Safin's torso when he's serving

[AlexTennis]

My problem in serving is that my torso is tilted too much forward and toward left at the time of contact (I'm righty) when compared with typical pros. I found Safin's doing the same thing. My serving form is very similar to Safin's if I was asked to choose one among pros.

The problem is... I don't like my serve. I've been trying to fix it but nothing effective yet. Pls help.

-AlexTennis

My serve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4TZRa8Mwho

Safin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDPlzIwufaE

[Koaske]

Posting a video would help us find the problem... It's rather difficult to tell what's wrong when we're not seeing the actual serve, even while we know the problem.

[papa]

Well, he did post his serve and its not that bad. However, take a look at your feet, your using a crossover step which is opening you up a little too early. If you were to bring your right foot more into the arch of your left foot and stay sideways longer, your speed and consistency would pick up.

Now there are a few other things but try that first and see what happens.

[Sagittar]

i dont mean to sound pessimistic but i think your serve could benefit from improvments in almost every aspect : ball toss , knee bend , hip turn , racquet angle and the follow through .. try asking a pro coach to monitor it and give you real time advice , good luck

[AlexTennis]

Thanks for pointing out some of my problems. I've been playing tennis for just 2.5 years, and I know there are many rooms for improving.

What would you say about Safin's serve mechanism?

[tennis_hand]

from my own experience, i don't like the torso turn and the back arc. it could one day injure my back because I feel it is risky. I prefer Fed's knee bend.

[thejackal]

Dont overanalyse the serve. You have a nice motion. Dont force it too much, practice, and it should become a weapon. Another thing is dont go for too much. With ur swing, just make solid contact and you'll hit a very nice ball.

[zapvor]

i dont know...it looks pretty good from the video to me. are they not going in or too little pace or what. i think my only observation is maybe take your time and not rush through it?

[AlexTennis]

Nowadays, I'm gettgin more and more control of it. I can put it on T and slice it wide depending on my intension. When I counted throught out matches, my first serve gets in about 60% with my intentional target position (but with some margin asuredly). But I'd like to increase my ball speed. I think the maximal speed for my first serve is aroud 100 mpg (accroding to the counting the number of frarmes from the contact my racquet to the landing to the service box) but the average is about 90 mph.

I really would like to increase the speed of my serve to 110-120 mph. That's why I'd like to do some surgery on my serve...

[skuludo]

Why must you use a vid of safin from so far?

Here is a better one. Up close in a match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJvKGEGS3u0

The view of your serve is not good. I can see more if it was from behind you. There is also a slight chance you (if I have interpreted pronation correctly) that you have not pronated on your serve. Also you might've failed the racket drop phase, but I can't tell for sure. The racket is suppose to line up with the side of your body. The reason for this is that you get more room for accelerating your racket.

I seem to be serving at around the same speed as from August till November (My video on youtube was from November). My fastest clocked was 104mph.
I have made changes on my own, but I haven't had a chance to check how fast my serve is. The last time when I served I scored a 97mph when the ball was wet by dryed. After that I've been serving wet balls. The fastest I could get was 84mph when I placed the radar gun behind the net by 80cm. The serve was hit down the T on the ad side as hard as I could. The fastest I got when the radar gun was in front of the net serving a wet ball was 88mph down the T from the ad side placed perfectly. The ball was placed right on the corner T inside the service box almost touching the line on both those speeds.

My goal is the same as yours, but I think I am giving it up as I don't see it happening. The worst part is my forehand is now down to 40mph hitting wet tennis balls that land on the baseline while hitting flat. They would at least be somewhere in the 50s or 60s when struck well. I don't know whats going on.


Michael Chang uses that same feet movement you do on your serve. Yours is different from Safins. Safin keeps his right foot behind his left. You bring yours forward right beside your left foot.