Why It's Almost Impossible to Hit a 160 MPH Tennis Serve | WIRED 

- What's wrong with my serve? - It's technique. The polite way to say: "everything my dude".

“Why can’t I serve more than 77 mph” “Because you’re serving with a forehand grip”

The pros make tennis look so easy and simple but underneath that simplicity lies years of grueling practice, precision, coordination and skills. I love tennis

When a professional says your technique is your hindering factor it is really code for "everything"

I'm surprised no one told you how atrocious your grip on the raquet was.

257,5 km/h or 71,5 m/s for everyone else

I can see a parody of this: "Why It's Almost Impossible to Run 200 mph | WIRED"

Seeing that in super-slo-mo makes it look like a miracle of coordination.

Thanks! I always wondered why I got 159MPH! Appreciate it man!

So the reason we won't see 160mph is because it is hard to do - great.. I was assuming there was some Physics calculation based on terminal velocity or something..

Next: Why It’s Almost Impossible to Beat Your Meat 15x In a Row | WIRED

your grip of the racket is a big no

Professional Tennis is the hardest sport in the world in my opinion. It’s individual with no coaching allowed on the men’s side. You need extreme physical fitness for long matches, or short matches with intense points. You have to have skill like in golf but with your racquet. And you also have to have extreme mental toughness and intelligence to play different types of opponents. And you have to do this year round Internationally in different time zones on different surfaces.

If they hadn't reduced the pressure in the balls twice since 1990, serves would be going over 160mph.

Nick Kyrgios underhand serve is better

Vice: 'It's almost impossible to hit a 160 mph serve' Sam Groth: 'Get outta town mate'

I played against Reilly a couple times in Florida when we were 16, and his serve was by far the most consistently devastating I ever played against. Seeing him wreck tour players (like the Stan) with that serve now makes me feel a bit better lol...His height certainly helps but more so did his hitting a thousand plus serves every day... Repetition gets aces!

160mph almost impossible? Sam Groth says: hold my bevvie.

Simply by using the correct grip - continental, you'd have increased your serve speed by an easy 10mph and more importantly consistency by triple fold.

Bro, just switching to a continental grip adds one more swinging part to your serving apparatus, which adds 10 mph or so to your serve. You were using a regular forehand grip. But, the continental grip is highly unintuitive in the beginning.

Wii Sports tennis is the most epic and intense tennis

Thanks Robbie, always love your Almost impossible vids... please do one for badminton!

Thanks for the video! I love what Andy Roddick said about tall players' serves. When asked what it was like trying to return Isner's serve, he said it was like watching a serve come at you... *_out of a tree._* Classic A-Rod! Rikki Tikki.

He could have added at least 3 MPH just by improving his grip lower down on the racket to increase leverage among other things.

You should do one video explaining why its impossible to bowl faster than 165kmph in cricket. Really enjoy "why its almost impossible" series, keep it up.

One important factor not mentioned about the kinetic chain is the need to remain relaxed. The most common areas of tension is in the arm. Anywhere you are tensing up are choke points in the chain.

wish there would be a science analysis of novak's returning.

“teNniS iSn’T A sPoRt” “TeNnIs Is eAsY”

Where is my boy shaggy? Give him a Scooby snack and he will hit a 420 mph serve

Man: Hits 159.999 mph serve WIRED: WhY It'S AlMoSt ImPosSibBle tO HiT a 160 mph SeRvE

Love this series and I love the research and writing that goes into it. Keep it up!

"it's one of the most exciting moments in any tennis match" spoken like someone who's never seen Isner v Karlovic

Almost impossible. It’s possible for me and Aladeen

"Why It's Almost Impossible to [insert random sporting event] at [insert numerical value] | WIRED"

Awesome video! This is my favorite RU-vidr series right now keep up the content!

For the whole world using metric units, here is small “conversion table” for better understanding: Mph = Km/h 77 = 124 100 = 161 110 = 177 120 = 193 150 = 241,4 160 = 257,5

Also, a big fat serve only focusing on pace sacrifices accuracy and deception, and at pro level, time might be better spent to shore up a more well rounded serve and focus on other parts of your game. When Fed battled Roddick all those times, Roddick being able to serve 15 mph faster than Roger had marginal effects in covering up the fact that Fed had far superior ground strokes.

When the tennis ball hit the camera it scared me so bad because for a split second I was convinced a tennis ball was about to hit my face

77 mph for an absolute beginner is really not that bad, I've been playing the sport for eight years, had my speed measured once and it was also about 77 mph. Just hitting your serve fast makes it predictable though, adding all kinds of funky spin can make your serve much more difficult to deal with than just a fast serve.

9:50 I think I saw this guy in one of backstage videos when he is chilling with Novak Jokovich over his impressions of other tennis players

Samuel Groth of Australia achieved a World Record of the fastest serve ever in tennis history with a service speed of 163.7 mph (263.4 kph) at the Busan Open 2012 Challenger Event.

Can we get non-freedom units please?

some invaluable insight into the sport here. might have even learned a few things to take to the courts next time I'm working on serving, thanks!

Love this series! Please try to do a volleyball one!

Tennis Player: does an extremely fast serve My uncle who knows nothing about sports: *_TOUCHDOWN_*

Note that the ball doesn't roll along the face of the racket - a large face can result in more spin because the strings can be spaced further apart so is able to have more bite into the ball resulting in higher spin rate.

I remember back in the 80's the South African player Yohan Kriek who was only about 5'9" tall, one year on the tour he served the most aces. He also served the most double faults that year, but boy was he great to watch!

You should have asked Dustin Brown to serve, cause when he hits the ball, the ball catches on fire.

Being too tall is not too good for tennis though, you win in the serve department but not so helpful in everything else. Tall people usually have weaker kness and a higher center of gravity which is harder for tennis. That's why all the great tennis players are usually about 185cm (6.2 feet): Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Sampras)

I would welcome an analysis of Schwartzmann's serve. He must do a lot to get it over fast.

Love that. I hoped to see a tennis video, it’s great. What they didn’t say was on that Sam Groth serve, the ball had hit the back wall and bounced back onto the outside of the court before the guy even got his racquet into his strike zone. It was hilarious 😂

Great video. Its clearly contains good information and its not boring at the same time.

I'd love to see one of these videos on the badminton smash. The fastest recorded is 306.3 mph (493 kph).

Metric units in Wired videos: almost impossible.

loved the videos.I just wish you could do a video on badminton

I liked the video. Very useful. I would like to see a video to improve my attention on the ball and eye coordination. I once saw in a tournament that the player was with the coach doing some exercises in which the coach threw the ball at him and the player grabbed it with his hand. I think that's what I'm talking about. What other exercises can be done to improve my focus on the ball?. Thanks for your videos.

It's crazy how Novak can return all those big serves. He get's rarely aced.

1:33 I flinched so hard, i fell of my chair 😂

I use that same exact racquet. It’s the 2018 Babolat Pure Drive

@WIRED You should do a bowling one for max rev rate. Keep making great content

Seeing his grip and the way he serves, is kinda making me forget how to serve 😵😶

Man, back when I was in high school learning tennis I would have loved a video like this. Those were the early days of RU-vid when I had to pause videos to break down forms myself.

That GoPro breaking was some solid content haha love it. Tsonga is easily thee most scariest dude blasting serves at you lol dude is aggressive

9:51 Ok that guy to the left of his head is frieza and you can’t convine me otherwise

I love that WIRED are including this the exact same time Wimbledon is going on.

First thing to learn is the grip. You're welcome ;)

Such a great breakdown of serve technique

Also you need to change your grip to a proper server grip..that will add a lot of mph

Video title is a bit clickbaity... not a lot of explanation as to why it's supposedly "almost impossible" to hit a 160mph serve. In fact, the presenter even said it at the end - that it IS possible, it just hasn't happened yet! And in fact, it has... Sam Groth did it. It just wasn't officially recognised.

I’m a pro at the USTA National Campus. For technique, during the serve there is a wrist “snap” where the wrist is bent 90 degrees backwards then snaps forward upon impact through the ball and finishes forward 90 degrees. You see this when the pro is going up and into the ball with the butt cap pointed at the ball and after the follow through the butt cap is pointed up again at the sky. This is one of the most important aspects and all of the coiling/ upward momentum will generate more energy to transfer into the ball. As racquet technology advances, more flexible materials are being made into the racquet to generate more power. Racquet stiffness plays a major role in how much power can be generated. As you increase stiffness, you sacrifice power. Babolat racquets are loaded in power due to their light frames. Professional players modify their racquets by inserting led tape within the handle and frame of the racquet. By adding weight in certain locations within their racquets, this allows pros to enhance their abilities to generate power. Power in tennis refers to not just the speed of the ball but also the spin. Pros sacrifice the speed of their serves to add more spin. This is a strategic move because a ball with more spin feels heavy and is harder to return. Also, hitting the ball flat (less spin) requires more energy even with the same racquet head speed. That is why it is inefficient for pros to just go for speed alone. When players are low on energy, the first shot to go will be the serve. Finally the strings play a major role in generating power. By putting in a full bed of 16 guage RPM Blast (poly) at 45 lbs, you will significantly increase the “pop” on the ball. This creates a trampoline effect with your strings allowing you carry the ball on your strings for a longer period of time then launch it off in the direction you desire. All in all, this is an awesome video and you guys did an incredible job with your research and attention to detail. I would love to see more videos like this in the future! Thank you for making this!

Really excellent video. Better than anything I've seen on any tennis channel!

Can we also talk about pronating your wrist outwards? Changes the pace and topspin of the serve

They really should have picked someone who actually could play tennis recreationally to do this video

haha I was about to say, "well Andy Roddick isn't that tall and he served at 155mph" but then he literally brought him up right after that.

imagine getting attacked but you got a pro tennis player with his racket and ball as your body guard

The best example to "height isn't everything" is Roddick. He truly perfected the technique, it is the most explosive serve motion i've ever seen, even till today.

Nadal is one of the greatest ever and he rarely hits a flat serve.

Nobody: Sam Groth: hold my beer

This video is better serve coaching than most videos dedicated to teaching serving

This is such a solid and profound video that you can't but have your hat up!

Can you do a why it’s almost impossible to hit a baseball over 600 feet

wired: imma go look for a world record and add +1 mph and say its almost impossible

Someone: serves at 160mph Wired: why it’s almost impossible to serve 170mph

If you understand the body movements related to the this service you're able to learn master Lee's one inches punch.

It’s 2am and I’m here watching why it’s almost impossible to serve a 160 ball 🥴

This video misses the whole point that serve speed isn’t the most important thing ever. Placement is which is why most aces are at 115 mph

True, but also there is a pay off between concentration and performance You can concentrate to such a degree that your serves can be truly awesome. But then the complex you create can also be a weakness because often we need to be reactive as players also. Its essential to have simplicity in action so that when pure reactions are required the movement can be fluid and accurate. Tennis is a great game. :)

I love these vids. Keep doin this man!

"modern racket is well over 100 inches" literally ALL pros play with racket head sizes under that...

Yo, I played on that USTA court

Very likable host. Thank you for the information.

Could you please do an almost impossible episode regarding bowling?

How hard is it to show the values in metric?

This video would have gone so much faster if we got someone who could play basic tennis.

This is a fun series. Thanks!

Given that many parts of the world televise pro tennis using metric system and also use the metric system, would it be useful to include the km conversions as well during the video?

16:05 Hot and *dry weather will produce a faster serve. The humidity makes the ball heavier and it will travel slower through the air.

When someone eventually does hit a 160 MPH Tennis Serve, post another video about Why It's Almost Impossible to Hit a 170 MPH Tennis Serve.

I never would have even thought to serve the way Robbie does lol. the way he falls back on his landing. it's kind of cute.

Wired and Insider create amazing quality content. Keep it up guys, I love it