Video hitting some serves - critique wanted

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by zapvor

mid atlantic. dc/md/va

yea thats fine you got bigger fish i understand.

again i am judging based on what i see. of course its not a complete picture. and i didnt say the serve wins the match. i merely said those serves are not good enough against most of the players i see here. you were the one that brought up geography first going on about "oh i play in ATL we are most densely populated for tennis and your A8 league and etc etc"

its kind of funny on one hand you post video and seem receptive to criticism but then you are so sure you are at a certain level....

I play in organized leagues where you must win at a certain rate or you get dropped down a level, so yes I am sure of my level.

Yes I asked for criticism of my serve. You offered some useful comments about that....lets stick with that, thanks.

[zapvor]

cool. you seem to really enjoy tennis so thats all it matters

[Power Player]

One thing is when you get a ton of tips it is just too much to take in and you can overthink.

So the one tip that will really help is to hit your trophy pose and make sure that your palm is "waving" at the sidefence while you are tossing. When you swing to contact it will be a karate chop at the ball, and when you finish, the palm will be upside down and against the sidefence again.

Just work on that and dont worry about anything else yet. That has really helped me at least.

[NickC]

I haven't read the whole thread but your knees are doing a funky movement pre-toss. You coil them a tad then let up on it and bend them again while you toss the ball.

Get rid of that.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by Power Player

One thing is when you get a ton of tips it is just too much to take in and you can overthink.

So the one tip that will really help is to hit your trophy pose and make sure that your palm is "waving" at the sidefence while you are tossing. When you swing to contact it will be a karate chop at the ball, and when you finish, the palm will be upside down and against the sidefence again.

Just work on that and dont worry about anything else yet. That has really helped me at least.

funny thing is that was the first and easiest thing to fix. I just concentrated on leading with the edge and then finishing with the palm facing the right fence. Now I am working on my stance and feet and and letting the racquet loop around behind me. I am pretty much reconstructing my entire serve. Everything feels weird now but I just gotta get in the reps.

[Graphiteking]

Nice vid JackB1!! Your headed in the right direction. My advice would be to start on the simple things. Don't overload yourself. Trust me, if you do you'll get overwhelmed and discouraged. 1st- try looking up YouTube vids about the backscratch position. You can get more zip on the ball. 2nd- bend your knees. Power and consistency occurs when you get the legs involved. Start on those two things and I guarantee you will see a difference..

[luvforty]

Originally Posted by 5263

Really has the waiter position going.

good eyes... going through the video in slow motion, it was quite obvious that the back scratch position was never hit.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by JackB1

look....I'm 53 years old and doing the best I can
if there are some things that are easy enough to change, I will try and change them. But most people here are a little unrealistic about what I can do given my age and lack of flexibility and practice time.

I agree with you that balance and lack of leg usage is one of my overall issues. I am working on that all the time and wish I could just press a button that says "engage core" . For some reason I feel more comfortable straight up and down and really have to make a point of bending and using my lower half more.

Let me explain a bit further. From what I have seen, especially with your backhand, your pretty flexible and it appears that you can't find enough support when pushing off. I have relatively high arches and tend to walk on the outsides of my feet. If I have shoes on which pushes me slightly inward while walking, I have noticed that I can move a lot better on court. Maybe in your case (obviously I don't know your foottype) it could be a matter of finding the right shoe(type).
In running shoes there's a lot of info on pronation and the sort of shoe that suits. In tennis however, it seems to be a matter of trail and error.

[samarai]

Serve looks pretty good for your level. I mean at the 3.5-4 level, if you can get it in with decent pace, you'll win 75% of your points. Ive seen worse at the 4.0 level and yet their consistent ground game usually bails them out. Some people on here offer advice to address some of the hitches which will improve your serve but you are playing recreationally and not for the US OPen. BTW did I mention you have a good looking serve for your level.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by luvforty

good eyes... going through the video in slow motion, it was quite obvious that the back scratch position was never hit.

How can I also look at my videos in slow-mo? That would be very helpful.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by samarai

Serve looks pretty good for your level. I mean at the 3.5-4 level, if you can get it in with decent pace, you'll win 75% of your points. Ive seen worse at the 4.0 level and yet their consistent ground game usually bails them out. Some people on here offer advice to address some of the hitches which will improve your serve but you are playing recreationally and not for the US OPen. BTW did I mention you have a good looking serve for your level.

Thanks for the compliments, but I do want to improve my serve. Yes it's "sufficient" for my level, but I don't want to stay at my level

[luvforty]

Originally Posted by JackB1

How can I also look at my videos in slow-mo? That would be very helpful.

just pause the youtube video, and press the right arrow

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by luvforty

just pause the youtube video, and press the right arrow

so you are just quickly hitting play/pause/play/pause ??
that's not really slowmo

[luvforty]

Originally Posted by JackB1

so you are just quickly hitting play/pause/play/pause ??
that's not really slowmo

no, every time you tap the right arrow (on your keyboard !), it advances a few frames

[Power Player]

Alternatively, the windows media editor will slow mo your video as well.

[toly]

Originally Posted by JackB1

ad side serves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIGX4touWHc

deuce side
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTjmVNQzqpI

I can see how I a falling to the left instead of straight into the court.
that one thing I am working on.

I know my from isn't the greatest, but I can usually hold serve about 75% of the time and only double fault about 2, 3 times a match. Any suggestions on what I can improve would be great. Thanks.

Definition: The Target Plane is the plane that includes the tennis ball at contact and the imaginary target inside of the deuce or ad tennis court. This plane should be parallel to the perpendicular to the racquet string bed during the impact. The Target Plane basically determines the boll velocity direction. We shouldn’t change amount of the arm pronation, because it is almost impossible to control, in order to change boll’s direction. It’s much easier to alter direction of the Target Plane. Always keep the range of the arm pronation around 90°.

Let’s analyze Stosur and your arm actions before contact.



In pic.1 Stosur longitude axis of the racquet is parallel to Target Plane. In pic.3 longitude axis is perpendicular to the Target plane. She rotates her racquet by using internal shoulder rotation (ISR) around 90°.

In pic.4 longitude axis of your racquet is already perpendicular to Target Plane. Thus you cannot use, before contact, internal shoulder rotation at all. That’s why you apply ISR after contact, but that doesn’t make any sense. With this technique you never are going to get powerful and consistent serve.

[5263]

Originally Posted by luvforty

good eyes... going through the video in slow motion, it was quite obvious that the back scratch position was never hit.

thanks,
I felt that was the place to start, since can't do some of the other things till that
is adjusted.

[Cheetah]

Originally Posted by toly

Definition: The Target Plane is the plane that includes the tennis ball at contact and the imaginary target inside of the deuce or ad tennis court. This plane should be parallel to the perpendicular to the racquet string bed during the impact. The Target Plane basically determines the boll velocity direction. We shouldn’t change amount of the arm pronation, because it is almost impossible to control, in order to change boll’s direction. It’s much easier to alter direction of the Target Plane. Always keep the range of the arm pronation around 90°.

Let’s analyze Stosur and your arm actions before contact.



In pic.1 Stosur longitude axis of the racquet is parallel to Target Plane. In pic.3 longitude axis is perpendicular to the Target plane. She rotates her racquet by using internal shoulder rotation (ISR) around 90°.

In pic.4 longitude axis of your racquet is already perpendicular to Target Plane. Thus you cannot use, before contact, internal shoulder rotation at all. That’s why you apply ISR after contact, but that doesn’t make any sense. With this technique you never are going to get powerful and consistent serve.

sigh... Toly strikes again.

The pictures you posted of Stosur are of her hitting an advanced kick serve. That swing path, angle of attack, pronation, timing, contact point, body position and movement checkpoints are all different than what the OP is trying to achieve. He's trying to learn a flat serve or a standard slice serve.

He need pics of a regular federer flat or slice serve or something like that. Not a stosur kick serve.

[5263]

Originally Posted by zapvor

its kind of funny on one hand you post video and seem receptive to criticism but then you are so sure you are at a certain level....

Hey, it's tough enough to watch yourself and tougher still to hear some of the
comments and how they come across. I say cut him some slack, even if he is
a bit sensitive about it,

JackB1, What part of Atl are you in? I might could get by and help you some if
you are interested. Either way, looking fine over all and just keep cleaning things
up a bit at the time...for a lifetime
Thats how it goes for all of us.

[luvforty]

toly's analysis is still valid though.