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Need a weekend to digest those articles
Brian's articles are great. I think I need a weekend seminar with him to fully digest all the information that is there, even with my engineering degree and doctorate in chiropractic. But I'm still going to come back to the fact that the motion is way too complicated to mess up with a jump until you have the basic motion down absolutely perfect. He makes it exceedingly clear that power comes from the ground up. I don't think you should be trying to leave the ground until you can serve really well and consistently while still on it.
Moreover, all of this is great, but we come back to the usual scenario of how we use biomechanics to figure out how to hit the ball harder. The number one player in the world can't get the ball over the net and into the box. She doesn't need more leg action. She needs a way to be able to repeat her motion consistently inspite of fatigue or pressure. That's where we get into the other function of the long backswing. Letting the racket swing back under tthe force of gravity creates the synchronising mechanism that holds this whole thing together. The abbreviated motion may or may not be less wear and tear on the shoulder, but it certainly doesn't have the easy repeatability of a gravity-fueled full backswing. If your rhythm is great without that (Roddick), then fine. But if you don't have a sound rhythm to your toss, the long backswing gives you a simple way to establish an always available, consistent timing mechanism to start your motion off. Your body says, "Oh, I remember that feeling. I know how to do that." It relaxes and repeats the motion in synch with the speed the racket gets from gravity and gravity never changes!
But even if you don't like the gravity drop backswing, it still comes down to having a rock that works like a lynchpin to hold everything together. The rhythm of the toss and the rock have to match. Anytime you see an opponent with multiple pieces or rhythms to their backswing on their toss, know that you need to step up on 2nd serves to put more pressure on them. They will break down and give you free points!
Come on. Who else would like to see a 2 day seminar from Brian Gordon during Indian Wells?!
don
Originally posted by oliensis
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I recommend that anyone w/ questions about knee bend and the serve ought to read Brian Gordon's excellent series on the serve:
In essence, according to Mr. Gordon, leg drive is significantly responsible for initiating the series of actions that result in racquet-head acceleration via what he calls" motion-dependent" effects.
BTW, if you watch Doc Gooden pitch in old videos, you can see that from certain angles he actually "jumps." I.e., his left foot doesn't land until his right foot actually is OFF the pitching rubber.
Moreover, I don't think that servers w/ strong leg action are actually jumping. They are driving up into the ball and the RESULT of the leg drive, because it is vertical, is that they end up off the ground. Different than a "jump" per se.
Here's what a jump serve looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEBX9Tw9PY
In essence, according to Mr. Gordon, leg drive is significantly responsible for initiating the series of actions that result in racquet-head acceleration via what he calls" motion-dependent" effects.
BTW, if you watch Doc Gooden pitch in old videos, you can see that from certain angles he actually "jumps." I.e., his left foot doesn't land until his right foot actually is OFF the pitching rubber.
Moreover, I don't think that servers w/ strong leg action are actually jumping. They are driving up into the ball and the RESULT of the leg drive, because it is vertical, is that they end up off the ground. Different than a "jump" per se.
Here's what a jump serve looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEBX9Tw9PY
Moreover, all of this is great, but we come back to the usual scenario of how we use biomechanics to figure out how to hit the ball harder. The number one player in the world can't get the ball over the net and into the box. She doesn't need more leg action. She needs a way to be able to repeat her motion consistently inspite of fatigue or pressure. That's where we get into the other function of the long backswing. Letting the racket swing back under tthe force of gravity creates the synchronising mechanism that holds this whole thing together. The abbreviated motion may or may not be less wear and tear on the shoulder, but it certainly doesn't have the easy repeatability of a gravity-fueled full backswing. If your rhythm is great without that (Roddick), then fine. But if you don't have a sound rhythm to your toss, the long backswing gives you a simple way to establish an always available, consistent timing mechanism to start your motion off. Your body says, "Oh, I remember that feeling. I know how to do that." It relaxes and repeats the motion in synch with the speed the racket gets from gravity and gravity never changes!
But even if you don't like the gravity drop backswing, it still comes down to having a rock that works like a lynchpin to hold everything together. The rhythm of the toss and the rock have to match. Anytime you see an opponent with multiple pieces or rhythms to their backswing on their toss, know that you need to step up on 2nd serves to put more pressure on them. They will break down and give you free points!
Come on. Who else would like to see a 2 day seminar from Brian Gordon during Indian Wells?!
don
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