The Beautiful Biomechanics of the Power Serve: Part 1

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The serve: marvel of the kinetic chain!

The tennis serve is an incredible marvel of the human kinetic chain and a beautiful sight to behold when performed well. The serve is generally considered the most important shot in the game by coaches and sport scientists.

The serve is also the most complex and difficult shot in the game to master. Mark Kovacs, a leading biomechanics expert, says that the tennis serve may be the most difficult skill to master in any sport.

Remarkably, the first scientific study of the kinetic chain in nationally ranked players occurred only in 1986, and to this day there is still a relative scarcity of research on tennis serve biomechanics when compared to biomechanics research in other sports like baseball. This article and the one to follow will present some of the important biomechanical and technical details of the power serve to help coaches and players build a beautiful world class serve motion.

Chris Lewit is a leading high-performance coach, author, and educator. He is the author of the best-selling book Secrets of Spanish Tennis 2.0, which is now available, and a new technique book, Winning Pretty, which will be published by New Chapter Press in paperback in 2026. He is also a contributing editor for Tennisplayer.net magazine and a long-time member of the RSPA and PTR. As an educator, he has presented at several large conferences, including the PTR International Tennis Symposium. Chris studied religion and literature at Cornell, Harvard, and Columbia, and is currently pursuing a PhD in kinesiology and biomechanics.

As a player, Chris Lewit played No. 1 for Cornell University and competed on the USTA and ITF pro circuits. As a coach, he has recently worked with several No. 1 junior players in the US and has trained hundreds of nationally ranked juniors. He directs a boutique full-time academy for homeschool/online players and a high-performance summer camp program, as well as high-performance training for all ages and levels, all at his club in the beautiful green mountains of Manchester, Vermont.

Chris Lewit has a popular YouTube channel, Youtube.com/ChrisLewit, and you can follow his writing portfolio at https://medium.com/@ChrisLewit.

Chris Lewit Tennis
World-Class Technical Training
Expert in Spanish and European Training Methods
New York, New York and Londonderry, Vermont
914-462-2912

Contact Chris directly by phone/WhatsApp at 914-462-2912 or chris@chrislewit.com.

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