Hit head here

[woodmo]

This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I often times brush the back of my head with my racquet on my serves as I'm bringing the racquet into the hitting position. It doesn't always happen but I'm not sure exactly what causes this. It seems that when I focus on arching my back more it doesn't happen as much, but it still does, and it throws my serve off and makes me conscious about whether I'm going to hit my head or not. I think it's starting to cause a flat spot on the back of my head too!:confused: Any help would be much appreciated and save me from permanent deformity. Thanks.

[fuzz nation]

Think of holding your racquet like it's a javelin and you're going to throw it - that idea may help keep you from tucking it in behind your head as you wind up to serve. You can also get into your ready position with the head of your racquet resting out on the edge of your shoulder, then at half speed you can try some serves and see how it feels to go up through the ball from that different orientation.

Basically, as you make your move to the ball for your serve, you want to get away from flexing your elbow too far. These little cues are intended to encourage you to go through a service motion without bending your hitting arm too far beyond 90 degrees. Along with not hitting the back of your head (usually a good thing), you should be able to find a good radius to swing through on that serve.

[10s talk]

play when you are sober

[Rafael_Nadal_6257]

Think of holding your racquet like it's a javelin and you're going to throw it - that idea may help keep you from tucking it in behind your head as you wind up to serve. You can also get into your ready position with the head of your racquet resting out on the edge of your shoulder, then at half speed you can try some serves and see how it feels to go up through the ball from that different orientation.

Basically, as you make your move to the ball for your serve, you want to get away from flexing your elbow too far. These little cues are intended to encourage you to go through a service motion without bending your hitting arm too far beyond 90 degrees. Along with not hitting the back of your head (usually a good thing), you should be able to find a good radius to swing through on that serve.

Bending one's hitting arm beyond 90 degrees (I'm assuming that you mean that having the forearm and hand go beyond (in a downwards direction) parallel to the ground is not good...) is usually good...it has been shown to have a positive correlation to racquet-head speed and thus, service speed; Sampras having a service motion, which takes his hitting arm beyond 90 degrees.