why American men are the hardest servers

[bjk]

Of the top 4 fastest servers at AO, three were American men (Delic, Querrey, Roddick). If you take the serve out of tennis, the only top 50 American tennis player is probably James Blake. Roddick, Querrey, Fish, Delic, and Dent all rely on a big serve as their biggest weapon, and the rest of their games are underdeveloped. In fact, many of those names (Blake, Querrey, Delic) started playing tennis for real at a relatively late age. Without the serve (or in the case of Blake, his speed and natural ability) they probably wouldn't be playing tennis professionally.

The serve is probably the easiest stroke to develop without a great deal of practice . . . you can't teach a kid to throw 95 miles an hour, and you can't teach somebody to serve like Roddick.

My point is, the US doesn't develop tennis players, it develops servers who then build a game around their serve. Donald Young is one of the few exceptions . . .

 

[my_forehand]

Of the top 4 fastest servers at AO, three were American men (Delic, Querrey, Roddick). If you take the serve out of tennis, the only top 50 American tennis player is probably James Blake. Roddick, Querrey, Fish, Delic, and Dent all rely on a big serve as their biggest weapon, and the rest of their games are underdeveloped. In fact, many of those names (Blake, Querrey, Delic) started playing tennis for real at a relatively late age. Without the serve (or in the case of Blake, his speed and natural ability) they probably wouldn't be playing tennis professionally.

The serve is probably the easiest stroke to develop without a great deal of practice . . . you can't teach a kid to throw 95 miles an hour, and you can't teach somebody to serve like Roddick.

My point is, the US doesn't develop tennis players, it develops servers who then build a game around their serve. Donald Young is one of the few exceptions . . .

huh?

 

[bjk]

The serve is the easiest stroke to develop if, like Fish, Delic, Dent, Roddick, and Querrey, you're tall and lanky. If you're Vince Spadea, all the practice in the world isn't going to get you serving like Roddick or Querrey.

 

[Nuke]

Maybe it's because American kids grow up throwing baseballs for play, and the throwing motion is similar to the serving motion. European kids grow up kicking a soccer ball.

 

[jmverdugo]

^^ that is the theory I heard too, also they grow up playing "football" which, odd enough, has a lot of ball throwing with the "hands" which is basically the same movement of the serve.

 

[bjk]

No I don't think it's baseball (and baseball is a dying sport in the US anyway).

Imagine there are 1 million kids in the US who play tennis. Which of those kids are going to be professionals? Probably the kids who are a) over 6'2 and b) can hit a 135 mph serve. Otherwise, you probably didn't pick up tennis early enough or play on clay often enough to develop your skills.

 

[bjk]

Few American kids play football before high school. Basically, if you want to be a top US tennis junior, you need to be either tall or a child of a tennis pro.

 

[orangettecoleman]

there are a lot of tall americans because of all the hormones in our food. also, like the above poster said, it's a natural motion for most guys from throwing baseballs.

 

[LeeD]

Don't know...
I was enlisted by my highschool from junior high for my football skills.. not soccer.
Americans like to throw rocks.
American's like the idea of technological superiority, of which a big serve is part of....
Americans like to dictate, pro active, the situation, NOT reactive.
Americans have waaay too many other great sports to do, like motocross, roadracing, waterskiing, snowboarding, skiing, surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing.
Americans like to sit in front of the TV and WATCH sports.
Americans tend to think 2 hours, twice a week is PLENTY of practice

 

[R_Federer]

Answer is simple. This is how Americans are in sports, they like to just be good at the highlight stuff:

Basketball they love dunking.
Baseball it's the Home Run.
Tennis it's the fastest serve.

 

[yellowoctopus]

My theory is that having a big serve provides 'instant gratification' and sex appeal--both of which predominates the American culture (the latter is probably universal). Majority of young American players probably grow up wanting to serve hard and hit a huge forehand like their idols. The serve is probably the easier of the two strokes mentioned here to hit hard because you are in control; plus like I said before, it provides greater sense of instant gratification.

I don't think this 'issue', if you want to categorize it as such, is isolated to American tennis. Players can be quite successful in the men's tour today with just half a game. To make it to the top, I believe, takes more than that.

 

[bjk]

Compare the US and a much smaller country, Argentina. In Argentina, plenty of kids play tennis, and the best PLAYERS become pros . . . Nalbandian, Acasuso, Callieri, Canas, Monaco, but none of these guys is bigger than 6.2 (Del Potro is an exception.) There are about as many pro Americans as pro Argentinians, but the pro Americans are nearly all tall: Delic, Querrey, Isner, Fish, Roddick, Dent, Kendrick, etc. Why is this? It's because, being a bigger country, there are more tall people, and unless you're tall or truly physically gifted, you're probably not going to have the skills to play pro. Americans don't play tennis from a young age, unless you're the child of a pro/teaching pro (Querrey, Young, Ryan Harrison, Dent, etc), and unless you play from a young age, you're not going to be a great PLAYER . . . Americans are great TALENTS, by and large, Argentinians are great PLAYERS . . . the difference is, Argentinians play alot of tennis, and Americans dont.

It has nothing to do with football . . .

 

[Shaolin]

Is it so hard to understand?

Americans grow up playing on hard courts.

Hard courts reward huge serves more than clay courts, which is where Europeans/S. Americans grow up playing on.

There you go.

 

[bjk]

They don't have hard or soft basketball courts in China, how come the two Chinese in the NBA are over seven foot?

 

[helloworld]

They probably grew up watching Sampras, and they want to serve like Pete Sampras. Unfortunately, none of them can, so they have to rely on the power instead.

 

[daddy]

I am not sure about this one, but Croatians are one of the hardest in my mind. From Ivanisevic in past to Ljubicic, Karlovic, Ancic, Cilic ... even the guys americans take credit for like Delic are a product of former Yugoslavia, Bosnia in this case.

 

[bjk]

That's interesting. The Croats tend to be tall and lanky, perfect tennis body. Ljubicic is the only one who's a little beefy.


Delic didn't play much tennis before he got to the US, so we'll take credit for him.


Croats are the fourth tallest people in the world.




http://www.muziqpakistan.com/board/index.php?showtopic=63115

 

[pound cat]

They don't have hard or soft basketball courts in China, how come the two Chinese in the NBA are over seven foot?

Because they are exceptions. Asian people as a rule are on the short side...haven't you noticed. Look around!

 

[Andres]

Compare the US and a much smaller country, Argentina. In Argentina, plenty of kids play tennis, and the best PLAYERS become pros . . . Nalbandian, Acasuso, Callieri, Canas, Monaco, but none of these guys is bigger than 6.2 (Del Potro is an exception.) There are about as many pro Americans as pro Argentinians, but the pro Americans are nearly all tall: Delic, Querrey, Isner, Fish, Roddick, Dent, Kendrick, etc. Why is this? It's because, being a bigger country, there are more tall people, and unless you're tall or truly physically gifted, you're probably not going to have the skills to play pro. Americans don't play tennis from a young age, unless you're the child of a pro/teaching pro (Querrey, Young, Ryan Harrison, Dent, etc), and unless you play from a young age, you're not going to be a great PLAYER . . . Americans are great TALENTS, by and large, Argentinians are great PLAYERS . . . the difference is, Argentinians play alot of tennis, and Americans dont.

It has nothing to do with football . . .

Acasuso is 6'3'', by the way.

 

[daddy]

That's interesting. The Croats tend to be tall and lanky, perfect tennis body. Ljubicic is the only one who's a little beefy.


Delic didn't play much tennis before he got to the US, so we'll take credit for him.


Croats are the fourth tallest people in the world.




http://www.muziqpakistan.com/board/index.php?showtopic=63115

Its a faulty stat there are no some smaller nations which are very tall. I did explore the matter back when I was at the faculty and found out that after a tribe in africa whose average height was 190.1cm !!! the 2nd tallest nation were Montenegrans with astonishing 188.9cm. I did not see them on the list however.

Btw there are like 30 - 40 nations here in this research, and there are like 200 nations in UN. What about the others? Im sure we Sebs are taller then the last ones on the list, dont know who they are - 160cm. Or girls are taller if you know what I mean. just pointing to no credible site for pulling such an info ... although I basically agree that croats are high on average as a nation.

 

[bolo]

blake doesn't fit the others, he is good mostly because of his forehand and speed.

 

[RoddickAce]

Americans grow up on hardcourts, where the serve helps win most of the points. So maybe that's what motivates them to serve harder...And then the cycle goes on as American kids idolize top American players who serve big and follow that path.

 

[FiveO]

Alot of throwing games and sports in their very early development as opposed to the running/kicking sports stressed elsewhere in the world. Even the hand/eye sports played in Europe through Russia, i.e. hockey, do nothing to create a "throwing" foundation like in the U.S..

5

 

[Nanshiki]

Few American kids play football before high school. Basically, if you want to be a top US tennis junior, you need to be either tall or a child of a tennis pro.

Kids in the US either play football or they don't... there's no middle ground, at least not where I'm from.

And most of them start by Middle School, if not pee-wee leagues at ~6 years old. .

Either that or they play baseball and maybe soccer.


There's almost no chance of a kid who never played football making it onto a high school team with no previous experience, just like there's no chance of someone who started playing tennis a year ago making it onto a D1 tennis team

 

[JeMar]

Holy generalizations, Batman!

 

[edmondsm]

They don't have hard or soft basketball courts in China, how come the two Chinese in the NBA are over seven foot?

You are making some crazy statements, but I find this one just off the wall. What is a soft basketball court? Are you saying there are no basketball courts in China? You know they have a professional league there right? In a country of a billion people there are going to be some 7 footers out there, that's just the odds of it.

 

[bleno567]

All of this without a serve business is complete nonsense. The reality is that the serve plays a huge roll in the game no matter who you are. Sure theres a slew of Americans, who rely on their serve, but to say that they are completely one dimensional is absurd. The same "____ wouldnt be in the top 50 without a serve" statement applies to pretty much everyone barring a couple exceptions.

 

[Toxicmilk]

All of this without a serve business is complete nonsense. The reality is that the serve plays a huge roll in the game no matter who you are. Sure theres a slew of Americans, who rely on their serve, but to say that they are completely one dimensional is absurd. The same "____ wouldnt be in the top 50 without a serve" statement applies to pretty much everyone barring a couple exceptions.

Exactly. Esp someone like Roddick in the top 10 for so long; you don't stay there with just a serve. =___=

And it looks like half these theories and generalizations about "Americans" are just ignorant as heck. The only ones that make sense are the ones about good serves being rewarded on hard courts...which most Americans grow up on.

 

[The_Question]

The serve is probably the easiest stroke to develop without a great deal of practice . . . you can't teach a kid to throw 95 miles an hour, and you can't teach somebody to serve like Roddick.

What?? Yeah, I had to read it twice to make sure I didn't read it wrong...

 

[bjk]

"In a country of a billion people there are going to be some 7 footers out there, that's just the odds of it."

That's my point. In a country of 300 million people, there are going to be a handful of big servers like Querrey (6'6) and Isner (6'9). That's just the odds of it. Nobody would say that either Querrey or Isner is a great tennis player, but they get by with their great serve. The same is true of most of the US players, and it's not because of hard courts.

The Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team recently offered a reward for any Indians who could throw a baseball over 90 mph. The thinking was the same: in a country of 900 million, there have got to be a handful who are naturally gifted throwers, even if they've never played baseball.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3724303

 

[bjk]

Actually, it was 85 mph.

 

[DJG]

Actually, it was 85 mph.

It is still very, very fast...

 

[bjk]

In pro baseball, 85 mph won't get you out of the minor leagues.

 

[Noveson]

In pro baseball, 85 mph won't get you out of the minor leagues.

We have a kid in our high school that throws faster than that.

 

[dtrain]

We have a kid in our high school that throws faster than that.

I went to high school with someone that threw faster than that his freshmen year. Have you heard of Ian Kennedy? Pitcher for the Yankees. He's not doing so great in the majors, but he's only 24.

 

[edmondsm]

Well if you are a "fast ball pitcher" then no, 85mph is not going to get it done in the MLB. But c'mon, Jamie Moyer has never thrown 85mph in his life. There is more to pitching then just the fastball.

 

[bjk]

Moyer's a lefty. Lefty's can get away with being soft-tossers . . . Sort of like Donald Young.

 

[sinned]

Is it so hard to understand?

Americans grow up playing on hard courts.

Hard courts reward huge serves more than clay courts, which is where Europeans/S. Americans grow up playing on.

There you go.

Agreed! Americans like to "get-her-dun."