Hi, I was viewing your Tennis For Beginners videos online and had some questions about the serve.

The basics of serving I understand such as the grip. Here are some questions about some things I am not sure about:

1. My first question deals with the transition from the trophy position into the forward swing. In coming out of this stage should the lower part of the body be moving forward while the racquet and hand are going back.

It would kind of feel like you are going in two different directions at once.

Yes, if you analyze it like that, then this is true. But that’s not how you learn to do it.

It’s almost impossible for you to consciously move parts of the body at the exact right timings.

What really happens, is that you INITIATE your forward movement with the lower body and if the upper body is relaxed (as it should be), it will stretch and delay in coming forward.

That’s why it seems it’s actually going backward. It has to slightly go backward when the lower part is going forward so that the body keeps the same center of gravity. That’s how you keep balance.

2. Should the forward bow of the front side of the body create the bend in the knees for the serve?

In that someone should let the bow create the knee bend instead of just bending the knees.

Not necessarily. You can keep almost straight knees and create a front bow / arc. Remember Sjeng Schalken?

But it’s certainly uncomfortable keeping your legs totally straight so they would automatically bend a little bit. You need to add some extra bend for extra push.

3. Does the backswing coil create the forward swing? In that is the forward swing just a reflex motion that just happens like the release of a stretched rubber-band.

It starts like that. You swing backward (backswing) and then start the forward motion with the lower body and create a rubber band effect throughout your body.

Then at the right moment you add the forward movement (and rotation) with the shoulders, arm and forearm.

4. I read somewhere that good servers push hard against the ground like about 3 times their body weight and this creates the jump that people see.

In that the downward push causes the body to rise and the hips to rotate. Have you ever heard of this and can explain it?

It’s similar to a jump where you have to bend your knees and push down before you can leave the ground. So yes, you do push down but the serve jump is not really a jump.

When you serve, your goal is to reach the ball as high as possible and at the same time generate lots of racquet head speed.

So you are basically not thinking about jumping when you serve, it just happens because you explode upwards towards the ball and the ground is the leverage for the energy transfer.

If you were in no gravity room – levitating in the air – you couldn’t transfer the energy upwards since you couldn’t lean on anything.

5. My final question is dealing with using the middle of the body or abs in serving. I have heard some servers say after a layoff when they start serving again their abs are sore.

Can you explain how someone uses their middle (abs) when serving. I have noticed the better servers like Roddick and Federer keep their front shoulder up longer than others; is this part of pushing up from the middle part of the body?

Yes, my abs actually hurt a little bit since I played doubles two days ago and I haven’t been serving fast for a long time.

When you serve, you prestretch the whole body across – from the left hip to the right shoulder.

The abs are connecting and pulling together these to main parts. So they are very vulnerable to injury and muscle tear. Same goes for the lower back.