Good morning all,
Responding to each point brought up
#1a Ball Toss (effort)-
I’ve learned that actually, I can’t toss very hard. I’ve gotten the idea of “placement” but now I feel rushed trying to get to the ball before it drops down past my head. I’m actually using about 7/10 effort on the toss, which I realize when I see myself bending my knees slightly to get a little more height on the toss. I’ll practice keeping my placement consistent with a 10/10 effort toss.
#1b Ball Toss (angle) -
Will try the diagonal approach instead of straight towards net. Forgot about that while thinking about “placement”. Also didn’t even realize my arm is not fully vertical, related to previous point maybe need a higher toss, but was focused on “pointing to the ball” to keep left shoulder up.
#2 Grip -
I check my grip prior to every serve, and check my grip after each serve. What I noticed is - my index knuckle is definitely on bevel #2, but after my serve my index knuckle has slid over to the right side of bevel #2, sometimes fully over to bevel #3. I’m not sure why my grip slides over mid-service motion.
Should I be thinking to myself to “grip it a bit harder” ?
#3a Waiter’s Tray
I’m not sure why I do this, but the more I think about it, the more I literally chop the ball with the frame. If I stop thinking about the “on edge” approach the less often I chop the ball.
#3b Palm down/racquet drop/backscratch/salute/trophy
Trying this on occasion as well, what I think is the “Trophy Stance”. However I’ve been slicing every serve, and I’m not sure why. I’ve also tried tossing the ball more to the right, but I end up slicing it more as not only does the string spin sound get more obvious but the ball goes even more left.
#3c High five the ball/combing hair/acceleration
Actually completely forgot about this. Will try to visualize this next time. I stopped being aware of the swing once I see the tennis ball falling down towards me.
Also, should I try to ‘aim’ or ‘push’ the elbow higher? I’m a little bit tight in my lats from doing pull ups but I think I can get a bit more stretch if I tried when bringing into the racquet drop phase.
#4 Contact/Jump/Lean/Uncoiling
I’m not using my calf at all, I’m literally just leaning to the point of falling over and catching myself as opposed to jump. I can literally do this ‘jump’ pretty consistently and without much effort like taking a step. Though if I’m too focused on the ball I end up catching myself a little bit too late and nearly faceplate into the court.
#5 Kick Serve
I’ve been also practicing this a little bit. I think of a “left to right rainbow/brush” for the swing path. I somehow slice the ball or ONLY spin the ball with the ball traveling about 1 foot in front of me with a bunch of spin. Only been doing this for about an hour though, so in friendly games I just focus on the flat serve, which I’ve been getting in about 30-50% of the time.
#6 Stance (not directly addressed)
That day, in addition to the above, I really focused on stance. I’ve watched on YouTube, Nick from Intuitive Tennis mentioned this and I want to try putting my feet in various positions to see how they felt during a service motion. What really stuck out to me not only before but after was
-Reverse platform stance
When I add in -lean- into my service motion I land on my right foot, even though 99% of right handers land on their left foot. I tried putting my dominant foot about 1-3 inches ahead of my left foot and my serves somehow went to the general direction I was aiming - either ad or deuce side of the court as opposed to just going sort of all over the place. Dunno why but now I stopped using the standard or lateral platform stance.
-Pinpoint stance
My wife got really good after using pinpoint stance. I gave it a try but I guess I’m not really able to control my dominant leg that well? I literally somehow missed touching my other foot when doing this. She’s somehow really good at serving ad side as she hits with quite a large angle, nearly 45 degrees to the side service line, but hits with the same angle on the deuce side, so it ends up literally landing in the same service box as when serving from the ad side. I told her maybe she should turn her body slightly differently when standing, but we’ll see.