HOW FAST IS YOUR
TENNIS SERVE?
How to serve and serve hard
Below You will find instruction on how to
measure
your serving speed without a radar gun - by using a stopwatch
To serve fast a player needs the following ingredients:
1) Good shoulder turn (part of your back facing the net)
2) Good knee bend ((it does not have to be 45% angle bend)
3) Hit while going up at the ball (imagine a volleyball player tossing , jumping and going
up to hit the ball over the net)
4) Toss out in front (if the ball falls it would land inside the court)
5) Full arm extension (Your racquet arm fully extended at impact)
6) Relaxed arm and body (the more tense the slower the serve)
7) Pronate (roll of the forearm towards the inside)
8) Constant rituals (having the same preparation over and over)
9) Good visualization ( seeing the ball going in before you hit it)
10) Confidence in your delivery (If you think it's going out, it's already out)
There's no need to go out and buy a radar gun, you can easily figure out the speed of
your serve with a stopwatch and the help of a friend.
On the ATP tour, the radar gun gives a reading at about one or two feet after impact,
which means the ball is traveling at its fastest speed when it is registered on the radar
gun. By the time the ball reaches the returner, it has slowed down. The amount of speed
reduction could be a slight variance or it could be a considerable amount.
Factors that slows the speed of a served ball include:
1) Air, especially if the server is going against a stiff wind.
2) Atmosphere, the distance (height) from sea level
3) Court surface, red clay with a lot of top soil
4) The weight of the ball
5) The amount of fuzz on the ball
Basically, a 137MPH serve at Roland Garros with a heavy ball, dirtied with clay and
slowed down by the friction of the court will not be as fast as a 137MPH serve at
Wimbledon, using a lighter ball which stays low and picks up speed (skids) when it makes
contact with a wet grass.
In a way, figuring out the speed of your serve with a stop watch may be more
representative if not more accurate than the radar gun number taken immediately after
impact. It would be even more indicative and practical, if the radar gun gave the speed of
the ball as it travels across the baseline.
The stopwatch number will be the average speed that the ball is traveling, the formula
to figure out the average in miles per hour is as follows:
Length divided by time, times 60 divided by 88
Length of a tennis court is 78 feet divided by the time it took the serve to reach the
opposite baseline, this number times 60 divided by 88, to convert the figure in miles per
hour.
Let's say I serve the ball and it takes .76 of a second to reach the opposite baseline,
my serve would have been traveling at an average speed of 70 miles per hour.
78' / .76 * 60 / 88 (78 divided by .76 times 60 divide 88)
Get it....? Good!
Now, how to actually perform the experiment:
Get yourself a good stopwatch, one that can be stopped and started easily, a friend
with good vision, ears and hands, make him or her stand right at the baseline on the ad
side if you are serving on the deuce court and on the deuce side if you are serving on the
ad side.
You goal is to serve the ball down the T, ( that's where you will get your fastest
reading) your friend will listen for the sound\impact of your racquet on the ball and
simultaneously (ASAP) start the stopwatch, while keeping his eyes on the baseline, looking
for the ball to cross over. As soon as the ball crosses over the baseline, your friend
should stop the watch.
To get a more representative number, serve at least 10 balls and average them out.
We save you the trouble of doing the math, your serve speed will correspond to the time
registered on the stopwatch.
Good luck and have fun, and don't forget to let us know how big your serve is.
seconds MPH
.76 70
.75 71
.74 72
.73 73
.72 74
.71 75
.70 76
.69 77
.68 78
.67 79
.66 81
.65 82
.64 83
.63 84
.62 86
.61 87
.60 88
.59 90
.58 92
.57 93
.56 95
.55 97
.54 98
..53 100
.52 102
.51 104
.50 106
.49 109.5
.48 111
.47 113
.46 116
.45 118
.44 121
.43 124
.42 127
.41 130
.40 133
.39 136
.38 140
