The Video Analysis/Online Coaching Thread

FedLIKEnot

Professional
I hope this is the right forum- we have a couple different threads dedicated to match play or specific videos but was thinking we don’t have a thread for community analysis and coaching.

So let’s try to be positive and constructive. And since one should never come empty handed:


I am changing my serve stance to a platform for a number of reasons mainly to be more balanced when I come out trophy pose. Also it’s made my serve more consistent. It has sapped a little pace out but with time I feel confident I will get that back. That said feedback is obviously welcomed......
 

Notirouswithag

Professional
Not bad, You could definatley use more knee bend though and slow your motion down a tad between trophy and power position. Out of that clip for curiousity, how many were in?

Other than that continue to practice, it looks great so far
 

FedLIKEnot

Professional
Not bad, You could definatley use more knee bend though and slow your motion down a tad between trophy and power position. Out of that clip for curiousity, how many were in?

Other than that continue to practice, it looks great so far

All but the 2nd one we’re in. Last one I slightly hit with more pace and was in by about a foot. And that’s the hard part in this transition and likely where I’m losing the pace is I am not going after the serve so to speak. More guiding still than really letting go. Great call out of the quickness after the toss I never notice how quick it was it feels fluid but seeing that opened my eyes. If I slow down as well I might have the added benefit of getting a bit deeper into trophy before coming up for the serve.

And now I’m curious how many looked in? Cause I admit this angle sucks but all I had was my phone and a table between the courts to prop it up from. Haha.
 

S&V-not_dead_yet

Talk Tennis Guru
I hope this is the right forum- we have a couple different threads dedicated to match play or specific videos but was thinking we don’t have a thread for community analysis and coaching.

So let’s try to be positive and constructive. And since one should never come empty handed:


I am changing my serve stance to a platform for a number of reasons mainly to be more balanced when I come out trophy pose. Also it’s made my serve more consistent. It has sapped a little pace out but with time I feel confident I will get that back. That said feedback is obviously welcomed......

Looks pretty good to me: nice knee bend, racquet drop, leg drive.

Multiple camera angles would help: one from the side, one from behind, etc. It's hard to tell, for example, how much hip lead and shoulder tilt you're getting from this angle and distance.

Keep it up!
 

Notirouswithag

Professional
All but the 2nd one we’re in. Last one I slightly hit with more pace and was in by about a foot. And that’s the hard part in this transition and likely where I’m losing the pace is I am not going after the serve so to speak. More guiding still than really letting go. Great call out of the quickness after the toss I never notice how quick it was it feels fluid but seeing that opened my eyes. If I slow down as well I might have the added benefit of getting a bit deeper into trophy before coming up for the serve.

And now I’m curious how many looked in? Cause I admit this angle sucks but all I had was my phone and a table between the courts to prop it up from. Haha.

This came to mind to help illustrate the pause between trophy/power position, and its from a mix of angles so you can see how a little more knee bend can benefit

 

J011yroger

Talk Tennis Guru
I hope this is the right forum- we have a couple different threads dedicated to match play or specific videos but was thinking we don’t have a thread for community analysis and coaching.

So let’s try to be positive and constructive. And since one should never come empty handed:


I am changing my serve stance to a platform for a number of reasons mainly to be more balanced when I come out trophy pose. Also it’s made my serve more consistent. It has sapped a little pace out but with time I feel confident I will get that back. That said feedback is obviously welcomed......

Slow down. Relax your arm. Build speed.

J
 

Ft.S

Semi-Pro
I had a very similar, at least in my head :), technique to yours. One thing I changed was instead of taking the racquet down, back and doing a full rotation, I now bring the racquet up directly behind me. Unbelievably to me, this has added more power, improved accuracy and I also spend less energy serving, which in turn improves my consistency throughout the match. This is very similar to the video above showing Federer's motion, except that I certainly don't and cannot do everything else he does with his serves :p
 

FedLIKEnot

Professional

Thank you for the compliment. I think a lot of the good aspects of my serve have to come with just being athletic, even if I am fatter than I was while playing basketball what feels like decades ago (in reality was just 8 years ago). But as I have said as level increases can’t just rely upon being more athletic or one weapon need to round out my game and starts with the first two shots serve and return. I’ll be adding another video in a few week when I have worked on some these more nuanced aspects of the stroke. I’ll be sure to include a behind view to see result of the serve and one at the baseline to see the motion and knee and hip action. Thank you for the comment.


Amazing video. And yea it does show the components of the serve very well for me I used to just toss it slight knees bend and explode to the ball. Wasn’t really a break down in the aspects. Also I think what made me inconsistent. Also made me more dangerous so to speak cause it was a low toss and quick serve. Add that I’m all of 5’8. So coming from a low position with a quick toss and quicker motion. However wasn’t worth it as my serve would vanish as I have said for entire service games. And before being bumped I could just get a serve in and trust my groundstrokes. As my level increases and you all know this you need to at least start neutral to offensive on your service points. Thank you for the comment.


Toss most definitely drifts on me. With the change in stance an underrated aspect has been the toss. My contact spot is both a touch higher and a touch longer after the toss. So toss needs to go a half foot to a foot higher to account for the change in motion and focus on leg load. Thank you for the comment.


Tempo for sure I never understood how rushed my motion felt from toss to trophy. Which is why video helps. Cause in the application of the serve balls are going in to my intended target with decent action albeit less pace than I want. But those nuanced tweaks are so huge. I’ll record another with better angles in a week or so when I’m a few hundred serves in with some of these tweaks. Thank you for the comment.
 

J011yroger

Talk Tennis Guru
Thank you for the compliment. I think a lot of the good aspects of my serve have to come with just being athletic, even if I am fatter than I was while playing basketball what feels like decades ago (in reality was just 8 years ago). But as I have said as level increases can’t just rely upon being more athletic or one weapon need to round out my game and starts with the first two shots serve and return. I’ll be adding another video in a few week when I have worked on some these more nuanced aspects of the stroke. I’ll be sure to include a behind view to see result of the serve and one at the baseline to see the motion and knee and hip action. Thank you for the comment.



Amazing video. And yea it does show the components of the serve very well for me I used to just toss it slight knees bend and explode to the ball. Wasn’t really a break down in the aspects. Also I think what made me inconsistent. Also made me more dangerous so to speak cause it was a low toss and quick serve. Add that I’m all of 5’8. So coming from a low position with a quick toss and quicker motion. However wasn’t worth it as my serve would vanish as I have said for entire service games. And before being bumped I could just get a serve in and trust my groundstrokes. As my level increases and you all know this you need to at least start neutral to offensive on your service points. Thank you for the comment.



Toss most definitely drifts on me. With the change in stance an underrated aspect has been the toss. My contact spot is both a touch higher and a touch longer after the toss. So toss needs to go a half foot to a foot higher to account for the change in motion and focus on leg load. Thank you for the comment.



Tempo for sure I never understood how rushed my motion felt from toss to trophy. Which is why video helps. Cause in the application of the serve balls are going in to my intended target with decent action albeit less pace than I want. But those nuanced tweaks are so huge. I’ll record another with better angles in a week or so when I’m a few hundred serves in with some of these tweaks. Thank you for the comment.

That's why I go so slow in the warm-up. I don't know if you saw my post in the @BetaServe thread.

I think slow, slow, slow, quick.

J
 

FedLIKEnot

Professional
That's why I go so slow in the warm-up. I don't know if you saw my post in the @BetaServe thread.

I think slow, slow, slow, quick.

J

And I have heard that before too. But as slowly load, load, explode up and into the court. Which just like slow, slow, quick is such a simple concept but dang it if it isn’t hard to accomplish.
 

J011yroger

Talk Tennis Guru
And I have heard that before too. But as slowly load, load, explode up and into the court. Which just like slow, slow, quick is such a simple concept but dang it if it isn’t hard to accomplish.

Be lazy. Watch baseball or football players having a catch to warm up.

J
 

FedLIKEnot

Professional
No video but I had a match yesterday NorCal has an 18-39 league over winter early spring. It’s a line of mixed dub a line of women’s dubs and a line of men’s dubs. Anyways I promised myself I would not revert back this was the first time putting my new serve to match play. I was playing the 7.4 combo line. First set I served great only had to hit 3 second serves as we won 7-6 (7-0) second set I hold to start than the wheels came off. Doubled away the second service game and only held once more as we lost the second 3-6 and the third 1-6. My partner also encountered some issues holding and the opponents raised their level considerably. But it still needs work to truly feel confident. I wasn’t even thinking about my serve the first set and held at Love a few times. In the second and third I was working through my motion in my head as I was serving it felt. To say I was leaking confidence all over the baseline is an understatement. Haha.

But thank you all for the tips it worked at least early on. I will work on it some more the coming weeks and post a progress video of sorts at that time.
 

muttu34

Rookie
I hope this is the right forum- we have a couple different threads dedicated to match play or specific videos but was thinking we don’t have a thread for community analysis and coaching.

So let’s try to be positive and constructive. And since one should never come empty handed:


I am changing my serve stance to a platform for a number of reasons mainly to be more balanced when I come out trophy pose. Also it’s made my serve more consistent. It has sapped a little pace out but with time I feel confident I will get that back. That said feedback is obviously welcomed......
All in all it looks good and it's a nice service action. I would slow it down a bit. It looked too quick and tense from watching.
The camera angel doesn't show very good where the ball toss is. I think you could do with a slightly lower and a bit more in-front toss so you can attack it more when jumping the line. This will also add some power if you think that you've lost a bit of it by pausing the action.
 
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