Have a Question for Me?

[stotty]

Sure, but when the book arrives you will see it was taught. I learnt my tennis as a child from this book and I follow through almost entirely to the right on my second serve and only cut in to the left at the very end.

I followed John Newcombe's instruction to the letter. Where I live everyone was self-taught through books back then. It was a case of John Newcombe said it so it must be right.

[johnyandell]

Just ordered the book.

My opinion though is that the finish more to right is a consequence. Not something you try to manufacture!

[stotty]

The "American Twist" serve, as it once termed, was taught that the racket arm must finish down the right of the body (for a righty) and not the left. It was part of the teaching back in the day. There is beautiful example and description of this in the book Tennis Strokes and Strategies, published in 1972. John Newcombe writes this section of the book and walks the reader through the American twist using with a photo sequence of his own serve. Tennis Strokes and Strategies was the leading book of the day and many of the top players of the time contributed to its making. I learned my entire game through this book and treated it like the bible.

[gzhpcu]

More topspin. Gonzales, Thiem, Sampras all do it at times. Keeps you from opening up too soon.

[johnyandell]

What would be the advantage of that?

[gzhpcu]

Hi John, what do you think of finishing the serve swing on the same side?

[johnyandell]

Great question... to be honest not sure...but remember most of the acceleration is from drop to contact...that's the best answer I have.

[stotty]

John,

If a server has a high elbow around the trophy position, is power affected? Or is power unaffected so long as a player can compensate by having a deep racket drop?

I have always assumed servers whose elbows are higher may not have as deep racket drops as players with more ideal, lower elbow positions? Is there a correlation between the elbow height at the trophy position and the subsequent depth of the racket drop?

[johnyandell]

Yeah probably has velocity but not much topspin.

[johnyandell]

Agreed. He undoubtedly has ball speed but little topspin.

[stotty]

Thanks. I have a guy who is a good player but his racket head is at 12 o'clock because his toss is a tad too much to the right.. Despite this, his racket face still turns out towards the side fence really nicely. But I figured by getting him more towards 11 o'clock I may be able to get him to serve even better.

[johnyandell]

Still more toward 11. It's a matter of small degree. Look at this if you haven't:

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members..._and_spin.html

Toss is ussualy the same--path of the racket varies slightly.

[stotty]

John

On a sliced serve, what would you expect the angle of the racket head position on contact? Would it be more around 12 o'clock...or still more towards 11 o'clock like other serves?

[johnyandell]

Responded!

[gzhpcu]

Have a question for you in the Tony Roche thread I just opened. Thanks