New Issue

[johnyandell]

Guys,

The delay is all my fault, as usual. A new article I am doing featuring the new high speed footage of Federer's serve has turned into a monster with it's own life. Trying to kill it now and hopefully have it up tomorrow. Could be the best article I've done. Let's take a vote when it's up.

John Yandell

[uspta2712824457]

Re: New Issue

John,

Take all the time you need. The site is great and there is loads of content to keep us occupied. No worries. You cannot rush perfection.

Kyle LaCroix
USPTA

[llll]

john, from someone who used to complain about the timing of the new issue i say get it out when it meets your quality control. your issues are worth waiting for.
larry

[johnyandell]

Thanks guys. But I swear I am going to improve--my serve for sure and maybe the timing of the issues too.

[uspta4271615439]

As long as it comes out before "Duke Nukem Forever."

-SF

[johnyandell]

Today will be the day...

[gzhpcu]

Great article John! Definitely worth the wait... This is another of those articles to read and reread, picking up something new with each cylce...

[GeoffWilliams]

You are becoming a world expert on the pro serve. Interesting article, esp. since it's been a lifelong goal of mine to develop a pro serve, and I have failed miserably at it. I wonder how much the leg drive affects the ulnar and radial deviation of the wrist, timing wise, how much it adds to the whip effect. Could the top servers hit as hard with little or no leg drive, since many say it only has a 10% addition to the mph? (My leg drive is bad, due to old school training, and too much wt.)

Btw, this is the kind of technical article, that makes this site different. Even though I have studied and looked at pro serves for 30 yrs., I cannot hit one. I wonder if it is possible at all.

[johnyandell]

Well the leg drive increases external rotation--so says Brian--and that increases internal rotation. And we know what that does.

The question isn't hitting a pro serve, so much in my view, as having a motion as close as possible to the great technical elements in pro serving. Then God takes care of the rest.

[GeoffWilliams]

Thanks for the reply. I don't think people realize just how much time, work, editing video, traveling, and cost, went into these serving articles! This article alone, can make a stagnant serve motion, into a top notch one, if the player uses video to counter check his corrections. The serve is the most important shot in the game at higher levels.

I would have added, that Sampras, while opening his hip early, rotates and twists his upper body, around an axis, as he faces the back fence, and then twists open, a full 180 degrees twist, in the upper torso, and the whip effect occurs, when he stops his motion forward, and lets the forearm snap over the elbow. His left lower back, ends up all scrunched down, as his left shoulder, trades pos., with his right, and they end up almost straight up and down! During this rotational twist, his chest, starts facing the back fence, and ends up facing the net. His elbow stops moving forward, and the forearm snaps over the stoppage. It's more of a rotation, than a hip opening. I've seen very few people rotationally twist like he does, in their upper body, during the serve motion. Few can face the back fence, and still toss forward. Most serve, with their arms, not by rotating their core at super fast speed.

I wonder if he learned this from McEnroe, rather than Pete Fischer? Mac faced the back fence, and would have been someone Sampras idolized.... Fischer never developed any one else who could serve like Sampras...How many american coaches, have developed any good pros? Bolletieri, is at best a 4.0 player himself. Have you ever seen him hit? Another famous coach who never developed any junior: Higueras... Chang was already there, when he pumped Hig. brain for a week or two at the french. (He did the same thing with Phil Dent, on the serve. Hire them for a week, pump their brains, and fire them. Let's just say, Chang felt no loyalty, to any coach, he ever hired.)

It was the Bollitieri system, and the plethora of great players like Courier, Agassi, Chang, Sampras, Seles, all coming up at the same time, and pushing each other to greater heights, that developed the last great batch, of American stars...

It will take another such grouping, together, all top players, pushing each other to play better, beating each other in practice, before, we see another resurgence.

When you are in business, and some client hires you once, pumps your brain, then fires you, and never uses you again, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Ask John, how he feels, after all the work done on these serving articles, and 60,000 video clips, and someone pays for one month, and then dumps him, how he feels about that.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's James Blake, who stuck loyally with the same coach, and never learned any lull game, and is one week from retiring now. Gilbert taught Agassi the lull game, and would have done the same with Blake, as he did with Murray. Agassi and Murray are lull game masters. Gilbert, why didn't you ever hook up with the blaster Blake, anyway?