Confused bout the degree of pronation on serve!

[kimizz]

My question is bout what seems to happen somewhere around the contact to the ball on serve. Before and after the contact. If there is one advice I see in many posts its "let pronation happen naturally". And this is what I do. But Im confused about the degree of pronation that seems to change between pros. For me after the pronation my thumb is in 9`clock position. I have a slow-mo clip of Henin serving like this too. Here the strings are facing down after contact.

But then sometimes I see the thumb pointing down at the 6`clock position after contact. Here the inner strings(the ones that hit the ball) are facing to the right(for a righty) after contact. Roughly you could say when I serve, my palm turns 90degrees and some pros seem to serve with the palm turning almost 180degrees. So whats this about? If I try to do more pronation its not natural anymore...

 

[drakulie]

The degree the arm pronates depends on the server, the velocity of their swing, and/or the type of serve they are hitting.

If you are serving well, don't worry about this too much.

Youzhny:

Venus Williams:

Pete Sampras:

 

[kimizz]

Im serving ok especially when I swithced to abbreviated serve or whatever its called(racquet straight up). But power is always welcome

Those pictures are just what im talking about...thanks. Im not even near of pronating that much.

Check this link: http://www.playerdevelopment.usta.com/pdmediabooks/players.asp If you look Agassi serve frame by frame you see more of my kind of technique. I dont know if thats how Andre serves all the time.

 

[drakulie]

^^^ Nice link.

yeah, agassi doesn't seem to have that "exagerrated pronation" (racquet strings facing to the right), like other players.

Like I said, if you are serving well, then don't pay it too much attention.

 

[maverick1]

Check this link: http://www.playerdevelopment.usta.com/pdmediabooks/players.asp

This really is a nice free collection. Should be in a sticky.