Road to a Pro Level Serve!
- Thread starter Coolio
- Start date
Chas Tennis
G.O.A.T.
That is a nice serve.
I have found that slow video is useful for a limited number of checkpoints to point out differences that are likely to be flaws from high level serves. But when your serve is a better one, like yours, high speed video carefully taken is required.
Here's why -
This is what 30 or 25 fps (what is your frame rate?) records for your tennis serve, a frame every 33 or 40 milliseconds.
Frame #1. A frame roughly around the Big L position with the racket edge on to the ball and the racket to forearm angle roughly at 90°.
Frame #2. The next frame 33 or 40 milliseconds after frame #2, roughly around impact.
Frame #3. A frame well after impact showing the follow through. 66 or 80 milliseconds after Frame #1.
The camera captures similar frames at random times of each serve. With 33 or 40 milliseconds between frames each video will capture different times of the service motion. The racket moves too fast to see what is going on with 30 or 25 fps.
Frame #4. Serve at 12 seconds. Can't evaluate your fast motion but here is one checkpoint that you should compare to high level servers. All the following are related - 1) The forearm-to-racket angle looks too large, in other words, the racket is too close to aligned to the forearm. 2) Your racket looks too vertical. I believe that the racket tilts to the left more at impact. 3) Also, your wrist looks too ulna deviated, maybe stressed, compare this wrist angle also to high level serves viewed from the same camera angles. These angles relate to toss position, hand path, motion technique.... ?. However, I am not that familiar with how these angles appear for a camera looking down the court centerline. See discussion below.
Camera viewing angles. All real angles will appear different as you vary the camera viewing angles. You can test this by viewing angles with one eye as you move around. If you align the camera on the court centerline, the serves on the add and deuce sides of the court cannot be compared.
The ball's trajectory is one useful reference for direction. The camera can view from behind or in front looking along the ball's trajectory. Also, the camera can view from the side, perpendicular to the ball's trajectory. For cameras placed in other uncontrolled positions remember angles will appear to vary depending on the viewing angle.
If you want to demo the serve angles have someone hold the shoulders, arm and racket as for the impact on the serve (all are at angles to the vertical). Walk around them and look at how these fixed angles appear to change.
Take side camera view also.
Pick a model server (not Garcia Lopez).
I have found that slow video is useful for a limited number of checkpoints to point out differences that are likely to be flaws from high level serves. But when your serve is a better one, like yours, high speed video carefully taken is required.
Here's why -
This is what 30 or 25 fps (what is your frame rate?) records for your tennis serve, a frame every 33 or 40 milliseconds.
Frame #1. A frame roughly around the Big L position with the racket edge on to the ball and the racket to forearm angle roughly at 90°.
Frame #2. The next frame 33 or 40 milliseconds after frame #2, roughly around impact.
Frame #3. A frame well after impact showing the follow through. 66 or 80 milliseconds after Frame #1.
The camera captures similar frames at random times of each serve. With 33 or 40 milliseconds between frames each video will capture different times of the service motion. The racket moves too fast to see what is going on with 30 or 25 fps.
Frame #4. Serve at 12 seconds. Can't evaluate your fast motion but here is one checkpoint that you should compare to high level servers. All the following are related - 1) The forearm-to-racket angle looks too large, in other words, the racket is too close to aligned to the forearm. 2) Your racket looks too vertical. I believe that the racket tilts to the left more at impact. 3) Also, your wrist looks too ulna deviated, maybe stressed, compare this wrist angle also to high level serves viewed from the same camera angles. These angles relate to toss position, hand path, motion technique.... ?. However, I am not that familiar with how these angles appear for a camera looking down the court centerline. See discussion below.
Camera viewing angles. All real angles will appear different as you vary the camera viewing angles. You can test this by viewing angles with one eye as you move around. If you align the camera on the court centerline, the serves on the add and deuce sides of the court cannot be compared.
The ball's trajectory is one useful reference for direction. The camera can view from behind or in front looking along the ball's trajectory. Also, the camera can view from the side, perpendicular to the ball's trajectory. For cameras placed in other uncontrolled positions remember angles will appear to vary depending on the viewing angle.
If you want to demo the serve angles have someone hold the shoulders, arm and racket as for the impact on the serve (all are at angles to the vertical). Walk around them and look at how these fixed angles appear to change.
Take side camera view also.
Pick a model server (not Garcia Lopez).
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Good serve. I'll take a closer look later.
1. Minor differences from serve to serve start to be magnified at this level. So pay attention to the little things. As you practice over the weeks and months, you'll start to become very familiar with your serve. When you hit a very good serve or a very bad one, pay attention to the why and those are areas to work on.
2. For me, ball toss is still one of the most important things. If it varies even by a little bit, my power and consistency drops a lot. By a lot, i mean more than you would think, so it's something worth paying attention to. I use a radar when practicing so i'm aware of this, but since you don't have one. You'll notice most of your serves bang the back fence around the same height, within one foot range. Assuming same spin and location, you can use height as a proxy, plus how heavy the ball is, meaning if it bangs hard on the fence and it's still on the way up. Your toss looks pretty consistent, so i don't know how much of a factor it is for you, so just pay attention and see if this makes a diff.
3. Balance and momentum and kinetic energy. It doesn't seem like you pay attention to these, so you're losing out on a lot of power. Except maybe in using it the wrong way when you net the ball cause i think you're trying to land more into the court thinking it will get more power, but it just causes consistency issues, less power, and you running into the court. When you look at top servers like Fed, they land on one foot very balanced; no need to run thru your serve. Like i said, being balanced gives more power. Yes, you can land in the court, but not at the cost of balance.
Look at where you land. Put your finger or mouse pointer on the spot, and see what happens from serve to serve. It varies. The best servers have this figured out and land in the same spot i.e. Roddick. Sometimes, you land more forward than others; other times you land more to the left. This tells me you'll doing drastically different things with your body, and your momentum and energy are going in different directions every serve. On the one you land more to the left, i think you over-rotated your trunk more.
Think of this as some butterfly effect where little things can make big differences. You're wasting energy by landing left/right and front/back. You're not really paying attention to your balance, momentum, and energy yet so there are huge gains to be had. Your not falling to the left badly like beginners, but you do have minor variations compared to pros. Like i said, this is the time to start paying attention to these little things that i wouldn't normally mention to beginner or intermediate servers.
You seem lost on where the energy should go, so let me remind you. The kinetic chain starts from the ground and travels up. If you serve enough times, you should become aware of this: it should feel like a wave moving and traveling up thru your body to your arms.If you move a body part too soon, then the energy has not reached that stage yet. If you hesitate, then the energy will be dissipated and wasted. Try to feel this wave, and let it guide you. If you don't understand what i mean, just try to do it by feel. Now the key is this, the wave or energy needs to reach your arm. Since your arm is overhead, then all your energy will be directed to where your arm is pointing (at the point of contact obviously). IOW, it should be up and forward.
If the above doesn't make sense, try not to land more forward into the court. It's suboptimal. Think more 'up and forward' since that's where all your energy should go to: your racket.
To sum up, pay attention, ball toss, and balance/momentum. Kinetic energy if you understand it. I mentioned the kinetic chain, but my tip isn't really about the chain so it's a bonus.
1. Minor differences from serve to serve start to be magnified at this level. So pay attention to the little things. As you practice over the weeks and months, you'll start to become very familiar with your serve. When you hit a very good serve or a very bad one, pay attention to the why and those are areas to work on.
2. For me, ball toss is still one of the most important things. If it varies even by a little bit, my power and consistency drops a lot. By a lot, i mean more than you would think, so it's something worth paying attention to. I use a radar when practicing so i'm aware of this, but since you don't have one. You'll notice most of your serves bang the back fence around the same height, within one foot range. Assuming same spin and location, you can use height as a proxy, plus how heavy the ball is, meaning if it bangs hard on the fence and it's still on the way up. Your toss looks pretty consistent, so i don't know how much of a factor it is for you, so just pay attention and see if this makes a diff.
3. Balance and momentum and kinetic energy. It doesn't seem like you pay attention to these, so you're losing out on a lot of power. Except maybe in using it the wrong way when you net the ball cause i think you're trying to land more into the court thinking it will get more power, but it just causes consistency issues, less power, and you running into the court. When you look at top servers like Fed, they land on one foot very balanced; no need to run thru your serve. Like i said, being balanced gives more power. Yes, you can land in the court, but not at the cost of balance.
Look at where you land. Put your finger or mouse pointer on the spot, and see what happens from serve to serve. It varies. The best servers have this figured out and land in the same spot i.e. Roddick. Sometimes, you land more forward than others; other times you land more to the left. This tells me you'll doing drastically different things with your body, and your momentum and energy are going in different directions every serve. On the one you land more to the left, i think you over-rotated your trunk more.
Think of this as some butterfly effect where little things can make big differences. You're wasting energy by landing left/right and front/back. You're not really paying attention to your balance, momentum, and energy yet so there are huge gains to be had. Your not falling to the left badly like beginners, but you do have minor variations compared to pros. Like i said, this is the time to start paying attention to these little things that i wouldn't normally mention to beginner or intermediate servers.
You seem lost on where the energy should go, so let me remind you. The kinetic chain starts from the ground and travels up. If you serve enough times, you should become aware of this: it should feel like a wave moving and traveling up thru your body to your arms.If you move a body part too soon, then the energy has not reached that stage yet. If you hesitate, then the energy will be dissipated and wasted. Try to feel this wave, and let it guide you. If you don't understand what i mean, just try to do it by feel. Now the key is this, the wave or energy needs to reach your arm. Since your arm is overhead, then all your energy will be directed to where your arm is pointing (at the point of contact obviously). IOW, it should be up and forward.
If the above doesn't make sense, try not to land more forward into the court. It's suboptimal. Think more 'up and forward' since that's where all your energy should go to: your racket.
To sum up, pay attention, ball toss, and balance/momentum. Kinetic energy if you understand it. I mentioned the kinetic chain, but my tip isn't really about the chain so it's a bonus.
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Two things: drive your tossing shoulder backwards more towards the back fence, so you can arch your back more, and drive your left hip out /lower your rear right hip, and pronate your shoulder more/faster, straight upwards as if you are throwing a football straight up, and then stop the serve motion, everything but your frame arm, so it whips through faster. Toss to 11-12 oclock more, so the angle of frame to wrist increases.
The larger coil/arch will allow faster frame speeds, and stopping the motion will whip it faster, so you need faster frame speed, and this is how to get it. Look at Thiem, a little guy with a big serve and compare your arch to his.
Tight Lines
Professional
Wow, pretty nice looking serves. I wish I had your serve 
.
I agree with Chas that your racket angle to the forearm is too straight. This looks to me to be the low hanging fruit. By decreasing the angle to say 150 degrees, you may pick up extra RHS. Take a look at this thread that discusses the 2-1 pro's grip.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/inde...-is-the-pro-continental-grip-for-real.483360/
Harry
. I agree with Chas that your racket angle to the forearm is too straight. This looks to me to be the low hanging fruit. By decreasing the angle to say 150 degrees, you may pick up extra RHS. Take a look at this thread that discusses the 2-1 pro's grip.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/inde...-is-the-pro-continental-grip-for-real.483360/
Harry
Coolio
Professional
Frame #4. Serve at 12 seconds. Can't evaluate your fast motion but here is one checkpoint that you should compare to high level servers. All the following are related - 1) The forearm-to-racket angle looks too large, in other words, the racket is too close to aligned to the forearm. 2) Your racket looks too vertical. I believe that the racket tilts to the left more. 3) Also, your wrist looks too ulna deviated, maybe stressed, compare this wrist angle also to high level serves viewed from the same camera angles. These angles relate to toss position, hand path, motion technique.... ?. However, I am not that familiar with how these angles appear for a camera looking down the centerline. See discussion below.
I will work on more of a toss at 12 o'clock, I think this should improve my wrist angle. You can see my head position is more looking out to the side more than most top servers who look directly up.
Yes, GGL has poor racquet drop and pronation, still serves better than me though!
Do you think hitting lot's of spin on my serves, will help me drill the toss and wrist angle as I will be tossing more over my head to do this?
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Chas Tennis
G.O.A.T.
I will work on more of a toss at 12 o'clock, I think this should improve my wrist angle. You can see my head position is more looking out to the side more than most top servers who look directly up.
Yes, GGL has poor racquet drop and pronation, still serves better than me though!
Do you think hitting lot's of spin on my serves, will help me drill the toss and wrist angle as I will be tossing more over my head to do this?
Here is a thread that discusses and illustrates some angles.
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/inde...et-angles-for-flat-slice-kick-impacts.489960/
You need direct comparisons to high level serves using similar camera viewing angles.
These are toly composite pictures made from rare Fuzzy Yellow Ball overhead high speed videos. Notice the positions of the body, racket, ball, hand at impact and the path of the hand. Also, notice on the kick serve that the upper body/shoulder girdle is facing more to the right, impact is more over the head, the racket appears longer because it is tilted at a greater angle to the vertical and the hand path is at a different angle than for the flat or slice. I can't be sure how typical Frank Salazar's techniques are for representing high level serving techniques. ? These rare overhead views are much better for showing several important things, such as the hand path, than a back or side view. Pay attention to the path of your hand, it's not as easy to see as from the overhead view. You can still compare. Unfortunately, it is best to know the hand path relative to the ball's trajectory and that was not shown in these overheads. The hand path allows the ISR & forearm-to-racket angle to meet the toss when properly timed. If your hand path is too directly at the ball you might force your forearm to racket angle to be too large, like you now have. ? But you have a very good technique so see what you can find comparing. This requires high speed video.
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Cobaine
Semi-Pro
You could rotate your upper body more. Your shoulders seem to stay perpendicular to the next, whereas the best servers almost show their back to the opponent.
Also, although it's hard to tell from the camera angle, you may not be getting your left hip into the court on your coil.
Also, although it's hard to tell from the camera angle, you may not be getting your left hip into the court on your coil.
Coolio
Professional
Really don't know, would love to do a serve session with a quality radar gun.
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Coolio
Professional
That's depressing, thought I was at least in 100-110 range.
Coolio
Professional
I've read it. I agree about ball toss, not too sure about the balance and kinetic energy stuff, I used to have problems with this but now I don't think it's really an issue, maybe I will look at it again some time in the future.
Limpinhitter
G.O.A.T.
That's a good serve, when you hit it cleanly. It looks and sounds like you are not always nailing the sweet spot. Most likely it is because you are not looking at the ball at contact. Your face is forward instead of up toward the ball. You could also use more shoulder rotation before you begin your upward swing. That is, turn your back to the target and tilt your shoulders as much as comfortably possible. Then rotate your right shoulder up to the ball.
PS: I agree that your toss could be a bit more directly in front of your left foot.
PS: I agree that your toss could be a bit more directly in front of your left foot.
Chas Tennis
G.O.A.T.
Serve speed estimate from video frame count.
http://donthireddy.us/tennis/speed.html
First serve in the video - I estimated the first bounce was 3 feet short of the 60 foot default. Bounce at 57 feet. Frame count 13. It gives a speed of 105 MPH.
You can go through your serves and estimate how far the bounce is from the hit. An error of one frame count of 13 makes about a +/- 8% error in serve speed, so be as careful as you can.
1) Look carefully at the tossed ball falling to see clearly which frame first shows forward motion.
2) The ball will appear to have bounced, estimate frame as best you can.
You might add and subtract a frame in the calculator to get an idea of the accuracy.
In addition, taking a video square on to the trajectory from the side can give the serve speed near the racket. You have to do a little calibrating of distance.
I assumed 30 fps. Does your camera have a frame rate of 30 or 25 fps? Does your country have 50 or 60 Hz electrical power?
http://donthireddy.us/tennis/speed.html
First serve in the video - I estimated the first bounce was 3 feet short of the 60 foot default. Bounce at 57 feet. Frame count 13. It gives a speed of 105 MPH.
You can go through your serves and estimate how far the bounce is from the hit. An error of one frame count of 13 makes about a +/- 8% error in serve speed, so be as careful as you can.
1) Look carefully at the tossed ball falling to see clearly which frame first shows forward motion.
2) The ball will appear to have bounced, estimate frame as best you can.
You might add and subtract a frame in the calculator to get an idea of the accuracy.
In addition, taking a video square on to the trajectory from the side can give the serve speed near the racket. You have to do a little calibrating of distance.
I assumed 30 fps. Does your camera have a frame rate of 30 or 25 fps? Does your country have 50 or 60 Hz electrical power?
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S
Sirius Black
Guest
Hard to tell based on the angle of the video. Don't take what these dudes say to be absolute fact.
v-verb
Hall of Fame
True - get a radar gun or find a Playsight court as mentioned before.
V
VexlanderPrime
Guest
How tall are you OP? Solid power man. I can't hit that hard
Shroud
G.O.A.T.
How dare I even comment on a better serve than I have myself, but you asked
Take a look at the shoulder and hip angles in the pict below and compare to the ones in your vid:
you gots to turn your body more!
Coolio
Professional
Thanks, if it was platform I would try that but don't want to complicate serve too much and I am following other pros like Kokkinakis and Bryan's who are not doing that.How dare I even comment on a better serve than I have myself, but you asked
Take a look at the shoulder and hip angles in the pict below and compare to the ones in your vid:
you gots to turn your body more!
VS
VS
I have the opposite issue compared to you. Meaning i need to work on my ball toss, but my balance is better. If the moons align and my ball toss is perfect, i can get pretty good power due to balance and momentum. You may not want to hear this, but i worked on my balance for months (for other activities like skiing) and did 30 minutes a day. Stuff like balance board, standing on one foot, etc. It wasn't intentional, but i can land on one foot and basically freeze in place after a serve. Plus i focused all my momentum and energy 'up and forward' towards my arm at the point of contact. For me at least, i felt like these things took my serve to the next level (ball toss, balance, and relaxation too).
Nothing i've mentioned is ground breaking. I don't know if your coach tells you this, but my instructors tell me that advanced players work on the basics. So continue working on the basics even if you think it's fine. Once you realize this, it'll be a lot easier to get better.
A lot of the advice I've written for you is different than usual because it's more based on my personal experience and what i'm currently working on. I wasn't even gonna mention your ball toss because it looks fine on film, but for me, it's my bane. Anyways, it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on your serve, and what you decide to do.
Coolio
Professional
So now you need a computer environment (like quick time) to compare your video with a videoGood model for me for sure!
VS
of Becker
The first minute looked like you were nearly perfect, 90% 1st serve, I'd just keep doing that. Being so tall I'd think where it contacts the back of the fence should be higher. I do think you might need more turn, I think in golf it's called the x factor, the delta between your shoulder and hip turn creates a giant whip. I've tried increasing this differential it but my timing got royally screwed up.
At Indian wells I've seen guys hit the fence 5 or 6 feet up and those back fences seem to be further away that our public courts.
At Indian wells I've seen guys hit the fence 5 or 6 feet up and those back fences seem to be further away that our public courts.
E
eaglesburg
Guest
1. Loosen up the arm to get more whip. I personally like to think of the right elbow and shoulder being looser.
2. Add more load and explode. It just doesn't seem like you are putting in what you could be putting in in terms of power.
3. Maybe just ever so slightly rushed. This could relate to #2
2. Add more load and explode. It just doesn't seem like you are putting in what you could be putting in in terms of power.
3. Maybe just ever so slightly rushed. This could relate to #2
Power Player
Bionic Poster
To nitpick i think you are dropping your tossing arm a little too soon. Keep eyes on the ball longer and arm up and you should hit even cleaner.
gino
Legend
Great advice from @kiteboard ..
Your shoulders need to make a more extreme pronation and it has to happen more rapidly. The football into the air analogy is appropriate. I think it is important to consider leg drive not as a source for added power but as a way of initiating a kinetic chain that will make your serve develop effortless power and added consistency. I coach at the NCAA level and most of our guys have solid service motions. However, some of them are in need of developing that consistent and deep leg drive that sends them into the rest of a powerful and repeatable service motion.
Some great examples :
A non technical obersvation i noticed when you were serving out wide , the ball was still generally travelling through the baseline, or the corner of the court. I fi were you i would take some of the pace off those serves , and try and get more cut/slice/movement. With a touch less pace and more of the other attirbutes, the ball can easily be outside the court by the time it reaches your opponent, thus doing more damage, and maing your next shot a much easier one
Shroud
G.O.A.T.
Hey C, I got lost on this but now I found the thread.Thanks, if it was platform I would try that but don't want to complicate serve too much and I am following other pros like Kokkinakis and Bryan's who are not doing that.
VS
VS
You got me man, I was soo excited to help I just paused the trophy and missed the whole pinpoint thing.
But here is a pict:
And a vid you may want to play with:
Coolio
Professional
Cheers, I usually never serve and volley, only experimenting with it for the last few weeks.
Since you asked, some things to try:
Instead of rolling around your spine (as well as pivoting shoulders from back/low to back/high) you let your hitting shoulder side simply move too much up and forward. Try keeping your spine straighter, holding a bit more lean-back, and letting your upper body roll around with the spine as the axle, the pivot. It permits faster UB rotation (and less injury). For that you can definitely watch Sampras, but also the less-rotation crowd. Your shoulders must still pivot, the back rising and front falling...and the spine though straight will tilt forward towards the net a bit, but will be straighter.
If you can learn (this isn't easy) to delay your toss-back/down of the racket just a few milliseconds longer relative to your tossing-arm drop and leg extension, you'll get more RH velocity. It feels weird at first. As part of this you can drop your tossing arm more vigorously, pulling the elbow in just as the hitting elbow wants to rise. If you delay/slow the toss back just briefly, and make your leg extension more vigorous, you'll get more spring/power.
Is your hitting upper arm/shoulder as relaxed as possible? The reason I ask is that 1. I can't be sure from the video. 2. It looks as though your hitting arm is not swinging freely enough as the racket goes under/back/then up. I'm talking a small difference, not that your arm is frozen or such.
Nice serve. You want it nicer, so we kibitz.
Instead of rolling around your spine (as well as pivoting shoulders from back/low to back/high) you let your hitting shoulder side simply move too much up and forward. Try keeping your spine straighter, holding a bit more lean-back, and letting your upper body roll around with the spine as the axle, the pivot. It permits faster UB rotation (and less injury). For that you can definitely watch Sampras, but also the less-rotation crowd. Your shoulders must still pivot, the back rising and front falling...and the spine though straight will tilt forward towards the net a bit, but will be straighter.
If you can learn (this isn't easy) to delay your toss-back/down of the racket just a few milliseconds longer relative to your tossing-arm drop and leg extension, you'll get more RH velocity. It feels weird at first. As part of this you can drop your tossing arm more vigorously, pulling the elbow in just as the hitting elbow wants to rise. If you delay/slow the toss back just briefly, and make your leg extension more vigorous, you'll get more spring/power.
Is your hitting upper arm/shoulder as relaxed as possible? The reason I ask is that 1. I can't be sure from the video. 2. It looks as though your hitting arm is not swinging freely enough as the racket goes under/back/then up. I'm talking a small difference, not that your arm is frozen or such.
Nice serve. You want it nicer, so we kibitz.
There IS a limit to everyone's serves.
Look at TennisBalla's serve. He's around 5.5, topped out right there, and one possible reason is his serve. Very Michael Stich like, but MS is close to 6'5" tall, while TBalla might be 6'3".
Coolio, your serve motion looks just like both of theirs, but they can flatten the ball out completely, giving them a 15+ mph advantage when they choose to do so.
Changing your motion is one way to improve ball speed, but it might not be physiologically possible, given the variance in human body builds. You CAN improve accuracy, placement, and consistency thru practice, but top pros do have an upper limit, and we're not all built like Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, or Sam Groth.
You spent 10+ years evolving your service motion to what it is. To unlearn it and adopt another motion might just take too much time and practice.
Then look at the serves of Kei Nishikori, Phil Kohlshrieber, and Tommy Robredo. They have to get by with what they have, maximising it's effectiveness through placement an consistency.
Look at TennisBalla's serve. He's around 5.5, topped out right there, and one possible reason is his serve. Very Michael Stich like, but MS is close to 6'5" tall, while TBalla might be 6'3".
Coolio, your serve motion looks just like both of theirs, but they can flatten the ball out completely, giving them a 15+ mph advantage when they choose to do so.
Changing your motion is one way to improve ball speed, but it might not be physiologically possible, given the variance in human body builds. You CAN improve accuracy, placement, and consistency thru practice, but top pros do have an upper limit, and we're not all built like Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, or Sam Groth.
You spent 10+ years evolving your service motion to what it is. To unlearn it and adopt another motion might just take too much time and practice.
Then look at the serves of Kei Nishikori, Phil Kohlshrieber, and Tommy Robredo. They have to get by with what they have, maximising it's effectiveness through placement an consistency.
Curious
G.O.A.T.
one little tip and the result will amaze you!
Just imagine that you first toss the ball and then swing the racquet and hit it, NOT at the same time like the arms down together then up together.
How can you do this? Toss the ball while keeping the racquet pointing still almost towards the ground, then try to swing and hit it just naturally. Try and let me know
( watch F.Lopez serve in slow motion to see what I mean, he is not in a hurry at all to start swinging the racquet)
Anything might work, but it's usually not a good idea to deviate from a solid service motion towards one that is almost an abberation in timing, and used by less than 5 out of the top 200 ATP player's.
You gotta admit, Coolio's service motion is solid, if not spectacular, but that could be part and parcel with HIM, his thinking, his build, and his philosophy. Not everyone has the top end of Sam Groth, we all have our limits.
You gotta admit, Coolio's service motion is solid, if not spectacular, but that could be part and parcel with HIM, his thinking, his build, and his philosophy. Not everyone has the top end of Sam Groth, we all have our limits.
Well, we've had our differences, but I think Coolio's serve is good enough AS IS, in technique, to carry him as far as he can go. He does need to flatten it out with good placement on first serves, and he needs the best targeting he can get on his spin serves, but it's plenty good enough.
Stan Smith also had a similar swing technique, flattenned it out to 125 mph, and made it work at high levels.
Accuracy and good percentage is often just as important as pure ball speed or unreal spin. I'm sure you know that, as DJ and Fed don't have nearly the fastest serves, but they get them IN when needed, with great placement and percentage.
Stan Smith also had a similar swing technique, flattenned it out to 125 mph, and made it work at high levels.
Accuracy and good percentage is often just as important as pure ball speed or unreal spin. I'm sure you know that, as DJ and Fed don't have nearly the fastest serves, but they get them IN when needed, with great placement and percentage.
Coolio
Professional
Is there something wrong with my racquet drop.
It looks weird because my racquet is really far behind me.
Majority of pros have a racquet drop looking more like this...
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Most have a racquet drop on right side of body whereas before I even start really accelerating my racquet it is way behind my body.
Is this an issue?
It looks weird because my racquet is really far behind me.
Majority of pros have a racquet drop looking more like this...
Most have a racquet drop on right side of body whereas before I even start really accelerating my racquet it is way behind my body.
Is this an issue?
Try it both ways. Some guys are flexible, while other's aren't.
You current serve is very conservative in technique, something a few ATP player's use, possibly Djokovic even.
More of anything would give a longer swing, but is it really necessary?
It could be that your current serve is just fine if you just swing harder, drive into the court farther, and concentrate on keeping your racket hand high while allowing the racket to swing past, high elbow finish like Pete Sampras.
And try hitting FLAT serves. Don't listen to the dummies who say it's not possible. Doesn't matter if it's possible or not, just hit them flat, so the ball speed improves by 10 mph over your current top/slice first serves.
Sampras did not hit flat, but Groth, Stich, Stan Smith, and Lendl did hit flat first serves at times.
Even I, at 5'10", can hit a flat serve that sometimes goes in 60%, for a game or two. I don't practice serves at all, not in the past 20 years. Overall percentage closer to 30%, but it goes faster than any 4.0 player's I've seen, and I"ve seen more than 100 in the past 20 years.
I'm not saying I hit it more than half the time, as often, a weak flat first serve is worse than a slow spinning lefty slice.
You current serve is very conservative in technique, something a few ATP player's use, possibly Djokovic even.
More of anything would give a longer swing, but is it really necessary?
It could be that your current serve is just fine if you just swing harder, drive into the court farther, and concentrate on keeping your racket hand high while allowing the racket to swing past, high elbow finish like Pete Sampras.
And try hitting FLAT serves. Don't listen to the dummies who say it's not possible. Doesn't matter if it's possible or not, just hit them flat, so the ball speed improves by 10 mph over your current top/slice first serves.
Sampras did not hit flat, but Groth, Stich, Stan Smith, and Lendl did hit flat first serves at times.
Even I, at 5'10", can hit a flat serve that sometimes goes in 60%, for a game or two. I don't practice serves at all, not in the past 20 years. Overall percentage closer to 30%, but it goes faster than any 4.0 player's I've seen, and I"ve seen more than 100 in the past 20 years.
I'm not saying I hit it more than half the time, as often, a weak flat first serve is worse than a slow spinning lefty slice.
