When you say 80% of the motion first, then unload hips, then should you purposely try to complete the other 20% by bringing the racket up with the elbow/shoulder?? I find this really strange and actually I think takes away from the passive drop.. no?
Yeah, it's hard to describe without pictures. The "throwing at the sky/up at ball" model is actually the same thing. Basically, this is the line of reasoning.
At first, you try a throwing motion as if you're throwing a ball in front of you. This isn't the correct service motion, obviously, but it's more or less the correct backswing and it helps you learn to sync the hips with taking the racquet back and the racquet drop. The backswing looks roughly like half of a "reverse C", and its axis is parallel with the ground. But, really, the axis of the C is parallel with your line of sight. Just as if you're drawing a bow or throwing a football or a fish line.
Then, you learn to "aim" upwards or for the sky. Now, the trick here is that this "C" backswing is no longer parallel with the ground. It is still parallel with your line of sight, but because your line of sight is now upwards, your backswing is now
tilted in that direction.
The above sounds confusing, but if you kinda visualize how somebody aims when throwing a football or a baseball from center field, you'll notice that the basic arm takeback works this way. This is how people naturally throw.
That is the rationale for throwing a lot prior to practicing service motion. If I ask you to throw something upwards and really far away, you intuitive tilt your takeback, so that when you release from the hips, the arm drops and launches out.
1) If I ask you to imagine a target well in front of you, you will have a longer arm takeback and you will show your back more.
2) If I ask you to imagine a target well above you, your knees will drop lower and you will arc your back more.
You will have no problem initiating a passive drop through the hips. And if you lift your left arm as a balance, your right arm will naturally set up into a trophy position.
The trophy position is a natural product of the arm takeback when it matches your line of sight, and when the takeback is synced with your ball toss. This comes without thinking. When you don't have a "natural" trophy position, then it's likely that something in your takeback is off. Usually it means that your takeback isn't tilted toward your line of sight, which is often the case because people see the trophy position setup as parallel with the ground, while they're trying to hit a target that is well above them.
I'm enquiring about the likes of Henin and Gasquet, and not the (impressive) likes of Sampras or Fed because, like the first two,
I like the overall look of Federer and Gasquet -- the simplified style, which is shown by Fuzzy's site -- but what goes on with their legs and hips is different than the majority.
Henin's model is interesting, because I think she, with an almost straight arm, leads the takeback with the shoulder rather than with the elbow. Very few people do this -- neither Federer nor Sampras do this, for example. She uses a traditional, C-style "circular" motion, but the C/circle is led with the shoulder, and so it looks almost like a "diagonal" takeback. I think Sharpy's learned to do something similar. Roddick uses a shoulder-drive motion, but his backswing is the upside-down smile pattern or "football"/overhand style. Again, because it is so abbreviated from the shoulder motion, it looks straight.
There's big upside to this style (deeper racquet drop, great racquet speed, more pronation) -- and I feel it's why Henin can crank out serves with such a small frame (like I always say with Henin -- if she were 5"" she'd dominate the tour) -- but it is more difficult to master. And usually you'd go through a progression. First, you learn to takeback with the hand, which gives you a very large swing. Then you learn to takeback leading and pivoting with the elbow, which gives you what most pros do. Finally, you can abbreviate it one more step by leading/pivoting with the shoulder.
If you want to try a Henin style straight-out, first start with a straight arm (though elbow not locked out), then swing in cartwheels with that straight arm around the shoulder. This gives you the feel that you want.
Then again with a sock or a ball, practice throwing from the shoulder with an almost straight arm. First throw forward. Then, practice aiming really, really high and throw upwards. Finally, add in the left arm as if tossing the ball. Observe how the takeback is diagonal, and how the hip initiates the racquet drop.
Ideally, you want to also feel it in the upper pecs. If it's really clicking for you, you should feel a pull in the upper pecs when you initiate from the hips.
