How to serve in tennis: the service motion step by step

Serve from the ground up. Let the arm arrive last.

Traced from real footage

See it, eight instants at a time.

Every frame is traced from real match footage, so you see the shape of the stroke, not a drawing of an idea.

Kyrgios's serve, instant 1 of 8 — Kyrgios's serve: eight instants traced from the footage, frame for frame. Hover or tap to flip.

Kyrgios's serve: eight instants traced from the footage, frame for frame. Hover or tap to flip.

Key facts

1
Legs and trunk supply about 51–55 % of the serve's kinetic energy.
Kovacs & Ellenbecker, Sports Health, 2011
2
By one estimate, shoulder internal rotation supplies about 40 % of racquet-head speed at impact.
Elliott, BJSM, 2006
3
At the trophy position, knees load to about 90–115° and the shoulder rotates back past 170°.
4
In one small study, faster servers showed 1,604 vs 1,311 °/s of shoulder internal rotation and 45.4 vs 34.9 m/s of peak racquet speed.
Gorce & Jacquier-Bret, Frontiers, 2024
5
Elite men make contact near 150 % of their standing height, and racquet-head speed at impact runs 38–47 m/s across studies.
6
Recorded serve speeds at the top of the list include Groth 263.4 km/h, Isner 253.0 km/h and Roddick 249 km/h.
Wikipedia, fastest recorded serves

Why it works

The serve adds up speed from a standing start. The legs push the ground, the hips and trunk uncoil, the shoulder lays the racquet back and then rotates it through, and the forearm turns the face square at the last moment. Each link peaks and slows so the next one can go faster.

The motion runs through eight stages: start, release, loading, cocking, acceleration, contact, deceleration and finish. The racquet drop is the key stop. The racquet falls edge-on before it rises, which stores stretch in the shoulder for the throw.

The wrist doesn't snap. The forearm pronates, mostly after the face passes the ball. So if you feel the effort in your forearm, the chain fired out of order. Arming the serve overloads the shoulder and caps your speed, and the fix sits lower in the body than the pain.

The line to say on court
“Legs load it. Shoulder throws it. The wrist just arrives.”

Drill: Kneel, stand, launch

10 min · alone

Kneel on your back knee at the baseline with a continental grip. Serve ten balls into the box using only the upper-body throw, with the racquet edge-on into the drop.
Stand with your feet still and no leg drive. Hit ten balls with the same throw.
Use your full motion for ten balls. Land on your front foot inside the baseline.

Number to beat7 of 10 full-motion serves in, landing on the front foot

More drills like this: serve, practise alone, beginners

Faults and fixes

Waiter's tray, with the face open in the drop

The forearm is pre-pronated, so nothing is left to turn through the ball.

FixKeep the edge to the sky, then turn it late.

Arming the serve

There's no leg load, so the shoulder does the legs' job.

FixRebuild the loading stage with the kneeling step of the drill.

Short racquet drop

Rushing the throw kills the shoulder's rotation and stretch.

FixFreeze in the trophy pose, then let the racquet fall before it rises.

Landing on the back foot

Your body drove out, not up and in.

FixLand inside the line. The landing is the receipt.

Toss drifting

The release moved, so the contact moved.

FixFix the toss release before changing the swing.

Questions players ask

Should I snap my wrist on the serve?

No. The wrist snap is a myth. The forearm pronates, mostly after the racquet face passes the ball.

Why does my shoulder hurt when I serve?

One common cause is arming it. Without a leg load the shoulder does the legs' job, which overloads it and caps your speed. Rebuild the knee load and racquet drop first.

Where does serve power come from?

Mostly from the legs, trunk and shoulder rotation. Legs and trunk supply about 51–55 % of the kinetic energy, and shoulder internal rotation about 40 % of racquet-head speed, measured in different ways by different studies.

Will tossing higher give me a faster serve?

No. A higher toss adds timing variance but no speed.

What this doesn't cover

The percentages come from different studies using different metrics, energy in one and racquet speed in the other, so they don't add up. The fast-versus-slow numbers come from a small sample and show correlation. Single-camera video shows the sequence and shape of the serve, not joint speeds.

Sources

Kovacs & Ellenbecker, Sports Health (2011)
Elliott, British Journal of Sports Medicine (2006)
Reid, Whiteside & Elliott, Journal of Sports Sciences (2006)
Gorce & Jacquier-Bret, Frontiers (2024)
Wikipedia: fastest recorded tennis serves

Serve and returnHow to toss the ball for a tennis serveToss from a straight, locked arm, release at eye level, and send the ball to the same spot every time. For a right-hander, the flat serve's toss sits slightly in front and to the right, slice further right, kick further over the head. The toss sets contact height, spin and placement before you swing, so fix a wobbly serve at the hand first.StrikeHow to use your legs on the tennis serveTo use your legs on the serve, bend into a deep load and push the court away, then leave the ground and land on your front foot inside the baseline. The court pushes back with the same force, and that force is the budget your hips, trunk and arm spend. Elite servers push about 1.5 to 2.1 times their body weight into the ground.StrikeShould you snap your wrist on the serveNo, you shouldn't try to snap your wrist on the serve. Shoulder internal rotation supplies about 40 to 54 % of racquet speed, and forearm pronation about 5 %. What looks like a snap in slow motion is the racquet face being carried round by a rotating arm. Drop the racquet edge-on and let the forearm and shoulder turn the face.StrikeHow to get racquet lag on your forehandYou get racquet lag on your forehand by keeping your hand soft while your body turns, so the racquet head trails your hand and then releases. Don't snap the wrist for power. In elite forehands, forearm pronation adds almost nothing to racquet speed, while the shoulder adds about 45 to 48%. The wrist's job is to get out of the way.