Is the abbreviated serve becoming the "next gen" service motion?

rush71

New User
I have spent the past couple of weeks at the AO at both the qualifying and first week and have really noticed so many
players using the abbreviated serve. Watching Sonego and Alcarez now who both have a very similar abbreviated
motion. I know that Roddick had such a serve but it really seems to be a "thing" now. Just wondering if the coaches
on here would be leaning towards such a motion given its relative simplicity or stick to the more "traditional" way of
serving.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
I primarily started teaching abbreviated serve motions and half serve motions to students more than 16 years ago. I was seeing too many hitches, timing issues & racquet leak with the more classic serving styles. Often difficult to fix those issues for many students.

Jeff Salzenstein adopted a nice clean abbreviated motion quite some time back. Felix A-A has a great implementation of the abbreviated serve rhythm.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Rafa developed a pretty decent version of an abbreviated motion a while back. When he 1st turned pro, his serve was serviceable for clay but held him back on faster surfaces. His serve has evolved quite a bit over the years. Early on, he employed more of a classic Up Together rhythm. But he’s tinkered with it quite a bit. Making it more abbreviated and incorporating a fair amount of stagger in his serve rhythm.

Novak had a couple of significant flaws in his serve motion prior to 2010. Todd Martin attempted to teach Novak an abbreviated serve motion around 2009/10. Novak appeared to be resistant to developing this type of serve motion. He brought in 2 other serving coaches later in 2010 to fix the flaws in his serve. The rest is history.

Quite a while back, Gael Monfils copied the abbreviated serve motion of Andy Roddick. He had fairly decent results with this.
 

Jono123

Professional
I like the abbreviated as its a useful tool when deconstructing or simplifying your serve. When I analysed mine, I noticed I was hemorrhaging power and not achieving a full racket drop.

The abbreviated eliminates much of those issues so I can focus on the next problem, namely the leg drive or lack of.
 

nyta2

Hall of Fame
I have spent the past couple of weeks at the AO at both the qualifying and first week and have really noticed so many
players using the abbreviated serve. Watching Sonego and Alcarez now who both have a very similar abbreviated
motion. I know that Roddick had such a serve but it really seems to be a "thing" now. Just wondering if the coaches
on here would be leaning towards such a motion given its relative simplicity or stick to the more "traditional" way of
serving.
i think it's more a move away from "up together, down together"
and towards a staggered (toss arm, hitting arm) movement pattern...
and some folks abbreviate hitting arm movement based on their own rhythm & timing of their load phase (and toss height)
 
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