Front foot placement on serve

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
Something I've noticed is a few players start with their left (assuming right handed) foot facing the net post, but then they rotate it to be parallel to the baseline before they hit the ball. See Zverv below:


Others will start with their foot parallel to the baseline like Federer here:


My coach is trying to get me to start with my left foot parallel to the baseline. I can serve like that it does make things easier during the motion, but it feels very unnatural to walk up to the line and stand facing away from my opponent and almost face the side fence. So I was thinking of rotating my foot but he said it would probably make things more complicated. Most instruction I see online says to have your foot facing the net post. Should I keep my feet parallel and try to get used to it or are there any problems with doing it?
 

Dragy

Legend
If you have your feet more parallel to the baseline at trophy, it makes sense to place left foot accordingly from the beginning. Otherwise you risk:
- a footfault with your shoe edge stepping on the line;
- knee twist abuse when not rotating the foot timely/enough while pushing the hip inside the line.
Cilic has most direct approach placing his left foot.
 

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
If you have your feet more parallel to the baseline at trophy, it makes sense to place left foot accordingly from the beginning. Otherwise you risk:
- a footfault with your shoe edge stepping on the line;
- knee twist abuse when not rotating the foot timely/enough while pushing the hip inside the line.
Cilic has most direct approach placing his left foot.

If I line up with both feel parallel to the baseline where should I be looking/facing when I start my service motion? Especially on the deuce side if I'm trying to hit a short slice out wide it feels very awkward to be facing completely away from the court
 

Dragy

Legend
If I line up with both feel parallel to the baseline where should I be looking/facing when I start my service motion? Especially on the deuce side if I'm trying to hit a short slice out wide it feels very awkward to be facing completely away from the court
You should place your feet differently against baseline for deuce and ad court serve.
You should be looking where you feel comfortable to look. Don’t get into it much.
 

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
You should place your feet differently against baseline for deuce and ad court serve.
You should be looking where you feel comfortable to look. Don’t get into it much.

I've got a match tonight and this has been bugging me. On the deuce side should I line up facing my opponent more?
 

Dragy

Legend
I've got a match tonight and this has been bugging me. On the deuce side should I line up facing my opponent more?
Your opponent stands more or less in the middle of your serving range on each side, diagonally accross the court. Your “degree of facing the opponent” is expected to be the same.
 

Wise one

Hall of Fame
Something I've noticed is a few players start with their left (assuming right handed) foot facing the net post, but then they rotate it to be parallel to the baseline before they hit the ball. See Zverv below:


Others will start with their foot parallel to the baseline like Federer here:


My coach is trying to get me to start with my left foot parallel to the baseline. I can serve like that it does make things easier during the motion, but it feels very unnatural to walk up to the line and stand facing away from my opponent and almost face the side fence. So I was thinking of rotating my foot but he said it would probably make things more complicated. Most instruction I see online says to have your foot facing the net post. Should I keep my feet parallel and try to get used to it or are there any problems with doing it?

Your coach is mistaken. There is no reason to do that. It's idiotic!
 
C

Chadalina

Guest
Your coach is mistaken. There is no reason to do that. It's idiotic!

It increases core compression (abs is the first hurdle), adds the front hip to the equation if you can release properly (2x booty, like rampage jackson said, gotta put your ass in it).

You youngsters call it a kinetic necklace or something.
 

mainmain

New User
I don't know who started this, but it's really dangerous for knees!

Uh, can you explain again which way is better for knees - parallel to baseline or pointing towards net? Do you think stance width can also affect strain on knees?

Mine often hurt after long serve training sessions... but they are badly damaged and always hurt anyway.
 

Dragy

Legend
Uh, can you explain again which way is better for knees - parallel to baseline or pointing towards net? Do you think stance width can also affect strain on knees?

Mine often hurt after long serve training sessions... but they are badly damaged and always hurt anyway.
I’d say there’re two stages when your knees can be abused (twist-wise) while serving.
First is initial loading. Your front foot shall be aligned in accordance to the degree of your coiling. That’s what you can see when pro players push their heels more towards the line while loading. You don’t want to have your toe target inside the court while turning hips away and pushing inside the line.
Second is uncoiling. If you don’t get in the air with enough energy, uncoil with still planted front foot, parallel to the baseline, you can experience knee stress as your hips open up towards the court.
So it all depends on how much you coil in preparation and how effectively you uncoil.
 

mainmain

New User
I’d say there’re two stages when your knees can be abused (twist-wise) while serving.
First is initial loading. Your front foot shall be aligned in accordance to the degree of your coiling. That’s what you can see when pro players push their heels more towards the line while loading. You don’t want to have your toe target inside the court while turning hips away and pushing inside the line.
Second is uncoiling. If you don’t get in the air with enough energy, uncoil with still planted front foot, parallel to the baseline, you can experience knee stress as your hips open up towards the court.
So it all depends on how much you coil in preparation and how effectively you uncoil.
Thanks a lot! Parallel to baseline is thus safer - for me, who pushes at least enough for be airborne during uncoiling.
 
Left side of my left foot is at 45° serving on ad side and about 75° on the deuce side, then rotate to more/almost parallel as i'm getting into trophy position.
 

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
I’d say there’re two stages when your knees can be abused (twist-wise) while serving.
First is initial loading. Your front foot shall be aligned in accordance to the degree of your coiling. That’s what you can see when pro players push their heels more towards the line while loading. You don’t want to have your toe target inside the court while turning hips away and pushing inside the line.
Second is uncoiling. If you don’t get in the air with enough energy, uncoil with still planted front foot, parallel to the baseline, you can experience knee stress as your hips open up towards the court.
So it all depends on how much you coil in preparation and how effectively you uncoil.

What I try to do is rotate (corkscrew method) as Ramon Osa calls it in the video below. On my kick serve I try to stay sideways as long as possible and if I keep my front foot pointing towards the net post it definitely puts a huge amount of strain on my left knee. When I was playing a singles match I strained something in the leg, but am not sure whether it was from the serve or something else. So I need to either figure out how to do the corkscrew method without putting strain on my leg when loading or for now I'm just squatting down and jumping up

 

Wise one

Hall of Fame
It increases core compression (abs is the first hurdle), adds the front hip to the equation if you can release properly (2x booty, like rampage jackson said, gotta put your ass in it).

You youngsters call it a kinetic necklace or something.

Nonsense. Watch:

 

J011yroger

Talk Tennis Guru
Nonsense. Watch:

8110919115-38dfb6cc6b-b.jpg


J
 
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