Quick Tip: Add a rocking motion to the start of your serve

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All service motions have their unique idiosyncrasies. One of the features present in many big serves is a rocking motion to initiate the stroke. Servers will lean back slightly onto their dominant leg and then shift forward onto their front foot as they start the motion. It’s an effective way to promote weight transfer into the court for more power while creating a fluid rhythm. Darren Cahill reportedly wanted to add such a movement when he started working with Jannik Sinner.

A common pitfall when amateur players try to incorporate this move is sequencing it properly with the ensuing ball toss. There’s a tendency to prematurely raise the tossing arm as the body weight shifts back. This results in a toss that puts the ball more directly overhead, which often leads to a flatfooted delivery without any momentum into the court. Not only does this rob the serve of pace, but can be detrimental to consistency.

A simple way to check whether you’re doing this correctly—which also doubles as an effective drill—is to initiate the rocking motion, toss the ball up, but don’t hit it. Instead, see where the ball lands in relationship to the baseline. If it bounces several feet inside the court, you’re syncing up the toss and weight shift to put the ball in an advantageous hitting position. However, if it hits on or around the baseline, then you’ve got work to do.

Keep in mind that it’s a subtle weight shift—you don’t need to dramatically sink into your back leg. Think of it as more of a cue than part of the swing. Once the weight starts transferring back to the front foot, that’s when the tossing arm begins to raise. And try not to rush. Maintain a relaxed tempo as you gradually build momentum into the swing.

Add this movement to the start of your motion and you’ll rock your serve.