone has a bit more weight forward over the front foot during the knee bend..and everyone’s heels are up…I saw a video years ago where they had a pressure pad on the ground and showed like 60/40 weight distribution to the front foot…I’d like to see that done again and analyse a bit more because when I serve, I feel the hip loading but also more weight on the front foot so it’d be interesting to see what’s happening and when exactly and I watched Kovacs studies/videos on this any he says 60/40 in favour of the back foot which is closer than people think if that’s actually correct, I see people trying to load their back leg thinking ‘Put all my weight on back leg’ which is actually impossible to serve like and no one actually does..Thoughts?
great video, do you have any drills to synchronise leg drive and arm movement - avoding early racket drop or late leg drive?
Great to see you in Spain. Can you make videos on how to serve T and wide from ad court?
I noticed Iga has taken off some of her windup this year, too. Love this video, so helpful!
Yes! Thank you!
Totally agree with this HACK tip. I use it when I've been away from the game for awhile and need to recalibrate.
That’s a great time to use it
I am a senior citizen newcomer to tennis and I absolutely need an abbreviated tennis serve. I am no young chicken, but I want to play tennis and I want to be able to have a repeatable serve. This video is very helpful.
Then this is an either a really good start for you or you’ll just keep it forever. Either one works :-)
Very good tip.
Thank you
Good tips. I’m stalled in my progress serving. Definitely not getting into trophy with load on tight leg. Perhaps the abbreviated version will help. Thanks.
Iga Switek also does the abbreviated movement on wta
Great hack! Świątek also recently changed her take back and it is semi abbreviated. Before she had a huge take back swing.
Yes, that’s true. I didn’t think about her when making his video.
@@MeikeBabelTennis check Kateřina Siniaková serve
I'm looking forward to practicing with this method. My serve is inconsistent, mostly bad, and leads to a softball second serve. I dont need a monster serve, but I would like to dial in a consistent solid serve. Thank you for the tips.
Let me know how it goes, always good to get feedback
Great concept, thanks! I just wish you had done a few more reps. There's only a couple of actual serves done this way. More demonstrations please.
shout out to those sharp fitville shoes!
I found temporary use of abbreviated serve to be useful when reconstructing my serve recently
Many thanks, great. Where are you in spain. Regards from murcia
Thank you Meike. Do you intentionally raise your right elbow when serving?.
Even if you don't want to have a permanent abbreviated action, it is a game changer for service practice. Before you do your usual service exercises, do a series of them abbreviated like shown in this video. It lets you laser-focus on trophy position form and uncoiling properly. It feels weird the first few times, but it will help you tune even dynamic stuff like overswinging and racket drop.
Iga has simplified her serve movement recently as well
Meike, one thing I keep asking myself and answer inconclusively is: is the racquet drop a completely passive action in terms of dominant hand action and only a “side effect” of the torso rotation and leg drive, or is there a bit of a push, initiation that dominant hand makes from “L” trophy moment in order to make it happen. What I discover is that when my arm is a bit more straight in the pre trophy phase of the take back, the motion of bringing it into the “L” position (basically making a similar movement to saluting) helps the racquet kinda go over the “tipping point” and continue into the drop (Dominic Thiem or Borna Coric serves come to mind). This saluting movement momentum obviously is not the force in an abbreviated serve where the arm is already in “L” position , or even in serves with a pause at trophy phase (such as Alcaraz for example) which suggest to me that the saluting momentum is perhaps not needed. OR - perhaps there are two distinct ways of making the racquet drop - one more active using the momentum of the take back, and one more passive where the drop happens on its own. To be clear, I don’t mean the entire trajectory of the drop, but just its initial stage. Thank you so much, I hope my question makes sense.
Another excellent video! Would you say that the right elbow actually drops a little when you go into your maximum tilt and load position? I’ve been experimenting with that “feeling”’ on my serve. It also seems to help my loop.
Yes, I’d say that’s right
@@MeikeBabelTennis Thank you!
Hi Meike - now you're in Spain there's a 0.00000001% chance I might fly over from sunny Devon for a lesson :) :)
Or my camps that I will start this fall. :-) Email me at meike@meikebabel.com if you want me to put you on my email list
😂😂😂😂
oh nos, I've been using the "easy" motion as my real serve :( well need to find the full video of the pro to confirm. But yeah, I do set my weight back to counterbalance the tossing arm. The only thing I'm not sure is shifting the legs, I bend and shift/step onto the front leg as I hit the ball. Some people though keep some weight on the back leg and push off both feet. BTW, congratz on the move to Spain! vamos.
Come to Torre del Mar near Malaga x
I like the common sense in this video. In the end what you want is a well placed serve with decent speed, rather than a festival of serves going out
I've found shoulder over shoulder from the trophy pose (i.e. half serve) when hitting the ball (as opposed to shadow swings) quite difficult. What I noticed with my shadow swings is I'm not keeping my head up, but when I look up when I'm hitting the ball I'm much less steep with my shoulder over shoulder. I tried this for months and didn't fix it. Any ideas?
Hey Meike, are you playing the Vcore 100 or 98?
When I saw Roddick & Federer (3rd most aces of all time) not doing the pinpoint step, I never looked back on that part of my serve.
Hi Maike! Sorry to hear you moved away from Denver. We miss you here! -Alex D.
Your loss is my gain. A lot nearer to the UK now :). Where are you Maike?
Hi Alex! We had a great time in denver and it was so great to work with you in team Colorado
I’m in Spain. I’ll be holding camps later this autumn. If you’re interested, email me at meike@meikebabel.com and I can put you on my email list
Link in video seems to be missing?
In general, it is very hard to have a good toss while raising the racket at the same time. Too much body movement. That is why lot of players use two stages approach: toss the ball a bit higher then raise the racket. This way you can achieve a good toss since the other hand doesn’t create much movement. The disadvantage is that hitting a high-toss ball requires good timing.
I see Carlos Alcaraz using this style of serve
3:49. Has Garcia's toss landed yet?
Still rising :-)
This also looks like what iga is doing these days. Personally, I like to let the racquet drop down to generate power. This is a great drill though.
Great video! The key is target audience. Weekend warriors should NOT try to emulate pros with exact elbow, shoulder, hip, pinky finger and knee bend angles. Just stick to the basics and you'll be fine.
What kind of surface is that? It looks SUPER rough...
I got into a mess with my serve by gradually rotating too much - I actually fell over. I get tons of spin but in trying to get more speed I was over rotating. To correct I've been doing what my coach calls the 'baby serve' - I just start with the racket already dropped behind my back then load and serve. Its not top speed but its much more reliable. I'll keep experimenting but may end up with a bit of a 'Roddick'. The thing that stops me definitely deciding this route is stubbornness i.e. I should keep serving 'properly'.
I think a “rodick” serve would be a good compromise
It all starts with the Backfoot. The most underrated principle in the tennis serve. Even among the prof players.......they still don't get it.
The hack that changed my serve was when i realised my shoulders needed to be square to the net by the end of the serve.
OK kids so here's the question: if an abbreviated action is just as good why are we all taught the full monty..?
Ah, Du kommst wieder dichter an die Heimat zurück 😊. Bist Du nun (erstmal) dauerhaft in Spanien?
Ja, wir sind ganz nach Spanien gezogen. Ich mach dann hier auch camps bzw. auch Sachen in Deutschland. Email mir zu meike@meikebabel.com wenn du auf meine Newsletter Liste möchtest
I tried this but could not do it. My toss is completely tied to the movement of my lower body and racquet swing from low to high. It is a good hack if you can do it, though.
Yes, if it doesn’t work for you, don’t force it.
Not sure why so many instructors make a big deal out of the "shoulder over shoulder" movement. Doesn't this come naturally? Unless you're serving underhand.
1:22
I don't have the strength for all the weird stuff. I just hit the ball
*promo sm*
Awww, sorry to hear you're no longer in the U.S.
Garcia moved from Platform → Pinpoint
Pretty sure the video on the right isn’t Caro. She’s not sponsored by Nike. Went from ASICS to Yonex.
@@djgulia3656Nike -> Asics -> Yonex. She made the adjustment 20/21 I believe
sorry to say but the serve is the most natural stroke of all of them because its just a throwing motion, its teachers that make it difficult with all their expensive words . especially for recreational tennis keep it simple and just learn to throw ( forget loading , throphy , shoulder over shoulder , pronation )
And I’m sure you have an advanced degree in biomechanics?
The throwing analogy only makes sense in that you should stay loose (a better one is thinking the serve motion as whipping a towel or a whip itself), you should absolutely not be using the throwing motion for the serve though lol. It's a mechanically difficult shot for a reason. Definitely should keep the explanations simple if the player is already doing the biomechanics right, there's no need to go into super in depth, but Meike is doing a good job of keeping it simple without talking about the biomechanic intricacies like Patrick Doughtrey does (his work is more for professional and upper level players though).
I have a pretty decent throwing motion and have no problems throwing balls. I've been playing tennis since high school and have always had a subpar serve with subpar technique. Definitely not natural.
@@namtran512 well you show me how you throw a ball and i tell you how good your serve will be, its that easy . after coaching 40 years i only need to see you throwing 3 balls to know what could be wrong
@@MeikeBabelTennis not at all but i can throw and i can say i have a decent serve
How tall is he?
This isn't a "hack". Anyone that watches pro tennis has seen Garcia and a numerous women use the abbreviated motion. Many males have also started to use this motion. "Hack" is too often used as click bait... This is one of them.
But she explained it well for beginner players like me. And its very helpful and I think is all there is to be appeciative of.
Slow, slow video...
I have heard this a lot: a serve in tennis is one of the most complex and difficult movement of all sports. such a BS!!! did you ever watched sport gymnastics? most simple movements of their routine is exponentially more difficult on all levels then a serve in tennis. you screw you serve, well, you get a second serve. you screw one movement in sport gymnastics, you get injured or you can be dead. so please stop this nonsense of how difficult and complex the serve in tennis is. it is complex compared to tying your shoe-lances. and that's about it.
Mhmmm ok mr keyboard warrior. Good luck breaking 3.5 at your local club.
Well, sod off to a gymnastics channel then, and leave the rest of alone to enjoy tennis
@@johnnyguitar6697 well, look at these (at least one) and then tell me where the tennis serve stand in a category of difficulty. kzhead.info/sun/oJqre6-SeIl8aIk/bejne.html anyway, this is my argument, I hope you can come up with something more creative then being rude, but I'm slightly skeptical in that regard.
Too much talking. The “hack” doesn’t show up til 3 minutes in.