You could be a professional tennis player or a novice, but there’s always scope for improvement, especially when it comes to the serve. While old school style is all about playing practice matches to improve your strength, you can benefit immensely by spending some time in the gym. Here are a few best exercises to improve your tennis serve:

Medicine Ball Overhead Throw

Even while using the best rackets for tennis, you require upper body strength to get a great serve. Medicine ball overhead throw involves the engagement of your entire body to raise and throw the ball in a downward but forward direction, mimicking the tennis serve. By starting with a lighter ball and gradually moving towards heavier ones, you can focus on your form and position.

To get the most out of this technique use at least a four pound ball. By incorporating medicine ball throw into your training routine, you can enhance the explosive power of your upper body, improve your coordination, and build muscle memory for better tennis serves.

Side Plank

The real strength of a tennis serve is highly dependent on a strong core. While planks in all forms engage your core, side planks add pressure to your obliques which are an essential component for a strong tennis serve. As you propel yourself upwards after laying down on one side, leg on leg, try to hold the position for as long as possible.

Side planks are a great way to improve your form, stability, balance, as well as strength for a more powerful but controlled serve. For added strength, you can try different variations of side plank such as adding hip dips, rotation, and leg lift to the mix. However, only do that once you’ve mastered your form.

Squat Jumps

The repetitive motion of squats and jumps is targeted towards increasing the reciprocity of your fast twitch muscle fibres which result in powerful tennis serves while also offering stability to your body. While the exercise can be done with the help of a squat rack set, you can gradually build your way to doing it without the help of any external equipment.

Just like medicine ball overthrow, squat jumps focus on enhancing the explosive power of your body, but offer more strength to your lower body while tightening your core for a more controlled serve. The intensive exercise helps exercise glutes, calves, hamstrings as well as quadriceps for better coordination and timing.

Ready, Set, Match!

Tennis is a game of strength and stability. When it comes to improving your tennis serve, you need to work on enhancing the strength of all your muscles, be it your lower body, upper body, or core. The exercises given above are designed to strengthen different areas of your body by targeting various muscle groups. Apart from these, you can also try lateral lunges, motorcycle revs, and frog jumps.