saltwatersd1980
New User
I’m a beginner/intermediate and I've spent the past year slightly obsessed with getting rid of my waiter’s tray serve and think I’m getting there. What do you think? Here’s a session at the local courts. I’m using a half serve in some and a fuller motion in others, and some are from the service line and some are from the baseline. And I’m not really worrying about leg drive/coil/shoulder over shoulder/adding a lot of power for now. I’m trying for flat serves but many turn into accidental slice serves (which maybe would be decent slice serves) because I have an old bad habit of opening the racquet face early and hitting slice out to the side (very clear if you slow the video down). I use a few different approaches/cues to myself through the course of the video so I’d love to hear which sections seems like they’re working well and which ones are no good.
And here’s a recent session from the backyard for comparison. It’s where the serve finally started coming together--having the racquet swing out a little on the right side of my body on the way up to the ball before going up on edge and pronating like I see in advanced serves.
I was surprised to see that I could do the fuller motion at the courts without going back to my old bad waiter’s tray habits every time. What should I work on? Work on next? Do the shadow swings look okay, too? Any drills or advice?
I was thinking my next moves would be: consolidate coming up on edge instead of opening early, keep the toss closer to my body to avoid slice, hit through the ball a bit more on the full motion, and start to drive the non-dominant arm down a bit more to add pop instead of just bringing it down like a dead fish. Many of the ones at the court weirdly felt like they had less pop than the good ones in the backyard but maybe that was just because they weren’t hitting anything close. I also get kind of obsessed with hitting the back fence at the courts but I’d rather hit slower and get the technique right.
I got really into tennis but then had to lay off for a few years because of bad serve mechanics and a really bad impingement injury, so I’d be curious to hear if there’s any unhealthy shoulder stuff going on here, too. And I’m not trying to DIY all this. I just got set up for some one-on-one lessons but would love to hear what you think, too. Thanks!
And here’s a recent session from the backyard for comparison. It’s where the serve finally started coming together--having the racquet swing out a little on the right side of my body on the way up to the ball before going up on edge and pronating like I see in advanced serves.
I was surprised to see that I could do the fuller motion at the courts without going back to my old bad waiter’s tray habits every time. What should I work on? Work on next? Do the shadow swings look okay, too? Any drills or advice?
I was thinking my next moves would be: consolidate coming up on edge instead of opening early, keep the toss closer to my body to avoid slice, hit through the ball a bit more on the full motion, and start to drive the non-dominant arm down a bit more to add pop instead of just bringing it down like a dead fish. Many of the ones at the court weirdly felt like they had less pop than the good ones in the backyard but maybe that was just because they weren’t hitting anything close. I also get kind of obsessed with hitting the back fence at the courts but I’d rather hit slower and get the technique right.
I got really into tennis but then had to lay off for a few years because of bad serve mechanics and a really bad impingement injury, so I’d be curious to hear if there’s any unhealthy shoulder stuff going on here, too. And I’m not trying to DIY all this. I just got set up for some one-on-one lessons but would love to hear what you think, too. Thanks!
