Precision counts

In the 2009 Wimbledon final, Roger Federer and my childhood idol Andy Roddick faced each other. Federer the pure elegance and Roddick the brute. Andy Roddick is still considered one of the best servers of all time. When he caused a sensation at a young age and conquered the tennis world, no one had ever seen a serve as powerful as his. Roddick served over 240 mph countless times and was impossible to return for most opponents. In the Wimbledon tournament in 2009, Roddick's fast serve was also crucial for reaching the final. There were many predictions for the match that Sunday morning, but most fans were confident that Roddick would come out on top, at least in the serves category and more specifically in the aces category. I watched the entire match and was excited, in the end Roger Federer won in one of the most legendary Wimbledon finals after 5 sets and 4 hours 17 minutes. The statistics displayed showed the number of aces at the top. Andy Roddick 27- Roger Federer 50 aces. This was a shock, Federer hit almost twice as many aces as Roddick, despite serving on average 20 or even 30 km/h slower. Probably not back then, but as I looked at the match highlights and stats over the years, it became clear to me:

When serving, precision is more important than speed!

Pete Sampras liked to serve to empty ball cans and later he only aimed at the lines. In Croatia, tennis players put banknotes on the court and whoever scores gets to keep the money, Alexander Waske served sheets of paper on DIN A5, and Martin Sinner once told me about the “death zone” (line area and 15 cm next to it), because at the end of the day Even return gods like Djokovic or Agassi can do almost nothing against a serve placed on the line! Anyone who manages to consistently serve the lines in tennis will find themselves on the world's largest center courts. Those who often serve very close to the line will usually leave the court as winners, and those who never serve with precision will experience how quickly a hard serve can land back at their feet.

Due to various performance-limiting factors such as size, leverage, strength, flexibility and genetics, everyone has a limit to how fast he or she can serve. Through various training and technique adjustments you can reach this limit, but no matter how cleverly you train, not everyone will be able to serve over 200 km/h or faster. Most recreational and hobby tennis players manage to hit between 150 and 180 km/h. A serve at 175 km/h on the line causes more damage than a 200 km/h serve directly into the opponent's racket. We always look for higher, faster, but when it comes to serving, the key to success often lies in the

Be more precise.

Finally, I have 2 training tips for you to increase your precision when serving. Everyone knows the mentioned drills to serve on cans or targets. These are the basics and I recommend that you use them in training. We will go into a little more detail with the tips below.

Make sure to keep your ball throw as consistent as possible. If you can always hit the ball at the same point of contact, then it's much easier to replicate a good serve. Once you hit the ball can, try to save where you threw the ball and where you hit it.

Improve your concentration phase before serving. A simple trick here is to always use the same number of times when tapping the ball, for example always tapping 5 times. In addition, before starting the movement, it is advisable to look away from your opponent and look at the ground in front of you. This prevents visual impressions (jumping opponent, flying bird, etc.) from distracting you from your serve.

Good luck with your training,

Hendrik