Critique My Serve

pvaudio

Legend
Man, if only I could be 14 again...anyway, enough reminiscing :).

First things first: your father needs to hold the camera steady and further away, it's hard to see what's going on!

Now onto what I think: it's terrible. Just kidding :) Looks good man, although I do have a few isssues to note. Mainly, they involve your timing. You are rushing through your serve like you need to go take a **** afterwards! You're losing a lot of power because you can't build potential energy in your legs and trunk. Slow down your motion a LOT. I don't mean swing less quickly, I mean slow down how you go from tossing to hitting. There should be a distinct time period between tossing and hitting. Rarely should you be hitting the ball when it's on the way UP. Use the time that the ball is in the air to bend your legs and load up some power.

Last thing: what kind of serve are you trying to hit? All of those were slice serves except for one, so I don't know if you meant to do that or not. Did you?
 

volusiano

Hall of Fame
Topspin Shot, I would try to simplify your pose a little by getting rid of that starting point where you hold the ball and racket at your face level. It serves no purpose and only complicates your motion and timing because you have to swing both your tossing arm and racket arm back down, only to have to raise them again during the service motion. Most people just start with their tossing arm and racket arm down at the bottom before the service motion.

I see you have the knee bend. But that knee bend right now is just for show because you don't really use it to jump into the ball. Maybe if you can toss the ball into the court a little more then it'll force you to utiliize the knee bend a little bit more to jump into the court. You'll know you make good use of the knee bend when the result is that your body lurches into the court, with your left foot making a small leap into the court, and your right foot kicking back to keep your balance. You do have a little bit of it right now, but not a whole lot.

Other than that, it looks like you have the basics down and keep improving on it.
 
Thank you for critiquing my serve. By the way, I did mean to flatten out that serve; I was supposed to be practicing my second serve (the slice), but I decided to throw in a first serve for the fun of it.:) I know that I have to work on hitting a smoother delivery and taking my time on the toss. Also, I have gotten rid of that excessive takeback in the last couple of months.
 

nadalfan!

Professional
First things first, fix ur signature. No way are you a 4.5 with serves like those. Just get rid of the NTRP rating.


Ok, sorry about the short flaming but it seems you need to get the camera steady so we can actually see something!
 
First things first, fix ur signature. No way are you a 4.5 with serves like those. Just get rid of the NTRP rating.


Ok, sorry about the short flaming but it seems you need to get the camera steady so we can actually see something!


Really now? You can figure all that out from a 1 minute video? Quite impressive.
 

raffi!

New User
[osu]ilovecows;3763996 said:
Really now? You can figure all that out from a 1 minute video? Quite impressive.

Well, I see what he's saying. It would take an extraordinary 14-year-old to play alongside 4.5's, wouldn't it?

But of course, there's no reason to assume that the OP isn't an extraordinarily gifted player. I'm just saying.
 

pvaudio

Legend
Well, I see what he's saying. It would take an extraordinary 14-year-old to play alongside 4.5's, wouldn't it?

But of course, there's no reason to assume that the OP isn't an extraordinarily gifted player. I'm just saying.
True, but at 4.5, he would never hold serve because his serve would get eaten alive, thus the likelihood that he'd win a lot of 4.5 matches due to breaking every opponent is rather slim. Regardless, since you're a junior, you don't even need nor have a NTRP rating.
 
S

StuckInMalibu

Guest
Come on, the OP asked for help on his serve, not how to dress himself or whether his ntrp is correct.
 
pvaudio = TT fashion police
:grin:


PS: my serve has improved RADICALLY ever since receiving your comments/instruction. Thanks :)

So fashion does have something to do with your tennis success.. No wonder Serena and Federer dominate all the time.:)
 

RoddickAce

Hall of Fame
Come on, the OP asked for help on his serve, not how to dress himself or whether his ntrp is correct.

This is a common tendency on this board. Once someone posts a video asking for advice, you can expect someone to say "you aren't a ____" or "if you are a ___, then I'm a ___ (higher rating)".

To the OP, your serve looks pretty nice, I like how loose your arm is. One thing I noticed though, is that your weight transfer could improve. Basically, I think you might want a bit more forward momentum in your serve? I'm not sure cuz of the angle of this video. A poster on this forum pointed that out on my serves too. I fixed that, now I can generate more pace while using less effort on my swing.
 
First of all, all those serves except for the flat one were second serves; I can put more power on the ball if I want to. Also, I can place my first serves near the lines, and I can put my seconds on my opponents forehand or backhand when I want to. Third of all, I am a counterpuncher and I do not hit for a lot of power at all. I mostly roll all of my balls with heavy topspin (hence the user name), and I only go for winners if my opponent is completely off the court. One final thing proving appearances on videotape are not always accurate: I once saw a woman playing who I thought was about a 3.5 level player with ugly strokes; that is, until she took a set off one of the club pros:shock:. However, I do thank those who did critique my serve for their time and help.
 
First of all, all those serves except for the flat one were second serves; I can put more power on the ball if I want to. Also, I can place my first serves near the lines, and I can put my seconds on my opponents forehand or backhand when I want to. Third of all, I am a counterpuncher and I do not hit for a lot of power at all. I mostly roll all of my balls with heavy topspin (hence the user name), and I only go for winners if my opponent is completely off the court. One final thing proving appearances on videotape are not always accurate: I once saw a woman playing who I thought was about a 3.5 level player with ugly strokes; that is, until she took a set off one of the club pros:shock:. However, I do thank those who did critique my serve for their time and help.

Sorry if it offended you, but I think most people knew that it was your second serve. The thing is 4.5 players, I don't know how much experience you've had with them will crush those second serves for winners every time.
So even if you had a big serve, unless your serve percentage is very high, 4.5 players will not have a hard time breaking your serves easily..
I am nowhere near close to 4.5 and I know it.
You're right video never tells everything and you could be really good, but if you are 4.5 at 14, then I would expect you've rarely ever lost a tournament in your area.
Back to the actual subject..
Have you thought of using a topspin/kick serve for the second serve?
It is a very good alternative to the slice serve and give you more options.
 
I do play adult 4.5 players; I beat the ones closer to the 4.0 end of the spectrum and lose to the ones closer to the 5.0 end. I am definitely not anywhere close to a 5.0 and are more competitive with 4.0 players than 5.0 players, but I have not lost to a 4.0 in a long time.

As for rarely losing a tournament at that level, I have played two star recruits on Tennis Recruiting and beaten them. Anyone higher than that either plays in tournaments all the time or is very close to a 5.0 adult, which I am not. Yes, those players would attack that second serve. However, my first serve percentage is about 70%, which lets me get away with that second delivery.

I have considered using a kick serve for my second deliveries, but I am still working on it and occasionally use it during a match, most of the time as a first serve out wide to the ad court if my opponent uses a two hander and into the body in the deuce court if he has a one hander.

As for my clothing, I never realized that I had my shirt tucked in until I saw the video. I normally do not play with my shirt tucked in.:)
 

raffi!

New User
First of all, all those serves except for the flat one were second serves; I can put more power on the ball if I want to. Also, I can place my first serves near the lines, and I can put my seconds on my opponents forehand or backhand when I want to. Third of all, I am a counterpuncher and I do not hit for a lot of power at all. I mostly roll all of my balls with heavy topspin (hence the user name), and I only go for winners if my opponent is completely off the court. One final thing proving appearances on videotape are not always accurate: I once saw a woman playing who I thought was about a 3.5 level player with ugly strokes; that is, until she took a set off one of the club pros:shock:. However, I do thank those who did critique my serve for their time and help.

I would suggest that you be a little less defensive, especially considering the fact that you requested the criticism.

Anyways. I agree that you may be much better than what your video shows us, but unfortunately all we have is your video. If you'd like to receive some more in-depth criticism, I suppose you could make another video featuring your 4.5 level game, so that we don't have to make assumptions.

Also, I second the suggestion that you should consider a kick serve. Your first serve is going to fail you, no matter who you are, a small to enormous amount of the time. A reliable--yet still effective--second serve will kick your game up to the next level. That would be 5.0, I guess, for you.

From your description of your own game, however, I'd say you are much better than the average 14 year old!
 

fruitytennis1

Professional
Sorry your not a 4.5 from your service.
Hmm were you trying topspin serves or slice. Looked like you were losing alot of power in your motion. Im not a professional but tossing the ball out might help get more knee bend and power.
 
You're right, raffi. I should be less defensive especially considering that I started this thread. Sorry.:oops: I will post a video of my game shortly, when I next play a match against another player.
I will try to slow down my motion and toss and use my legs more to spring my body into the court, so thank you for that advice, volusiano.
 
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