Chas Tennis
G.O.A.T.
Roscoe Tanner had one of the strongest serves of the 1970's. This era was the time of the 'Big Game' - Serve & Volley Tennis. So his technique was probably oriented toward getting to the net after his serve. He had a very low toss. Tanner was a leftie.
His autobiography mentions his very early training method as hitting leaves on trees. He mentions in the book that he thought the very low toss had a shock value in that soon after he stepped up to serve the ball was on the returner, much sooner than for other servers. He said the very low toss caused him to get moving very fast to meet the ball.
There seems to be very few high speed films of his serve, none that I have found so far. I've read that Vic Braden took high speed films of Tanner's serve available for sale. ?
There are some interesting Tanner threads on the TW forum.
I found this Super Tennis Youtube of a Connors vs Tanner Wimbledon match from 1975. It included a close up of Tanner Serving. Some of the characteristics were different than usually seen today. See time 1:12.
Note - Big Mistake, I did not notice that the video camera lens was zooming during the 3 frames of this serve. I still believe that Tanner moves forward more than usual. This is the first time that I have seen zooming during a video.
Some features of this serve. The tossing arm is low here and does not go higher in the video. Note the height and location of Tanner's head using the stadium features as a reference. Note also the position of the hitting shoulder.
Frame #2. About at Maximum External Shoulder Rotation. The knees have straightened. The head has moved forward but not up much.
Frame #3. Near impact. Feet off ground. Note the position of the head relative to the first frame. Also shoulder position.
Frame #4. Probably after impact. Note the overall forward motion and not much upward motion probably related to getting to the net for Serve & Volley tennis. The foot is above a shadow on the court. 4-5" ?
For this point, match point, Tanner went to the net and Connors appears to have passed him.
His autobiography mentions his very early training method as hitting leaves on trees. He mentions in the book that he thought the very low toss had a shock value in that soon after he stepped up to serve the ball was on the returner, much sooner than for other servers. He said the very low toss caused him to get moving very fast to meet the ball.
There seems to be very few high speed films of his serve, none that I have found so far. I've read that Vic Braden took high speed films of Tanner's serve available for sale. ?
There are some interesting Tanner threads on the TW forum.
I found this Super Tennis Youtube of a Connors vs Tanner Wimbledon match from 1975. It included a close up of Tanner Serving. Some of the characteristics were different than usually seen today. See time 1:12.
Note - Big Mistake, I did not notice that the video camera lens was zooming during the 3 frames of this serve. I still believe that Tanner moves forward more than usual. This is the first time that I have seen zooming during a video.
Some features of this serve. The tossing arm is low here and does not go higher in the video. Note the height and location of Tanner's head using the stadium features as a reference. Note also the position of the hitting shoulder.

Frame #2. About at Maximum External Shoulder Rotation. The knees have straightened. The head has moved forward but not up much.

Frame #3. Near impact. Feet off ground. Note the position of the head relative to the first frame. Also shoulder position.

Frame #4. Probably after impact. Note the overall forward motion and not much upward motion probably related to getting to the net for Serve & Volley tennis. The foot is above a shadow on the court. 4-5" ?

For this point, match point, Tanner went to the net and Connors appears to have passed him.
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