my serves

I wouldn't change much about your serve, actually...

No doubt some idiot will come on and rant about pronation or supination or whatever, but you have a nice repeatable action and a good live arm.

You know about the fitness thing, I saw in your other thread, but remember that will also help your serve...
 
Well over 100 I would say, good technique.

I have worse technique, and am 125 or so lbs. I can swing pretty hard and get it close to 100mph, but the problem is the same as what you said. My shoulder gets really tired really fast when I swing that hard, and I can't keep it up.
 
Very nice serve, good speed.

Your roommate however isnt helping your case at all :) His comments and arrogance
 
ya my roomate isnt the best practice partner. its just easy because i have a private court and he lives with me. it was funny watching him trying to return the serves, but not being able to.

i have about an hour of footage, but i need to edit out all his shanks to the actual rallies he was able to keep up with me. im going to post them once i get a chance.
 
ya my roomate isnt the best practice partner. its just easy because i have a private court and he lives with me. it was funny watching him trying to return the serves, but not being able to.

i have about an hour of footage, but i need to edit out all his shanks to the actual rallies he was able to keep up with me. im going to post them once i get a chance.

it really didn't even look like he was trying to return your serve so it's difficult to get a good read on anything. Would probably be better to save the recording until you can get out with a more evenly matched player that actually wants to be on court playing
 
Might be the camera angle but I don't think I see as much of a kick out from the right leg as in the USC vid, have you been working on that more?
 
i didnt think anyone would remember my other post, but ya i have really been re-working my serve. it was watching that video and the posters telling me my back leg was kicking all funny that made me wanna fix it. now i try a more platform serve and really try and get a good trophy position windup with some good knee bending. it has really improved my serve speed and consistency.

for anyone that would like to see my serves about 2 or 3 months ago. here is a vid.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=382584
 
You seem to have learned to flatten out the serves, or in the previous old vid, you concentrated only on top/slice serves. Nice to see some ball speed.
 
i didnt think anyone would remember my other post, but ya i have really been re-working my serve. it was watching that video and the posters telling me my back leg was kicking all funny that made me wanna fix it. now i try a more platform serve and really try and get a good trophy position windup with some good knee bending. it has really improved my serve speed and consistency.

for anyone that would like to see my serves about 2 or 3 months ago. here is a vid.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=382584

Nice work learning to redirect the rotational forced from your uncoiling and lean to direct it up and forward.
 
heres a video of some serves against my roomate. i didnt edit the video so you could see the consistency of the serves. theyre mostly all flat first serves with 2 or 3 second kick serves. all ratings and critique are welcome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AznLqsYutd8

You have very little upper body rotation on your serve. It's mostly an arm serve. You are also more likely to injure your shoulder from your upright hitting posture. To improve your UBR, you must incorporate shoulder "turn & tilt" at the peak of the toss so that your upper body can rotate toward the target adding body mass to your shot.

Imagine a tennis ball can tilted back and rotating back and forth. That what your upper body should be doing on serve. Like a golf swing except your spine is tilted back instead of foreward. To accomplish this, at the peak of the toss, your back should be 3/4 to the target. That's the turn. If you have your name across your shoulder blades, your opponent should be able to read it. At the same point in time, your left shoulder should be as high above your right shoulder as comfortably possible. That's the tilt. This will also automatically put you in a position to naturally swing up to the ball giving your ball flight a nice arch with lots of topspin.

At present, you have almost no shoulder turn and tilt, and therefore, almost no UBR, ala Jimmy Connors. Your side is to the target and your shoulders are nearly parallel to the ground at the peak of the toss.

Hope this helps.
 
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It looks good. The only thing, and I even hesitate to mention it, because your serve is so good, is to keep your right foot back during knee bend. This will give you a touch more power and control and deception.
 
You have very little upper body rotation on your serve. It's mostly an arm serve. You are also more likely to injure your shoulder from your upright hitting posture. To improve your UBR, you must incorporate shoulder "turn & tilt" at the peak of the toss so that your upper body can rotate toward the target adding body mass to your shot.

Imagine a tennis ball can tilted back and rotating back and forth. That what your upper body should be doing on serve. Like a golf swing except your spine is tilted back instead of foreward. To accomplish this, at the peak of the toss, your back should be 3/4 to the target. That's the turn. If you have your name across your shoulder blades, your opponent should be able to read it. At the same point in time, your left shoulder should be as high above your right shoulder as comfortably possible. That's the tilt. This will also automatically put you in a position to naturally swing up to the ball giving your ball flight a nice arch with lots of topspin.

At present, you have almost no shoulder turn and tilt, and therefore, almost no UBR, ala Jimmy Connors. Your side is to the target and your shoulders are nearly parallel to the ground at the peak of the toss.

Hope this helps.

It looks good. The only thing, and I even hesitate to mention it, because your serve is so good, is to keep your right foot back during knee bend. This will give you a touch more power and control and deception.

so i tried both of these in a match today against my friend. i was trying to keep my right foot a little further back so i could have more rotation in my shoulders. i was focusing on what you said about having my shoulder blades showing to the opponent. on flat serves this felt really funny and i lost a lot of power, but on my spin second serve, WOW. i could feel the spin on the ball by looking at it. i usually dont get that good curve ball effect on my serves, but my friend was telling me how they were moving like crazy. leaving my foot more back and really twisting my shoulders made my second serve much more dangourous. thanks for the awsome tips. ill be using this in my match tomorow.
 
so i tried both of these in a match today against my friend. i was trying to keep my right foot a little further back so i could have more rotation in my shoulders. i was focusing on what you said about having my shoulder blades showing to the opponent. on flat serves this felt really funny and i lost a lot of power, but on my spin second serve, WOW. i could feel the spin on the ball by looking at it. i usually dont get that good curve ball effect on my serves, but my friend was telling me how they were moving like crazy. leaving my foot more back and really twisting my shoulders made my second serve much more dangourous. thanks for the awsome tips. ill be using this in my match tomorow.

Great to hear it! Remember, there are two reasons for shoulder turn and tilt. First, you can't rotate your upper body into the ball if you haven't first rotated away from the ball. Second, by turning and tilting your shoulders, you automatically position yourself to hit up on the ball imparting a lot of spin and arch on your serve which is essential for an effective consistent first and second serve. The difference is a matter of degree. For more power, you want to re-turn toward the ball sooner in the service motion and continue your rotation through contact. For more spin, you want to re-turn later to maintain that upward swing path, and you won't rotate as far forward as you would with a flatter power serve. Sampras had more turn and tilt of anyone I've ever seen. Now knowing what to look at, a steady diet of Sampras' serve videos will be very helpful.

Having said that, I use a pinpoint stance. I drag my right toe forward until my feet are almost together in the tropy pose. IMO, keeping your right foot back may help you get a fuller turn away from the ball, but, it inhibits your ability to rotate your upper body back into the ball. Even if you use a platform stance, it seems to me that you'll gain more upper body rotation in to the ball if you keep your feet closer together, not further apart. Experiment with that. Sampras back leg comes forward as he swings upward so it doesn't inhibit his forward rotation. See what effect different stances have. Take lots of video and see what you're really doing.

PS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6cqVAKpOx0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6E3vPigzxI
 
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