Serve - Shoulder Elbow Aligment

[eqx]

I am working on my serve and would like your insights about the starting phases of the continuous raquet loop, focusing on the head to shoulder to elbow alignment for a right handed serve.

I'll describe what I know and anlogies I've heard to describe the start of the serve loop:


1. The serve is like throwing a football
2. At the loop start, the raquet head is pointing up to the sky (trophy position).
3. As the loop starts, the racquet face points towards my head. I saw a Vic Braden tape where he says the racquets acts as a mirror. If you look at the face during this time, you can see yourself.
4. The continuous loops circles such that you scratch you neighbors back (Braden)


The question: At the start of the loop (trophy position), is there an 'optimal' elbow level.

My crummy serve
I had my should/elbow/wrist angle pretty open. The arm was not a straight 180 degree alignment but a fairly big obtuse angle. My elbow was above my right ear level sometimes over my head level. The whole loop felt tight and I my muscles could not stretch to get the "scratch your neighbors back" positioning.

Changes made
At the loop start (trophy position), I closed the arm angle under ~60 degrees. My elbow was at shoulder height i.e. from my neck to shoulder to elbow was pretty much in a straight line. This felt more fluid.

Your comments are appreciated.

 

[FiveO]

Two things, w/o getting into the entire motion:

1-Throwing a football is a good analogy. BUT, remember you're throwing the football forward AND UPWARD on a fairly steep angle through the point where you would be making contact with the tossed ball, NOT JUST FORWARD downfield. So that should tell you that in the "trophy position" your shoulders should be angled, with your front shoulder higher than the rear shoulder and with the hitting elbow at, or close to being a straight extension of your shoulder line. As if the you were going to pass it to a football receiver standing in a second story window of a building in front of you. You should try to achieve this angled shoulder line by allowing your left hip to slide toward the baseline past your front foot and front shoulder, bowing your body like a pole vaulter's pole as you reach the trophy position and as your weight shifts to the front foot. Do it in front of a full length mirror. Feel a stretch at your front hip, your weight shift onto your front foot and allow your shoulders to angle upward, toward that second story window in front of the baseline, as you reach the trophy or pre-launch position.

2-Then DON'T worry about or worse, force the "backscratch" or loop. Try to achieve total relaxation of you arm and hitting shoulder throughout the motion, but especially from the "trophy position" to up and thru contact. Your body's acceleration while rotating and extending thru contact, will, with a relaxed arm, CAUSE your racket into the so-called backscratch position. Attempts to make it go there engage opposing muscle groups, which will interrupt the kinetic chain you're trying to build from the ground up, and as a result you end up fighting yourself and inhibiting the very acceleration your looking to achieve. Bottom line DON'T THINK about OR FORCE a backscratch.

Good Luck.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

I am working on my serve and would like your insights about the starting phases of the continuous raquet loop, focusing on the head to shoulder to elbow alignment for a right handed serve.

I'll describe what I know and anlogies I've heard to describe the start of the serve loop:


1. The serve is like throwing a football
2. At the loop start, the raquet head is pointing up to the sky (trophy position).
3. As the loop starts, the racquet face points towards my head. I saw a Vic Braden tape where he says the racquets acts as a mirror. If you look at the face during this time, you can see yourself.
4. The continuous loops circles such that you scratch you neighbors back (Braden)


The question: At the start of the loop (trophy position), is there an 'optimal' elbow level.

My crummy serve
I had my should/elbow/wrist angle pretty open. The arm was not a straight 180 degree alignment but a fairly big obtuse angle. My elbow was above my right ear level sometimes over my head level. The whole loop felt tight and I my muscles could not stretch to get the "scratch your neighbors back" positioning.

Changes made
At the loop start (trophy position), I closed the arm angle under ~60 degrees. My elbow was at shoulder height i.e. from my neck to shoulder to elbow was pretty much in a straight line. This felt more fluid.

Your comments are appreciated.

FiveO gave you some good pointers. I would suggest getting a string (sturdy but flexible) and attaching a ball to it. Some people use long sock etc...(same concept)

Try and have the string length a little longer then your racquet length. Swing the ball around using the serve motion you described above and maintain a loose arm throughout the motion. If there is any slack in the string when you swing it, that is what we call a hitch. The ball should swing around and around very smoothly. Practice your throwing motion. Then review FiveO's post for specifics.

If you want to slow it down and see it in stages, you can do "air" serves or wedge a ball in a fence about contact height and slowly perform your swing duplicating what you learned above.