The Serve: Busting misconceptions once and for all

treblings

Hall of Fame
I think the rationale for that drill from the service line is to get you to swing freely, understand/feel what it is like to hit hard and in the box, and to appreciate how low the net actually is.

Once you get back to the baseline you lift off if you want, i.e. full service motion whether you use platform stance or pinpoint.

i use the drill from the service line to work on some aspects of the technique.
mainly from the trophy position to the contact point.
with some players, if they serve from the baseline they either go for too much or are too tense. both inhibit the learning process
to get them to swing freely, i use the sidefence and let them serve hard against it.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
Well, if you set your sights as low as possible, your performance will reflect exactly that, won't it?
Hurting shoulder's serving 100mph. Yes, if your ultimate top speed serving is 90, yes yes yes.
Still, we haven't seen the VIDEO of Suresh's motion.
Remember, Almagro and Nadal DO NOT jump very high on most of their serves. Instead, they rely on precision you get from NOT jumping, which means a more solid lower body.
Can Suresh hit serves that bounce IN and then to the backboard around knee to thigh high? Talking warm temps and Wilson or Penn tennis balls.
I'm 2 weeks from 64 and can bounce an IN first serve, using DunlopRocks, in 50 degree air temps, cement courts, around mid thigh high to lower thigh high almost every single IN serve.
And I also don't really jump up. I might rise to my toes, at best.
Let's see some Suresh serves.

i can actually understand surehs decision not to post a video. the man has alienated so many posters over the years that it would be a carnage.

Lee, you´re often critizised for claiming to be able to serve at high speeds.
i wonder, have you ever measured your serve speed with a radar gun?
we did that a few years back at our club, and 100mph is a pretty good speed for club players.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
I don't think as much in terms of power, which is a difficult thing to estimate as each phase of the serve occurs. The question of which muscles provide the most 'power' overall to the serve is important but the details are more useful to focus on. I think more in terms of specific joints, attached muscles, velocity and a specific phase of the serve. Most important is the last phase just before impact and its racket head speed. At that time, some muscles have been pre-stretched and are shortening rapidly to act through the hand to give the final racket head speed the instant before impact. Looking back into the earlier serve motion phases in videos, you can clearly identify some of the motions that stretched the specific muscles, for example, lat stretch from leg thrust. There are other motions that involve the trunk and shoulders that probably produce stretch but are more difficult to observe in video and understand. I am now trying to see the supination and pronation earlier in the motion discussed in another thread. [Supination stretches the pronation muscles.]

Term Usage - I am using the term pronation to mean motion in that forearm rotation direction and not joint position. The usage - for position or location - is ambiguous. I have seen forum discussions where one party was talking position and another was talking location. Search - pronation in anatomy usage and usually the word means location and not a rotating motion. On this forum it usually means a rotating motion. The overall arm rotation rate at the wrist is the sum of the internal shoulder rotation and pronation angular rotation rates.

I saw a graph that showed pronation rates: 1)some pronation earlier in the serve motion and 2) a lot of pronation later, after impact, but 3) not very much pronation rotation rate at impact. In video, I can see the large pronation following impact but I can't distinguish the smaller pronation and supination earlier in the motion, too confusing, also elbow and wrist angles are too difficult to see without markers. I believe that both pronation and supination are important. I believe that strong serves probably have little conscious active pronation the instant before impact and give the arm a relaxed feeling. I have hit a very small percent of serves with a 'relaxed' arm and have gotten strong serves doing it. But that is not my normal match serve which has some tightness.

Speculation: In a powerful serve it may be physically impossible for the small pronation muscles to pronate the arm & racket just before impact because the powerful ISR muscles are already angularly accelerating the arm & racket so forcefully. ? Similarly, you can't jump up in a rocket ship accelerating at 4 G's, you would be hard pressed in your seat.

Research: Elliott, I believe, has said that pronation functions to orient the racket face and that ISR provides the largest contribution to racket head speed. I believe that practicing the serve is training including to reproduce a certain degree of pronation for racket face string direction at impact.

Active & Passive Muscle Shortening and Sensations/Feelings - When you walk your muscles are actively and passively shortening to supply forces. I believe that the passive shortening from pre-stretch muscle has little feeling of effort, relaxed. Also, for the active component of muscle shortening, because we are so well trained at walking we don't/hardly consciously/deliberately notice that we are sending nerve impulses (EMG signals) to the legs. If you are trained for the serve do you 'consciously' send nerve signals to muscles, probably not, especially since there are 600 muscles in the body and many are involved in the serve? It would be nice to find some research clarifying the feelings for active and passive muscle shortening. It might explain what a 'relaxed arm' is, what 'muscling the ball' is - in terms of muscle theory passive & active muscle shortening and sensations. When I completely 'relax' my serving arm and don't 'muscle the ball' am I using mostly passive pre-stretched muscle shortening to hit the serve?

yes, i think i get the main points of what you are saying:) although it´s no easy reading for a non-scientist like myself.
my main concern is always the student, and what i can tell her/him, that can make a difference. sometimes my tips don´t hold up to scientific scrutiny, but i couldn´t care less if they work:)
 

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
I am not going to warm up or do unrelated drills - already warmed up at home and on the next court. I prefer not to pick up balls, but will do it if you force me to.

Every student and instructor needs to allot some of their lesson time to clear the court for the next student.

Never heard anyone whining about this before.
 
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treblings

Hall of Fame
Every student and instructor needs to allot some of their lesson time to clear the court for the next student.

Never heard anyone whining about this before.

i have this fantasy: Sureshs meets Oscar Wegner for an hour-long instruction:)
i would actually pay money to watch the DVD

Oscar: "try to feel the ball with your hands"
sureshs: "don´t i need to supinate my forearm???"

Oscar: "on the serve, try to lead with your hand"
sureshs: "does it help if i stand on my toes???"
(voice from the background: "harder, you have to want to hit harder")

Oscar: "we need to pick the balls up"
sureshs: "not on my time, we don´t"

feel free to run with it:)
 

skiracer55

Hall of Fame
I disagree...

The serve is the most important shot in the game. BUSTED..at least for amateur players. At the rec level until 5.0 or maybe even 5.5, you are never going to see a really good serve. Yeah if you have a horrendously bad serve it can be a big weakness but against good players I think the amount of free points one can get is vastly overstated for rec players. As long as your serve is serviceable I think time would be better spent working on groundstrokes or specifically returns.

...at the 5.0 and above level, you better have a decent serve, or you're, by definition, not at that level. At all levels, serve is still the most important shot. You're not necessarily looking for freebies, although they are nice, but what you're really trying to do is control the point from the start, and a "good serve" equals consistency, pace, placement, or spin, or better yet, all of the above...
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Every student and instructor needs to allot some of their lesson time to clear the court for the next student.

Never heard anyone whining about this before.

i have this fantasy: Sureshs meets Oscar Wegner for an hour-long instruction:)
i would actually pay money to watch the DVD

Oscar: "try to feel the ball with your hands"
sureshs: "don´t i need to supinate my forearm???"

Oscar: "on the serve, try to lead with your hand"
sureshs: "does it help if i stand on my toes???"
(voice from the background: "harder, you have to want to hit harder")

Oscar: "we need to pick the balls up"
sureshs: "not on my time, we don´t"

feel free to run with it:)

Reminds me of the last week of December when I was in Honolulu and took a group clinic. The ball-pick-up situation degenerated pretty fast, with the men trying to avoid it first, then the women, and finally there was one elderly woman doing all the work. It became so bad that the instructor asked us to retrieve the balls after round of feeding, or she wasn't continuing!

What happened to robotic technology and all those promises?
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
Reminds me of the last week of December when I was in Honolulu and took a group clinic. The ball-pick-up situation degenerated pretty fast, with the men trying to avoid it first, then the women, and finally there was one elderly woman doing all the work. It became so bad that the instructor asked us to retrieve the balls after round of feeding, or she wasn't continuing!

What happened to robotic technology and all those promises?

you let one elderly woman do the work for the whole group???
that is disgusting, shame on you:)
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
you let one elderly woman do the work for the whole group???
that is disgusting, shame on you:)

All of us did it. We vaguely looked the other way, pretending not to understand the difficult task of picking up balls.

Are YOU going to pick up balls when on vacation in Hawaii? I don't think so.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
All of us did it. We vaguely looked the other way, pretending not to understand the difficult task of picking up balls.

Are YOU going to pick up balls when on vacation in Hawaii? I don't think so.

hopefully i have better things to do:)
 

Relinquis

Hall of Fame
I visited a friend's club and they had ball boys during one-on-one practice sessions... I thought it was a bit over the top.

sureshs,
why don't you try the service line drill and let me know if that helps. start from the trophy position as treblings says (thanks for explaining the rationale behind the drill).

20 serves from the service line, then tell us what your normal serves from the baseline feel like after that.
 

Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
i think the head almost has to move forward with the serve motion.
the key point for us is that pros watch the ball longer than us amateurs as a rule and that helps in several ways

The TV coverage is showing close up high speed video at the Australia Open. Some are excellent for stroke analysis. You can single frame with a DVR (Digital Video Recorder in the digital cable box). On a Motorola controller, hit pause, then each time you hit the pause button again it advances one frame. No single frame going backwards. Are there similar single frame capabilities with other make DVRs and remote controllers?

They showed a close up of Sharapova's face on a serve. Her eyes appeared locked toward the ball to very close before impact (you could not see the actual ball impact in the frame). Then some distinct part of her motion involving her shoulder seemed to also move her head distinctly & rapidly forward and down looking. I'm sure that she could not possibly see the ball from then on. Point being, as you said, she "almost has to move forward with the serve motion." The head movement occurs over just a few frames in high speed video and it would be impossible to see without high speed video.

In contrast, my head does not point down as much in my service motion - I can watch impact and the impact area afterwards - possibly because my overall body-trunk position is too vertical, without enough motion (trunk lateral flexion & rotation,etc. ?) and some shoulder action of mine is too abbreviated - I can keep my eye on the ball, the myth.

Of course, not being young pros, we don't want to injure our necks either so..................
 
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Relinquis

Hall of Fame
Chas Tennis,

RE: Eyes not on the ball at serve contact. Isn't it a matter of what position allows for the arm to move quickly without putting excess pressure on the shoulder?

It is very uncomfortable to point straight up at the sky and look at the tip of the index finger while standing upright, shoulders level. Tilting the shoulders by bringing the shoulder of the non-raised arm down, takes off most of the pressure from your shoulder joint, looking away from the index finger allows even more strength at this position.

My take away i to look at the ball for as long as i can without it straining my shoulder/neck.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Will do the service line drill and let you know. Weather was nasty last night so just hit for an hour.

OK here is another misconception or fallacy about the serve. For other strokes, the more I play in a given session, the better my strokes get, even up to 3 hours at a stretch. For serves, the first few I hit when I first land up are the best. I am very relaxed. Then I realize what happened, and try to make sure that the next few are equally good, and they are not. As time goes by, the serve does not improve, and even goes south.

Why?
 

arche3

Banned
Will do the service line drill and let you know. Weather was nasty last night so just hit for an hour.

OK here is another misconception or fallacy about the serve. For other strokes, the more I play in a given session, the better my strokes get, even up to 3 hours at a stretch. For serves, the first few I hit when I first land up are the best. I am very relaxed. Then I realize what happened, and try to make sure that the next few are equally good, and they are not. As time goes by, the serve does not improve, and even goes south.

Why?

Not enough pracrice and confidence in your serve. Plus possible technique issues will not allow your serve to be consistent and effective. Post a video and we can get to the bottom of it.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
The TV coverage is showing close up high speed video at the Australia Open. Some are excellent for stroke analysis. You can single frame with a DVR (Digital Video Recorder in the digital cable box). On a Motorola controller, hit pause, then each time you hit the pause button again it advances one frame. No single frame going backwards. Are there similar single frame capabilities with other make DVRs and remote controllers?

They showed a close up of Sharapova's face on a serve. Her eyes appeared locked toward the ball to very close before impact (you could not see the actual ball impact in the frame). Then some distinct part of her motion involving her shoulder seemed to also move her head distinctly & rapidly forward and down looking. I'm sure that she could not possibly see the ball from then on. Point being, as you said, she "almost has to move forward with the serve motion." The head movement occurs over just a few frames in high speed video and it would be impossible to see without high speed video.

In contrast, my head does not point down as much in my service motion - I can watch impact and the impact area afterwards - possibly because my overall body-trunk position is too vertical, without enough motion (trunk lateral flexion & rotation,etc. ?) and some shoulder action of mine is too abbreviated - I can keep my eye on the ball, the myth.

Of course, not being young pros, we don't want to injure our necks either so..................

fascinating.
i agree on two points. like you i can see the ball contact, and there maybe something lacking in my serve to make that possible. needs more thought and maybe input from others.
second point i agree is about not being a young pro:)unfortunately so true in my case
 

Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
MYTH: Practice, practice your serve to get a strong serve.

REALITY: If your technique is not effective for a strong serve you will be learning the wrong muscle memory and technique. However, you will probably hit the ball more reproducibly and that may allow you to improve your serve's reliability and pace up to a point. First, learn an effective technique without any biomechanical flaws that would prevent an effective serve. Or hire a well-qualified instructor that can train the proper techniques.

This is one reason that I hate to practice and avoid it. Maybe an effective practice method using high speed video would be to video just 1 - 3 strokes and immediately look at the videos and analyze them. Find flaws, they are very easy to spot. Make corrections. Repeat. Looking at videos of every 2 or 3 strokes is very, very cumbersome. Is it better to practice for an hour and then to go home and view the videos only to find that you never use leg thrust, or that your wrist has a bend in it that might cause injury.

For example, I think that this wrist angle at impact is wrong and stressful. This technique might have contributed to the slight wrist pain that I was experiencing at the time that the video was taken. Compare to pro servers wrist angles viewed from behind on other videos.
http://vimeo.com/21512296

367323038_960.jpg


Pro server.
https://vimeo.com/27528701

367314822_960.jpg
 
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sureshs

Bionic Poster
MYTH: Practice, practice the serve to get a strong serve.

REALITY: If your technique is not effective for a strong serve you will be learning the wrong muscle memory and technique. However, you will probably hit the ball more reproducibly and that may allow you to improve your serve's reliability and pace up to a point. Learn an effective technique without any biomechanical flaws that would prevent an effective serve first to get a strong serve. Or hire an instructor that can train the proper techniques.

This is one reason that I hate to practice and avoid it. Maybe an effective practice method using high speed video would be video just 1 - 3 strokes and immediately look at the videos and analyze them. Find flaws they are easy to spot. Make corrections. Repeat. Looking at videos of every 2 or 3 strokes is very, very cumbersome. Is it better to practice for an hour and then to go home and view the videos only to find that you never use leg thrust, or that your wrist has a bend in it that might cause injury.

For example, I think that this wrist angle at impact is wrong and stressful. This technique might have contributed to the slight wrist pain that I was experiencing in at the time that the video was taken. Compare to pro servers view from behind on my Vimeo videos.
http://vimeo.com/21512296

367323038_100.jpg

Correct. I used to hit 75 serves from a ball hopper. There are guys who show up every day and hit serves and go home. Their serves are the same as years before, and the guy who just takes two serves before a match or plays FBI and who always had a better serve than them, still has.

Something has to click and lead to a meaningful change, before the practice becomes useful.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
Correct. I used to hit 75 serves from a ball hopper. There are guys who show up every day and hit serves and go home. Their serves are the same as years before, and the guy who just takes two serves before a match or plays FBI and who always had a better serve than them, still has.

Something has to click and lead to a meaningful change, before the practice becomes useful.

one main reason for practice is to improve consistency and/or precision, thereby gaining confidence in your serve and reducing the risk to choke under stress.
improving your technique isn´t the only reason to practice.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
But it is boring! I want to improve by leaps and bounds with every session.

it doesn´t have to be. i try new things frequently and am happy to say my serve has improved significantly over the last year. and i´m playing for 36 years by now. so improvement isn´t common for longterm players like myself.
last thing i tried was the drill by feeltennis, that was mentioned in this thread here.
not bad at all, "feels" good, but needs more practice to see, if i might incorporate that particular drill into my regular practice
 

Kevo

Legend
For example, I think that this wrist angle at impact is wrong and stressful. This technique might have contributed to the slight wrist pain that I was experiencing at the time that the video was taken.

Yes, your wrist is being used incorrectly throughout the motion. It's very likely that this would contribute to wrist pain especially when serving aggressively with that technique. Kudos to you for video taping it and correcting it.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
In every single sport around, if you do your best on the first 5 tries, that totally means you have inadaquate practice, are not confident in that shot, and don't have the mental toughness to keep on going.
EVERY sport, and you know I've done a few.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
In every single sport around, if you do your best on the first 5 tries, that totally means you have inadaquate practice, are not confident in that shot, and don't have the mental toughness to keep on going.
EVERY sport, and you know I've done a few.

Your compensation will be based on the usefulness of your comments. Try harder to give some good tips.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Only tip I'm giving up there is that you don't have any base for serving.
If your best serves are within your first 5, you have no serve inside you.
Hit more serves, but try practicing them and not just going thru the motions.
Practice pace and location, to each of the 3 quadrants.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Just post a vid, from behind, about 7' up off the court, showing the ball landing and the backboard.
 

WildVolley

Legend
Hire john yandel to video you?

This is a good idea. If you can't afford that, have some one else video tape you or set up a camera on a tripod.

If you want to improve rapidly you need to have a realistic assessment of what you are currently doing. A coach will point out what you are doing wrong, but you can coach yourself if you use the video. Break a few bad habits and improvement can be rapid.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
One of the friendly Filipino 4.5 guys is helping me. He advised staying completely sideways right from the beginning (legs and waist at 45 degrees), but that is not working for me (ad court is worse). Then I posted here and someone clarified that the starting position need not always be sideways. He has a good serve, but both of his serves are spinny second serves. I am taller than him, I may have other options.
 

President

Legend
Suresh from reading the threads in this section of the forum it seems like you vastly overcomplicate these really simple concepts. It's really not THAT hard, and thinking too much about pronation and back arch can be counterproductive, especially if you are 4.0 level player. Just toss the ball up and utilizing the kinetic chain make clean contact for a flat first serve...
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
Suresh from reading the threads in this section of the forum it seems like you vastly overcomplicate these really simple concepts. It's really not THAT hard, and thinking too much about pronation and back arch can be counterproductive, especially if you are 4.0 level player. Just toss the ball up and utilizing the kinetic chain make clean contact for a flat first serve...

sureshs has a couple of problems.

one, he doesn´t like to practice.

two, as you point out, he overcomplicates things.

three, he is allergic to coaching.

makes it difficult to help him, i´ve pretty much given up at this stage
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
MYTH: Practice, practice your serve to get a strong serve.

REALITY: If your technique is not effective for a strong serve you will be learning the wrong muscle memory and technique. However, you will probably hit the ball more reproducibly and that may allow you to improve your serve's reliability and pace up to a point. First, learn an effective technique without any biomechanical flaws that would prevent an effective serve. Or hire a well-qualified instructor that can train the proper techniques.

This is one reason that I hate to practice and avoid it. Maybe an effective practice method using high speed video would be to video just 1 - 3 strokes and immediately look at the videos and analyze them. Find flaws, they are very easy to spot. Make corrections. Repeat. Looking at videos of every 2 or 3 strokes is very, very cumbersome. Is it better to practice for an hour and then to go home and view the videos only to find that you never use leg thrust, or that your wrist has a bend in it that might cause injury.

For example, I think that this wrist angle at impact is wrong and stressful. This technique might have contributed to the slight wrist pain that I was experiencing at the time that the video was taken. Compare to pro servers wrist angles viewed from behind on other videos.
http://vimeo.com/21512296

367323038_100.jpg


Pro server.
https://vimeo.com/27528701

367314822_100.jpg

you´re right about the angle of the wrist. makes sense that it´s the reason for your wrist pain.

the old saying that practice makes perfect is wrong, imo.
practice of perfection makes perfect

there is a difference between understanding a technical detail on your serve and being able to change it effectively.
last summer i worked with a very good senior player who was unhappy with his serve. it was a weapon alright, but with a tendency to break down in a match. he couldn´t figure out why, and for me observing him from the outside it was clear from the beginning. his toss was erratic and too much to the right side, leading to a less than optimal contact point.
after some explanation and an hour of practice the improvement was clearly visible and he was happy.
he said that he would practice the toss by himself and didn´t take another lesson, as he figured he now knew the problem.
six months later he approached me again, because his serve hasn´t improved as much as he had hoped.
bottom line, it looks the same as before, no change at all.
we now work on a weekly basis.

his problem obviously is his muscle memory as you said in your post.
he has a less than optimal serve action but it feels right for him, and the improved action doesn´t. also, the body and mind tend to resist change.
the mind tricks you into believing that the change is huge, while in reality it is minute.
i try to work around that by doing lots of drills, that are not exactly serves.
for example i let him serve into the side fence, or from the service line, or start him from the trophy position,...,
what that accomplishes is, now it´s something different, and his mind doesn´t resist the new motion as much

sorry for the long post, couldn´t stop myself:)
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
What happened to Oscar? He asked me to start this thread and then never showed up. He was supposed to be moving, but isn't that part of footwork or is it not?
 

TheCheese

Professional
What happened to Oscar? He asked me to start this thread and then never showed up. He was supposed to be moving, but isn't that part of footwork or is it not?

Yeah, I'd love to see Oscar's thoughts on the serve. He had some great insights on forehand technique.
 

TomT

Hall of Fame
Yet, most players up to and including the 4.5 level cannot produce it consistently in a real match.

Watched a USTA 4.0 league yesterday. There was a guy in the visiting team, tall, lanky, great shape, seemed a veteran player. No FFs either. Game starts, beautiful hard first serve, with a little spin, high bouncing, wins the point. Next point, first serve into the net, then a beautiful second serve, bouncing chest high and angling away, wins the point. Home team congratulates him, shake their head in appreciation and resignation. The third point: good first serve, but ball comes back, partner goofs up, loses the point. Fourth point, first serve is now a dink. Game continues, he is about to lose, last serve is a DF.

His gorgeous serve did not even last over a game!

Most people I have seen have been only talk about their serve, nothing in reality. I have heard 90 or 100 mph frequently. Reality: nothing there.

It is above the 4.5 level where I really see consistency in the serve.
You're looking for something over 75mph with a high % in right? There's always
gonna be the occasional "exception".

I get about 75-85% of my serves in. DF 0-3 per match. Aces ~ 6 per match.

matchplay, about 80-83mph I'd guess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2SlPsVFVQE

practice, about the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D8vs4jQ4e0

matchplay, a little slower on some but still over 75mph:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUkTtJsDsc
 
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sureshs

Bionic Poster
You're looking for something over 75mph with a high % in right? There's always
gonna be the occasional "exception".

I get about 75-85% of my serves in. DF 0-3 per match. Aces ~ 6 per match.

matchplay, about 80-83mph I'd guess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2SlPsVFVQE

practice, about the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D8vs4jQ4e0

matchplay, a little slower on some but still over 75mph:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUkTtJsDsc

Thanks. I would say, on the average, my serves would be slightly lower speed than yours, and about the same number of faults. I am guessing the second bounce is very close to the fence and low on most of the serves. I might be getting more depth and height on some serves.

However, you seem to have a down the T slice which is very fast and accurate.
 

Bobby Jr

G.O.A.T.
Serving a hopper of balls in my experience is not the most productive way to hone serving skills once you're past a certain level. I think factoring in the real-life breaks/activity that happen between serves - the point itself and picking up balls etc - is an important aspect of developing a reliable rhythm on serve.

I practice my serve with just 4-6 balls. I serve them as I would in a match: 1st serve, 2nd serve, swap sides... then I run to the other end of the court, collect the balls and then repeat.

If you repeat this a couple of dozen times you'll see how it helps - you learn your pre-routine, serving routine, have more similar little breaks in rhythm and variations in how puffed you are etc that you have in real world situations.

Doing that for half an hour for me has been far more productive than serving a whole hopper - even though I serve probably 1/3 the amount of balls.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Very important to practice serves when you're winded like in match play.
That way, you can time your breathe, like a shooter, for precise body alignment.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Played singles and doubles for 3 hours. Very nice serves. 1 DF overall.

On Tuesday night when I rush back from work, the story will be different. At that time, my body will feel uncomfortable and tense.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
I practice my serve with just 4-6 balls. I serve them as I would in a match: 1st serve, 2nd serve, swap sides... then I run to the other end of the court, collect the balls and then repeat.

That is exactly what I do before every match if I get there earlier! It forces me to serve from both sides, and to run around and pick up the balls. All providing exercise, which is the final goal. And it does not require me to haul a hopper (though that would be great exercise too......).
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Today my focus was on moving the hips forward. So natural with the knee bend.

But will this effortlessness return on a working day?
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
you take work too seriously... look, the **** is never gonna end, so it doesn't matter how much you do.

I need to check my work email on every changeover till about 8 pm and sometimes shoot off a short reply saying I will look into it tonight. It is just how it is. And I have it easy compared to others.
 
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