call for serve critique

[tennisexecutor]

this is my good friend hard at work at improving his serve. being relatively new to the game, he is struggling with his serve though he is making steady progress. any advice and feedback on his service motion would be immensely appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFtAwuS8I0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C07wxHwW6k

 

[martini1]

Nice motion and the contact sound is pretty clean. Most people here would tell you more knee bend I suppose.

 

[SLAMburger]

Just remember, it's the momentum you generate from properly winding and unwinding your body as you swing, that pulls your feet off the ground and your body into the court.

 

[SLAMburger]

I just watched it again. He's not using his body when he serves. It looks like he's trying to serve properly, but he's failing to wind up and release into the ball the right way.

He's missing all the power you get from winding and unwinding your legs, waist, core, shoulders, and arm as a smooth chain. Basically he's pushing off with his legs and swinging with his arm as he rotates his body into the ball, but he's missing all the parts that wind and unwind between his legs and shoulder/arm area. So his kinetic chain is completely broken; never really gets to begin. He needs to be winding up in a way that actually feels like he's building up power to release into his serve.

When you wind up you have to feel it in almost every joint and muscle. Try to be as "elastic" as you can. You want not just your arm, but your entire body to become a loose but controlled whip. Notice how energy travels down a whip when someone cracks it? It's an unbroken kinetic chain. Now learn to do that with your body, maintain good form and control.

Remember all movement should originate from your center.

 

[charliefedererer]

For someone new to the game he gets into a nice "bow' shape, and gets and keeps his tossing arm high.

I see two major areas for improvement:
1. greater shoulder turn
2. deeper racquet drop, then aiming the butt of the racquet at the ball as the elbow is extended until the late pronation movement

In the above sequence, notice how Sampras rotates/coils his shoulders/upper body/hips left to right away from the ball. This starts as the tossing arm is being raised, and the coiling continues after the ball is released. Bending the knees is essential to continue coiling completely.

Here is what coiling looks like from above:

Notice he starts with his shoulders perpendicular to the opposing court, but as the ball is being tossed, and after release as the ball is still rising, he coils his shoulders/upper body/hips to a position where the shoulders orientation is almost parallel to the baseline.


Powerful uncoiling is one of the major power sources in the serve, as emphasized in this video:
Roddick 150 mph Serve Analysis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLf_MJXzBVg






The other area for improvement would come from a deeper racquet drop and then acceleration of the racquet but aimed up at the ball to get maximum elbow extention before the late "snapping action" of pronation.

In the above sequence of Sampras, you can see how deep his racquet drop is at pic 4. The racquet butt is aimed straight up at the ball, just like you would do on a forehand. The next frame (5) shows how the initial motion is almost straight up still aiming the racquet butt at the ball. This "pulling" the racquet almost straight up insures you will be aiming "up the mouintain" with your swing. By photo 6 he is still largely aiming the butt of the racquet at the ball, but has begun into his powerful pronation movement.
[The reason I am emphasizing this aiming the racquet butt up and at the ball and pulling the butt up as the first movement in the forward swing is that your friend seems to be bringing the racquet forward as his initial movement, insuring he will never get full upward racquet extension.]



To work on a more powerful pronation movement, have your friend try this drill, and then incorporate the more powerful pronation movement into his stroke for that last added burst of explosive power/spin.
McCraw explaining a serve pronation exercise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iONY6fcqZGg



Watching the player in the following video, specifically looking for the points mentioned above (coil/uncoil, deep racquet drop, aiming the butt of the racquet at the ball in the initial upward pull, and a powerful final pronation movement) may help convince your friend that with practice you don't have to be a tour pro to have sound technique:
Sarah practicing serve.She is 8 years old. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iONY6fcqZGg

Although admittedly, a pro like Fed will do it even better:
Roger Federer - Super Slow Motion Flat Serve http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InYd8IrFnkU&feature=related


Good luck!

 

[LeeD]

Meaning... more coil, the twisting to allow the body to untwist into the ball on the forward swing.
Meaning...low hitting elbow and hand, so upper body swings up at the ball initially. Also promotes longer swing, more power.
Plenty of knee bend. No more is needed.
Learn to throw a football first, then work on the serve. The throwing motion is not natural, and very kinky.

 

[WildVolley]

Huge hitch in his swing!!!

Tell him that he's supposed to pause at the trophy pose, not at the racket drop.

My advice would be to have him throw a ball over the net, then have him throw a racket (preferably old) up into the air.

He sort of has the idea of serving, but it is terribly unnatural at the moment, and because he has no kinetic chain, he is sort of forcing the racket into a drop, stopping, and then swinging again at the ball.

Good luck with the practice.

 

[WildVolley]

Learn to throw a football first, then work on the serve. The throwing motion is not natural, and very kinky.

I completely agree with LeeD about this. You should see if your friend is able to throw a ball well. After watching this again, it looks like he could throw a ball, but he is having serious timing issues and is pausing in the racket drop and then arming the ball from then on. The racket drop should not be a a forced movement of bending the arm down. Instead, it should come from relaxing the arm and hand as the elbow drives up toward the ball. This causes a natural lag which allows the racket to drop.

I've seen motions like this in two cases. In one case, the player was following the motion, but it was totally forced. I asked him to throw a ball and he couldn't do it well. In the other case, I realized the guy I was trying to help had shoulder problems, so he wasn't able to adopt a natural motion. Your friend doesn't seem to have physical mobility issues, so he just needs to develop the correct timing form in throwing.

 

[Kam2010]

No racket drop, Pronation and wrist snap that is simply your problem.
That is where most of the power will come from thats why your not getting as much base..
You have a good motion just the latter needs correcting in my opinion..

 

[athiker]

See Sampras pictures #9 and #12 on the red clay courts photo series CF posted above. I don't think your friend ever gets in either of those positions. Look at his first video and pause around 16 sec mark and compare.

He drops his racquet head behind him way early, I believe the racquet drop from the trophy pose is supposed to happen as a result of leading up with the elbow towards the ball. Your friend seems to drop the racquet head early, so has a hitch there, yet never seems to lead with the elbow up either.

I like looking at and analyzing these vids b/c it helps me think of things I'm doing wrong in my own serve.

 

[zapvor]

Nice motion and the contact sound is pretty clean. Most people here would tell you more knee bend I suppose.

what? its not a nice motion.....hes opening the face up too much and 'slapping' down with his wrist too much

 

[Deleted member 232704]

His toss might be a little too high. Try putting his arm up with the racket, the end of the racket is where the ball should start dropping

 

[pvaudio]

The coiling is the least of the issues. It's in the arms. Tossing arm drops way too early, and racquet arm is flailing all over the place. Only at the end does it come up to meet the ball. The racquet arm should always be on some repeatable path to make contact. This also means that the wrist should be relaxed, but more importantly, not varying. What I mean is that he's doing a lot of pronation and supination before contact. Nuh uh. Keep the continental grip so that the relationship between the hand and the racquet never changes. Internal and external rotation at the elbow is what I'm on about. If you watch all of the great servers, they have what is known as a live arm. In short terms: the racquet is simply along for the ride.

I'm not a big fan of attempting to copy Sampras as while he does have a picture perfect motion which is simple to explain, it's damn near impossible to replicate. Federer, however, is a great example. he has nothing more than the essentials and can still put on any spin, angle and pace he wants even up into the 130s. Watch his fluid practice serves.

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

Note that the only thing the elbow ever does here is bend into the trophy position, bend into the back scratch, unbend and THEN pronate through the ball. Another way to look at it. Look at how the racquet face is oriented. It is always in the plane of his body up to the trophy position. Try to have your friend mimic Federer, and isolate the entire arm. Simple = effective.