To Jump Or Not To Jump

Do you jump like pros when serving ?

  • yes

    Votes: 33 70.2%

  • no

    Votes: 14 29.8%
  • Total voters
    47
  • Poll closed .
T

tenapasi

Rookie
I usually jump a bit like pros do when serving. Then, someone suggested me try not to jump when serving since i am quite tall (i am about 184cm). Turns out i got more consistency on my serve.

So what do you guys think ? Should i jump or not when serving. What's the pros and cons for each methods ?
 
I step into the court, but I don't jump. I'm about 180cm or so, but my technique doesn't involve jumping.
 
If you're under 50, your feet should be 9" off the ground when you contact the serve.
You got energy, hops, and the desire to create extra angles on your serves.
If you're old and injured, your feet barely clear the cement.
 
I dont see it as jumping so much as a leg push.

Just like I dont see it as a toss so much as a deposit.
 
..er FEET are 9" off the cement.
Contact point should be over 9' if you're at least 5'9" tall.
The higher contact point allows a bigger court to hit into.
I think when I was younger than 50, my contact point with the ball was about 9'6", but with old age came less hops, so currently maybe 8'10", but surprisingly, first flats are more consistent....but much slower so the ball is arcing IN more often.
 
I'm 6'1" and 40 (bad left knee but can get around the tennis court okay). I've experimented with the jump on the serve a lot over the last 2 years. I typically try to jump on a serve when I feel like I need to try and get some energy back into my overall game (when I'm feeling sluggish). I do gain a few more free points from it, but I also gain a few more dub faults. I'm much more accurate on both serves when not jumping, and if I had to guess, my winning percentage on 1st and 2nd serves is 10% higher when I don't jump.
 
I've never jumped and serve as hard or nearly as hard as anybody I know who doesn't suffer from shoulder troubles. I'm barely 5' 9" tall and I produce angles from timing and repetition. I'm much more consistant w/ my feet on the ground and could never be accused of foot faulting.

I played a guy who was easily 6' 6" tall last night and he foot faulted and jumped on every serve. He had no consistancy and spent so much energy trying to pound his serve in that I almost felt sorry for him. He hit the ball very hard but it wasn't awesome and he was genuinely surprised everytime it was returned and missed the next shot back. Serve return is my best weapon and he was no match!
 
I try to explode up to the ball and throw my whole body into the serve. I did adopt the platform stance years back to help me stablize my body during the ball toss and to have better balance as I bent my knees. It took awhile to get used to, but I feel I have much better consistency than I did with the pinpoint stance.

When you're doing things correctly you can get about 70% of the power with about 30% of the effort, and the feet just come off the ground naturally.

Rich
 
If you don't jump, you won't come off the ground (though perhaps it is most accurate to call it a small hop for most of us).

I believe the correct advice is to suggest that your focus should not be on the jump, but on the proper timing of the stroke. If you are inconsistent, it makes sense to scale back the variables and try to do the same thing each time. A smaller hop is probably going to help you. I'm not a fan of staying on the ground and stepping into the serve as it tends to throw the hip movement off.

For most people a small hop is going to be more sensible than the volleyball-style jump serve or the huge leap of someone like Soderling.
 
LeeD said:
If you're under 50, your feet should be 9" off the ground when you contact the serve.
You got energy, hops, and the desire to create extra angles on your serves.
If you're old and injured, your feet barely clear the cement.
Click to expand...

Unless your dent :)
 
Dent's legs are beat up and tired going thru juniors, but his serve is still big time. I don't think he's all that tall, but over 6'2", so he does get some angle and a big court to hit into.
And you know, some 6'2" guys have wingspans around 8'. My contractor bud is that height, and claims a 7'10" wingspan (former AAU swimmer and former CalBerkeley waterpolo player).
I"m 3" shorter, with a foot shorter wingspan.
 
goran_ace said:
+1. If when you push off with your legs you happen to get some air then that's fine, but don't conciously try to jump. Keep your body under control.
Click to expand...

+1 again.

It should come naturally.

Personally, I dont feel I jump when I serve - I always thought I kinda "stepped into" the court more, until I mentioned this to my buddy and he said, "What? No, dude, you're jumping into the court." So I guess I do, but it doesnt matter to me.
 
LeeD said:
Dent's legs are beat up and tired going thru juniors, but his serve is still big time. I don't think he's all that tall, but over 6'2", so he does get some angle and a big court to hit into.
And you know, some 6'2" guys have wingspans around 8'. My contractor bud is that height, and claims a 7'10" wingspan (former AAU swimmer and former CalBerkeley waterpolo player).
I"m 3" shorter, with a foot shorter wingspan.
Click to expand...

Most people, with their arms stretched out to the side, have a finger tip to finger tip measurement that's approximately their height. A 6' 2" guy with a 7' 10" arm spread measurement would seem really unusual. That would be a guy who's an 1.5 inches taller than me with 11 inches of hand and arm on either side of me. Seems like he would be close to touching his knees with his fingers tips standing straight up with his arms at his side, even allowing for extra broad shoulders.

Perhaps 6' 10"?

I don't mean to doubt, but it just seems too extreme.

Rich
 
The point is to lift off the ground naturally due to the uncoiling of your body, trying to jump (as in forcing it) is not the way to go because its just one more thing to think about.
 
Kunohara said:
I dont see it as jumping so much as a leg push.

Just like I dont see it as a toss so much as a deposit.
Click to expand...

+1 no one is jumping

it's a stupid way to say that because someone who don't know nothing about tennis usually will think that on serve he needs to jump.

I have played many starters who jump on purpose to meet the ball it looks ugly.
Momentum should do it for you.
 
OK, if you don't know how to play tennis, do not jump.
However, if you play at higher than 5.0 levels, jump if you have the energy, but it's really a consequence of the knee bend, the archer's bow, and rising up to meet the ball.
EVERY pro jumps, but you don't have to, you're not a pro.
 
Whatever you think, a modern fast serve, the toes are well off the ground and the body moving forwards.
 
Sigh LeeD, the result is the same. The thinking that gets you there is different. If you think jump, its very likely the person wont be balanced at all and their serve will be funky.

Same with the toss, if you think to just deposit the toss instead of actually tossing the ball, well, lets just say ive seen people get consistent way faster with this thinking.

When we say leg push, lift, whatever, we all KNOW it results in your feet leaving the ground, but the thinking allows beginners to learn the concept in a much smoother way.
 
Read the OP again, its obvious 'jumping like the pros' didnt work for him. He's being offered sound alternatives to better grasp the concept.

Read, think, and stop arguing every god damned post for no reason. I know you have nothing else to do in your life, but still, ''grow up'', old man.
 
Actually, I think YOU should read OP's first post again.
He said he was more consistent keeping feet down. But what to your read in that? Maybe he didn't practice enough serves, was a relative beginner to serving, maybe he didn't have the technique to lift off the ground and still hit consistent serves? That's what I read into that.
A beginner tennis player tends to use eForehand for everything. Is that correct?
Maybe PRACTICE should be involved in this case.
I still say I don't raise off the ground when serving any more. Maybe it's the lack of leg strength, maybe old age, but my serve is more consistent..BUT.. it's also about 30 mph slower than in my youth. A slower serve can arc IN. A fast serve shows very little arc.
If I get my legs back, and some youth, I'd still be jumping up into the ball about 6-9", so I get a higher contact point, to get better angles and a bigger target onto my opponent's service court.
Why do you think a tall person has better angles on serves?
 
So you're saying a higher contact point = lower consistency (ceteris paribus) ?

To me that sounds far fetched. Learn to use your legs properly.

Your serve is more consistent because you put less on it (and probably spin it more to keep it in) not because youre not using your legs.
 
So you are saying that EVERY tennis pro is serving with the wrong technnique, that they jump and lose consistency? EVERY tennis pro jumps, and so do most 5.5 and better players.
Beginner tennis players need not jump, they need to work on technique first.
OP is not a beginner, he needs to work on technique.
And I do hit dead flat serves sometimes for first serves. Maybe 30 mph slower than before, but still flat.
 
LeeD said:
So you are saying that EVERY tennis pro is serving with the wrong technnique, that they jump and lose consistency? EVERY tennis pro jumps, and so do most 5.5 and better players.
Beginner tennis players need not jump, they need to work on technique first.
OP is not a beginner, he needs to work on technique.
And I do hit dead flat serves sometimes for first serves. Maybe 30 mph slower than before, but still flat.
Click to expand...

LeeD, you're unbelievable.

YOU'RE the one that said your consistency improved now that youre not jumping. Idem for the OP.

I pointed out your better consistency has nothing to do with the lack of leg use. Hence I was saying the exact opposite of what you're claiming I said.

Regarding beginners, i totally agree that they need to learn the proper technique (grip/pronation/trophy pose/etc) before starting to use the leg push. The push being the extra thing that can go wrong, and for them its part of the learning process. That I can agree 100% with you.

Someone that can't use their legs properly, maybe they're not beginners (mea culpa) but they arent exactly far from it anyways (on the serve).
 
Yes, I'm unbelieveable.
Did you miss the part where my serves nowadaze, without jumping, might be 30 mph slower than when I could jump? 30 mph accounts for lots of arc downward on the ball, doesn't it? And 30 odd years after my best playing days, maybe other factors count for more consistent first serves. Like grooved swing, like older and slower.
Fact is, nobody can say to NOT jump on serves. EVERY pro jumps.
 
Kunohara said:
Your serve is more consistent because you put less on it (and probably spin it more to keep it in) not because youre not using your legs.
Click to expand...

No I did not miss anything.

And now we're down to arguing for nothing since we're saying the same thing.
You're calling it a jump, im calling it a leg push, the other guy was calling it a lift. It's all in the mindset.

So I will henceforth direct you to Dozu's thread where you can argue about NTRP, lefty serves, backboard, falling this, falling that, windsurfing, and whatnot.

Have a great day mate.
 
I thought I did not jump until I saw myself in a video, it turned out that I do take my feet out of the ground but it seems to me that it happens after the contact, maybe I am doing something wrong though, in any case my serve is really decent the way I do it, well, most of the time...
 
It's quite difficult to stay on the ground once a little jumping is firmly figured into one's service motion
 
It shouldn't be considered a "jump" as for most people thinking consciously of a "jump" will put their timing out of sync as they feel the "jump" and then swing while they are in the air. What you are looking for is the result of GRF - Ground Reaction Force, in other words you push down against the ground and the ground pushes back, lifting you up.

I much prefer my players to look at it in terms of pushing against the ground to go up to the strike, as they develop physically they can push harder and will therefore create more GRF and get off the ground.

So I would say not to consciously "jump"

Cheers
 
Ash_Smith said:
It shouldn't be considered a "jump" as for most people thinking consciously of a "jump" will put their timing out of sync as they feel the "jump" and then swing while they are in the air. What you are looking for is the result of GRF - Ground Reaction Force, in other words you push down against the ground and the ground pushes back, lifting you up.

I much prefer my players to look at it in terms of pushing against the ground to go up to the strike, as they develop physically they can push harder and will therefore create more GRF and get off the ground.

So I would say not to consciously "jump"

Cheers
Click to expand...

You sir are explaining perfectly what I tried to (and maybe failed to).

+1
 
Ash_Smith said:
So I would say not to consciously "jump"
Click to expand...

+1.

On a serve where I really accelerate and drive up and into the ball, sometimes I come off the ground and inch or two. But I never consciously incorporate that into my motion.

Honestly, after my serve ritual, I don't know how much I consciously do anything. If I ever consciously think about my serve motion while I'm serving... it seems like I shank it or completely screw up the serve.
 
Ash_Smith said:
It shouldn't be considered a "jump" as for most people thinking consciously of a "jump" will put their timing out of sync as they feel the "jump" and then swing while they are in the air. What you are looking for is the result of GRF - Ground Reaction Force, in other words you push down against the ground and the ground pushes back, lifting you up.

I much prefer my players to look at it in terms of pushing against the ground to go up to the strike, as they develop physically they can push harder and will therefore create more GRF and get off the ground.

So I would say not to consciously "jump"

Cheers
Click to expand...

Good one. Exactly what I meant.
 
martini1 said:
I know about this 2 handle racket. Anyway, why is he tossing and hitting with the same arm?
Click to expand...

Probably just because that's what some volleyball players do, and he hits with a volleyball style serve. Or perhaps he feels more confident with his toss from the right hand.
 
tenapasi said:
I usually jump a bit like pros do when serving. Then, someone suggested me try not to jump when serving since i am quite tall (i am about 184cm). Turns out i got more consistency on my serve.

So what do you guys think ? Should i jump or not when serving. What's the pros and cons for each methods ?
Click to expand...

It's different if you're a pro and practice tennis 4-5 hours per day. For most of us, we can't pull off a jump. Jumping adds leverage to the serves. It does NOT give it power. That comes from somewhere else.

For you, you said not jumping adds consistency to your serves. For that reason alone, you should consider staying grounded. It's more important to get your serves in than to have a service motion that looks pretty because you're high off the ground.
 
As treaded on a zillion times, the higher up your strikepoint, the bigger the court your ball sees.
 
After you have perfect serve mechanics, (which not many players dp), then you could try a bit more leg push, thus making you jump. But leave it out when learning the serve.....
 
so i am still struggling with my jump. I just don't have the same deadly serve if i jump. But, i get better margin if i jump. But still, my serve is way more threatening if i am not jump.
Also, it seems i can serve more efficient in term of energy usage if i am not jump

:(
 
Dat's everyone's problem.
More margin or more accuracy.
More power or more safety.
It's up to you, but I know one thing.....every male pro jumps.
 
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