I took a video of my serve (60 FPS) and it took 0.4 seconds from my racket to the service line. How fast would you say my serve was?
08.06.2025 01:21
There are two major factors that slow the ball. One is the flexibility of the ball itself. If you’ve ever seen a photo of a ball at the instant of impact, you can see that the diameter of the ball increases because the impact flattens out the ball.
The speed of a tennis ball is generally measured right off the racket, and it’s only going to slow down, not speed up. That said, a tennis ball that comes off the racket face at, say, 115 mph is going to get to the receiver sooner than a ball hit at, say, 100 mph, notwithstanding that both will slow before getting to the receiver.
At most tournaments, the speed of a serve is commonly measured and draws comment if it’s unusually fast or slow. But think about a tennis ball and when it’s going xxx mph. Where exactly is it going xxx mph?
I don’t know, but I do know some other things about the serve in general.
In fact, the ball flexes throughout its flight. In other words, some portion of the energy imparted by the racke...