Any tips on my serve?

Gene1994

Gene1994

Rookie
Here's my first serve. Any tips and constructive critisism guys?

Hey guys! I've just started using my HD camcorder and made a short video of me hitting some serves today. I recently switched from a platform to this pin-point motion. Any tips and constructive criticism is welcome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjEpZc9-kX8&fmt=22
 
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Try setting your feet forty-five degrees from parallel with the baseline when serving to the deuce. You appear to serve to the ad far more comfortably. Your shoulder rotation is less pronounced but under considerably greater control. Standing feet parallel with the baseline to the right of the hash, firing accurately over your left shoulder to the deuce court requires more shoulder and torso rotation than does so standing to the left of the hash and serving to the ad. You serve comfortably to the ad, why not superimpose your ad-court service motion's starting bodily position in relation to its target, and graft this same positional relationship onto your deuce court serve?
 
Your front foot needs to be 45 degrees either way.

You could use more foot push. You look young enough. You serve like Dementieva though by bringing your racket up already for the trophy pose rather than doing the what FYB calls low together, high together thing.
 
Looks pretty good to me. I do have a tip for you though - try to ignore any serve improvement tips you get in this thread.;)
 
SoBad:
Looks pretty good to me. I do have a tip for you though - try to ignore any serve improvement tips you get in this thread.
Click to expand...

Does that include your own tip? O_o

Philosoraptor_template.jpg
 
Seems like you could use more of your legs. You're getting a good knee bend but no pushoff. It seems like from your kneebend all that happens is that you twist your feet/legs in. Push off with your feet and go up for the ball.

Your current motion works for you so I don't know if it would throw off your timing to go up for the ball. Right now it seems like from your kneebend you just wait for the ball to get into your contact zone. If you pushed off you could get a little more leverage and pace.
 
Here's a good tip for you.

Check out the image below. The first two are of your racquet angle at contact. The others are of elite pros at contact, during first serves, as far as I can tell (I've left the youtube titles in the crop so you can view them for yourself).

The 180 degree angle between your racquet handle and your forearm indicates that you are only getting a screwdriver action in the racquet due to pronation.
2i8xkyu.jpg


Adjusting your grip slightly, you will be able to employ pronation, ulnar deviation of the wrist, and perhaps tad bit of wrist flexion to get more of the socket and wrench type leverage.

See these videos for explanation:

http://www.vimeo.com/10566621 (this is the best explanation, but I find the grip pat advocates a bit extreme for myself, though might experiment more with it in future).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bsYFra60Q0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t6bLABbebc
 
spacediver said:
The 180 degree angle between your racquet handle and your forearm indicates that you are only getting a screwdriver action in the racquet due to pronation.
...
Adjusting your grip slightly, you will be able to employ pronation, ulnar deviation of the wrist, and perhaps tad bit of wrist flexion to get more of the socket and wrench type leverage.
Click to expand...

Love your screwdriver vs. 'socket and wrench' analogy.
A coach once mentioned something similar to me but termed it as weak vs. strong pronation.

I do 'weak' pronation even for my first serve. I have never been able to correctly implement strong pronation.
 
Some amazing tips guys! Thanks. I'll be hitting and taping more serves today. If I have time, I'll post another video.
 
Toss the ball more left, so you can contact the ball "inside" your hand.
 
Hey guys, I went to the practice courts this morning and filmed serves for 1 1/2 hours. I'll edit another short video showing the best ones and post it up for you guys tonight. I made some changes. Stay tuned.
 
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nice form gene. However, the angle your racquet makes with your forearm is still 180 degrees. I believe you're depriving yourself of valuable leverage.
 
Gene1994 said:
Hey guys! I've just started using my HD camcorder and made a short video of me hitting some serves today. I recently switched from a platform to this pin-point motion. Any tips and constructive criticism is welcome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjEpZc9-kX8&fmt=22
Click to expand...

I'd like to see a lot more arch in your ball flight - more net clearence and higher kick. To achieve that, I'd like to see more turn (back to the target), and tilt in your shoulders on your windup, and more of an upward swing path into the ball. Your shoulders should be between about 45 and 90 degrees from the target at contact. Your shoulders are nearly facing the target at contact. You're coming out of your turn too soon, depriving your serve of spin potential. I'd also like to see you bring your tossing hand down to your leg before going back up to give you a reference and more consistency, and I'd like to see you take a full windup with your racquet, rather than the truncated windup that you use.
 
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GetBetterer said:
The new serve is good.

You still have that Dementieva thing going on, but it's better. :)
Click to expand...

:D I prefer to compare it to Andreev or someone.. not Elena :D

spacediver said:
nice form gene. However, the angle your racquet makes with your forearm is still 180 degrees. I believe you're depriving yourself of valuable leverage.
Click to expand...

Yeah not quite there yet but I'll be keeping it in mind.

Limpinhitter said:
I'd like to see a lot more arch in your ball flight - more net clearence and higher kick. To achieve that, I'd like to see more turn (back to the target), and tilt in your shoulders on your windup, and more of an upward swing path into the ball. Your shoulders should be between about 45 and 90 degrees from the target at contact. Your shoulders are nearly facing the target at contact. You're coming out of your turn too soon, depriving your serve of spin potential. I'd also like to see you bring your tossing hand down to your leg before going back up to give you a reference and more consistency, and I'd like to see you take a full windup with your racquet, rather than the truncated windup that you use.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'll look into it.
 
If I may ask what's your approx. NTRP rating?

Also, keep in mind about 3/4 of the posters on this forum are between 3 and 4 NTRP.

That's not to say some of their technical advice isn't correct.

Good luck!
 
RoddickAce said:
XD, I actually meant to type Hewitt, but I'm kinda tired today, can't think straight, so I said Murray, but anyway, your serve looks great!
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Haha thanks man!

new_tennis_player said:
If I may ask what's your approx. NTRP rating?

Also, keep in mind about 3/4 of the posters on this forum are between 3 and 4 NTRP.

That's not to say some of their technical advice isn't correct.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

You know...I really have no clue what my NTRP rating is. I'm 16 years old....so we don't really use NTRP's.
 
Limpinhitter said:
I'd like to see a lot more arch in your ball flight - more net clearence and higher kick. ... You're coming out of your turn too soon, depriving your serve of spin potential.
Click to expand...

He was hitting flat serves in that video though, not kickers. Are you sure this advice is wise when applied to a flat serve?

Limpinhitter said:
I'd like to see you take a full windup with your racquet, rather than the truncated windup that you use.
Click to expand...

why? Abbreviated takebacks are not fundamentally unsound.
 
SoBad said:
Looks pretty good to me. I do have a tip for you though - try to ignore any serve improvement tips you get in this thread.;)
Click to expand...

Yes hes right! I like your serve alot. I wouldnt change a thing. But lets see some second serves!!
 
Gene, I'd highly recommend following up with the tip I gave you. Did you watch the three videos I linked?

Let me know if you'd like a more detailed explanation about how this leverage actually works.
 
spacediver said:
Gene, I'd highly recommend following up with the tip I gave you. Did you watch the three videos I linked?

Let me know if you'd like a more detailed explanation about how this leverage actually works.
Click to expand...

Great advice and video selection. Adding that little bit of racquet angle allows for a much more powerful pronation action.
 
all i can see wrong is the arm movement, maybe drop the racquet head a little bit more for increase racquet head speed?
 
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