Video Serve analysis by members

[SystemicAnomaly]

I think I learned this from a baseball coach.

Something to use as a guideline. Not an absolute.

The serve is not totally identical to a ball throw but share some biomechanical features.

You also want your forearm roughly 90 degrees to your upper arm before the racquet drop phase starts. Djokovic's forearm used to have too big of an angle but he corrected it and his serve also improved.

I used see some tennis coaches use the "back scratch" position to teach the serve. Then sometimes leads to the student using arm extension as the primary source of power instead of ISR. It also can make the forearm/upper arm angle too small, making it less natural to use ISR and they whole kinetic chain.

Yes, the serve is very much like a ball throw in baseball. (It is even more like an upward ax / tomahawk throw in many respects). Once difference from the baseball ball throw is that the serve is more of an upward throw at a steep angle -- abt 60° to 75°. A throw from the outfield, might be, at most, 30° to 45°. A baseball pitch is close to 0° (horizontal).

I do remember that large elbow angle that Novak had on his serve prior to 2010. He also dropped his elbow way too low during the trophy phase. Fixing these aspects of his serve significantly improved his serving stats in 2011.

IMO, it is better to start at the trophy position if you are going to use an abbreviated motion as a learning tool.

Some 15+ years ago, I was starting this at the trophy position. But, more recently, I've been having students start at a "salute" position -- a bit before a conventional trophy position. Rick Macci & Brian Gordon have also advocated a couple other starting positions that are a bit before the trophy phase. These 3 alternative starting positions will provide some momentum thru the trophy phase than a static trophy pose does.

 

[Znak]

Just in time — this video covers quite literally everything discussed here in this thread.

 

[Digital Atheist]

Never seen anyone use a racquet to help a student be aware of keeping their elbow up in the correct position. I like it!

I have also seen Macci do that, and it seems to work!