Private Coaches missed flaw in my service motion

[Raul_SJ]

Originally Posted by fuzz nation

Gotta ask... what did those coaches actually do for your game? Hard for me to believe that all they did was miss that grip change, right?

Did either of them try to encourage a different swing path to contact with your serve? If they did, then they were doing something right. I point this out because I've never been confronted with a mid-swing grip changer such as yourself in my teaching experience... yet!

By altering your grip in the middle of swinging at the ball, you were unconsciously sabotaging your own serve with something that would be virtually impossible to spot without knowing the "circumstantial evidence" that would diagnose it. Dave Smith has huge teaching experience and probably numbers among the relative few who would be able to isolate that serving gremlin in short order - we're truly fortunate to have him pitching in around here on a semi-regular basis.

I sympathize with your frustrations, but I think it's reasonable to offer that the "hitch" in your serve was among the trickiest things to figure out. Fortunately for the rest of us, Dave's "been-there-done-that".

According to Dave Smith, grip shift is a common problem that usually happens either during the takeback/racquet collapse position or near the contact point.

The new coach spotted the service flaw immediately -- within the first 5 minutes of lesson.

Within a week I was getting 10mph+ more power and more spin on the serve.

The other coaches did help me the service motion, toss, spin, swing path, etc. and my serve did improve.

But I think they were amiss in not spotting a glaring service flaw that the new coach *immediately* picked up on and from which I got immediate noticeable improvement.

I think this new coach will fully develop my service potential but I wish I had discovered him earlier as I have spent time practicing the wrong swing.

The lesson here for me is that not all coaches (even with the equivalent college level playing and teaching experience and certifications) are equally skilled in spotting a problem.

I even asked the new coach why my previous coach (now the club's tennis director) didn't notice the problem. He just shrugged and smiled. I guess he doesn't want to criticize his boss.

[Raul_SJ]

Originally Posted by fuzz nation

By altering your grip in the middle of swinging at the ball, you were unconsciously sabotaging your own serve with something that would be virtually impossible to spot without knowing the "circumstantial evidence" that would diagnose it.

One possible way to spot it is examining the grip at the beginning of the swing and then looking at it after the end of the swing.

In my case, the Continental grip had shifted about a 1/4 inch towards the Forehand grip (not a full forehand, more like a weak Continental grip).

I was still getting a good serve despite this flaw, but it was significantly better after correcting it.

I talked to my old coach in passing and told him I have a grip shift problem and whether he thinks that's a major problem. He said he doesn't like that I do it and sees no reason that I should do it... But I didn't get a chance to discuss it in depth with him.

[Raul_SJ]

Originally Posted by Moz

I suspected as much - the exact same thing has happened to me!

Why do you think they missed spotting it? Were they experienced coaches?

[Moz]

Originally Posted by Raul_SJ

Why do you think they missed spotting it? Were they experienced coaches?

Yes, experienced.

I think it partly comes down to philosophy and that coach's personal experiences. I'm sure some coaches prioritise different things and like to approach the serve in different ways: some with kinetic chain specifics, others more holistically.

I'm doing some coaching more seriously now and the first thing I concentrate on is good contact in that area - precisely because of the problems I had as a player.

I also think that coaches can easily, and justifiably, get manoeuvred into giving guidance which feels 'substantial' and 'worthy' of their hourly rate. Not many students would want to spend 50% of their lesson doing fence drills and pronation drills even though it might be best for their game.

[Raul_SJ]

Originally Posted by Chas Tennis

Do you have a link describing what strong continental and weak continental grips are?

Just my description.

I started my swing with a "strong" Continental grip (which I think of as a bit more counter-clockwise than Continental, in between the Continental and Eastern backhand grip).

After the swing my grip had shifted about a 1/4 inch or so clockwise towards a "weak" Continental (between the Continental and Eastern forehand), but not quite a full forehand grip.

As such, I was getting some spin on the serve as I had not moved towards
a full forehand grip (Other players with similar problems shift to a full forehand grip and lose spin.)

It was important to resolve the grip shift issue as it's usually indicative of a serve that is not fully smooth, relaxed and fluid.

I think it's important to finish the service motion with the exact same grip that started the service motion.