Dr. Mark Kovacs - The Science of your serve to improve it - The Tennis Congress

[seano]

Below is a very interesting 48 minute video from Dr. Mark Kovacs from the The Tennis Congress Conference, that was just released on Youtube. He brings up some very interesting ideas about the tennis serve and I'm sure will provide lots of discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krKYy4eqgdQ&t=398s

[seano]

A few topics of Dr. Kovacs seminar -
1) If speed on your serve is your primary goal, the 2 most important factors are 1) speed of vertical rear hip velocity 2) speed of long axis rotation of arm (internal shoulder rotation)
2) The importance of rear hip position: turned 10-15 degrees and pointed down
3) Worst teaching que from 90's - stick front hip forward when loading
4) Toss - keep arm straight and release ball between nose and top of head
5) Stay sideways (side on) for as long as possible
6) Jump on serve, if goal is speed. No jump on serve for longevity

[stotty]

It's a good video with lots of excellent points. I am reasonably familiar with Mark's work on the serve. The rear hip position and staying sideway are very key points. Mark has stated in the past that a player should keep the rear leg back as long as possible when driving up as it's something a player cannot overdo if they tried.

[jimlosaltos]

A few topics of Dr. Kovacs seminar -
1) If speed on your serve is your primary goal, the 2 most important factors are 1) speed of vertical rear hip velocity 2) speed of long axis rotation of arm (internal shoulder rotation)
2) The importance of rear hip position: turned 10-15 degrees and pointed down
3) Worst teaching que from 90's - stick front hip forward when loading
4) Toss - keep arm straight and release ball between nose and top of head
5) Stay sideways (side on) for as long as possible
6) Jump on serve, if goal is speed. No jump on serve for longevity

Thanks for sharing. A trivial aside, regarding the use of the phrase long axis rotation - an important distinction from pronation - but if I'm remembering the right person, Kovacs once said that pronation accounts for less than 5% of velocity, something that warmed my heart since the misuse and abuse of that word is a personal pet peeve

[hybridfh]

Thanks for sharing. A trivial aside, regarding the use of the phrase long axis rotation - an important distinction from pronation - but if I'm remembering the right person, Kovacs once said that pronation accounts for less than 5% of velocity, something that warmed my heart since the misuse and abuse of that word is a personal pet peeve

Pronation may only be a small % (or it may not be...I really don't know) but I find it's valuable as an indicator of whether the racket was moving faster than all the body parts and whether good spin was imparted. You see so many people "long arm" the serve, even really accomplished players. When I see that I feel they're being inefficient on the serve and are going to be really liable to good days vs. bad days. Disclaimer: I'm not a tennis coach. I came to tennis from other sports, but I'm very technically strong in the other sports (I was a coach) and strive for that in my tennis too.