Vin's Serve

[shootermcmarc0]

these drills work excellent, i noticed better balance on my serve and i'm doin the hop. now i have another question, i read somewhere that on the platform stance, youre only supposed to load the front leg, is that true? with sampras, it seems like he leaves the ground with the back leg first, which leads me to believe that most of the pushing is from the front.

[vmiller]

i read somewhere that on the platform stance, youre only supposed to load the front leg, is that true?

I don't know if this will help answer your question, but here's one thing I've learned doing this drill. In the attached picture, you can see Federer is tossing with the tip of his front foot off the ground. To me, this means that most of his weight is on his rear foot when he tosses.

This position helped lead me to discovering a feel for the kick back. From here, I use my rear leg to push my weight forward to the front leg and then it's mostly the front leg that pushes up and forward. If this happens fluidly enough, the push forward by the rear leg seems to be the begining of the kick back and is accentuated by forward momentum. At least that's my theory for now.

And then there's Roddick who seems to get more use out of his rear leg (if you consider his stance to be platform).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/avancedtennis/john_yandell/new_serving_model/new_serving_model_part1/new_serving_model_part1.html

I'm not sure if that helps, but your question suggests that the back leg is not involved much and I don't think that's the case. I guess my point is that Federer seems to load the rear leg before he loads the front leg and the transfer from the rear to the front seems to be the foundation of the kick back. Hopefully John will correct me if I'm wrong.

[shootermcmarc0]

yeah vin, i see what youre saying, and the weight shift does make sense. i was thinking that just like the pinpoint stance, the back leg hardly has any push (because they're on their toe when they push off with the rear leg). i thought that since the front leg leaves the ground last on the platform stance and not at the same time (i.e roddick), that the push from the rear leg was minimal.

as a matter of fact, i try to model my serve after fed. thanks for the advice.

[johnyandell]

I think there are two issues here. It's great and advantageous to keep your wieght back the way Roget is. (Great JPEG insert by the way.) Sampras does something similar. BUT that doesn't mean there is an actual push with the back leg. It probably has something to do with balance or the angle your body launches at--or something about loading--or something else Brian Gordon has already figured out, but I think it 's positive--it's just not the cause of a back leg push. Look at the leg actions in the Stroke Archive for Roger and you'll see what I mean. The uncoiling of the front leg pulls the back leg along.

[vmiller]

Thanks John. At least I picked out something positive even if it was for the wrong reason.

Now that I think about it, when most players lift off the ground, both feet are under them. You can especially see this with Roddick. The kick back is sort of delayed, which supports what you're saying.

I'd insert another jpg to show what I'm talking about, but I'm on dialup right now.

[johnyandell]

Most of the push is from the front foot in all cases and Roddick may be the exception--just watch the way the back toes comes off the court.

[shootermcmarc0]

when federer and sampras toss, are they really stretching their tossing arm to the sky? i've heard that its supposed to aid in the knee bend. from the clips, it seems like the are reaching for the sky.

[johnyandell]

In the clips Roger's arm is a little more vertical to the court. Think the key point isn't reaching for the sky, but keeping the tossing arm straight, moving itrhythmically as a unit from the shoulder and extending--reaching if you want to call it that. The exact angle will probably happen if the ball placement is correct.