Help on my serve
 

Hi all.

Really appreciated any help you could give me on my serve.

I recently change the serve motion. About 2 months ago. Now I get the racquet up first before tossing the ball. This was suggested by my coach in order to correct my trophy position. I used to keep the dominant arm too close to my body witch prevented my to accelerate as quickly as I could to the ball. From the video I can see that I still do that a little bit.

Its not a bad serve. I am a 3.5 player.. if you can see the ball hits the back fence before the second bounce... anyway.. I think i am more worried about how the serve looks than how the ball goes.

The thing is I am pretty tall and I feel I could have a faster serve.. but that arm tucked near the body.. just prevents me from acceleration. Any tips in this?


Anyway.. I could use your help in any other points regarding the serve.

Thanks in advance.

http://youtu.be/bL-VEgaDqkA

http://youtu.be/1clAkVrTg2k

You're falling off to the left.
Your racket is wandering down during the forward swing loop, so you get no preload on the wrist, losing lots of swingspeed. Racket should point upwards, then on the start of the forward swing, a RELAXED wrist allows the momentum of the rackethead to drop the racket.
Your swing, as is, is very slow.
Thrust up and forward on each and every serve.

Thanks. I can see that I am falling to the left.
When the ball is at its highest point..my racquet should still be pointing up?

Thanks

luiscorreia,

Do you have an injured shoulder?

As you've already noted, you need to keep your elbow of your hitting arm from collapsing against the body. Just keep it up and out. Also, I wouldn't advise pausing in your racket drop position.

Time your pause at the trophy position, don't move from trophy to racket drop, pause, and then swing up at the ball. Keeping your elbow high, pause at the trophy position and then let the hand lag as your shoulders turn up toward the ball and your elbow moves toward the ball. It should look more like throwing. And the movement from trophy to contact should be continuous.

Yes.. I had surgery 3 years ago. But it is ok now. Maybe its just muscle memory. Funny you picked that up.

It just looked like the sort of motion one might adopt to protect his shoulder.

My suggestion would be for you to try the tennis ball in a tube sock method of getting a nice easy racket drop and timing. Take a long tube sock and put a tennis ball in one end. The idea is to take a nice relaxed serve swing and have the ball travel in a smooth drop and then accelerate to contact. If done properly, the serve shouldn't be forced, which helps protect your shoulder and would eliminate the pause at the racket drop.

I saw an interesting video of this on Essential Tennis. with some tube socks.. I'll try that :)

Not bad looking serves, in terms of final result, but the form is I agree, leaves work to be done. I think your coach probably had a point in getting you to get that hitting arm up before tossing, but if you want to "make it look pretty" as tehy say, your gonna have to bring that arm up either:
1. as you toss. or 2. lagging a little bit after the toss.

Idon't like the tube socks drill so much but I usually just practice shadow swinging the serve maybe 4-5 times, then the 5th time or so you actually hit the ball. REcord that. Try and get into a smooth rhythm and groove that shot.

Also watch the guys with serves you think look nice. ie. a federer or a sampras or whomever you choose. Try and incorporate their smooth, fluid motion into your serve.

good luck.

Thanks. Today i sarted doing just that. i sarted to go back to down together, up together. These two months where good to gain muscle memory, and today my pro was eally able to give me a tip that I could understand...ita funny..but some tips ressonate better. Know I understand what is a continuous motion on my serve.

Need to practice more.

How about the tossing arm. Do you guys think that it comes down too soon? Its something I have been told..but sinçe no one commented on it... Maybe its better

I was just about to say that your left arm drops really fast as soon as you start your service arm.

I would suggest letting stay up a bit longer and draw it towards your chest instead of going straight down...might help with your balance and falling to the left like some people above have stated.

Any drills to acomplish that?

Your hitting arm is entering the downward motion (down the back) WAY too early. Which is causing a stall, or static position (of the racquet) at the bottom of the drop. This needs to be addressed......

Understand, that the racquet arm should only be "entering" the downward trek, when the legs begin to push up off the ground.... Can you see how, in your case, the racquet is already at its lowest point in the loop, when the legs start to drive upwards?

One way to correct this, is to have your coach, hold your hand in the trophy position a little longer and then let go at the appropriate time (typically at, or around the beginning of the leg drive). And i mean literally hold it. This should be an easy excercise give your abbreviated wind up. You must develope a feel for how these two actions (leg drive and entering of the downward portion of the racquet loop) occur at teh same time.