What's Wrong With My Serve? (Vid)

P

pnguyen_3kgt

New User
Hi all,

I'm not a regular poster but I do read these forums quite a bit. I finally got the courage to record myself and post it up for some criticism. I would like to improve my game enough that I am competitive in 3.5 tourneys. Since my serves are my weakest element in my game, I would like to ask for any advice anyone can offer me as to how to fix my serve and what I am doing wrong? I want to add more pace to the ball and my consistency is nearly nonexistent. Excuse the quality of the video, it was taken on a cell phone. Anyways, the video is below, be nice please :) Hopefully I can get some videos of my strokes and some practice points soon. Thanks in advance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPk7RClLo2g
 
your motion, is pretty good actually :) one thing I would say, is that your left arm ever so slightly falls away (not on all the serves but on some of them) as a result it takes your body momentum backwards and not forward that could well be losing you some pop.
There are some great drills to keep that arm there and use it plus your knee bend to launch yourself into the serve!
 
All in all, the mechanics do not look too bad. Better than some 4.0 players I've seen. I was trying to decide if your elbow position at the trophy phase of your serve was a bit too low. Not sure. Hard to tell from this angle. At the trophy phase, the rear elbow should pretty much be in line with the tilt of the shoulders.

You might keep your tossing arm up just a fraction of a second longer. Try to notice the location of the falling ball with relationship to your extended tossing hand. This should help with the timing of your swing. However this is a very minor point and might not really be a problem at all (since you do keep it up at the trophy).

One real problem with your serve is that you fall off to the left too much. Often your right leg kick way off to the right. This contributes to your fall to the left and may also indicate that you might have too much hip rotation in the latter part of your serve (hip rotation is ok earlier, but should not be evident later in the motion).

Notice that your left foot often lands pointing off to the left side of the court. See if you can land with that foot pointing in the direction of the ad court (for an ad serve) instead. The right leg should kick back toward the camera (or back fence) rather than kicking off to the right.
 
(What courts are those? Are you in the Blossom Hill area?)

As ark_28 indicates, you want your body to launch forward (toward the target area) rather than backward or off to the left.
 
It's hard to tell exactly where the ball is bouncing, but from what I can see your serve is pretty consistent already!

I think your elbow position is a bit low, but it's not a big problem. Right now you don't really shove the knees outwards and lean back with the upper body. If you did this you could get a better angle upwards with the shoulders and hit up on the ball more.

cilic1.jpg

murray+serve.jpg

roger-federer-photo-2.JPG
 
Last edited:
SystemicAnomaly said:
All in all, the mechanics do not look too bad. Better than some 4.0 players I've seen.
Click to expand...

Amen.

And this is the worst part of your game?

I guess I'll never understand the NTRP system.

Anyway, I'm probably the least qualified person here to be offering a response but I am thinking that the pinpoint stance doesn't really suit you. You don't seem to derive any benefit from it. I don't see it adding anything, it's just making it easier for you to lose your balance and fall toward the left. Have you experimented with something more stable?
 
Thanks for all of the help guys.

SystemicAnomaly said:
(What courts are those? Are you in the Blossom Hill area?)

As ark_28 indicates, you want your body to launch forward (toward the target area) rather than backward or off to the left.
Click to expand...

They are the Los Paseos courts off of Bernal Rd. in San Jose. Are you near by? We should hit sometime! :)

rufusbgood said:
Amen.

And this is the worst part of your game?

I guess I'll never understand the NTRP system.

Anyway, I'm probably the least qualified person here to be offering a response but I am thinking that the pinpoint stance doesn't really suit you. You don't seem to derive any benefit from it. I don't see it adding anything, it's just making it easier for you to lose your balance and fall toward the left. Have you experimented with something more stable?
Click to expand...

My serve is pretty bad, this clip is compiled from a lot of serves. I missed most of them when I was making this video, I just cut them out :oops:. I also do not have a second serve that I can count on either.
I have tried the platform serve but I feel very awkward and even more off balance when I do it. Maybe I can try to work on it more though. Thanks!

And I havent played in any tournaments yet. I just self rated myself a 3.5 since I've seen some videos of 4.0 players that I think would easily beat me.
 
First of all, congratulations on already having the basics of a good serve.

But if there is one overlying element to add to your serve it is to have more of a cartwheel motion.

By cartwheel motion, I mean more shoulder over shoulder action, like you see here in this slow motion video of Soderling serving (going into an incredible archer's bow and then reversing this bow with incredible shoulder over shoulder action. All the pros do this, not just Robin.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a56pvP1i6x8

I think if you can achieve this, you will solve the problem of falling off to the left that SystemicAnomaly describes above. (You already have the coil/uncoil motion in your serve, but that motion without more cartwheel will have you rotating too much to your left and not driving forward enough.)

It will also help add the accuracy (from increased spin) and power (from the cartwheel itself) you seek, as well as having you be able to aim the serve where you want it to go (aiming is cartwheeling in the direction you want the serve to go).

Djokavichfan4life tells you what you need to do to get that bigger cartwheel or shoulder over shoulder action : "Right now you don't really shove the knees outwards and lean back with the upper body. If you did this you could get a better angle upwards with the shoulders and hit up on the ball more."

But perhaps some additional videos can let you better visualize how to do this:

How to keep bringing your tossing arm up as you coil and start into the archer's bow smoothly all at the same time with great balance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZp90h-Ar8&feature=channel
Good video of multiple pros coiling and going into the archer's bow as they continue to bring their arm up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIF-UaRUd6k
Will Hamilton from Fuzzy Yellow Balls emphasizing how letting your front hip protrude into the court will counterbalance the backward upper body lean so you can get a great archer's bow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgeYmEScfgQ
A front view of how your serve should look with good shoulder over shoulder cartwheel action (with the dividend that this motion is actually good for your hitting shoulder because it puts less stress on the rotator cuff): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRvxaBMh8s&feature=related .
Jim McLennon continues in this next video to also point out how the racquet head rotates across the ball to get that needed topspin action on the ball for a greater first and second serve percentage as you are coming through your cartwheel (I think you already have good pronation action - just don't lose this aspect as you add in the cartwheel.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t6bLABbebc&NR=1
Serve direction is just cartwheeling in the direction you want your serve to go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9aQuJyccak

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
pnguyen_3kgt said:
Hi all,

I'm not a regular poster but I do read these forums quite a bit. I finally got the courage to record myself and post it up for some criticism. I would like to improve my game enough that I am competitive in 3.5 tourneys. Since my serves are my weakest element in my game, I would like to ask for any advice anyone can offer me as to how to fix my serve and what I am doing wrong? I want to add more pace to the ball and my consistency is nearly nonexistent. Excuse the quality of the video, it was taken on a cell phone. Anyways, the video is below, be nice please :) Hopefully I can get some videos of my strokes and some practice points soon. Thanks in advance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPk7RClLo2g
Click to expand...

You don’t use a pronation at all. In the beginning of the upward swing you should keep the racquet away from your body and racquet string bed should be around perpendicular to your back, not parallel to it. To do that properly, you have to supinate first, to provide pronation angle range around 90 degrees.
 
Last edited:
my own serve is terrible, so take this with some salt.

I don't see a lot of left hit bump in your motion, and you don't have a lot of hit rotation from racket drop to contact.

If you stick your left hip out, and when you slide that right foot forward, try to point your right heel more forward, (like Soderling does), this will keep your hips closed to the target till the point of the racket drop, so that the hip rotation will add some mph to the ball.
 
pnguyen_3kgt said:
Hi all,

I'm not a regular poster but I do read these forums quite a bit. I finally got the courage to record myself and post it up for some criticism. I would like to improve my game enough that I am competitive in 3.5 tourneys. Since my serves are my weakest element in my game, I would like to ask for any advice anyone can offer me as to how to fix my serve and what I am doing wrong? I want to add more pace to the ball and my consistency is nearly nonexistent. Excuse the quality of the video, it was taken on a cell phone. Anyways, the video is below, be nice please :) Hopefully I can get some videos of my strokes and some practice points soon. Thanks in advance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPk7RClLo2g
Click to expand...

Not bad, but, it's almost all arm. Very little upper body rotation. To get more upper body rotation, you need to get more shoulder turn and tilt when you're in the trophy pose. That way, you can "turn" your upper body into the shot when you're ready to hit up on the ball.
 
Last edited:
One thing that I have found useful as I attempt to undo 27 yrs of owning a self taught funky serve is to practice serving against a wall instead of on a court. This way I judge my serves based on how it all feels as opposed to where it landed. I'm especially interested in feeling that my body is under control and that my movements are smooth and unrushed. When I practice against a wall I allow myself to hit serves that I would be ashamed to hit on a court. Really slow serves, modest serves, as I explore what I am capable of doing when I don't exert myself and I don't abuse my body trying for velocity. Ultimately, my goal is of course to crush the freaking ______ out of the ball but I am seeing that what is keeping me from my goal is that I need to get my body under control first and learn to use my energy efficiently.
 
You have good serve fundamentals but there are a few things that can help your consistency and power.

Consistency

At this point, I would focus more on consistency since you were saying that you have issues with your 2nd serve. A small detail that isn't really talked about alot is balance. At the end of your follow through, your upper body should not be hunched over or to the side.

I think going back to the basics and simplifying your serve practice sessions will help. A drill that is typically used is to "freeze" at certain spots within a motion to analyze and fix issues. To work on balance, freeze your motion after your follow-thru and look to see if you're off balance to the side or behind. This will help you adjust your body for more balance. When you get more balance, your serve consistency will go up.

Another thing to remember is that you should be swinging your racket even faster on the 2nd serve since this should ideally create more topspin(safety) for your serve to land in.


Power

If you look at every pro player's service motion, 99.9% of their racket heads NEVER stop moving. Why do they do this? This allows their arm to stay loose throughout the whole service motion until they need to use force. They are using the conservation of momentum to propel their racket heads while maintaining a very loose arm. This is a major key to EASY power.

Best way to explain it is by looking at any pro player's service motion in slow motion. I like Roger Federer's motion because you can really see the looseness of his racket arm and the racket head swing up with just the help of gravity/takeback.

If I were your coach, I would just tell you to focus on balance/consistency first before even thinking about power. Power will come as a resultant.
 
Ajtat411 said:
You have good serve fundamentals but there are a few things that can help your consistency and power.

Consistency

At this point, I would focus more on consistency since you were saying that you have issues with your 2nd serve. A small detail that isn't really talked about alot is balance. At the end of your follow through, your upper body should not be hunched over or to the side.

I think going back to the basics and simplifying your serve practice sessions will help. A drill that is typically used is to "freeze" at certain spots within a motion to analyze and fix issues. To work on balance, freeze your motion after your follow-thru and look to see if you're off balance to the side or behind. This will help you adjust your body for more balance. When you get more balance, your serve consistency will go up.

Another thing to remember is that you should be swinging your racket even faster on the 2nd serve since this should ideally create more topspin(safety) for your serve to land in.


Power

If you look at every pro player's service motion, 99.9% of their racket heads NEVER stop moving. Why do they do this? This allows their arm to stay loose throughout the whole service motion until they need to use force. They are using the conservation of momentum to propel their racket heads while maintaining a very loose arm. This is a major key to EASY power.

Best way to explain it is by looking at any pro player's service motion in slow motion. I like Roger Federer's motion because you can really see the looseness of his racket arm and the racket head swing up with just the help of gravity/takeback.

If I were your coach, I would just tell you to focus on balance/consistency first before even thinking about power. Power will come as a resultant.
Click to expand...

Thanks for these tips, I really do feel off balance a lot of times on my serve. I just dont know how to quite fix it. My toss is also quite inconsistent but I am working on that right now. I never thought about swinging harder on my second serve, I actually try to hold back a lot which results in high and slow balls.

Do you guys think that going to the gym and working on my back/legs/core muscles will benefit at all? I dont usually frequent the gym so I feel like I lack the strength that others have.
 
Practice just catching your toss also. It's not a crime to catch your toss in a match also. It can be hard in a match but if it doesn't feel right, stop. The main idea of the 2nd serve is not only to swing faster, but to swing up/under the ball from mainly 6 oclock to noon to get the ball to dip back into the service box even if it clears the net by 6 feet.

Working out your core/legs/back and don't forget shoulders will not only benefit your game but most importantly it will prevent injuries in the future. If you want to play until you're 60 that is. I wouldn't say it's a necessity though as far as working on technique. A good book is "Complete Conditioning for Tennis" by Paul Roetert if you're into reading.
 
Last edited:
Toss and contact point need to be higher for the serve you are hitting. Essentially, you are hitting through a low ball - you are getting a lot of natural sides-pin/slice by coming around the back of the ball, but this won't give you a lot a margin for error.

Alternatively/ in addition, you can get a more reliable serve by hitting up and past the ball to brush more up the back of the ball to get more top spin.
 
charliefedererer said:
First of all, congratulations on already having the basics of a good serve.

But if there is one overlying element to add to your serve it is to have more of a cartwheel motion.

By cartwheel motion, I mean more shoulder over shoulder action, like you see here in this slow motion video of Soderling serving (going into an incredible archer's bow and then reversing this bow with incredible shoulder over shoulder action. All the pros do this, not just Robin.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a56pvP1i6x8

I think if you can achieve this, you will solve the problem of falling off to the left that SystemicAnomaly describes above. (You already have the coil/uncoil motion in your serve, but that motion without more cartwheel will have you rotating too much to your left and not driving forward enough.)

It will also help add the accuracy (from increased spin) and power (from the cartwheel itself) you seek, as well as having you be able to aim the serve where you want it to go (aiming is cartwheeling in the direction you want the serve to go).

Djokavichfan4life tells you what you need to do to get that bigger cartwheel or shoulder over shoulder action : "Right now you don't really shove the knees outwards and lean back with the upper body. If you did this you could get a better angle upwards with the shoulders and hit up on the ball more."

But perhaps some additional videos can let you better visualize how to do this:

How to keep bringing your tossing arm up as you coil and start into the archer's bow smoothly all at the same time with great balance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZp90h-Ar8&feature=channel
Good video of multiple pros coiling and going into the archer's bow as they continue to bring their arm up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIF-UaRUd6k
Will Hamilton from Fuzzy Yellow Balls emphasizing how letting your front hip protrude into the court will counterbalance the backward upper body lean so you can get a great archer's bow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgeYmEScfgQ
A front view of how your serve should look with good shoulder over shoulder cartwheel action (with the dividend that this motion is actually good for your hitting shoulder because it puts less stress on the rotator cuff): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRvxaBMh8s&feature=related .
Jim McLennon continues in this next video to also point out how the racquet head rotates across the ball to get that needed topspin action on the ball for a greater first and second serve percentage as you are coming through your cartwheel (I think you already have good pronation action - just don't lose this aspect as you add in the cartwheel.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t6bLABbebc&NR=1
Serve direction is just cartwheeling in the direction you want your serve to go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9aQuJyccak

Good luck!
Click to expand...


Thanks for these tips Charliefederer. I think one of the many problems I have is that I indeed do not bend my knees enough but everytime I try to bend more and form the bow shape, I feel really off balance and fell as if I am going to fall almost. I will try to implement some of these tips next time I go hit though, especially the cartwheel motion.
 
From the video, you look a lot better than 3.5 but as you said, if you did not play that many matches, it is better to self rate about where you would fit in as far as competition goes. Rallying and practicing is very different from playing matches. Also, when you just play the same opponent, week after week, then your game relaxes and you get into a groove and can actually play better than your ability. When you play tournaments and "pick up" matches against people that you never played, that's when your true abilities come out. All the emotions and the psychology and being nervous comes into play.

You already have a good motion. Rather than trying to hit a harder 1st serve, why not work on a consistent serve that is 70-80% of your hardest, and work on placement. Consistency and placement gets a lot more points and enjoyment than a 100+ mph bomb that happens only 10-15% of the time.
 
pnguyen_3kgt said:
Thanks for these tips Charliefederer. I think one of the many problems I have is that I indeed do not bend my knees enough but everytime I try to bend more and form the bow shape, I feel really off balance and fell as if I am going to fall almost. I will try to implement some of these tips next time I go hit though, especially the cartwheel motion.
Click to expand...

Feeling continuously balanced throughout the toss and into the trophy position is essential for a consistant serve. I think if there is one thing that I see most often is the failure to appreciate that the front hip has really be allowed to push out forward toward the receiver to counterbalance the backward lean of the upper body when going into the bow shape. I think you already have a good knee bend and coil, but have to allow yourself to let that hip go out as you continue to coil down.
The other underappreciated aspect of continuous balance is that the tossing arm going up and up well after the release of the ball forces you into the big shoulder tilt. So as long as you allow yourself to continue to coil and bend your knees, the archer's bow should get more and more pronounced as you lift that arm higher.
When you finally trigger the whole hitting part of the serve with a forceful leg thrust, it should be from a very balanced aggresive trophy position.
 
pnguyen_3kgt said:
Thanks for these tips, I really do feel off balance a lot of times on my serve. I just dont know how to quite fix it. My toss is also quite inconsistent but I am working on that right now. I never thought about swinging harder on my second serve, I actually try to hold back a lot which results in high and slow balls.

Do you guys think that going to the gym and working on my back/legs/core muscles will benefit at all? I dont usually frequent the gym so I feel like I lack the strength that others have.
Click to expand...

You must come to feel that a controlled elevation of your tossing arm is orchestrating the toss tempo, giving you plenty of time to coil/knee bend/bow as you continue to lift that arm higher and higher.

You will have to learm to swing just as hard on your second serve, just that the toss location more to the side (slice) or over your head (kicker) will cause you to coil and bow differently to get under the ball. Then the uncoiling/cartwheeling from that different position will then bring your arm through a different path than your first serve, resulting in the much increased spin that brings the ball in on those two types of serves.

Some gym work would be good for you, if you can squeeze in the time. The biggest reason is that tennis builds muscle imbalances that all too often results in shoulder, elbow and wrist injuries in those who are practicing and playing a lot. And you are right, stronger legs and core would more easily help maintain your balance and withstand the repeated uncoiling and cartwheeling motions of the serve.
 
Hi

Breathe in, hold and breathe out when you throw the racket. Might help get a steady rhythm.

Grip: You look like you are brushing lightly against the ball, and this combined with a tendency to fall to the left, means there is not a lot of power. I would tweak the grip a little, maybe a bit more a la Murray.

Get a decent bow shape by sticking out left hip.

I would get the right foot a bit further away from the left before you lift into the serve. You look like you are jumping for the sake of it.

In general you are doing a lot for not much reward. I would think about a much heavier racket and building up slowly, let the racket do a bit of the work, and concentrate on a longer follow thru, more pronation. Just whack your knee caps a few times with the racket tip.

Personally, I like to see a balanced position when you have the racket dropped/back scratching, that you can repeat over and over again. I see your balance point as when you bring your feet together, which is much too late.
 
pnguyen_3kgt said:
...

They are the Los Paseos courts off of Bernal Rd. in San Jose. Are you near by? We should hit sometime! :) ...
Click to expand...

Not that close really -- perhaps more than 20 miles. I'm in the Sunnyvale/Santa Clara part of the valley. My stomping grounds are more like Mountain View, Cupertino, and Santa Clara (I play out at Mission College with the team quite a bit). However, I do get out to WVC in Saratoga at least once a week (Tues evenings). Can you get out to WVC easily?
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
Not that close really -- perhaps more than 20 miles. I'm in the Sunnyvale/Santa Clara part of the valley. My stomping grounds are more like Mountain View, Cupertino, and Santa Clara (I play out at Mission College with the team quite a bit). However, I do get out to WVC in Saratoga at least once a week (Tues evenings). Can you get out to WVC easily?
Click to expand...

What time do you usually go out to WVC? I work in palo alto so its on the way home. I dont get off until 6 though so that may be too late.

Also thanks to everyone who chimed in with advice!
 
pnguyen_3kgt said:
What time do you usually go out to WVC? I work in palo alto so its on the way home. I dont get off until 6 though so that may be too late...
Click to expand...

Generally don't get out to WVC til 6:30p or 7pm. Caveat: Not always easy to get a court out there but it should be better after next week cuz the WVC tennis class will have their last class (next Tues) until the new semester starts in Feb.
 
some awesome advice here already, from the ones going long on the video id suggest getting more of a snap into the wrist action
 
You really should post unedited video so that people can see what you do wrong and not just what you do right.

My guess is that if your serve is inconsistent it is because of your toss. Your form is good enough, should not be a hindrance in 3.5 level. So, I am guessing that your toss is all over the place which will negate your form and make you inconsistent on your serves.
 
Normally, I don't offer a lot of individual advice on individual strokes, but I've seen your video and read a number of the responses.

While some of the advice is fairly accurate as it applies to elements those individuals are seeing/looking for, let me offer something more.

First off, yes, your motion is not bad at all. You didn't say WHY your serve is your worse part of your game but I can gues why: you serve far too flat.

Your swing path is directly in line with the target, a linear swing path just about; you do pronate but with this swing path, you end up with the racquet head lagging behind your hand which causes your serve to sail.

What I would highly suggest is to consider changing your swing path to be more "across the ball". You seem to have ample racquet head speed to develop an effective serve. But, as with most top players, the ability to create optimal spin with a fast racquet is necessary for both confidence as well as effect.

Once you develop more and more hybrid spin, (top/slice), you will see your serve arc down into the court dramatically. This will not only be very useful for having a dynamic second serve, but as you get more comfortable with knowing how your serve will behave, then you can toss more infront of you and generate more momentum and speed...without giving up a lot of the needed spin to keep the ball from going long all the time.

Obviously, a more consistent toss is part of your problem and to not toss so far behind yourself.

Create a swing path that is more across the back and upper half of the ball. With your current swing, you will probably have more trouble generating enough spin...you probably won't end up with just a "spinny" serve. (Although, in my opinion, it is easy to go back to hitting "at the ball" to gain the flatter serve you are more accustomed to hitting).

Good luck.
 
It doesn't look bad at all. Just a couple things I would say is to put a little more weight on the front leg, and really use that front leg to launch yourself into the ball. You should get a lot more power, and find yourself landing a few feet inside the court.

Murraylol would like to show you an example of putting the weight on his front leg, and launching into the ball with that weight for extra power:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmWlFQVwZiw
 
Wrong?
Nothing except no explosion. Just a relaxed, easy swing to start the point....in either person's favor.
You want to start the point or do you want to WIN the point from the start?
 
I actually don't see a huge problem with where your tossing arm is. Your toss itself, however, seems a bit behind you. Try tossing further to the right and more towards your front foot.

If you're trying to serve wide from the ad side, then you can toss slightly more to the left over your head, but it should still be in front of you.

Hope this helps!
 
ci2ca said:
ARe you by any chance Greg?
Click to expand...

Aye, this would be Greg R. Have we met (or did Cyril clue you in)? I believe that we may have exchanged emails earlier in the year. Can't move very well right now -- hip flexor issue. Hope that it will be better by next week.
 
Aside from explosive serve... how about serving placement? I noticed all your serves were towards more to the center or to the left side on the ad side of the court. I only saw 1 only serve down to the T; well almost to the T. Your serve placement are predictable - allowing the returner to basically camp more to the far end of the ad side; allowing him run around to attack your serve with his forehand.
I used to get pummeled on my serves against a 4.0 /4.5 player especially on the 2nd serve. When I started adding my serve to the T - I noticed my opponent is attacking my serve less because I kept him guessing where I going to place my serve.

This is why adding that 'Slice' serve will give that extra weapon to use when your serve is less explosive than others or when you are not serving at your best.

Just a thought......
 
Last edited:
Well, back to why the girls think your serve is easy and friendly....
Listen to the sound. It's a soft p...o....p with a hint of "swish" in it. You're not only swinging slow, you brush the ball with some sidespin to take the speed completely out of the ball. You caress and stroke your serves, no pop, no explosion, no violent release of energy.
You seem like you're wielding a 15 oz racket, the way you swing. Is it heavy? Like 12.5 oz or something? Like too heavy for your arms?
Start slow, accelerate upwards and outwards, grimace and grunt, and USE 100% of your explosive power.
You are built like a whip. Use your natural fast twitch muscles and send those first serves hip high into the backboard, located 21' behind the baseline, on any day it's warmer than 45 degrees.
I'm built about the same as you (5'11" and 145lbs), and at 61 years old, can bounce my first flat serves about waist high (bellybutton) or higher EVERY single time....with DunlopHDHardCourt balls, sub 60 degree temps, 21' backboard, 10oz (DunlopAero500), 11.9oz (DunlopMfil200) rackets.
And I've easily lost 30% of my service speed from my late 20's.
 
It's obvious the video has been cut and edited. Having a flat first serve will be inherently inconsistent. There's not much you can do about this unless you decide to add topspin. Once you learn spin, then you can flatten it and have a first serve that goes in ~50% of the time and a second that goes in >90% of the time instead of your current first and second serve that goes in maybe 20-30% of the time.

One thing I do notice is balance issues. Your right leg kicks up pretty high to counter balance your body leaning left. You are also not shifting your weight into the court.
 
ball basket. learn spin. which will force you to swing harder. get good second serve. win matches.

not about your serve OP but I love some guys at my club who attempt a kick serve who barely swing the racket. All it does is it goes high and slow... lmao. point over lol. As a general rule I think you should not attempt a kick serve unless you can swing the racket fast. But some guys don't see that their "kick" is really a plop serve going about 40 mph. It's a sitter man!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
What's wrong with my serve ?
Replies
45
Views
2K
SystemicAnomaly
SystemicAnomaly
Donny0627
Serve Critique Please Help
Replies
6
Views
936
Donny0627
Donny0627
Cody
Neutral Forehand: How should it look ??? (Vid)
Replies
21
Views
3K
Cody
Cody
T
Help with serve ( Video included )
Replies
8
Views
1K
spacediver
S
feddaddy
What's wrong with my forehand
2
Replies
61
Views
7K
feddaddy
feddaddy
Back
Top