**my Video Of My Serve** Critiques Plz

Gee Willikers Batman!

Gee Willikers Batman!

Professional
I'll start off saying... I KNOW I SUCK!

The serve is my weakest part of my game right now.

I'm not going to give any excuses.

All I need to point out, is turn up your sound and listen to how active the wind is.. lol, it messed up my ball toss, but eh, who cares. I came back from a long practice with my friend and after double-faulting numerous times, I decided to take a video of myself to see what the hell is wrong with my service motion.

2 serves are in, 3 are dumped in the net, and 1 goes way out.

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPP!
TIPS!!!!
FEEDBACK!!!

Anything welcome
 
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OK, for starters>>> your serve does not suck. You have a very nice fluid motion, and are way ahead of many people in the serve department.

The first thing I noticed in your serve motion is you bring your tossing arm down way too early. This is resulting in you losing all that stored up energy in your coil.

Leave your tossing arm up longer, and only begin to bring it down while at the same time you are bringing your racquet arm up to meet the ball. Think of a see-saw.

Good luck, and thanks for sharing the video with us!
 
This is not about your actual stroke but, you rush way too fast between your serves. Bounce the ball a little bit after you miss a serve or something.
 
On some of them contact point seems low.

Also seems like you are hitting it to flat you need to brush up on it and get some net clearance for some consistency.

As for the motion it looks good, seems like a great starting point to build a serve off of.

the net does seem a tad to high in the middle.
 
Kabob - It was about to rain, I had to finish serving so I wouldnt get my camera wet, I had to rush.

Krz - Yeah, usually my ball toss is consistent, but as you know, the wind was messing up the ball so I had to hit it, due to incoming rain. In matches, I always stop the ball when my toss is off, don't worry.


Thanks for the feedback.
 
Well there's your problem. You're holding your racket in the wrong hand!
j/k But seriously, some things I noticed.

1. You hit the ball with a very flat foot. Try and get that leading foot on your toes before the swing.
2. Try lifting both arms up at the same time as you leave you left dragging behind the toss. Not all pros do this but it really is something to try.
3. Your toss is a bit funky. Don't actually "toss" the ball, but release it from your fingertips. This could leave to different tosses and in term, different contact points.
4. As someone already said, leave your tossing arm up longer. This will keep you from hitting into the net more often.
5. You don't look completely parallel to the net. You want your body parallel as much as possible. Sampras even went so far as to turn his back to the net.
6. You might want to cut out that huge backwards motion you you do. It isn't really purposeful and only complicates the serve further.
7. It doesn't look like you're leaning very far into the court. This is more of an advanced technique but it just something else to keep in mind.
 
You shift way back before the forwards motion and while it may feel natural or look pretty, it's really extraneous and just complicates the motion. And the last thing you want to do is to make an already complicated motion more complicated. That weight shift does nothing at best and just throws your brain for a complete loop as to where your weight is on contact at worst.
 
In "Serving-For-Dummies" talk please?


EDIT: Do you just mean dont lean back before I hit? Thats like telling Fed not to, or Hewitt, or a whole bunch of others T_T?
 
That exaggerated rocking. I just don't think it's necessary and only hinder your serving. Fed doesn't do that. He starts with his weight shifted forward and then leans back into a comfortable position. Hewitt does do it but nowhere near the extent that you do. And for him, it's a way he moves his weight into the shot as one fluid motion (in the kinetic chain). It's still unnecessary but it's what he grew up doing and it works for him. From what I saw in your video, you stutter in doing it by going back, then coming forward with your weight still loaded back. Unless you're using it for a purpose, it's not needed and can only be detrimental. Even with purpose, it's just an idiosyncratic thing because its effect can be done simply by starting your weight loading movement from you beginning position.
 
when you serve, you are giving yourself too much "rocking" motion so to speak...it throws your center of balance off and keeps you from hitting the ball in the same spot as often... from a different view it would show a lot more if you drew a line straight through you and see how much your body moves before contact is made.

sharapova does a good job of keeping her body in line during her serve...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jjt9K_iEC2U&mode=related&search=


for sure keep your arm up longer think of a bow and arrow when you swing...your arched body is the bow being pulled back and you need something to stabilize it...your arm being outstretched will concentrate all the energy from your racquet into where you hand is when it is coming up...dropping your hand early you lose a lot of inertia and a lot of racquet speed you could be generating.

i cant tell how tall you are either...im guessing around 5'9" or so?
 
Alright, well from listening to the rocking thing. Rocking feels very natural to me, but I looked at the video again, and I saw I stepped back a bit, I think i'm going to practice rocking a lot less, and NOT step back as much, so it will look like federers a bit more, but still go into a pin point stance.

I'll post a video of myself after listening to everyones critiques.

And if anyone else has any critiques, please do say so!
 
also one other aspect i noticed...it seems youre causing too much drag on the racquet head when you bring it up and arent getting enough acceleration....think of the path of least resistance when you are coming up to make contact.... if your racquet is hitting the ball the same way it comes up like a letter O you are causing a lot of drag from the air resistance...as opposed to if you kept it straight like a letter I until right before contact and finish rotating your wrist...
 
just work on it with a slow motion for a while until you get the muscle memory for it...then as you speed up it will start to remember better and seem more natural so you dont have to think about your serve, just your next shot.
 
I just went into my room...

and I practiced the motion of NOT leaning back... I almost fell over LOL

I just figured out leaning back before I serve is essential for ME to keep balance. I don't know why. I don't see what the harm is if I don't lean back TOO MUCH.
 
stand with your back leg just a little wider than your shoulder...youre taking a step back from an already wide stance before going pinpoint...
 
i guess you have to have a certain number of posts before you can PM...shoot me a PM with your email address if you can and ill send it to ya
 
I think the rocking is fine. The momentum gained from moving your back foot forward is lost because there is a slight pause before you hit the ball.
 
I think the rocking is fine. The momentum gained from moving your back foot forward is lost because there is a slight pause before you hit the ball.
Click to expand...

Exactly what i was going to say. It's as if you're doing the rocking, then stopping, then hopping into the serve.

You sure sent the fourth one long...lol. Dont worry, just work on a consistent motion and you'll be fine.

P.s, are those tennis shoes? Haha, they look like casual walking shoes to me. Those are some very nice courts too.
 
You are not looking at the ball after a point. Instead, you are dropping your head, which causes you loss energy and to hit the ball into the net. Try looking up at the contact point, even after you hit the ball ("hold the pose").

Also, you are tossing the ball over your head, instead of in the court. Try tossing further into the court (about 2-3 feet).
 
This is a little hard to see, but I think you are laying your wrist back the wrong way from racket drop to contact. You want to swing up on edge (w/continental grip) like you are trying to hammer a nail into a wall and pronate right before contact. Your racket face looks slightly open as you swing up. Again this is hard to see cuz the youtube player doesn't allow frame-by-frame.
 
I think your contact point may be a little off, causing you to hit long or short. It seems maybe your service motion is kind of petering out before you actually get to the ball. Maybe try throwing it a little less in front of you.
 
Oh and i think bending your wrist after the toss (tossing arm) is actually throwing you off balance. Some people can do it efficiently but for you it looks awkward.
 
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