What I find more than ironic in these measurements is the fact that there are some, perhaps many players, parents and coaches in the US who think that there are more than enough high school varsity tennis players to populate the rosters of collegiate varsity tennis programs and so there is no need to offer collegiate playing opportunities and scholarships to international (read “foreign”) tennis players. *see my earlier post titled "Memo to American college and junior tennis players: Find another 30 MPH ASAP!" for serve speed data from the top ATP pros. A 40 to 50 MPH speed gap* between the first and second serves of the top tour pros and the better high school varsity player.A nearly 30 MPH speed gap between the groundstrokes of the typical male collegiate player and the better high school varsity player.A 20 MPH speed gap between the first and second serves of the typical male collegiate and the better high school varsity player.46.9 MPH (HS)īy now, I’m pretty sure that shouldn’t be surprising to you that direct measurements of stroke speed confirm the perception that there should be a pretty big difference in the stroke speeds between college and high school tennis players. Now, let’s put these speeds into some context…ġ st serve: 90.5 MPH (NCAA) vs. The average forehand speed (during neutral rallies) was 46.9 MPH. The average forehand speed (during neutral rallies) was 46.1 MPH. The average 2 nd serve speed was 60.8 MPH. The average 1 st serve speed of these HS players was 68.9 MPH. If I was to describe the approximate playing levels of the 30 players whose speeds I measured, I would estimate that the majority of players would probably be rated somewhere between NTRP 3.7 (by this I mean between NTRP 3.5 and 4.0) all the way to about NTRP 5.0.Īnyway, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty… So there was a wide range of players from a variety of competitive backgrounds from those players who only compete for their high school team during the high school season to a sectional Top 20-ranked player. To give you a bit of background on the players involved, there were players from 10 different high schools trying to qualify for the State 5A Boys’ Tennis Championships in 7 divisions: Singles #1 to #3 and Doubles #1 to #4. Recently, I had the opportunity to continue my survey of serve and groundstroke speed in US tennis by measuring the stroke speeds of high school varsity (“HS”) players that participated in a regional qualification tournament for my home state’s 5A Division (overall) State Championships.