critique my serve

[garfonkee]

Hello, below are two videos of me doing the serves. Mobile phone video quality though, so you'll only be able to see me and generally not the ball, on the second video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGc8kHpqYZ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn1hrGT_27E

Am I not jumping up high enough? I figure since I'm only 5'10 and I can only do flat serves, I should jump a bit more, but it kinda gets tiring.. heh.

I got a third video, it's viewing from the other side and because of the video quality you can't see much of anything, but the last bit had the ball going straight into the camera's direction.. but I can't figure out how to cut these videos

Also some curious questions.. how many times do people usually get to serve (first serves and second serves) in a set, usually? And does higher string tensions reduce serve speed?

any critique (however harsh) are most welcome, thanks in advance

 

[crawl4]

Its a nice serve you got there. Like you said maybe jump a little more but im more concerned with your leg drive at the beginning. If you can, try to lift the heal of your right foot off the ground so only the ball of your foot touches the ground and then transfer that weight to your left foot by bringing down the heal while at the same time lifting the ball of your left foot so the heal is on the ground.

Also im not sure how many times someone serves in a game but for the string tension, if you string it higher yes there is less power but more control and vice versa if the strings are looser

 

[Solat]

pretty good quality for a camera phone

you need to get right the way round to continental grip

i would also encourage you to try to lengthen your left arm lift after the toss to get better stretch so that you can get a more effective slingshot of the back half.

I disagree that you need to jump, i think you are timing your leg drive quite well and further efforts to change that will result in a physical jumping motion (which is not part of the serve). You leave the ground when you get good leg drive, you don't specifically aim to jump (if u get what i mean)

 

[garfonkee]

I disagree that you need to jump, i think you are timing your leg drive quite well and further efforts to change that will result in a physical jumping motion (which is not part of the serve). You leave the ground when you get good leg drive, you don't specifically aim to jump (if u get what i mean)

Does physical jumping motions hinder the leg drive? I was getting the impression the higher you are when you're hitting it, the bigger the window of getting it in.. I get what you mean, if the two can't go together then I'll toss the idea of jumping super high away..

Also, what do you mean with lengthening the arm lift? Move my left hand further back down, or ?

And I was pretty sure I was using the continental grip.. maybe I forgot about it since it was pretty hot back there (the sun)

 

[quicken]

Toss te ball more into the court

 

[(Blank)]

I'm pretty sure he means for you to extend your arm further up towards the sky.

 

[mistapooh]

Haha, I like your sunglasses. I'm no expert, but the back view of your serve doesn't look like you do a whole lot of back scratching motion.

 

[garfonkee]

haha, they're $20 glasses..

How far more into the court? And can I confirm that tossing further into the court -> less spin, more power, and vice versa? I seem to be getting not much spin with those serves even though I tried to impart them..

 

[fuzz nation]

So far, it looks like your serve is on its way to becoming a solid product for the 21st century. Watch your feet - when you hit the serve, you move forward pretty much in the direction of your target. That's a very healthy sign that you're not wasting energy in your motion. You also don't look at all rushed like you're trying to snatch up at the ball. Definately keep it loose!

Something that can help you down the road is to add some rotation to your motion. Right now, it looks like your shoulders and hips are in roughly the same plane as you wind up to serve. What you can try without messing things up much is to turn your shoulders away from your target as you wind up so that as you go up to hit the ball, you can turn back through to your left, much like throwing a ball. You don't want to set up with your whole body turned more to the right. Just a turn away as you wind up, then a turn back through as you hit. Free gas for your service motion!

Don't worry about trying to physically jump in the air and then hit your serve. That action of coming up off the ground happens with a more and more deliberate vertical leg drive. Contact typically happens while you're still surging upward through the ball and your momentum lifts you off the court... after you've hit the ball.

So far so good - keep on rockin'!

 

[Duzza]

Does anyone else think that at the start his hand looks like a fat naked person?

 

[albino smurf]

lumpy. (10 char)

 

[quicken]

Does anyone else think that at the start his hand looks like a fat naked person?

I swaer, I thought it was an ass of some sort.

 

[garfonkee]

Something that can help you down the road is to add some rotation to your motion. Right now, it looks like your shoulders and hips are in roughly the same plane as you wind up to serve. What you can try without messing things up much is to turn your shoulders away from your target as you wind up so that as you go up to hit the ball, you can turn back through to your left, much like throwing a ball. You don't want to set up with your whole body turned more to the right. Just a turn away as you wind up, then a turn back through as you hit. Free gas for your service motion!

Hmm, I see.. as you wind up, turn the shoulders more.. I'll definitely give that a try, thanks!

And as if how my hand looks like a fat naked person is the only thing worth commenting on

 

[Rafael_Nadal_6257]

Good serves...only other thing I have to say is it looks like your clothes are suited for tennis

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

I swaer, I thought it was an ass of some sort.

I actually did think of this, unfortunately. :shock: