It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the serve in the modern game is important. In the past, this was mostly true on the men’s side, but today, female tour players can hit bombs just as well. And although there’s a saying in the tennis world that goes something like “you’re only as good as your second serve”, I’d argue the opposite – it’s the first serve in today’s game that’s a BIGGER factor.
Don’t believe me? Look at the stats (Table 1 & 2). The top 10 servers on the WTA in 2016 won between 69%-76% of first serve points. That’s almost 3 out of every 4 points when they got their first serve in. On the other hand, only 6 WTA pros had a second serve winning percentage. So every time you miss a first serve, it’s basically a flip of the coin whether you’ll win that point – might as well just feed the ball down the centre of the court and play out the point from there! If you weren’t convinced before that the first serve is a BIG deal, you should be by now.
The formula seems pretty simple then. Get your first serve in and you’ll win more points. But hold on, is it really that easy? Just getting the first serve in isn’t the whole story. If you were to look at the top 10 first serve percentage leaders on the WTA from 2016, you’ll notice that only 2 of them we’re ranked inside the top 20 (Bacsinszky at 15 and Suarez-Navarro at 12) and the remainder we’re all outside of the top 50. So the quality of the first serve is even more important than getting the first serve in. And although there are a variety of factors that could contribute here (ball placement, spin etc) it’s serve speed that might just be the driving factor.
Check out table 3 – out of the top 10 best 1st serve percentages from 2016, 6 of them made the top 20 rankings for fastest serves at this year’s Australian Open. And 3 of those 6 had pretty good results – Williams was champion, Pliskova made the quarters and Coco made the semis.
While when it comes to hitting big serves, we generally assume that being tall is a must…but out of the top 10 from Table 1, 5 of them were 5’10” or shorter. Yes, taller players still have a biomechanical advantage but the gap is narrowing. In 2012, a study published in the scientific journal, Sports Biomechanics, out of the 4 majors, body height for the ladies accounted for 24-35% of the influence on first serve speed. So there’s definitely more to serving big then just height. There are likely a number of other factors at play, including racquet & string technology…but sport science tells us there’s more to it than that. Most players have strength & conditioning coaches & physiotherapists that travel with them full-time making sure they’re in top form year round. Furthermore, the advances in sport science and training theory have helped players reach higher levels of strength & power, which transfer to many strokes, including the serve.
Let’s take a closer look at how strength & conditioning methods have affected serve speed in the female game.
Strength Training & The Serve
Many in the tennis world believe lifting heavy weights make your movements slow. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, strength training will improve neuromuscular capabilities of most athletes. Basically, you’re training your nervous system to call upon type 2 muscle fibers more frequently and more efficiently. It’s the type 2 muscle fibers that are associated with explosive movements. Also, heavy strength training improves force output. Why is this important for tennis? First, you’ve gotta understand that the more force you push into the ground, more force can be exerted into the initiation of a movement (this is based on Newton’s law – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). So to have a better first step, you need to generate more force!
But you’re probably wondering how strength training helps the serve? Here’s an example based on the work by Kraemer (2003). This research group put an NCAA female tennis team through 9-months of strength training. They tested the athletes before they began training and again at the 4,6 and 9 month marks. The results…all performance measures improved including groundstroke velocities, leg strength, upper-body strength – AND MOST IMPORTANT FOR US, SERVE SPEED! Serve velocities increased at each testing interval and overall, improved by 29% over the 9-month period. There are a few factors that contributed to these increases. First, there was a variation in training volume and intensity – i.e. heavy day, moderate day and light day – this is critical as it allows for better recovery between training sessions and more positive long-term adaptations. Secondly, because heavy loads were regularly used – above 80% of their 1 rep max (1RM) – female players recruited more type 2 muscle fibers…remember, these are critical for the generation of power & explosive actions!
Video of Genie Bouchard in the Weight Room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fErMlEkaJVw
But many players on tour these days are lifting. Azarenka, Bouchard (video above) and others are all hitting the weight room. Even in the past, it wasn’t uncommon for players to train their lower-body with traditional strength training exercises like squats and lunges. But it’s perhaps just as important to train the upper-body as it is the lower-body. We’ve all heard of the kinetic chain – and if you haven’t, it’s pretty straightforward. To hit big, a player must transfer energy from their lower-body, through the torso and into the upper-extremity. Any weak & inefficient links in the chain and energy – along with power – will be lost. In another study by Kraemer (1995), they found a pretty high correlation between strength in the overhead press and serve velocity in female college players. The correlation between the overhead press exercise was twice as high as the correlation between the bench press. This is likely due to the greater similarities between the overhead press and the tennis serve.
Power Training & The Serve
Compared to lifting weights, power exercises are more common when it comes to off-court tennis training. Most young juniors use a variety of medicine ball exercises to increase groundstroke power. But according to the research, it may be just as important to incorporate med ball exercises that are more similar to the pattern of the serve.
One study compared the effects of a plyometric training program (more on plyometrics here) versus a strength training program in junior players (Behringer et al 2013). The plyometric group increased velocity by 5-15 km/h over the 8 week period. The strength training program had no increases (although machine based exercises were used which have been shown to be less effective in improving strength/power compared to free weight exercises). In any case, all plyo throws were done with 2-arms, like a med ball overhead throw and a med ball chest pass – ALONG with a light ball (2 kg) – check out the WTCA video below for some great examples. Often coaches use weighted balls that are simply too heavy for juniors. Using balls that are lighter will have greater power increases, especially when the athlete is still relatively weak.
Medicine Ball Workout
https://www.facebook.com/wtcatennis/videos/1110000505716018/
Another study looked at the effects of throwing weighted balls – baseball style throws using 1 arm – and serve speed in young (U14) girls and boys (Ferrauti & Bastiaens 2007). There was no increase in serve speed. In fact, the heavier ball throwing group DECREASED serve speed. This is likely the result of being too weak to handle 1-arm throws with weighted balls. To have a training effect, throwing exercises will only work if subjects already have a base of strength, especially when using heavier objects.
Strength, Power & The Serve
What about strength & power programs combined? Fernandez-Fernandez et al. (2013) were able to increase serve speed in 13 year old competitive juniors following a 6-week training program that included general core exercises, a band routine and a series of high velocity medicine ball (MB) exercises. While core and band exercises can help improve general strength and stave off injury, adding upper body plyometric exercises likely had a potentiating effect and helped these youngsters increase serve speed by close to 10 km/h in such a short time frame.
In a more recent study (Kara 2015), both elite male and female players (average age of 21) trained for 6-weeks incorporating a variety of exercises – including lower & upper body strength training along with a variety of power exercises. These exercises included overhead med ball throws and smaller weighted ball throws. The results speak for themselves. After 6-weeks of this type of training, the average serve increase was 23%! It seems like the inclusion of power exercises IN COMBINATION with strength exercises has a greater effect on service increases than one or the other alone.
Interestingly enough, both studies above saw increases in serve speed while neither study saw a drop in serve accuracy. Why? Because players continued practicing their serves throughout. This provides some validity to the fact that training with the intent to increase serve speed doesn’t have to compromise serve accuracy.
Serving Recommendations for the Female Player
- If you’re weak, a training program devoted to strength will likely produce very good results when it comes to power, specifically for the serve. The NCAA female study proved that – and as a side benefit, those females saw huge improvements in body composition – this can also have important performance benefits during a long season.
- Also, if you are in fact lacking strength, a power program alone doesn’t seem to have the same effect. This is partly due to the lack of neural activation in weaker individuals.
- However, if you’re already strong, a dedicated power program will likely serve you well. At a certain point, for the tennis player, adding additional strength doesn’t do much – you need to transfer that into sport specific power & speed. This is also the most effective approach if you have a short time frame to work with. Which is common on the women’s tour.
- In the elite female athlete, a program that combines both strength and power training may have the greatest benefit. And this is generally how the modern tennis player should train! Incorporate strength exercises for the serve that involve similar muscles groups, like overhead pressing. Add power exercises, like med ball throws and weighted 1-arm throws because of their specificity. And lastly, perform serve practices that emphasize increases in SERVE SPEED!
Matt Kuzdub – MSc CSCS Pn1 FRC
Matt is the content creator at www.mattspoint.com, an online tennis and strength & conditioning resource for coaches, players & tennis enthusiasts. Matt has helped players at all levels – from juniors to the professional ranks – achieve high levels of performance at both the national and international stage.
Matt specializes in the development of elite tennis players, both on and off the court, using applied kinesiology, biomechanics & the latest in coaching/training theory. Feel free to contact Matt at http://www.mattspoint.com/contact/.
To learn more about strength & power training for tennis, along with other coaching advice, visit www.mattspoint.com or follow me on Facebook and Twitter.