Suspended Ball Movement After Service Contact?

[doctorhl]

johnyandell Could we think of serving more like flinging the ball rather than striking it? For the longest time I thought about all my strokes in that way. Certainly, the stiff new strings also give that feel. But I have been experimenting with gut for two years and just find it too springy to control. And yet the feel I get is different. Rather than strike the ball it is as if I was catching it and throwing it rather than striking it.

It seems that the late breaking serve would use this catch and fling idea to its max. Since the fling happens only on contact, it makes it hard to read.

Just a thought about how to make all these stats into some kind of digestible concept that I could actually implement in a stroke.

The fling may have a different dwell time on the strings than the slap on any one type of stroke, even flat. If it isn't feasible to capture dwell time on camera, you may be able to capture a little difference internally on your strokes with emphasis on racket feel or string sound. In a quiet setting I have been able to cue in on a" grab" sound from an opponent's serve. Even within strings, all of us have heard a sound difference between " gut grab" and " synthetic grab". Every player I ever characterised as hitting a " heavy" ball, had a different ball contact sound than others. Those old enough, may have had the chance to hear the " spaghetti string grab" before it was outlawed!

[arturohernandez]

The fling may have a different dwell time on the strings than the slap on any one type of stroke, even flat. If it isn't feasible to capture dwell time on camera, you may be able to capture a little difference internally on your strokes with emphasis on racket feel or string sound. In a quiet setting I have been able to cue in on a" grab" sound from an opponent's serve. Even within strings, all of us have heard a sound difference between " gut grab" and " synthetic grab". Every player I ever characterised as hitting a " heavy" ball, had a different ball contact sound than others. Those old enough, may have had the chance to hear the " spaghetti string grab" before it was outlawed!

Can you describe the contact sound of the heavy ball? I notice this on my both my daughter's and son's serves. They just bounce funny and are tricky to control. This even though I play with them a lot. So I know that heavy ball can feel different in some way. What is the grab sound of an opponent? The only sound I hear is the smack by some players.

[doctorhl]

Arturo,: They say a good golf coach can sit behind a player with eyes closed and hear a fade versus a draw, backspin versus a blade hit, etc, etc. I cant describe the sound. Maybe saying the word "chiiick" versus the word " splat" desscribes the sounds? LOL! Perhaps there is recorded audio out there somewhere that discriminates service spin versus flat. However, the sounds I recall hearing years ago may have been a little easier to hear because of higher string tensions with gut, but you still can discriminate the sound in today's strokes. Many people in the baseball stands have heard and recognized the " home run over the fence" ball strking sound, even before the ball leaves the infield area.

[doctorhl]

However, as John Yandell has shown us, the right combination of speed to spin creates that " heavy" bounce off the ground. On a grounstroke, you can hear when a player most likely is hitting with excessive spin, which may or may not be what the player intends for effectiveness.