“What are the components of a good tennis serve”

[antony]

There are several key components to a good tennis serve:

Grip: The grip you use on the racket handle will affect the spin and trajectory of your serve. A Continental grip is commonly used for serving because it allows you to impart topspin on the ball.

Toss: The toss is important because it determines the height and direction of your serve. You should toss the ball slightly behind you and about waist-high.

Stance: A good serving stance is one that allows you to generate power and reach the ball at the top of your serve. You should stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your weight evenly distributed.

Body position: Your body position should be balanced and aligned with the target you are serving to.

Arm position: Your serving arm should be fully extended and the racket should be pointed towards the target.

Follow through: After hitting the ball, your racket should continue to follow through towards the target, finishing high above your head.

Racket head speed: The speed of the racket head at impact is important because it determines the power and spin of the serve.

By focusing on these components, you can improve the accuracy and power of your serve. It's also important to practice regularly and develop a consistent serve routine to help you execute your serve effectively in match play.
-ChatGPT

Not sure what’s up with the toss advice though. I toss at the top of my arm reach and around my 10 o clock sort of in front, more to my side. I followed up and asked why it gave the advice it did for tossing and it replied:

Tossing the ball slightly behind you and about waist-high allows you to generate power and reach the ball at the top of your serve. This is because the ball has time to drop and settle in your hitting hand as you bring your racket back, which allows you to generate more racket head speed when you make contact with the ball.

If you toss the ball too high or too low, it may be difficult to generate the desired power and control on your serve. Tossing the ball too far in front of you can also make it difficult to reach the ball at the top of your serve, which can affect the accuracy and power of your shot.

By tossing the ball slightly behind you and at waist-high, you can find a good balance between power and control on your serve. It's also important to practice your toss regularly and develop a consistent routine to help you execute your serve effectively in match play

 

[antony]

“You don’t mean to release at waist height, correct?”

Yes, that's correct. When I said to toss the ball "at waist-high," I meant that the ball should be tossed to a height that is around waist level. This means that when you release the ball from your hand, it should be at a height that is slightly above your waist.

The purpose of tossing the ball at waist-high is to give yourself time to generate power and reach the ball at the top of your serve. Tossing the ball too high or too low can affect your ability to generate power and control on your serve.

It's important to practice your toss regularly and develop a consistent routine to help you execute your serve effectively in match play. The exact height of your toss may vary based on your personal preference and serving style, but generally speaking, a waist-high toss is a good starting point for most players.

 

[antony]

“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to start your toss from the waist and release above your shoulders somewhere”

You are correct. I apologize for the error in my previous response.

The proper way to toss a tennis ball for a serve is to start the toss from your waist and release the ball above your shoulders, generally around head level. This allows you to generate power and reach the ball at the top of your serve.

Starting the toss from your waist and releasing the ball above your shoulders gives you time to generate power and reach the ball at the top of your serve. Tossing the ball too high or too low can affect your ability to generate power and control on your serve.

It's important to practice your toss regularly and develop a consistent routine to help you execute your serve effectively in match play. The exact height and starting point of your toss may vary based on your personal preference and serving style, but generally speaking, a waist-level start and head-level release is a good starting point for most players.

 

[socallefty]

This paper goes into all the fundamentals.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231215748_An_8-Stage_Model_for_Evaluating_the_Tennis_Serve_Implications_for_Performance_Enhancement_and_Injury_Prevention

 

[Chas Tennis]

There are several key components to a good tennis serve:

Grip: The grip you use on the racket handle will affect the spin and trajectory of your serve. A Continental grip is commonly used for serving because it allows you to impart topspin on the ball.

Toss: The toss is important because it determines the height and direction of your serve. You should toss the ball slightly behind you and about waist-high.

Stance: A good serving stance is one that allows you to generate power and reach the ball at the top of your serve. You should stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your weight evenly distributed.

Body position: Your body position should be balanced and aligned with the target you are serving to.

Arm position: Your serving arm should be fully extended and the racket should be pointed towards the target.

Follow through: After hitting the ball, your racket should continue to follow through towards the target, finishing high above your head.

Racket head speed: The speed of the racket head at impact is important because it determines the power and spin of the serve.

By focusing on these components, you can improve the accuracy and power of your serve. It's also important to practice regularly and develop a consistent serve routine to help you execute your serve effectively in match play.
-ChatGPT

Not sure what’s up with the toss advice though. I toss at the top of my arm reach and around my 10 o clock sort of in front, more to my side. I followed up and asked why it gave the advice it did for tossing and it replied:

Tossing the ball slightly behind you and about waist-high allows you to generate power and reach the ball at the top of your serve. This is because the ball has time to drop and settle in your hitting hand as you bring your racket back, which allows you to generate more racket head speed when you make contact with the ball.

If you toss the ball too high or too low, it may be difficult to generate the desired power and control on your serve. Tossing the ball too far in front of you can also make it difficult to reach the ball at the top of your serve, which can affect the accuracy and power of your shot.

By tossing the ball slightly behind you and at waist-high, you can find a good balance between power and control on your serve. It's also important to practice your toss regularly and develop a consistent routine to help you execute your serve effectively in match play

The serve is a complex motion in 3 dimensions with timing. You have translated that into words that are not adequate to describe the serve. If one of your descriptions of a sub-motion are wrong the serve might not work. Many of your word descriptions are not correct.

How many of your beliefs conflict with this picture?

The most important part of the serve is impact. How many of your beliefs hold up?

Most of what is believed on the forum doesn't hold up to these composite pictures or the videos created by Anatoly Antipin and in his Youtube collection.

 

[eah123]

It’s hard enough to learn how to serve from a video. Don’t complicate it further by trying to learn from pictures or text.

 

[zaph]

Don't miss is a good start.

 

[Hmgraphite1]

Wow trying to describe while learning a language.

For me the "toss" starts when the ball is released. Moving, swinging the arm is not the "toss".

The racquet doesn't follow the path toward the target on slice or topspin serves. Too much generalization.

 

[Enga]

So it's like an amalgamation of all of TTW and reddit and various other tennis forums thoughts on how to serve properly. It honestly doesnt sound too unreasonable. I never thought to release the ball slightly behind me, maybe I'll try it lol

 

[Mark-Touch]

“You don’t mean to release at waist height, correct?”

Yes, that's correct. When I said to toss the ball "at waist-high," I meant that the ball should be tossed to a height that is around waist level. This means that when you release the ball from your hand, it should be at a height that is slightly above your waist.

Boy you really twisted my head into a pretzel with that one!
If you actually tossed the ball waist high you would be serving an under-hand serve (a la Kyrgios)!

What I think you meant to say was, to toss the ball the SAME HEIGHT (length) as is the height/length
from the ground to your waist.

So if your waist is three feet from the ground, toss the ball three feet high.
Is that what you meant to say?

 

[antony]

It’s ChatGPT, not me