1. Open letter to Kyle Doppelt 2. example of kinetic chain in the serve and 3. Bottle

[nabrug]

Dear Kyle Doppelt,

I think you have a beautifull service right now. But imho it can be improved (a lot?!). For me it is obvious that there is missing a very active part of the kinetic chain. Let me explain myself. At http://www.tennisicoach.com you can find the article: Technical development of the serve for beginners to intermediate - Steven Martens Video 51:44. It will tell you that the kinetic chain in the service from the loaded position is:
1. racket drop
2. turn of the body
3. pronation/stretching of the arm

You do not enough separate fases 2 and 3. It is very obvious to see. Because you have not enough turn it is also very obvious to me that you developed the contact point you have. If you look at the clip of Jeff Salzenstein you can see the proper kinetic chain.

If I were your teacher I would advice you to practice the kinetic chain mentioned above without a ball from the loaded position. To feel the turn as a separate and very active movement before the third fase. You can correct yourself by observing if your hips/shoulder are more parallel to the baseline. If you feel it than slowly start serving with balls etc.. I think that your contact point will come more in front of you automatically.

In the clip with title “The “hoppity hop,” phases 1 and 2” phase 1 is missing the turn like in all the other clips. Phase 2 has a little separate turn. It is the best technical service of all the clips. So sometimes you are already turning the way I think you have to go. You have to exaggerate it more and it has to become a more active part.

This is a very important part of the kinetic chain. I think your service speed can increase a lot. I hope you will try it and that you let me know if you improved. There is an other not so important essence you are not doing right now. I do not mention it here because hopefully it will be solved if the turn is succeeding.

Awaiting your reply, I remain.


Nico Mol
Amsterdam
Holland.

[uspta146749877]

Mr Mol,
just to let you know that majority of us
do NOT have an accesss to

http://www.tennisicoach.com

regards,
julian

[bottle]

Clarity

This is just as hard to understand as anything I write. Tennis instruction and mechanics, once you authorize yourself to go into detail, is an exceptionally hard and complex subject matter, involving solid, not plane geometry. It isn't always the people who dig into this stuff who are to blame. It's the subject matter itself.

But, if you choose to shun fine detail, you quickly become a nebula, which I believe is a cloud. For this reason I never liked the two books by Timothy Gallwey as much as most of my friends, Gallwey being all the rage as tennis and business guru in the United States one generation ago. I preferred Gallwey's coach at Harvard (where Gallwey was captain of the tennis team).
That would be John M. Barnaby, author of "Racket Work: The Key to Tennis," which one can sometimes find in old, used bookstores. His second book, "Advantage Tennis: Racket work, Tactics, and Logic" is good, too, but really a spin-off from the first. Much philosophy, but a lot of practical detail, too.

One thing Barnaby doesn't like is theories of the kinetic chain, pointing out that tennis is a game of emergencies without time for such elaborate stuff.
Vic Braden was just the opposite back around publication of his book "Tennis for the Future." I don't know if he personally authored the following letter to me, I've always suspected that he did. In any case it came from his tennis college in southern California.

"Regarding the kinetic chain: The best way to describe the power chain is to divide the body into four segments. (1) from the feet to the knees, (2) from the knees to the hips (including the hips), (3) the upper body, and (4) the arm and racket. When you begin your backswing, everything should turn back with the racket. As you unwind, you unwind from the ground up and deceleration acceleration takes place. Deceleration acceleration refers to the stopping of one segment and the resulting acceleration of the next segment. Thus, segment number one unwinds first as you begin the dropping motion of the racket. Segment two begins as you begin the low to high motion. Just before contact the hips stop and the arm and racket accelerate for the hit. This applies to both forehand and backhand groundstrokes."

And elsewhere Braden applies the same theory to the serve. But I also have the old VHS video where Braden has fastened wooden slats to every possible segment up and down his body, thus transferring himself into a stegosaurus-- the best use of kinetic chain I ever saw.

[clyde969]

This is Kyle and first of all thank you Nico for your input. I think maybe you misunderstood though what we were trying to accomplish with the drills like the hoppity hop. The point was to isolate the contact point. Once we pushed that in front then we put that back together into the whole serve including the turn. John's point, and I agree, was that it would be difficult or impossible to change that without working on it without using the whole motion.

I think also that maybe you didn't look at the first Your Strokes John did on my serve? One of the big changes there was to change to a platform with a body turn, and actually using Jeff as a model. He was there working with John at the same time, so I got to hit with him and watch his serve first hand. That was pretty great. Funny because the move from the pinpoint to the platform and the increased turn were changes Jeff made himself previously working with John. So that was inspirational to do the same.

Again, thanks for your input.

[bottle]

Yes, Thanks for Any and All Inputs

A bit more on writing about overall service motion:

If you say nothing about body rotation, the reader can maybe fill it in from his own experience or imagination, but if you talk about turning your shoulders back, don't you then have to mention the other, more vertical type of rotation which some people call "cartwheel" but I call "catapult"?

I don't see how you can get around (or over) this.

[nabrug]

This is Kyle and first of all thank you Nico for your input. I think maybe you misunderstood though what we were trying to accomplish with the drills like the hoppity hop. The point was to isolate the contact point. Once we pushed that in front then we put that back together into the whole serve including the turn. John's point, and I agree, was that it would be difficult or impossible to change that without working on it without using the whole motion.

I think also that maybe you didn't look at the first Your Strokes John did on my serve? One of the big changes there was to change to a platform with a body turn, and actually using Jeff as a model. He was there working with John at the same time, so I got to hit with him and watch his serve first hand. That was pretty great. Funny because the move from the pinpoint to the platform and the increased turn were changes Jeff made himself previously working with John. So that was inspirational to do the same.

Again, thanks for your input.

If you have a good feeling that is what counts.

In the few clips I don't see a leading hip action (phase 2) which initiates the pulling of the racket (phase 3) like with Jeff. But maybe I am wrong. Do you feel those seperate phases? Your old contact point and the end phase of your torso position (compare it to Jeff's) were signs that this is missing?!

I hope in time to see some new clips.

Nico