Learn to Serve like Roger Federer

Supplier of High Quality CPD Tennis Education

LATEST 2025 COURSE NEWS :  21st March - Add Power to Your Serve9th May - Art of Singles12th Sept - Art of Doubles 7th November - Under 10's Development - SPACES

LATEST 2025 COURSE NEWS :  21st March - Add Power to Your Serve9th May - Art of Singles12th Sept - Art of Doubles7th November - Under 10's Development - SPACES

Go to content

Learn to Serve like Roger Federer

LTA Tennis Coach Accreditation Courses | MTI
Published by Andy Magrath in Tennis Coaching · Monday 11 Feb 2019 ·  10:00
Tags: CopytheRogerFedererServeLearntoserveattennisphototennislessonontheserve
Roger Federers Serve - A Detailed Analysis

Hi Guys,
More top essential advice for your game.
 
If a coach was asked 'which of the tennis strokes is the hardest to teach and learn?', most would reply 'the serve'. But unfortunately, this is also the most important shot as it not only begins the rally but the quality also determines whether the returner is able to attack your serve or not. Learn how your serve can be transformed into a lethal weapon.
Best regards, Andy

Photo 1.



The address position where Roger is preparing for the serve. You can see how he is taking aim by looking where he intends to serve and which type of serve to get the ball there.
 
1.     Note how he firsts positions his feet at roughly 45 degrees to the baseline, right side on as he is right handed. His front (left foot) is pointing toward the net post and his back foot (right foot) is parallel to the baseline
 
2.     Note how he is holding the ball in his fingertips with his ball lift hand
 
3.     Note how he holds his racquet in the continental grip AKA chopper or hammer grip. This grip leads to greater flexibility of movement in his forearm, hand and racquet when it comes to producing greater torque for force and angle of the racquet for spin production.
 
4.     He spreads his fingers up the grip with his right forefinger acting as a ‘trigger’ finger which gives the player lots of ‘feel’ on the grip

Photo 2.



Roger begins the serve action.
 
1.     Note how he splits his hands bringing his racquet back turning his hips/shoulders so they align with his feet whilst leaving his ball hand in front over his left foot.
 
2.     Note how he keeps the back of his racquet hand facing outwards
 
3.     Note how he places his ball lift hand across his body, roughly positioned over his front foot.
 
4.     Note how his weight is around 80% on his back foot

Photo 3.



1.     Note how he is still looking at the service target area
 
2.     Note Roger lifts his ball hand whilst keeping his arm straight and positioned over his front foot. His left shoulder pointing to the net
 
3.     Note Roger adopts the ‘see saw’ serve which means that although both hands are moving, he doesn’t bring his racquet up too fast so that it has to wait for the ball.

Photo 4.



1.     Note how he releases the ball by lifting his arm and opening his fingers. His wrist position is tilted forward to help him place the ball in front accurately
 
2.     Note how he is watching the ball intently
 
3.     Note how he is lifting his racquet hand whilst leading with the back of his hand. You can see the see-saw effect with the ball being released before he brings the racquet up to the trophy position. This leads to a continuous motion and allows the player to assess their ball release better before deciding to hit the ball
 
4.     Note Roger is beginning to bend his knees by pushing into the floor.

Photo 5.



1.     Note how even though he has released the ball, his ball hand remains extended to enable him to maintain his shape and reach up into the serve. Also it helps him track and judge whether the ball is hittable
 
2.     Note how he is still lifting the racquet leading with the back of his hand. You can see the contact side of the racquet face pointing down to the floor. His racquet arm is flexed at the elbow which helps him create an efficient throwing action (trophy position to many)
 
3.     Note when he bends his knees, his weight begins primarily in his back foot. This back foot acts as a driver to push his body forwards and upwards before transferring to his front foot as you will see later
 
4.     Note how he keeps his head up watching the ball

Photo 6.



1.     Note As he lifts his racquet hand past shoulder height you can see how by his flexed elbow he has naturally found ‘trophy’ position with his upper arm 90 degrees from the side of his body
 
2.     Note how he is still leading with the back of his racquet hand as he continues to lift it
 
3.     Note Roger’s weight is pushing into the floor with his backfoot still bearing most of his weight in roughly a 60/40% split ready to drive his weight forwards and upwards,
 
4.     Note he is still watching the ball

Photo 7.



1.     Note Roger has maintained his racquet hand position. You can tell if you’re doing this correctly by ensuring the soft part of your wrist and the contact side of the racquet is facing away to the right (left side for left handers)
 
2.     Roger’s position here is typically called ‘trophy’ position. Note how his upper arm elbow is 90 degrees to his body. BUT it must also be noted that his action has not paused at trophy position. He is merely passing through into a racquet drop
 
3.     Note Now the back foot is beginning to drive his weight forwards and upwards onto his front foot. He is also pushing his front hip forward for increased elastic energy from his upper body
 
4.     Note how his ball lift hand remains extended and he is still watching the ball

Photo 8.



1.     Note Roger begins to drop the racquet head and his ball lift arm only now begins to bend at the elbow. Note he hasn’t dropped his ball lift shoulder!
 
2.     Note All the great servers employ a very loose continental grip to encourage a ‘whip’ like action during the throwing action. This allows increased acceleration and thus force to flow into the racquet head and thence the ball on contact
 
3.     Note His backfoot weight is now on the ball of the foot thus indicating the push up from this foot but his body distribution has now shifted to around 60/40% in favour of his front foot.

Photo 9.



1.     Note You can see how his body weight was distributed as his backfoot is higher than his front foot as this foot was the last to leave the floor. This clearly indicates that his body weight was transferred from back foot to front foot
 
2.     Note His racquet (ready to be thrown at the ball), has now dropped with the head pointing to the floor and the racquet butt pointing up towards the ball. MYTHBUSTER; the racquet never scratches the player’s back.

Photo 10.



1.     Note How Roger begins to throw the racquet edge by leading with the racquet butt. Also how the back of his hand is still pointing outwards.
 
2.     Note How his hips will start to unwind and rotate back to centre as he throws the racquet
 
3.     Note how his legs are now fully extended as he lifts off the floor

Photo 11.



1.     Note Roger’s arm reaching up towards the ball as he throws the edge of the racquet up towards the ball with his wrist and grip loose but laid back at this stage
 
2.     Note how his trunk is rotating back towards the front
 
3.     Note how he keeps his head up watching the ball

Photo 12.



1.     Note how Roger’s hand is turning (pronating) so that both the soft part of wrist and the racquet strings face the ball in order to make contact. At which angle the strings make contact will depend on the server’s choice of serve; flat, slice, heavy, topspin or topslice. The only way this can happen is by maintaining a loose relaxed grip

Photo 13.



1.     Note the racquet face is now square against the ball effecting Roger’s desired contact as listed previously. His wrist is no longer laid back to enable both elastic energy but also for the racquet to meet the ball at the best angle to send it to the correct service box. If he kept his wrist laid off the ball would rise too much and go miles long due to the racquet face being to open
 
2.     Note how he contacts the ball inside the baseline allowing his body weight to be moving forwards creating more force
 
3.     Note the ball should make contact with slightly above centre on the strings

Photo 14.



1.     Note Roger has now made contact with the ball whilst holding the racquet in a continental grip as you can see by the angle of the soft part of his wrist and the racquet face pointing towards the target
 
2.     Note how his arm is fully extended and he is still watching the ball
 
3.     Note the outcome of the elastic energy potential stored up by pushing his hip forward (mentioned earlier). His upper body jack-knives with his lower body producing increased force into the serve

Photo 15.



1.     Note the position and angle of his wrist being turned outwards due to the pronation of his hand which can only happen with a very relaxed hand
 
2.     Note how his shoulder hasn’t dropped before contact

Photo 16.



1.     Note The claw finish. See how his racquet has finished due to the relaxation in his entire arm (without dropping his shoulder) including his hand.
 
2.     Note His hand has turned (pronated) to a point whereby the soft part of his wrist now points away from the net

Photo 17.



1.     Note how he lands on his front foot as his upper body has finished rotating and his shoulders are facing the net
 
2.     Note how he never takes his eyes off the ball

Photo 18.



1.     Note Roger usually lands inside the baseline with the view to attack a weak service return. Although not shown here it must be noted that Roger returns back to ready position as quickly as possible to be ready for the return


Many thanks for reading. If you found this useful please share with your players and on social media. I will be sharing more articles shortly.

Now you can own the following coaching info. on your smartphone or tablet. You won’t find this amount of invaluable content on any other site or app.
 
    • Progression video drills for developing every tennis stroke from complete beginner to a performance player level
    • Over 100 singles winning pattern of play drills carefully mapped out from actual ATP and WTA players during their matches
    • Many progression doubles drills to help beginner and performance players alike
  
Join TennisiPro.com now for Instant Access, plus…
 
    • You will receive a free downloadable MTI coaching pack worth £97
 
Speak soon and best wishes
 
Andy Magrath
 


Back to content