New video of my serve.

[Brett]

Here is the newest one. As many of you know, I have been struggling mightily with my serve. I have been playing for about 8 years, with my serve being good at times back in the day. I am about a 3.5 level player. I really need your guys' help. I went to a lesson this past Friday for $40 an hour on help. Years ago, I went to a tennis clinic and the instructor began helping with my serve. He taught me something with starting in the backscratch position and then a few years ago I started automatically serving at that position. Last summer, I just started going back to the normal way of serving.

At my tennis lesson on Friday, the guy said that I am off balanced, moving my hips to early, and my racquet is not far back enough and not pointing up before I hit it. I just really need some help. Thanks a lot.

10 months ago (Not sure the date):

1.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xpGl2NuIBQ

2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xu_y4kywRo

3.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4yKPJP8LC4

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9 months ago (6-24-07):

1.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snp0xq7B2rI

2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFcbbaQyo1s

3.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OlL74zoSf8

4.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr9dwHAbR8Q

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About 8 months ago (7-1-07):

1.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icY_SQXvNt8

2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr7ziB711Mk

3.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YSg4MLB9Tc

4.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XP4Id4UqiM

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Today ( 3-30-08 ):

1.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAJi--LqHuU

2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--NuVpl2f30

3.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jyK5ApTgWY

[madmanfool]

ok first things first, sorry for the amateur drawing i made.
second things second, if you want to learn how to serve you have to learn how to toss first. Nothing else, just the toss. In the picture i included i (tried to) drawed what you do now and what you should be doing. You start up very high, drop the arm just a little (not enough) and when you release your arm is bend. You also bend your legs when you toss. I don't like that. You shouldn't bend your legs in order to toss, you should bend them to hit the ball. So first toss then bend. What you should be doing (imho) is this: your toss should begin lower (what's number 2 on the first drawing is number 1 on the second). From there, drop the arm untill your thigh. This is very important. Because this will give you enough power to trow the ball up high enough in a controlled way. At the end of the toss make sure you don't bend your arm, keep it straight.

First make sure you learn how to do this. Now you trow behind you (bending of the arm causes this) and you trow too low. Because you don't toss well everything looks..well not good. You can't jump forward (you trow the ball behind you) and you trow too low (you have to duck almost and at the same time you jumped. Keep in mind that the first part of the serve (everything prior till the trophy position) is done very slow and controlled. Only when reaching the trophy position you accelerate and hit the ball.

oh and it never hurts to learn from the master: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsUMOeNi6BU

[caverick]

The thing I noticed is that you shift your feet a lot before you make contact. I would try keeping your feet fairly planted and just bend your knees. It will give you better balance and you will be more consistent because your body will be in the same position everytime. It is an improvement though from 9 months ago so keep up the good work.

[Zachol82]

You're right, your legs and hips are moving a bit too much. You seem to be improving nonetheless so goodjob!

From the looks of the most recent videos that you've posted, it seems as though all those serves went long. Try collapsing your shoulder, elbow, and wrist down faster at the point of impact with the ball.

By collapsing all these joints, you will get more power from your serve and it will force the ball down instead of long. Never ever snap just your wrist...this used to be a habbit of mine since that's where I used to get all my power from...and that's also where I got my wrist injury from. Your shoulder, elbow, and wrist should function as a whole and not individually.

The other portion of your serve power comes from your lower body. Your ankles, knees, and hips. This should be easy to understand, your lower body should act like a coil. First off, don't stand flat-footed, be on the front half of your feet, as if you're tip-toeing. Bend your ankles and knees before coming into contact with the ball and straighten out as you come into contact with the ball. You should get behind the ball and this is what your hips will do for you. Don't just move your upper body and head back, get your whole hip to bend back.

You are NOT just reaching up with your arm and snapping down. Your whole body should be snapping forward and into the court, not your arm alone.

The main problem I see with your serve is that you're not springing your body forward into the court. Your hips bend back and everything but watch carefully, right after impact with the ball, your body recoils backward...this is because the force exerted backward when you came into contact with the ball is a lot more than your forward force. Lean into the court when you serve, as if you are falling slowly into the court even. Think of serving then running to the net as fast as you can, serve and volley. Your body leans into the court on the serve to prepare for running up to the net as fast as possible. Do a couple serve and volleys and this will get your body to lean in naturally.

[Brett]

I am just asking for help, why do people like vinhdiesel have to criticize me?

[caverick]

Originally Posted by Brett

I am just asking for help, why do people like vinhdiesel have to criticize me?

because he is a jerk...

[zidane339]

Originally Posted by vinhdiesel

hahahah your serve looks funny

dude..not cool...

[zidane339]

i think you have improved a lot from the beginning but i would recommend working on the toss the most.the beginning stages of the serve seems correct.you have to toss it so that you spring into the court.you seem to be falling back.hope this helps.

[zidane339]

another thing..try to not toss so high..its alot harder to hit the ball while its coming back down.so if you toss it so that you hit it at the top of its flight, all the power from your body will go into it..plus you can hit it at its highest point, meaning higher net clearence and greater chance it;ll go in..i had the same problem and i just corrected my toss to be lower.try it out.

[zidane339]

also, if you hit the ball at its highest point, your elbow should straight, not bent as it is now..sorry for all the multiple posts.

[ramseszerg]

I think this video might help you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60i_inEbrs

[Vision84]

Haven't read the other comments but I saw a few serves and you tend to land in the same place. When you explode from your legs you want to leap into the court so you land inside the baseline and then when you land your back leg should follow through and land in front of your left. Just feel your weight moving forward into the court. Look at the guy in the link that was posted above. Not the best example as he doesn't use his legs much but you should get the idea.

[montx]

Brett, I can improve your serve in 30 minutes.

I'm not kidding, I improved mine in that much time. But what I did before doing so was to watch videos of people who broke down the serve into different components.

That is key.

You need to first start off bouncing the ball a couple of times and make sure your left hand is supple and ready for the toss.

The toss for each person is different but a couple of things I can do is reccomend this;

1) Toss at 12:30 - 1 O'clock initially
2) Toss with your tossing arm straight and release the ball about head level

The other thing is this, the racquet motion.

My racquet motion follows these phases

1) Point at target with ball in starting position (Footwork - Front foot pointing to side net, back foot 1 foot back and half foot behind front foot. Weight on front foot)
2) Down together (Footwork - Rock Weight back to backfoot heel)
3) Up together (Footwork - weight still on backfoot)
4) Racquet in Trophy Position - Tossing Arm at Head Level Ready to release
(Footwork - weight still on backfoot)
5) As Ball goes up Left hand tracks ball - Racquet goes from trophy position to backscratch. (Backfoot slides forward)
6) Left hand pull toward chest swing racquet to contact point and contact
7) Follow through racquet swing. Kick out leftfoot, kickback right foot.

If your still unsure, I highly reccomend you get the serve cd by James Jensen.

Good Luck

[kabob]

My best advice is to learn how to hit the retro serve. It's still the most universally sound serving motion on the planet.

http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instr...aspx?id=110352

[Solat]

for me it looks as this is your biggest issue, contact is nowhere near where it should be so you don't have to rotate and reach for the ball thus causing your whole motion to be out of whack


the solution is to practice serving front on, both feet forwards, this encourages a forward toss and for your shoulder to push ahead of your body on contact

good luck

[Tennisguy777]

The backscratch is killing you. I suggest you leave it alone. Just serve a normal serve. You are scratching too much it is throwing off your timing as well as your footwork. Look at this video. I'll try to find you a better video later.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=6

[Tennisguy777]

What I like to call the classic motion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8UqU...eature=related

Here, below is PRO instruction also check out the other tennis and service videos on the left hand side of screen:

http://www.playsportstv.com/box.php?id=6&media_id=636

[ramseszerg]

Originally Posted by kabob

My best advice is to learn how to hit the retro serve. It's still the most universally sound serving motion on the planet.

http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instr...aspx?id=110352

That motion with the right foot coming beside the left foot was the standard technique used by the majority of the pros in the wooden days? Really? I'm assuming the somewhat Roddick-like takeback is not part of it.

[Nellie]

Nice improvement so far. Try tossing a little further in the court - your toss is so far back if you let that ball drip, it would hit you in the head. Instead, try to be 1-2 feet in the court.

Similarly, you look like you are lossing power because your are not accelerating at contact - above your head. You can see that their is no wrist pronatation and that you finish pretty high, both indications that your racquet head speed is slower than it could be.

Also, keep your toss high - on a couple with a higher toss, you looked much better with your extension and timing.

On the take-back/backswing, you look a little choppy - you start bringing the raquet down and then jerk it iup above your shoulders. Perhaps you could start above the shoulders (like Roddick), or start the with the racquet lower, around your feet. Perhaps your motion of taking the racquet up and then back down and around is throwing off yuor timing.

[chess9]

Have you gotten a speed for your serve? I'm guessing it isn't over about 70 mph. Just a hunch.

You are really at the point where you've complicated the frying pan serve. In all honesty, you need some lessons from a pro. You haven't gotten the concept of driving the butt cap to the ball with the racquet on edge. Instead, you open up your palm and push the ball.

With all due respect to you and the process, GET PROFESSIONAL HELP.

I would add that you are a very fit guy who appears to have some decent coordination, so it's painful to see you struggling with that...uh, erm, THING.

Good luck, mate.

-Robert