weight distribution on platform serve

[PhrygianDominant]

Sampras moves pretty far forward and seems to have most if not all his weight on the front foot when he starts his swing.

Federer seems to have weight on both feet and jumps pretty high with both legs.

Which do you do and why? What would you recommend for someone who is 5'11?

 

[LeeD]

Pete is looking to get to net position.
Federer is looking to stay at the baseline and rally with his opponent's.

 

[PhrygianDominant]

Pete is looking to get to net position.
Federer is looking to stay at the baseline and rally with his opponent's.

That's a good point.

In my case I need to be able to do both for, probably adjusting my toss accordingly.

Some more info:

I tend to toss almost directly above my head if I don't move my weight forward pete style. This ball toss is good for my consistency, but bad for my pace. I will post a video sometime soon.

 

[LeeD]

You need to practice BOTH serves, one for getting to the service line, one for defensive baseline play.
That includes EACH of your first and second serves.

 

[PhrygianDominant]

*sigh more practice

 

[Fintft]

Another question that boggles my amateur mind being if:
In both cases one goes "up the mountain"(high contact point) to the same extend?

Better yet, do you guys manage that or is one toss more helpful then the other?

It seems to me that while I lose some power with the toss more above the head and most of the weight on both legs, if, on the other hand I toss in front, I may be mainly going forward and not as much up (this second position might also tire the front leg more)...

But then again I'm heavy.

 

[Ballinbob]

Another question that boggles my amateur mind being if:
In both cases one goes "up the mountain"(high contact point) to the same extend?

Better yet, do you guys manage that or is one toss more helpful then the other?

It seems to me that while I lose some power with the toss more above the head and most of the weight on both legs, if, on the other hand I toss in front, I may be mainly going forward and not as much up (this second position might also tire the front leg more)...

But then again I'm heavy.

I like this thread and Im curious as to what others have to say about this. I find Im able to hit a pretty heavy kick serve just by tossing it out in front of me. The only time I will consciously toss it over my head is on the ad side when Im really trying to pull the guy out wide to his backhand. This does telegraph what serve I'm hitting though unfortunately

I started hitting all my serves from the same toss mainly because when I first started learning how to hit a kick serve I strained my back because of my crazy toss

But long story short, it takes awhile to find that good balance between pace and spin. Whatever toss gets you to that point is a good toss in my book.

 

[10isfreak]

If you know how to hit a good kicker that kicks outward on the Ad side (right handed players here), you can telegraph it all you want. If you watch players with big forehands (e.g. Federer), they'll stand in the middle of their backhand side to serve out wide. We know they stand there to hit a forehand as their first shot and we know they'll serve over 80% of their balls out wide, but they do it anyway. The only reason they don't openly show where they'll hit is to prevent their opponent from cheating over too much -- they still have the option of hitting down the T if they exaggerate.

The whole point of that Ad court wide kicker is to force your opponent to make contact with a very bad court position (it likely will also be in a bad posture since he has to step sideways a lot to hit that ball).

For the comments above, I always toss the ball further back for kick serves. People could foretell what I will be doing, but if I make a good contact, I'll likely be happy with the results anyhow. With that said, I know that I could improve my disguise very easily by moving my flat serve toss further above my head -- like Federer, for instance. You just have to mess up a kick serve to turn it into a flat one, so I'll see if I can mimic Fed's disguise.

 

[LeeD]

Problem with tossing the flat serve toss kinda over your head is that your BACK takes a beating, never get's a rest.
Since the twist serve toss is well back towards the back of your head, you need to arch you back for both serves.
That only leaves the slice to rest your lower back, and that toss is easily seen when you toss the ball up.
I haven't the cure, but lately have been mixing my serves up a bit with different tosses for the first flat. The toss over my head does work in both directions, but it never gives my back a rest.