A New Teaching System: The Serve: Swing Path

[mlogarzo]

Hey everyone,

Been a while since i've posted on the forum. Almost 2 years ago I posted a video of a girl i started coaching who was one of the top 16 year olds in the country. (Australia). A lot has happened since then, she's coming along really well and just over a month ago won't her first professional tournament, an ITF Pro Circuit 15k and lifted her ranking from 943 to 493 in a month!!

Her serve which was the topic of this thread has also come a long long way, and now much more confident shot. The rhythm is much better and it no longer breaks down under pressure. Was trying to attach the vid but having some technical issue. Will work on it.

[stotty]

Hey everyone,

Been a while since i've posted on the forum. Almost 2 years ago I posted a video of a girl i started coaching who was one of the top 16 year olds in the country. (Australia). A lot has happened since then, she's coming along really well and just over a month ago won't her first professional tournament, an ITF Pro Circuit 15k and lifted her ranking from 943 to 493 in a month!!

Her serve which was the topic of this thread has also come a long long way, and now much more confident shot. The rhythm is much better and it no longer breaks down under pressure. Was trying to attach the vid but having some technical issue. Will work on it.

I remember the girl's serve well. It would be fabulous to see it two years on...is it really that long ago!!

[mlogarzo]

I remember the girl\'s serve well. It would be fabulous to see it two years on...is it really that long ago!!

I know it\'s been ages. Have attached the serve which we took before the series of tournaments about 2 months ago. Still a work in progress but has come along. Her extension and contact wasn\'t the greatest in this video but you get the idea and compared to the original a big improvement. Thoughts always welcome.

[don_budge]

Comments? But of course…mlogarzo

Thoughts always welcome.

Good to know…I just happened to have a few. Quite a few.

It is a work in progress is it not? It always is. With a motion as complex as the service motion…as in a golf swing. One can make a lifetime out of it. Superb post and some really super coaching…mlogarzo. I am going to wait to make my comments until John can get his programmer to fix his keyboard snafu.

[stotty]

I know it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s been ages. Have attached the serve which we took before the series of tournaments about 2 months ago. Still a work in progress but has come along. Her extension and contact wasn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t the greatest in this video but you get the idea and compared to the original a big improvement. Thoughts always welcome.

Congratulations with your charge. Things have moved on for sure.

We are having trouble posting due to these \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ popping up when the apostrophe is used. John says it will be fixed Wednesday. I will keep this post brief but something to think about nonetheless. The will be no apostrophes used.

I have a girl whose serve is similar to Zoes. The other day I was thinking why does her serve look like that? Why is it a little disconnected? Why do so many girls serves look like that?

So I went into the archive and studied rhythm and the back leg. My girl, like Zoe, brings her back foot up to the front foot what seems a little late, then pushes to the ground with an exaggerated knee bend. It has a Sharapova look.

If you study the men, they often synch that back leg moving up to the front foot much better. If you watch Ljubicic, he starts that process earlier than most women seem to. The end result is everything synchs up better and rhythm is greatly improved.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/ivan_ljubicic/il_serve/il_1st_serve/1st_serve.html?IL1stSDeuceRear1.mov

[tennis_chiro]

I know it\\\'s been ages. Have attached the serve which we took before the series of tournaments about 2 months ago. Still a work in progress but has come along. Her extension and contact wasn\\\'t the greatest in this video but you get the idea and compared to the original a big improvement. Thoughts always welcome.

It\'s really amazing how well she\'s managed to put all that leg action together. But I really wonder what would happen if she focused for just a couple of weeks on getting the internal shoulder rotation completed before the her arm passed horizontal on the followthrough - that is, if she got the racket face to make the additional 75 degrees of movement to vertical before her arm got to horizontal in front of her on the follow through, or even a little after her arm got to that point. She has tremendous leg thrust; but I think the effect would pale in comparison to what she would get out of actually getting all of the internal shoulder rotation and snap into the serve that she is capable of.

don