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This may be more of a FEEL thing where the differences in the positions I'm describing aren't as pronounced as the differences in the feels.
I based all my strokes on the concept of brushing up the back of the ball.
Lately, I've been migrating to something that feels more like grabbing the top of the ball and flinging it forward.
What's really happening is that I am hitting with a slightly more closed racquet face and hitting through the ball a bit more. The sensation is that my strings feel like velcro and the ball seems to stick to the strings for a very brief instant before it gets launched into its flight. The result is a significant increase in control, more lively action on the bounce, and the ability to hit a greater number of balls with confidence and pace.
In "Technical Tennis", there is a very interesting description of what happens when the ball hits the strings, slides, rolls, and bites. The authors speculate that there may be a feel of "catching" associated with this, and I certainly get that sensation. When I combine a slightly closed racquet face with the perfect level of cushion, tension, and play in the wrist, I really get the sensation of grabbing the ball through contact. For me, I have to create a fairly drastic feel of keeping the racquet face closed, but that is because I have historically come into contact with a relatively OPEN face (Doug King).
The interesting things about this is how I was able to borrow that feel on the forehand to make some changes with my serve. I really feel like my serve improves dramatically when I envision a high-to-high swingpath, where I not only approach contact with a slightly closed racquet face, but where I stay on top of the ball. It's like my hitting surface is a magnet, and as I pass it over the ball, the ball gets stuck to it and then propels it forward.
A number of new feels start to emerge with this high-to-high swing path and closed racquet face. First, there is a huge sense of control because I can align the spin with the flight path. The enhanced feel of stickiness to the contact also seems to give me great confidence and command. And the bounce....oh, the bounce. The bounce is enhanced tremendously to where it really seems like the ball just explodes off the court.
Am I really hitting with a closed racquet face and a high-to-high swingpath? Probably not. But it probably feels that way to me because I have traditionally really tried to approach contact from way beneath the ball. My racquet face was probably too open, which is why I missed most of my serves long. I also felt like I was always creating more work than necessary by coming up so steeply to contact. I had to create other methods to oppose these forces and keep the ball in the box. This all applies to the ground strokes as well.
The feel of the high-to-high swingpath really solves all of these issues for me. It also makes me re-evaluate all of the talk about the depth of the drop in the backscratch position. I always learned that it was to create more of a runway for the approach UP to the ball. But if you look at Fed's kickserve, you can see that his racquet doesn't approach contact directly from the depth of the drop when the racquet shaft is at its most vertical along side his body. When it's at the bottom of the drop along side him, it's already starting to go from vertical to horizontal because of his torso angle. Then, it continues to swing up towards horizontal, getting into what has been called the big L position before contact. Only THEN does the real business of the swing happen.
I have seen some nice angles of Stosur's kick serve and the same thing is quite apparent.
So...I'm not saying that brushing up the back of the ball is wrong. I'm just saying that when I started to seek out a feel of more of a high-to-high path where I'm grabbing the top of the ball, I was able to make some really nice improvements to my serve. Better control, more action, more pace. More ability to get the ball to bite, jump, and kick without needing to put a ton of arc on it.
Am I all alone on this one? I know that feel is really a subjective thing and that's probably why I don't see many attempts to describe feel in the teaching articles. I think maybe it should be attempted a bit more often, though, because feel can be used as a starting point that can often cause other technical elements to easily just fall into place in order to create that feel. (Rather than working to piece together the technical elements first).
Note: Best angle to see what I'm describing on serve is to view a Federer second serve from the side, court-level view.
I based all my strokes on the concept of brushing up the back of the ball.
Lately, I've been migrating to something that feels more like grabbing the top of the ball and flinging it forward.
What's really happening is that I am hitting with a slightly more closed racquet face and hitting through the ball a bit more. The sensation is that my strings feel like velcro and the ball seems to stick to the strings for a very brief instant before it gets launched into its flight. The result is a significant increase in control, more lively action on the bounce, and the ability to hit a greater number of balls with confidence and pace.
In "Technical Tennis", there is a very interesting description of what happens when the ball hits the strings, slides, rolls, and bites. The authors speculate that there may be a feel of "catching" associated with this, and I certainly get that sensation. When I combine a slightly closed racquet face with the perfect level of cushion, tension, and play in the wrist, I really get the sensation of grabbing the ball through contact. For me, I have to create a fairly drastic feel of keeping the racquet face closed, but that is because I have historically come into contact with a relatively OPEN face (Doug King).
The interesting things about this is how I was able to borrow that feel on the forehand to make some changes with my serve. I really feel like my serve improves dramatically when I envision a high-to-high swingpath, where I not only approach contact with a slightly closed racquet face, but where I stay on top of the ball. It's like my hitting surface is a magnet, and as I pass it over the ball, the ball gets stuck to it and then propels it forward.
A number of new feels start to emerge with this high-to-high swing path and closed racquet face. First, there is a huge sense of control because I can align the spin with the flight path. The enhanced feel of stickiness to the contact also seems to give me great confidence and command. And the bounce....oh, the bounce. The bounce is enhanced tremendously to where it really seems like the ball just explodes off the court.
Am I really hitting with a closed racquet face and a high-to-high swingpath? Probably not. But it probably feels that way to me because I have traditionally really tried to approach contact from way beneath the ball. My racquet face was probably too open, which is why I missed most of my serves long. I also felt like I was always creating more work than necessary by coming up so steeply to contact. I had to create other methods to oppose these forces and keep the ball in the box. This all applies to the ground strokes as well.
The feel of the high-to-high swingpath really solves all of these issues for me. It also makes me re-evaluate all of the talk about the depth of the drop in the backscratch position. I always learned that it was to create more of a runway for the approach UP to the ball. But if you look at Fed's kickserve, you can see that his racquet doesn't approach contact directly from the depth of the drop when the racquet shaft is at its most vertical along side his body. When it's at the bottom of the drop along side him, it's already starting to go from vertical to horizontal because of his torso angle. Then, it continues to swing up towards horizontal, getting into what has been called the big L position before contact. Only THEN does the real business of the swing happen.
I have seen some nice angles of Stosur's kick serve and the same thing is quite apparent.
So...I'm not saying that brushing up the back of the ball is wrong. I'm just saying that when I started to seek out a feel of more of a high-to-high path where I'm grabbing the top of the ball, I was able to make some really nice improvements to my serve. Better control, more action, more pace. More ability to get the ball to bite, jump, and kick without needing to put a ton of arc on it.
Am I all alone on this one? I know that feel is really a subjective thing and that's probably why I don't see many attempts to describe feel in the teaching articles. I think maybe it should be attempted a bit more often, though, because feel can be used as a starting point that can often cause other technical elements to easily just fall into place in order to create that feel. (Rather than working to piece together the technical elements first).
Note: Best angle to see what I'm describing on serve is to view a Federer second serve from the side, court-level view.
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