HunterST
Hall of Fame
I'm not sure if you can call this a drill, but it helped my serve dramatically. I go the idea from the documentary Unstrung.
I set up a tire in a tree, so that the middle of the tire is about the height of a ball when you hit the serve. Then, I got a hammer.
This is the important part: I didn't even think about mimicking the serve motion. I just thought "I'm going to bang that tire with this hammer as hard as I possibly can." What I found was that I got set into a much more explosive and natural trophy pose.
I realized that I was just trying to look like Federer when I got into the trophy pose. I bent my knees back and arched my back, but I didn't ever consider its purpose TO LOAD MY MUSCLES. What's more, when I just focused on banging the tire, I found that my wind up DID look very similar to Federer's.
This is also a great strength/explosiveness exercise.
I set up a tire in a tree, so that the middle of the tire is about the height of a ball when you hit the serve. Then, I got a hammer.
This is the important part: I didn't even think about mimicking the serve motion. I just thought "I'm going to bang that tire with this hammer as hard as I possibly can." What I found was that I got set into a much more explosive and natural trophy pose.
I realized that I was just trying to look like Federer when I got into the trophy pose. I bent my knees back and arched my back, but I didn't ever consider its purpose TO LOAD MY MUSCLES. What's more, when I just focused on banging the tire, I found that my wind up DID look very similar to Federer's.
This is also a great strength/explosiveness exercise.