MaxTennis Serve Practice Videos

Curious

Curious

Legend
So little shoulder turn yet very good serve, supporting my view in my thread ‘shoulder turn overrated’. Pulling the right elbow back ( Salzenstein calls it elbowing the enemy) looks great. Too much back arching though instead of a proper knee bend. It looks more like an upright squatting motion. See how Cilic does it to understand my point better.


 
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MaxTennis

MaxTennis

Semi-Pro
Curious said:
So little shoulder turn yet very good serve, supporting my view in my thread ‘shoulder turn overrated’. Pulling the right elbow back ( Salzenstein calls it elbowing the enemy) looks great. Too much back arching though instead of a proper knee bend. It looks more like an upright squatting motion. See how Cilic does it to understand my point better.


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Thanks for linking this video! I'm trying to rebuild certain serve fundamentals right now since there isn't much USTA play going on, so this is good stuff.
 
socallefty

socallefty

Hall of Fame
Nice, smooth action…looks good! I agree that a young dude like you should be able to have more knee bend and use the kinetic chain more to get higher pace.

Also, have you considered experimenting with throwing your toss more forward into the court and hitting a flatter serve - would be a nice change of pace for big points in contrast to your heavy-spin serve.
 
MaxTennis

MaxTennis

Semi-Pro
socallefty said:
Nice, smooth action…looks good! I agree that a young dude like you should be able to have more knee bend and use the kinetic chain more to get higher pace.

Also, have you considered experimenting with throwing your toss more forward into the court and hitting a flatter serve - would be a nice change of pace for big points in contrast to your heavy-spin serve.
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I'm trying to work on getting more forward momentum into the court. I struggle with my ball toss and my first serve percentage in matches, but you're right that it would be good to have a flat bomb to keep them honest.
 
socallefty

socallefty

Hall of Fame
MaxTennis said:
I'm trying to work on getting more forward momentum into the court. I struggle with my ball toss and my first serve percentage in matches, but you're right that it would be good to have a flat bomb to keep them honest.
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In looking at your video again in light of your comment about your struggles with the toss, it looks like you flick your wrist up when you toss the ball. I think that if you keep your wrist/fingers more rigid and raise the whole arm up when you toss, you’ll likely have a more consistent toss. Then, you just need to change the angle of your arm forward to toss more onto the court for a faster serve. Watch a Federer slow motion video of his different serves.
 
Digital Atheist

Digital Atheist

Professional
socallefty said:
In looking at your video again in light of your comment about your struggles with the toss, it looks like you flick your wrist up when you toss the ball. I think that if you keep your wrist/fingers more rigid and raise the whole arm up when you toss, you’ll likely have a more consistent toss. Then, you just need to change the angle of your arm forward to toss more onto the court for a faster serve. Watch a Federer slow motion video of his different serves.
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Yep, slightly bent arm and a little wrist at release that seems variable. Another issue is the release point, which might be responsible for the wrist use in the first place, but that is speculation:



Between eye level and the top of the head is the recommended range.

Nice serve (but you knew that).
 
P

pencilcheck

Professional
Of course you got great pace and good sense of placement of your serve, nothing to be scoff at. However I noticed sometimes your toss height and contact point can be a bit wobbly. I think your body has some micro movement that causes you to overrotate, maybe look into that might help with your consistency and improve that serve percentage to be even higher.
 
Slowtwitcher

Slowtwitcher

Hall of Fame
Cool, thanks for posting.

Not sure what are your goals with ball toss. For me personally, it works better if I get rid of the ballistic movements up/down/forward/back and also focus on strict straight left arm when I elevate the ball.
 
MaxTennis

MaxTennis

Semi-Pro
Slowtwitcher said:
Cool, thanks for posting.

Not sure what are your goals with ball toss. For me personally, it works better if I get rid of the ballistic movements up/down/forward/back and also focus on strict straight left arm when I elevate the ball.
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I want it to be more consistent and reliable since it tends to go all over the place. I definitely agree that less is more in this case. Thanks for the tip!
 
sureshs

sureshs

Bionic Poster
MaxTennis said:
I want it to be more consistent and reliable since it tends to go all over the place. I definitely agree that less is more in this case. Thanks for the tip!
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Take @Slowtwitcher advice seriously. Yesterday he served a kick into the ad court which bounced up to my head, and I was 3 feet behind the baseline.

He has also coached me about lazy tossing arm and ballistic service arm which has taken my serve from 40 to 42 mph.
 
MaxTennis

MaxTennis

Semi-Pro
sureshs said:
Take @Slowtwitcher advice seriously. Yesterday he served a kick into the ad court which bounced up to my head, and I was 3 feet behind the baseline.

He has also coached me about lazy tossing arm and ballistic service arm which has taken my serve from 40 to 42 mph.
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Slowtwitcher said:
:-D
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Are you down in San Diego? I might be down to come one of these weekends when COVID settles and hit. I'll be in LA probably until July next year.

Battle by the Border Part 2 @sureshs ?
 
sureshs

sureshs

Bionic Poster
MaxTennis said:
Are you down in San Diego? I might be down to come one of these weekends when COVID settles and hit. I'll be in LA probably until July next year.

Battle by the Border Part 2 @sureshs ?
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Yeah I am here, and so are @Slowtwitcher and @rkelley. The "battle" is better off between you and those two. I am not really at any battling level.

BTW, COVID is not going to "settle" any time soon. So if you come, you just come, and we follow the protocols of each person touching only his own can of balls by hand (and SD of course)
 
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nyta2

Semi-Pro
MaxTennis said:
I might as well make a consolidated thread for this instead of one every practice. I've been working on serves a bit every week.

Deuce Side:
10-11-20

Ad Side:
9-21-20
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what are the micro-tweaks you're focusing on?

very satisfying i'm sure to hear the ball hit the back fence (on a single bounce) on every serve :)
 
Keendog

Keendog

Professional
MaxTennis said:
My toss has been a problem for ever since I started. My left arm is not very coordinated, but I've been aware of that issue for a while.

Also trying to land more forward into the court like @socallefty mentioned.
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With a narrow pinpoint don't think you are going to land too far into the court anyhow. Either way I don't see the problems you see, I think it's pretty good already. But I guess if you wanted more as others have said slightly bent elbow will give some inconsistencies in toss and potentially you could have more shoulder turn.

If I had that kind of time to work on my serve I would probably work on hitting my spots instead of action changes. I noticed your wide slice isn't really that wide, although it is speedy.
 
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MaxTennis

MaxTennis

Semi-Pro
nyta2 said:
what are the micro-tweaks you're focusing on?

very satisfying i'm sure to hear the ball hit the back fence (on a single bounce) on every serve :)
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Hey, good to see you back! Toss is the big thing. With a more consistent toss, the serve in general will just be more consistent. I would guess my first serve percentage hovers between 50-60% on average, but when I get tight (playing guys like UTR 11+), I can't make first serves and double fault a lot, so it might also be mental.

If I have a really on day, I could probably hit my normal first serve speed at 80% first serves in and I'll get maybe 5 aces a set, but on an average day, I'll probably get closer to 2 aces a set.
 
Keendog

Keendog

Professional
MaxTennis said:
Hey, good to see you back! Toss is the big thing. With a more consistent toss, the serve in general will just be more consistent. I would guess my first serve percentage hovers between 50-60% on average, but when I get tight (playing guys like UTR 11+), I can't make first serves and double fault a lot, so it might also be mental.

If I have a really on day, I could probably hit my normal first serve speed at 80% first serves in and I'll get maybe 5 aces a set, but on an average day, I'll probably get closer to 2 aces a set.
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Send your video to Jeff Salzenstein to review!!
 
Slowtwitcher

Slowtwitcher

Hall of Fame
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