The Science Behind Andy Roddick's 155 MPH Serves (Pro Analysis)

[@RacquetFlex]

Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed and want to know the best drills to add 10+ MPH to your serve without losing any consistency, join our free 5-Day Serve Power Challenge here: www.racquetflex.com/serve-challenge

[@chtomlin]

accuracy was actually a bit sloppy for Andy compared to Pete or Fed.

[@parrothead2017]

Roddick had this legendary serve at only 6'2! I think the timing of his serve was perfect. Everything seemed to explode at once - the hip drive, the shoulder, the whippy arm. A masterpiece of a serve.

[@topspin1715]

Yeah as mere mortals struggle to hit a reasonable serve and he was hitting them over 140mph. I’d be stoked to hit 90 or more for a first serve. There is a lot to coordinate and time for that to happen.

[@lilmosey1602]

For adults is harder but teens can be easy to bomb serves fast if you play tennis when you’re young. but it’s always better to have consistent serve and have lots of options. I can hit 125mph easily but my placement is good enough even 115mph serve with good placement people can’t get because they have trouble getting there but if they over commit I go body and it’s over.

[@Eliath1984]

@@lilmosey1602 I can vouch for this... I used to end all my practices with 2-3 buckets of balls hitting nothing but serves.. can safely say it's an amazing feeling to knock rackets outta people's hands.. Mental game was my weakness though...I had this problem with getting in my own head and making myself nervous which would throw a wrench in my motion... but if I was on that day and just feeling it.... it felt amazing.... I did also have an issue with not warming up my arm properly so I would go out there and just expect to bomb it from the start... my fastest serve clocked in Highschool was about 135..... reason I brought up the improperly warming up my shoulder was my Senior year I ended up playing with a torn rotator cuff and that was where my career ended... now that many years have gone by I have started getting back out there and hitting and I can definitely say alotta heat has came off my serve... they are still heavy but I miss that old feeling of power

[@BobLobLawsLawBom]

An absolutely fantastic motion. One of a kind. Derived from baseball. Pure American.

[@sonicdiscard3207]

new racquetflex vid is always a good day

[@kenttalcott8428]

Thanks for your great discussions on the biomechanics of tennis. You are very good at pointing out key positions that pro's achieve that most amateur players will benefit from in their motion. I have patterned my serve after Roddick and Sampras but have found Roddick's motion to be easier on my body. I am in my 50's and the body is more brittle than in years past. The key thing I have learned from Roddick's motion is to fully load the right side with a good knee bend coordinated with a right shoulder shoulder drop coupled with the left arm coming completely over to the right side of your body. This creates a massive upper body core compression, coiling of the torso, and preloading of the legs that few if any amateur players possess and many pro's lack as well. For me the racquet head speed comes from keeping the right arm and shoulder very relaxed and using the upward thrust from the legs (ie kinetic chain) to initiate the initial movement of the racquet. The only focus on my arm is to finish fast by "CRACKING THE WHIP". Arm injury for me has always been the result of excessive tension in the wrist, elbow or shoulder in combination with using arm muscles to generate pace. Staying relaxed and using the bigger muscles of your base creates the effortless power that is easier on the body and prevents injury for me. The challenge is managing the timing of the release and the finish. I think this is why Roddick's toss is so simple and compact coupled with a very consistent and balanced landing on his left foot. He starts simple and finishes simple which creates less room for variation in between. I used this same philosophy of being compact but relaxed in the start and balanced at the finish when working on both pitching and hitting for Little League kids. Biomechanics of hitting and pitching a baseball have many things in common with the tennis serve and has been a good foundation for my personal development in the tennis serve. Love your videos and I am in awe of your demonstrations for any given technique.

[@cks2020693]

the key to avoid shoulder injury with explosive motions like that is to follow through, for serving motion specifically, if you serve explosivly and don't follow through all the way, your infraspinatus and teres minor muscles will have to activate to stop the internal rotation of your shoulder, which overtime will put a lot of strain on these 2 muscles, and eventually you will experience pain and stifness with backtake of your racquet with forehands. The same thing can happen with forehand strokes with bad follow through. Follow-through is important to desipate kinetic energy through circular motion

[@Eliath1984]

I'd say that's 1 of the 2 most important things on explosive serving motions.... the 1st important thing is learn how to properly warm up your shoulder... going out there and hitting a few serves doesn't cut it if you are planning on bombing the ball for a big match or a tournament... combine that with a bad follow through and you have a recipe for rotator cuff tears...

[@JamesDavisakaRemguy]

I heard a broadcaster say that Roddick actually developed his unique delivery when he and some friends were making fun of another player's service motion. They were goofing on this one guy's horrible-looking motion when they started to notice that their serves had a LOT of POP! Roddick stuck with it and turned it into a venerable tennis career. To bad for him that a Certain Somebody showed up, otherwise he would have won numerous majors. I always liked Roddick's game, but also his personality. He seemed like one of the nicest guys on tour, always liked to laugh and goof around. Hence his serve. Another charming RF video. Uh, Racket Flex, not... a Certain Somebody (heavenly choir music) with those initials.

[@JamesDavisakaRemguy]

P.S. YES, definitely do that video that you guys already made!!!

[@jaranis9273]

I know you wanna ride him, it’s showing dude

[@stevenmckelvey80]

Roddick was quoted as saying he felt he hit with his legs which sounds ludicrous but was his swing focus

[@vpmslender9315]

Could you do a video about the best kick serves on tour?

[@ts440s]

Roddick had a freak shoulder just like Sampras, as said by his orthopedic surgeon. Roddick has the most external rotation ever measured on tour he attributes it to leg drive, but physics says that it only accounts for a small percentage, especially at a recreational level.

[@user-be5qg7mr1s]

he also did alot of shoulder stretching and exercises to strengthen his rotator cuff. He does not have a freak shoulder

[@absolutelynothingtoseehere]

Yeah, I don't see how legs can power a serve; the force they generate doesn't go in the right direction.

[@reasonsreasonably]

@@absolutelynothingtoseehere It's not about their direct contribution, it's about the chain of events that drives the rest of the 'whip'. Just imagine this. With a whip, if you were to shorten the whip by 50%, it obviously wouldn't be able to create as much speed at the tip. If your body's whipping motion of your serve only used the last part of the chain of the whip, ex. the elbow > racket or elbow > wrist > racket, it obviously won't be taking advantage of the full range of the whipping motion. Extrapolate this to the full motion where you have the shoulders, trunk, and the base of it all, the legs, added to the chain, you can get an additional amount of racket head speed. Perhaps another way to look at it is something like a shotput or javelin or a baseball, whatever. You don't just use your arms or shoulders or just any one element. It all starts with the legs and goes from there. Just because most of the racket head speed comes from the shoulder on, doesn't mean that the other muscle groups don't have huge contributions. I'm "old" now, but when I need to hit the ball 'best' on my serve, since it's a huge strain over the course of a match or session, I bend my rickety knees and explode into the ball rather than just barely bending my knees. It's an easy 10mph faster from that alone. Lastly, you aren't seeing how the tennis serve actually works. The tennis serve isn't moving forward across the court. It's more akin to a trebuchet or some other thing I don't even know... Still, imagine you are throwing a flail or nunchaku or some similar thing towards the sky. At the end of the motion the flail or nunchaku will swing forward. That change in direction of the force is very much like the tennis serve. You are turning the upward energy into a forward energy when you do a proper tennis serve. You aren't serving ONLY forward, you are serving upwards and forwards with the wrist serving as the final change in direction ala the chain/rope of the flail or nunchaku. Thus, the legs pushing upwards contributes to this chain of energy and coordination/balance into the serve. Really lastly, the legs allow you to get a higher contact point and further out into the court for the additional advantage of angle. If you get an additional advantage of a shot that is easier to go in, you can hit it harder as well and have it still go in. Of course for a casual player or not that athletic etc, the leg drive is probably not to be overthought, but if you're trying to get a proper serve, the legs are absolutely necessary to incorporate as counter-intuitive as it may seem since they indeed don't directly contribute to hitting the ball like the arm does. Uggh, time to go back to work. Thanks for the distraction. :)

[@reasonsreasonably]

Man, you guys have great videos. Efficiency >>> trying harder!! So many other great comments in this video.

[@jaykraft9523]

Interesting. I'm just trying now to incorporate as much Roddick on my serve as I can. I have identified some key aspects 1) abbreviated toss from shoulder height 2) crouch start 3) trophy position bent knees onto both feet 3) non-racquet arm straight up 4) almost tucked elbow with racquet head down. Of all these, I find (1) and (2) hardest to incorporate. I noticed the 1999 Roddick, as you showed, did (1) and (2) differently along with (4). He had a more traditional toss starting down at the waist and less of a crouch. If you want to toss the exact way Roddick does you''ll need the crouch to build the momentum for the toss instead of the toss starting low as it is done traditionally. Also, the non-racquet arm in the trophy position slams down explosively as well as the shoulder rotation which helps you see the ball. For me, I'm trying to incorporate (3) and (4) as they are easier, and take a hint from (1) and (2) to abbreviate the toss without the extreme version Roddick uses, but that's just because it's awkward for me. First things first

[@stephen9375]

Flex and that bicep is gonna rip that sleeve. Great video

[@jennybower4738]

This was the most helpful serving video I’ve ever seen! Thank you!!

[@coffeedude2024]

Yes definitely cover Roddicks 3 power moves in the next video! I love your videos and content👍

[@harrybob2682]

your instructionals are so good hope we get a new one soon, thanks!

[@JayYeasmin]

Love roddick's unique serve. Excellent breakdown. More like this please

[@RacquetFlex]

Thanks, Jay! Roddick was something truly special. You got it 😉

[@huangwee3465]

This is the correct instruction of using body turn to generate the pro drop. Most instructors don't know this secret instead of teaching using racquet to topple the birthday hat... LOL. This creates tension on the shoulder muscle hence render the natural pro drop tense, slow and weak.

[@hd0911]

Your videos are truly helping my entire game

[@RacquetFlex]

I'm glad to hear it, Henryk! - Daytri

[@Andy_Arkadata]

The story goes RODDICK was practicing serve and out of frustration picked up a ball and twatted it as hard as he could. Then thought that was a pretty good serve . So kept the motion

[@surfertango]

Yes more Roddick 🎾

[@rickbruner]

Break down the key power moves, please. The technical precision and wisdom in your vids is excellent (from a fellow coach). Thanks.

[@RonnieJamesOsbourne]

I'm a little late to your upload, but I was the original sub that suggested the idea for you guys to do a full breakdown of Roddick's serve, as my abbreviated backswing is very similar. My RCs are strong and in good shape, so I hope to apply some of your future Roddick tips to beef up my serve. Thanks, RacquetFlex!

[@wozmac771]

just listen to Roddick's analysis of his own serve. Its the legs...the power comes from the legs......see any great server and his words will ring true.

[@zetristan4525]

Love it! And super personality. x-ray cam too!

[@olivierlauwers2865]

Fantastic Analysis! thumbs up! thank you

[@lauraulrich2837]

Great video thank you!!

[@UchihABitachi]

Yes pls more! Always loved Roddick as a player. His serve was immaculate, both first & second serves. Sucks he was overshadowed by the top 4 at the time, but his last form before he retired seen in his last Wimbledon against Federer was incredible. He should’ve won that tbh. It would’ve been great, but what dumb luck to get a bad bounce.

[@andrewash9318]

Insightful analysis.

[@paulsteezo1772]

Andy once said his serve TURNED HIS SHOULDER INTO HAMBURGER!!!

[@willkittwk]

Great breakdown as usual.

[@ZeroHourEs]

back when I started learning tennis, I would try to copy Roddick's serve and out of a 100 tries, like one would go right. But god damn if that one wasn't an absolute ace. now that I'm kinda better than I was back then but still with a shitty serve, I might just try relearning this properly. Thanks for the video!

[@lilmosey1602]

Lol you cannot serve like someone else because you don’t have their body or the mobility of theirs

[@colossaltennis]

Appreciate the analysis here and the attention to scientific detail. You guys have a great channel here!

[@jmanly707]

You guys do great work, need to expand on the e-mail side of things, great opportunities there (from someone who runs a newsletter)

[@tennisedit]

Riddick had shoulder injuries in 2011(Paris), 2010, 2009(Shanghai), in 2000 he saw a specialist about his elbow which was said to be caused by his shoulder. Just watching Roddick serve looks painful. I tried it once and didn't feel natural.

[@mw0212]

I copied Andy's serve back in the day. I had a long layoff, (2 new hips) and when I got back to playing I decided to re-tool. I've watched so many videos, tried to copy Fed's, and many others. I got so far away from Andy's and today went back to it thanks to your video. Hitting the fence again. Your videos are by far my favorites. Thanks so much!! Mark

[@joaquingpmv5835]

big respect to you and your return to tennis after two hips replacement, I use to play junior competition and I came back 8 mounths ago to this magic sport, with 44, maybe more power but definitely less patience to run after balls…I had to change to a more agresive stile, so that the points last less 😅

[@ItMaker5000XL]

"... we really want to make it ... ...we already made it!" LMAO that comedic timing. GG WP

[@harveymintz5576]

2 from older days with abbreviated backswing (I suspect) - Goran (no last name necessary), and Kevin Curren (remember him?)

[@Formisdestiny]

Nice job!

[@einarjuel]

Really liking that skeleton model Power vectors would be the dream

[@reuelray]

Federer handled him easily... Roddick changed his serve from a flat to a slice when he played Federer, because Federer was returning his flat serve easily. Roddick's slice serve was so easy to return, Federer had Roddick out of position a large percentage of the time. This is why Andy roddick's match percentage is low when he played Rodger. Andy should have concentrated more on placement and variety than just banging the ball in.

[@Blaisem]

Federer didn't handle Roddick's serve easily lol. No one did that. Federer handled Roddick's ground game reliably throughout much of his career, and that's why Andy's match percentage was low when he played Roger. Like everyone else.

[@margiepargie1982]

You are a great coach with alot of insight. Can you please do a video on why Coco Gauff is double faulting 21 times in one match. Thx

[@estheryee4084]

Could you do a video on the science of the best serves in the WTA? Their biomechanics are more viable for mere mortals who play competitive tennis at the recreational level.

[@k14ce2002]

We already made it, go like the video! 😂 I enjoy y’all’s videos so much. Keep it up!

[@AC852HK]

Good video 🎉

[@mikyp9417]

Make it happen guys!❤

[@OldSkoolLegend]

I've been trying to copy this serve for a year or so now. I can shadow swing it identically .... but when i have an actual ball in hand.... I can't do his toss... his toss baffles me. That little jerky motion as he tosses the ball.... THAT PART IS messing me up... but i dont want to change anything in his serve... i want to keep it as is.... anyone been trying to get this serve? Does he dip the racket head down or is that a consequence of pulling the handle up right as he is about to toss? I just can't get that part smooth and consistent.

[@twinwankel]

I think Roddick maximized his power sources for sure but it did wear his body down. He retired at age 32 which is earlier than the average for a top tennis player. He had many injuries which led to his retirement. I think his back took the worst of his service technique. It's hard to watch him serve because of the snap on his back. Thanks for the video.

[@commondirtbagz7130]

Roddick has admitted the main reason he quit was because he didn’t feel he could compete with the big four. Whether or not his ability to do so was hampered by injury? I don’t know. But I don’t think injuries are the primary reason.

[@wesleyoliver3312]

@@commondirtbagz7130 When you're a top 10 competitor (at anything) it must be so frustrating if you never actually feel like you're able to consistently beat the people in the top 5 spots. Can definitely understand why that kind of demoralization is career-ending.

[@ogbmt]

32 wasn't that young to retire until Federer's era

[@ogbmt]

​@@wesleyoliver3312 I think it's still quite common for players to continue in that scenario, but maybe it was different for Roddick because he had reached the heights of world number 1 for a time before Federer and then later Nadal pretty much took it over

[@Eliath1984]

@@ogbmt Becker actually kinda put it best.. he retired at 31 and his body was still perfectly healthy but he didn't feel like he could compete with the newer group(Sampras, Agassi) and he didn't wanna play just to go out there and look good.. he wanted to win.. and if he didn't feel he could do that he didn't want to just show up and get Semifinals checks all year. Sampras on the other hand also retired at 31 but you can definitely say alot of that had to do with his competitive drive not being what it needed to be to compete at that level plus his battle with Thalassemia had him tired all the time+back issues in his last few years. The grind needed to be a top player just wasn't what he wanted in his life anymore...

[@lienkieu8186]

Andy Roddick number 20 !

[@chaparral9842]

Great quality videos, sadly underrated.

[@zbyszek511]

Roddick just delivered power to return his serves, his second serve was very short and easy to return

[@tijgertjekonijnwordopgegeten]

Any thoughts on Shelton? It seems to me that he accelerates from a similar position to Roddick.

[@javierlombardo6213]

uau amazing new look

[@tomk5238]

Funny enough. Every one from Alcaraz to Ben Shelton is doing this now. Definitely a great techique to use.

[@Official.tadiwa]

Do serena serve pleaae

[@tourists]

Thanks for the video. I see you are using a Yonex EZone Gen 7. Is it the 98 or 100?

[@RacquetFlex]

You bet! We're using the EZone 98+ (extended by half an inch).

[@tourists]

@@RacquetFlex How does it handle? On a different note, where you are guys located? It looks like Southern Cal.

[@noturbo]

anyone know what tension he strung at?

[@ared18t]

I wouldn't be surprised if the technique he used doesn't put any more strain on the shoulder than what most players use. He goes through the same range of motion as the other players and gives himself more space to accelerate.

[@Tlcunha81]

The key to his serve is his left arm, which points the back of the court so he gets massive body rotation.

[@willkittwk]

Love how you explain technique in a fun kind of way.😂

[@ClaudioPrado-em3dq]

When all the serve motion explode at once. that is a terrific timing, and that is what you have to achieve to have a powerful and efficient serve.

[@iwituazon10]

Yeah but the key thing that wasn’t mentioned and often overlooked is his knee bend. Most of that power comes from the legs and you didn’t mention it really. Yeah the arm matters, racquet headspeed and all that but we can’t overlook the power he gets from his legs. I thought you talked about the swing too much and didn’t mention balance and legs

[@pauljohnson6019]

A shame Federer didn't find one of these serves at 40-15 against Djokovic- I guess the Tennis God's were not on his side at all!

[@michaelanthony679]

It is the same motion as a badminton or volleyball smash where they are pronating their forearm not rotating it.

[@enematwatson1357]

Pronation IS forearm rotation. What are you talking about? 🤔

[@markkatz4247]

please more roddick please

[@thomascarson1562]

All these details about how the serve should work but 95% is simply how you are built. Like Serena said, I just toss it and hit it!

[@Marekxxk]

Too bad he preffered power over placement. Federer always outaced him with much less power and could return a lot of his serves.

[@auged5946]

Bro, this guy served so hard he hurried the ball in clay 😳

[@drbonesshow1]

This guy misses an important point that of hip-rotation. It's refreshing that he didn't force the notion - pronation is needed for a powerful serve, but then he probably assumes this to be true - when in fact, it is not. The neutral wrist serve is the fastest way to extend the forearm in a throw or serve. Roddick was also said to have some degree of hyoermobility in his wrist, which lends itself to a faster serve. Physics know-how if only these tennis people knew-how.

[@thebigmonstaandy6644]

i think , the reason for his power is this trophy position.

[@PrecisionPointTennis]

🎾🥇

[@ramjetrth]

One thing that is humorous in regard to Roddick's serve is that he was frustrated serving against Andre Agassi as Agassi seemed to be able to read his mind as to what direction he was going to be serving. Many years after Agassi's retirement he told Roddick the secret that made Roddick have one of those slap your forehead moments. Agassi noticed that Roddick would stick his tongue out as he started his serve in the direction his serve would be going.

[@TheCarunchio]

Not Roddick, It was Boris Becker

[@reasonsreasonably]

One thing that is humorous, no pun intended since we are talking about the tennis humerus in these serving videos, is that you're misremembering who he was talking about. As pointed out, it was BB and not AR that AA was reading the mind of.

[@allanghiassi6151]

Roddick had freak shoulder flexibility and still had his career curtailed because of this service motion. Teaching recreational players to copy any or part of his shoulder motion is reckless.

[@steve8803]

Sick serve! Too bad his return game wasn't the greatest. Imagine Djokovic with a serve like Roddick.

[@garyhoward4064]

Let’s ask Roddick?

[@edwardclark2653]

Andy Roddick’s serve mechanics worked well for him. Teaching another athlete to consistently execute in this manner is very difficult to accomplish. Accomplishing this motor programming requires the instructor to understand the sequential motor programming utilized in the mechanics internalization process.

[@reuelray]

Confusing video man. You show roddick a right-hander, you demonstrated with your left hand, and you served right handed????🤷‍♂️

[@Ji-Ye]

It’s like they can flip the entire video horizontally or something. Utter madness.

[@lilmosey1602]

Mid video for people who don’t know tennis, anyone who knows tennis know this is bs and just for views. Cringe good for content but bad for learning

[@at1838]

this was a big waste of time. there's nothing new here about AR's serve; nor anything that we can use for our own service motion. It's a lot of jargon and no juice. all sizzle and no steak

[@BassByTheBay]

You realize that not everyone knows/learns everything at the exact same time from the exact same source, right?

[@at1838]

@@BassByTheBay you realize there's nothing here to learn right?

[@BassByTheBay]

@@at1838 What I stated is an obvious fact to anyone who has a basic comprehension of time: people don't all have access to the same info at the same time. Did you come out of the womb already knowing the info shared in this video? Of course not. So, when/where did you learn these details, and why on earth would you believe that everyone else on earth learned the exact same things at the exact same time as you?

[@wingsofredemptionexposed4425]

what is the utr of you two? As in, you can practice at a very high level seemingly, but do you have the goods in tournaments?