I have only been playing since august, and have not had any type of instruction...... I basically taught myself how to serve by watching vids on youtube. I was wondering if yall could watch these videos and tell me what i'm doing wrong as well as what I do right, and give me any pointers that you can...... I didnt know what angle to film from, so I just filmed 3 seperate videos. The video quality isnt great b/c i made them w/ my digital camera. Thanks in advance!
I need help w/ my serve (video)
- Thread starter 12th Man
- Start date
BullDogTennis
Hall of Fame
thats the closest thing can really catch to your trophy pose
1 thing i can see is you need to keep your other arm up a bit longer(not really being shown in the picture, but i noticed it in the vid.), its forcing you to drop your shoulder, forcing the ball in the net. and your not getting alot of knee bend. and when you do it doesnt really seem you "explode" into the ball
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jasoncho92
Professional
Your backswing is about as fast as your forward swing. Slow down brah
some6uy008
Semi-Pro
I think you're tossing a bit low, and as a result you are not fully extended when you make contact with the ball.
dwhiteside
Semi-Pro
Toss is too low and as a result, to compensate, your backswing is forced, rushed, and you aren't getting the full potential impact you could be utilizing more of your full body. As a result of the compensation and rushed backswing, you aren't getting much power and a lot of the time it goes into the net. Try throwing it a bit higher, try to get your racquet back a bit earlier, and attempt to slow your backswing down a bit. Not a bad serve by any means, though. The sources of your issues right now are the toss and the drawback.
dwhiteside
Semi-Pro
Just checked out the side view: it's very possible you're tossing the ball too far into the court and not up straight enough.
teppeiahn1
Rookie
Since August? Must of worked hard bro.
Problem right now is the backswing.
Have you thron a baseball or football?
The serve is prety much the same motion.
As you can see on your service motion, your backswing is like "lock and blast". you have 2 motions. Now im sure you don't throw a baseball like that (you would look like an idiot low key haha). You want to have a very smooth motion on your serves. Right now, don't worry about the legs. Just work on the throwing motion.
I would recommend tossing the ball more higher so that you don't feel rushed.
All I gots to say
Problem right now is the backswing.
Have you thron a baseball or football?
The serve is prety much the same motion.
As you can see on your service motion, your backswing is like "lock and blast". you have 2 motions. Now im sure you don't throw a baseball like that (you would look like an idiot low key haha). You want to have a very smooth motion on your serves. Right now, don't worry about the legs. Just work on the throwing motion.
I would recommend tossing the ball more higher so that you don't feel rushed.
All I gots to say
Yeah, I played both baseball and football...... The problem, though, is that I throw/bat with my left hand and play tennis right handed....... so I basically have no muscle memory for throwing a ball w/ my right hand. That reminds me od another question I had....... Am I not snapping my wrist enough? If I'm not, would learning to throw a football right handed help w/ my wrist snap?
Yeah, I played both baseball and football...... The problem, though, is that I throw/bat with my left hand and play tennis right handed....... so I basically have no muscle memory for throwing a ball w/ my right hand. That reminds me to another question I had....... Am I not snapping my wrist enough? If I'm not, would learning to throw a football right handed help w/ my wrist snap?
jasoncho92
Professional
It really seems like youre trying to get way too much done at once. Dont worry about the wrist snap or anything of that sort right now. Work on getting that toss higher so the whole motion isnt completely forced and robotic.
I think I have this problem too, but your wrist is already bent as you take your racquet up.
Andy Roddick's serve slow motion
Watch the first few seconds of Andy Roddick's serve in the video above. You'll see that he points his racquet head up (to the ceiling/sky) and only starts to drop the racquet as his body moves forward. Your racquet head is already dropped down and your wrist bent at about 90 degrees when you get to the trophy pose (hit pause on the video as the ball tosses up, and you can see this). This makes you more like to hit the ball like swatting flies.
Also, although your shoulders are sideways (always a plus) in the trophy pose, most top players have their shoulders rotated more so that your shoulders face more to the back fence instead of the right side fence.
Tommy Haas slow motion
Pause the video at second 16. We are looking at Haas side on. His right shoulder is further back than his left shoulder. If we took a video of you, your torso would be faced towards the camera and you shoulders parallel since you set up sideways. The most extreme example of setting the torso so it aims to the back fence is John McEnroe who simply set up with his body faced backwards. You don't have to do that, but you can see pros do this.
There's one other thing pros do, and I think it's extremely difficult to master. As they swing, their chest points upwards towards the ceiling/sky.
Not being an expert, but I'd probably address the problems in the order mentioned (the wrist angle first, then getting more shoulder rotation in the trophy pose, etc).
It does look like you are holding the racquet with an Eastern forehand grip, and you might want to rotate it over, though I would worry more about the wrist bending first.
At least you seem to have the knee bend and jump reasonably well coordinated. That's always tough for players, and I'm at a level where I don't do it well.
Andy Roddick's serve slow motion
Watch the first few seconds of Andy Roddick's serve in the video above. You'll see that he points his racquet head up (to the ceiling/sky) and only starts to drop the racquet as his body moves forward. Your racquet head is already dropped down and your wrist bent at about 90 degrees when you get to the trophy pose (hit pause on the video as the ball tosses up, and you can see this). This makes you more like to hit the ball like swatting flies.
Also, although your shoulders are sideways (always a plus) in the trophy pose, most top players have their shoulders rotated more so that your shoulders face more to the back fence instead of the right side fence.
Tommy Haas slow motion
Pause the video at second 16. We are looking at Haas side on. His right shoulder is further back than his left shoulder. If we took a video of you, your torso would be faced towards the camera and you shoulders parallel since you set up sideways. The most extreme example of setting the torso so it aims to the back fence is John McEnroe who simply set up with his body faced backwards. You don't have to do that, but you can see pros do this.
There's one other thing pros do, and I think it's extremely difficult to master. As they swing, their chest points upwards towards the ceiling/sky.
Not being an expert, but I'd probably address the problems in the order mentioned (the wrist angle first, then getting more shoulder rotation in the trophy pose, etc).
It does look like you are holding the racquet with an Eastern forehand grip, and you might want to rotate it over, though I would worry more about the wrist bending first.
At least you seem to have the knee bend and jump reasonably well coordinated. That's always tough for players, and I'm at a level where I don't do it well.
stormholloway
Legend
Forget the wrist snap. You seem a bit rushed. Slow it down a bit.
Very nice stuff for a guy playing for a couple months, dare I say awesome.
Very nice stuff for a guy playing for a couple months, dare I say awesome.
A couple of thoughts for you - 1) at your height, you will need to hit up at the ball to get spin to keep the ball in to the court. I think that you are dropping your left arm too soon, causing you to lose balance and fall in to the court.
2) You are opening your shoulders too early. Try to consciously keep sideways for another half second. You will feel like you are swinging way to the right of the ball but at the last second, the rotation of your shoulders and torso will bring the racquet back to the ball.
3) stay loose on the wrist and do not wrist snap intentionally. Instead, try to think about maximizing racquet speed at contact. Slow out of the back scratch with maximum speed between in the half circle from about slightly behind your shoulder until you hit through the ball
4) Your toss is a little far right for a serve to the duece court, causing you to cup the side of the ball and hit 10-to-4.
2) You are opening your shoulders too early. Try to consciously keep sideways for another half second. You will feel like you are swinging way to the right of the ball but at the last second, the rotation of your shoulders and torso will bring the racquet back to the ball.
3) stay loose on the wrist and do not wrist snap intentionally. Instead, try to think about maximizing racquet speed at contact. Slow out of the back scratch with maximum speed between in the half circle from about slightly behind your shoulder until you hit through the ball
4) Your toss is a little far right for a serve to the duece court, causing you to cup the side of the ball and hit 10-to-4.
Yeah. I'd say you want to get in the backscratch position as your elbow is beginning to reach the peak. You'll close the angle at the elbow and drop your wrist some, but I don't think it has to be that much. At some point, the racquet will point straight down to the ground behind you which is the full backscratch position.
I'd rewatch the Tommy Haas video again (see my previous post) and check out where his racquet face and wrist are throughout the first 20 seconds. If you have a mirror and enough space, you can shadow stroke your serve and see it in the mirror in slow motion to see how it feels.
stormholloway
Legend
I think so as well. You need to not let the racquet hang in the backscratch position too long. When it lingers back there, the energy evaporates (so to speak). The racquet drops slowly behind the back and preserves the energy before the shoulder supinates, then quickly pronates to strike the ball.
featherlight
Professional
use a continental grip it would really improve your serve
There are several techniqs of serving. One, more classic (which i am using with very good effects) and a modern one which you are using. The classic one. Classic serve is based on a high ball toss. It gives you a little more power and a better placement but may affect youre consistancy. Methinks the perfect example of that classic serve is Sharapovas serve from Australian Open 2008. You can see that high toss, full extention on her serves which is giving her a little bit higher hitpoint. You should take a closer look at her feet. She is a perfect exaple of jumping in to the court during serving - which is good. That was the basics of that classic serve. The biggest disadvantage of classical serve, with it's high toss, is lacking on topspin. The modern one is preatty simular to yours. If you want to keep youre toss as low as it is now, you should agriaviat the swing-back. I mean that the racquet is going imidiately up, without that circle. Goog exaples of that modern serve is Justine Henin and Rafael Nadal. So... If you want to add better placement and power to youre first serve you should try that classical serve. But i'm warning you, that hight toss (up to 5 meters) may cause a lot of problems. Especialy in the begining. If you want a consistant serve, which may not be as powerfull and well placed, you should keep youre (let me say) extremely low ball toss but definitely you should toss that ball a little bit cloder to youre body.
SaunderS
Professional
Yeah, sort of. your rushing the and hitting it on the rise, try throwing higher and hitting it when the ball is very high up to get a good trojectory.
I think what you are being told is, to make adjustments in your backscratch position, pronation etc, you need to toss higher so you have time to make the adjustments. As you are the motion is so fast you will struggle to single out the elements you are trying to work on.
Nalbandian has a very smooth motion I think. He looks as if he has a momentary pause before he goes toward the ball. This is a very good example of a separation of a backswing (trophy pose) and then the racket drop.
Nalbandian has a very smooth motion I think. He looks as if he has a momentary pause before he goes toward the ball. This is a very good example of a separation of a backswing (trophy pose) and then the racket drop.
ok..... I've worked on what yall told me and here's my serve now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ScZ_jw1xvA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ScZ_jw1xvA
andrew_fernando2
New User
a continetal or backhand grip is vital. i also have a past in other sports and have struggled with service consistency. changing my grip made the difference.
