help me with my serve (video included)

[LanEvo]

hey guys, i recently started learning to serve and id like some advice on how to improve, heres a video, so plz give me feedback, so i can do better :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KamqU907igs

8/23/09 New Videos :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXF-CrpDF8M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOsiMlNDRXE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdIflOGIz6k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--ITbBhcG8

 

[ryangoring]

where is pvaudio when you need him.

 

[Nonentity]

toss needs to be higher, in front of you. Don't toss it so much to the right.

Also you are opening your shoulders way before you hit the ball. you need to rotate your shoulders as you are swinging, not rotate 1st then swing.

make sure you keep your tossing arm up there longer.

there are some other things you need to look at, like your back foot coming in front of your front foot before you swing

 

[Majik]

hey guys, i recently started learning to serve and id like some advice on how to improve, heres a video, so plz give me feedback, so i can do better :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KamqU907igs

You need to use your legs to jump up then into the ball, not to rotate into the ball. Keep your body sideways to the baseline; push your hips towards the net as you kick up with your legs and as you bring your racket up from behind you and over you.

The best way to learn to serve is to try hitting the ball as hard as humanly possible. That will automatically give you the right form. Then decrease the power a little so you can get some control and put it in. Good luck.

 

[J011yroger]

The best way to learn to serve is to try hitting the ball as hard as humanly possible. That will automatically give you the right form. Then decrease the power a little so you can get some control and put it in. Good luck.

That could very possibly be the worst advice I have ever read ever posted by anyone in my life.

J

 

[dman72]

Watch the video of yourself, then watch a video of any pro serving. You should be able to point out about 4 or 5 key things that are off.

The first thing, as others have mentioned, is the shoulder flying open before you hit the ball. In order for you to even be able to hit the ball with how much you are doing this, you are probably using a frying pan (eastern forehand) grip, with which you will be starting off with a disadvantage.

 

[volusiano]

Change your grip to a continental grip first, then relearn the serve and repost new video with the new grip. This is what pvaudio would have said, too.

 

[ci2ca]

That could very possibly be the worst advice I have ever read ever posted by anyone in my life.

J

What? I think that's the best advice in the world if you want to hit the ball consistently!!











To the back fence....

 

[USERNAME]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIjfJrfIWnI
Look at the left arms position thruout the serve, look at the shoulder and hip rotation, look at the forward momentum into the court, and look at the racquets path thruout the service motion. And as stated b4 switch to the continental grip.

 

[J011yroger]

What? I think that's the best advice in the world if you want to hit the ball consistently!! To the back fence....

I am more concerned about him getting hurt.

Plus you would never learn how to serve, but that is just an afterthought.

J

 

[aptennis91]

You first have to change your grip to continental and watch a lot of pros serve.
BTW, that pavement must be really hot behind the tennis courts.
People are jumping all over the place

 

[LanEvo]

You first have to change your grip to continental and watch a lot of pros serve.
BTW, that pavement must be really hot behind the tennis courts.
People are jumping all over the place

nah it was just some black people doing football drills

 

[Solat]

learn to serve without any foot movement first, as mentioned previously you have way to much rotation pre contact, you are losing balance out to the right. This is creating an inefficient motion.

 

[LanEvo]

hey guys, got some new videos, would like as much advice as possible, i hope i improved over my last one

 

[LanEvo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXF-CrpDF8M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOsiMlNDRXE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdIflOGIz6k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--ITbBhcG8

 

[StuckInMalibu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXF-CrpDF8M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOsiMlNDRXE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdIflOGIz6k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--ITbBhcG8

I have two suggestions that could help.

1. You are turning your shoulders and then hitting the ball, i.e., you turn to face the net, then you swing. Your swing and shoulder turn should happen at the same time. The difference is very slight, but try not to turn your shoulders too early.

2. Better racquet drop. If you freeze during the drop, you can see your racquet pointing at the fence rather than the ground. Imagine swinging into the sky, rather than forward.

 

[USERNAME]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXF-CrpDF8M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOsiMlNDRXE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdIflOGIz6k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--ITbBhcG8

Ok again, WATCH THE SLOMO HD VIDS ALOT! They are great visual aids. Get ur tossin arm up higher and keep it up longer, ur opening the shoulders too early. Weight forward into the court, not to the side. Follow thru all the way across the body. Let the racquet head drop behind ur head before swinging and snap the wrist.

 

[J011yroger]

Wow...have any of you besides Solat ever taught someone how to serve?

Obviously I know Solat has, hence his sound advice.

To the OP. You need to learn how to serve first with out moving your feet, or bending your knees.

Just nail your feet to the ground (figuratively speaking)

Take your racquet back.

Stay sideways.

Toss the ball up.

Hit the ball.

Get to the point where you can constantly and repeatedly do that, and then you can progress to phase 2.

J

 

[USERNAME]

Wow...have any of you besides Solat ever taught someone how to serve?

Obviously I know Solat has, hence his sound advice.

To the OP. You need to learn how to serve first with out moving your feet, or bending your knees.

Just nail your feet to the ground (figuratively speaking)

Take your racquet back.

Stay sideways.

Toss the ball up.

Hit the ball.

Get to the point where you can constantly and repeatedly do that, and then you can progress to phase 2.

J

I aint a coach but i kno what ur talkin about, its called the perfectly balanced serve. Do the full serve motion (rotation and all) at around half speed but stay planted, no weight into the court. My coach has me do this to warm up my shoulder.

 

[pvaudio]

where is pvaudio when you need him.

I think Jolly has him taken care of haha

 

[Majik]

What? I think that's the best advice in the world if you want to hit the ball consistently!!

To the back fence....

Actually, hitting it as hard as you can (while standing in one spot) should train you to have the right shoulder turn and pronation and get you jumping, etc. After you get that, you can work on your ball toss and putting topspin on it, etc.

 

[LanEvo]

Wow...have any of you besides Solat ever taught someone how to serve?

Obviously I know Solat has, hence his sound advice.

To the OP. You need to learn how to serve first with out moving your feet, or bending your knees.

Just nail your feet to the ground (figuratively speaking)

Take your racquet back.

Stay sideways.

Toss the ball up.

Hit the ball.

Get to the point where you can constantly and repeatedly do that, and then you can progress to phase 2.

J

ok ill do this this weekend and make some more videos to see if im makign progression and thank you for all the help and to all the other members

 

[LanEvo]

also i wa slooking off this video to learn how to serve : http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-serve-the-basics does this work well?

 

[pvaudio]

Actually, hitting it as hard as you can (while standing in one spot) should train you to have the right shoulder turn and pronation and get you jumping, etc. After you get that, you can work on your ball toss and putting topspin on it, etc.

No, no it definitely should not. Hitting it as hard as you can is gearing you up to injure yourself. You need to learn the components of the serve: pronation, knee bend, shoulder turn, etc well and learn to put them together into one fluid motion. There is very little actual swing involved with this shot, and learning it as a swing only makes it harder when you need to learn to pronate properly.

 

[drgreenthumb]

you should toss your ball higher and toss it in front of you slightly on the right so that youll fall forward NOT pulling left.

someone taught before that you should throw the ball straight like an imaginary jai alai. then with the racket, imagine the racket as an extension of your arm throwing. you should toss the ball without the ball turning/rotating and high. you should fall forward not to the sides.

show us some more vids. youre doing a good job

 

[LanEvo]

you should toss your ball higher and toss it in front of you slightly on the right so that youll fall forward NOT pulling left.

someone taught before that you should throw the ball straight like an imaginary jai alai. then with the racket, imagine the racket as an extension of your arm throwing. you should toss the ball without the ball turning/rotating and high. you should fall forward not to the sides.

show us some more vids. youre doing a good job

hey, thx for the good words, i hope to improve as well, but i think i may even go more basic and serve with no movement at all and see how that goes, and i will be updating with new vids every weekend

 

[heretoserve]

your definitely not completely uncoiling into the serve. You can tell because your body never straightens out into a power line. This could be a secondary problem because your gets a little stiff which aids in bringing your hitting arm palm a little pointed up. So you cannot really swing fast and forward(which is why you could be a little reluctant to uncoil completely. I would first try to loosen your arm up more this will allow your elbow joint to completely collapse like a baseball pitcher. This will bring the edge of the racquet more at the ball allowing you to really uncoil and crack it with out it going long. Pronation is one of the toughest things to teach but most pros look like there going to hit the ball with the wrong side of the racquet right before contact, then the forearm turns out(pronates)to get to contact. Watch some high speed shots of the pros and try to figure out what exactly is pronation. Hope this helps. I have some good freeze frames of pronation in my youtube video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRW8VN9Pcns&feature=channel_page

 

[SChamp]

That could very possibly be the worst advice I have ever read ever posted by anyone in my life.

J

hahahahaha, LOL, OMG!!!!! That could bery possibly be the funniest thing I've ever read on the internet. I was going to give advice, but now I'm worried that it would make the previous sound great.