Interactive Forum: Feb 2008 Djokovic: Serves

[EricMatuszewski]

While the worlds eyes focus on Federer's imminent coronation as "greatest ever" only to be slowed by Nadal, the Court Jester Novak Djokovic has stolen the crown and turned "down under"upside down.

What part did his serve play in the jokers seige of the majestic Rod Laver arena?

Below are exclusive clips of the court jester's service motion available only to tennisplayer subscribers.

How would you rate Novak's flexibility? Do you think this has anything to do with his ability as to hit high performance serves?

What's Novak's emphasis on his serve? Does he go more for spin or pace?


Novak Djokovic: Serve1



Novak Djokovic: Serve2


Novak Djokovic: Serve3


Novak Djokovic: Serve4

[EricMatuszewski]

QuickTime Versions

Novak Djokovic: Serve1


Novak Djokovic: Serve2


Novak Djokovic: Serve3


Novak Djokovic: Serve4

[crosscourt]

Excellent footage. I love Djokovic's serve because it seems so uncomplicated. There doesn't seem to be much twisting or needless movement, and so far as you can on a serve, he keeps his action on something like a straight line. The best thing about it is the ready to hit position. You can see from the way his shoulders are laid back and his body is balanced that there is going to be a smooth path to the hit, and the easy looking (and not at all exaggerated) leg drive initiates the upward swing (which is all swing and no hit). Only Murray seems to me to have as good a ready to hit position. It would be interesting to see them side-by-side.

cc

[airforce1]

internal rotation

Brian (Gordan), after reading your latest upward swing piece, it would seem that the components that I have posted about relating to components of the very fastest serves, reside in the quality of what you call the "internal rotation".
Assuming we are on about the same page there, the following quote seems to be very revealing.

"My experience has been that the ability to integrate explosive internal shoulder rotation into the upward swing is the x-factor in developing a high level serve. It has also been my experience poor utilization of this resource dooms developing players to mediocrity."

Looking at your comments here and Djokovic's motion, it is pretty clear for me why he is able to smoothly generate such high velocity serves when he decides to pump it up.

[BrianGordon]

Is it correct that the movement used commonly used to position the upper arm, lower arm and racket for the beginning of the upward motion, would be part of "internal rotation" movement? (just trying to find common terms)

AF1-

Most of the of the positioning of the arm/racquet unit, for a given elbow height, at the beginning of the upward swing (end of back swing) is due to external rotation - same axis (humerus of upper arm) but opposite direction of internal rotation - the external rotation changes to internal rotation at roughly the mid point of the upward swing - to the extent that the internal rotation efficacy depends on the quality and extent of external rotation earlier, I guess one could say it is part of the internal rotation movement, or at least is linked to the internal rotation on the serve - or maybe I don't understand the question - Brian

[airforce1]

Brian, I looked back at my post and can see exactly why you didn't fully get my question, even though your answer was pretty good in spite of my poor wording , haha.
Guess that's why you are the writer and I need to stick to flying jets mostly.

I was trying to clarify if your comments about internal rotation were congruent with my earlier assertions about the fastest servers. I'm satisfied that we have arrived at similar conclusions.
thanks

I edited the earlier post so that hopefully it will now make better sense.

[andersedstrom]

down versus upside down?

hello. i don't actully agree that it's an effortless serve. it doesn't seem so. it's a better serve than a lot of other players but effortless doesn't make me think of djokovic..... i think sampras, federer, mcenroe, becker, laver......
this talk about federer being decrowned surprises me. he lost a match. does that take away his incredible game? what he has been doing the last five years? is it only the last match that counts? i don't think djokovic is a bad player. far from it. he's great too but it will be interesting to see if he'll be able to accomplish something close to what federer or sampras or borg or ...or...or...(some others) have accomplished. without injuries. i think one way to judge the quality of stroking and moving shows in how long a player is able to stay injury free.
i read another article about federer being lucky (lucky?!!) because he hasn't had to face multi grand slam champions during his rein. about how he actually isn't that great?! the article goes on about him only having to play against a fading agassi with chronic back pain and a not so good roddick. how is it possible to think like that just because he looses a match? and not only to think it but to write an article about it? as if this writer thought he had anything to contribute? if it hadn't been for federer, roddick or others would have been grand slam champions many times. it's possible he will never win a slam again....but does that mean he isn't an incredible player? is he already someone to put in the garbage?

[airforce1]

You are so right about Fed of course. Not only was he coming off a layoff/break, but also coming off that bout of illness and clearly not himself. Fed will be right back in the mix if not right back on top of the heap again.

That being said, DJ has earned his day in the sun. He is not just a one slam wonder. His showings have been strong against Nadal and Fed, getting better over the last year. It's clearly a 3 way in the making at this point. I find him to be pretty smooth, but I agree, not effortless.