B Gordon- Hitch

[airforce1]

Brian,
Is it possible (or known) that what many call a hitch, is not important on the serve windup?

I started looking at this and a source pointed out your work on the wind up where you discuss racket speed in the wind up, so I thought I'd ask you along with anyone who feels they may know, if they knew of an answer on this.

Seems the racket having and maintaining speed and/or momentum was more important when a foot was required to stay on the ground, with the motions looking more like pitching than current serving.

I'm looking at modern serves with the upward leg drive and launch, then seeing the racket drag prior to elbow extension. It seems to me that any racket speed from the wind up would be a non factor in performance of the stick from this point on. That the racket is going to be dragged up at the same speed, regardless of how the wind up went.
Some of the very big servers like Andy seem to have a hitch or pause in their motions. Maybe not a complete stop, but the racket movement does not appear to translate in a continuous way to add momentum to the upward part of the swing. Do you have any ideas on this?
thanks,

[BrianGordon]

AF-

It is generally not a major factor. I’ve known plenty of folks with a “hitch” (by design) that could generate enough racquet speed to hit well north of 135 mph (including myself before age and arthritis ruined the party).

I think we must differentiate between racquet speed at the end of the wind up and speed at the initiation of the racquet drop (downward vertical motion) as the two don’t necessarily correspond in time. Roddick is great example – the hitch at the end of his wind is well in advance of the initiation of his racquet drop – guess it depends on how the end of the wind up is defined – I use maximum knee flexion for higher level players.

Anyway, the hitch is only a problem if the racquet speed at full drop is seriously compromised by the action compared to what could be developed with a continuous transition to the drop – speed at full drop is important for two reasons:

1. This speed implies faster external rotation of the upper arm – reversal of this to internal rotation in the upward swing is facilitated by the speed of the external rotation through elements of the SSC (spoke of this with use of a graphic in one of the articles – don’t remember which). Internal rotation is critical to racquet speed at contact.

2. Speed at full drop will generally translate to contact barring other disasters – huge issue? – no; a help? – yes. Sampras for example has a speed of a little more than 30 mph at full drop compared to developing juniors and even some college players from 10 -20. If we assume 90 mph contact speed – that is an 11 – 22 % head start – when I was the same age as Bolt I think I could have beaten him in the 100 m with a 22% head start - would love to know the exact value for Roddick was for a 150 mph rocket!

The problem with the continuous transition is how it can complicate timing between leg drive and racquet progression – believe I illustrated that for a college athlete in an article - this problem can far outweigh any benefit from increased speed at the initiation of the drop in determining full drop speed. I’ve had my best luck with developing players by forcing them to demonstrate perfect synchronization between the leg drive and racquet drop using a slight hesitation then experimenting with smoother transitions.

The art of coaching I guess – anyway that has been my experience.

[airforce1]

thank you very much Brian,

your research on this and experience seem to confirm what I felt I saw.
That a pause or hitch at certain point in the serve, is not necessarily
the awful thing that many just take for granted.

[johnyandell]

BG,

Damn coherent I must say...

JY