Critique my serve

[SuperDuy]

I have been working on my serve for while a while not, and finally got around to making a video. I have watched the video a few times and I need to fall forward not to the left. I am about 85% in the video because I have a left knee injury not allowing me to fully explode into the court and jump up as much as I would like, just want some critique on the motion. was very windy outside, some serves had some kick up to them.

My serve from july, was much more speed on the serves then the one today, but thats because I am focusing on the motion. was also 95 degrees outside at the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDnomFD5kbk


Serves from today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8rptgbA61g

 

[TennisKid1]

From what i saw, your upper body action is nice but you are squandering your lower body power. Push your energy up from the bottom (legs) to the top.

 

[GetBetterer]

Yes, as TennisKid1 said, you need more leg push. In addition, you are imba. Literally, you are imbalanced. You move off to the left after every serve. Try to focus on a ball toss which will allow you to vertically stretch your arm out to hit with your arm fully extended so you don't have to weirdly go to the left.

Otherwise, well done.

 

[Ambivalent]

You bring your feet too close together. With them being cramped, your lower body movement is completely hindered and awkward.

 

[5263]

Really keeping a fairly straight hitting arm; sort of like Nadal's old serve.
Knee bend is taking you off balance.

Pretty nice result overall I'd say,
especially considering the delivery.

 

[Blake0]

Your motion kind of reminded me of andy murrays..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywANrKM8v7c

I'd like for you to get into a better trophy position and use more legs in your serve. Pause the video when you get into your trophy position and when andy gets into his. Notice the difference. I'd say if you could get into a better trophy position and use more legs you could bump up the mph by a bit.

 

[SuperDuy]

Thanks for the tips, I think to stop falling left I need to get my toss more infront of me to my right. I tried doing something today where as soon as i hit I throw my left shoulder down and it seems I get can get some more power. blake I agree on the trophy position, I have troubles getting it correctly. thanks again

 

[LeeD]

Howzit!
Toss more right, just two inches or so, to straighten out your lean.
You employ TONS of leg bend, so much so you might lack leg DRIVE. Your leg bends takes too much energy to replicate over two matches a day, 3 setters. Also, it throws off your balance, so can be inconsistent. I'd use less legs, more forward movement.
You seem to hit all spin serves. If that's what you want, you should employ more backhandy grip, with the racket more at right angles to your forearm, for more snap on the pronation and faster rackethead speeds. Your racket currently is almost an extension of your forearm, so you're not taking advantage of pronation as much as you could.
Be sure to have the racketface closed more than vertical on the racketprep, as that insures full conti with backhand flavor and you can pronate fully from there.
Not sure about your lagging wrist. It might throw off your timing.

 

[LuckyR]

While everything Lee said is correct, it may not be obvious that the most striking thing about your motion is the extreme knee bend (leading to sub-par explosiveness of the legs into the serve). Instead of concentrating on the knee bend itself, think about exploding from the knee bend into the serve.

 

[SuperDuy]

Howzit!
Toss more right, just two inches or so, to straighten out your lean.
You employ TONS of leg bend, so much so you might lack leg DRIVE. Your leg bends takes too much energy to replicate over two matches a day, 3 setters. Also, it throws off your balance, so can be inconsistent. I'd use less legs, more forward movement.
You seem to hit all spin serves. If that's what you want, you should employ more backhandy grip, with the racket more at right angles to your forearm, for more snap on the pronation and faster rackethead speeds. Your racket currently is almost an extension of your forearm, so you're not taking advantage of pronation as much as you could.
Be sure to have the racketface closed more than vertical on the racketprep, as that insures full conti with backhand flavor and you can pronate fully from there.
Not sure about your lagging wrist. It might throw off your timing.

Ok thanks leed I will try that. Less leg bend, looser grip on racquet. My toss was inconsistant because of the wind, usually more to the right but the wind was pushing it left. I was trying to hit flat serve just that last was a slice. I need to post a video of my second serves. thanks for the tips.

 

[Nellie]

I think if you practiced pushing though and landing with the left leg, instead of stepping forward with the right leg, you would get more power, less slice on that serve (more weight shift forward and less rotation, leading to a more reliable, more powerful service motion)

 

[LeeD]

Of course, I"m saying to bend knees LESS! But move into the court more.
As other's have stated, all your serves are a combination of slice. NONE seem to be flat firsts, as evidenced by your followthru path....out right, then back in.
You are young and strong. Flat firsts, if hit correctly (flat and swung fast), should be a scary weapon for all you hit against.
Me, 61 and flabby, flat firsts are scary for even current Div1 singles players to return.

 

[SuperDuy]

Of course, I"m saying to bend knees LESS! But move into the court more.
As other's have stated, all your serves are a combination of slice. NONE seem to be flat firsts, as evidenced by your followthru path....out right, then back in.
You are young and strong. Flat firsts, if hit correctly (flat and swung fast), should be a scary weapon for all you hit against.
Me, 61 and flabby, flat firsts are scary for even current Div1 singles players to return.

You must have the correct technique then. What I dont know is the swing path of a flat serve compared to a slice on my serves. Should I be letting the racquet drop down and pronating when I hit the ball?

 

[mike84]

lol damn windy winnipeg.....move indoors ;D.


your serve motion is good but you seem to be very fast with arm motion which might create inconsistent serves.

for flat serve just move into court and open up your racquet more on contact point should be fairly easy thing to do.

 

[LeeD]

For a flat serve, your swingpath seems to far out to the right, away from your body, then comes back in, because you're connected to the racket thru your shoulders.
Swingpath should be straight towards your target, and a loud POP sound, resulting in a nearly spinless ball leaving your racketface.
When you practice flat first serves on crowded courts, everyone around you should stop and look over for a few seconds, as they start to hear your serve sounds. That is the audio affect of a good first flat serve.

 

[SuperDuy]

lol damn windy winnipeg.....move indoors ;D.


your serve motion is good but you seem to be very fast with arm motion which might create inconsistent serves.

for flat serve just move into court and open up your racquet more on contact point should be fairly easy thing to do.

Alright thanks I will try that. I might move to u of m in november for a few months.

For a flat serve, your swingpath seems to far out to the right, away from your body, then comes back in, because you're connected to the racket thru your shoulders.
Swingpath should be straight towards your target, and a loud POP sound, resulting in a nearly spinless ball leaving your racketface.
When you practice flat first serves on crowded courts, everyone around you should stop and look over for a few seconds, as they start to hear your serve sounds. That is the audio affect of a good first flat serve.

Thanks leed, I know what you mean. Try to have my arm going straight nad not from left to right, but straight forward. How do I want to have the racquet face set up in the windup of the serve I usally have the racquet sideways like this | untill im about to hit the ball then right before I twist my wrist to the right allowing the racquet face to open up at contact to look like this O hitting the ball. Is this the correct way?

 

[mike84]

Alright thanks I will try that. I might move to u of m in november for a few months.

already there. price wise the best indoor place in winnipeg by far.