Interactive Forum August 2013: Jerzy Janowicz: Serve

[johnyandell]

Jerzy Janowicz: Serve

Jerzy Janowicz pretty much caused a sensation at Wimbledon with his huge firepower, so this month in the Interactive Forum we are putting up his serve--with the forehand to follow in September.* His serve is a beautiful, fluid motion with a traditional semi-circular backswing.* But watch the differences in the amount of hand and arm rotation in the 3 placements: wide in the ad court, wide in the deuce, and one down the T.* Also the shoulder position and contact. Your thoughts please!

[johnyandell]

Quicktime version

Jerzy Janowicz: Serve

[GeoffWilliams]

I call him: "The monster."

[stotty]

I take it he hits his serve as flat as a pancake? The rear shot shows the ball crossing the net by about an inch!

I didn't get to see Jerzy this year at Wimbledon. My son did and says he was the hardest hitter he saw all day. He was friendly, too. He gave my son his autograph and then waved at him later in the day while practicing on an outside court. Needless to say my son now thinks Jerzy is the greatest player on earth.

These players probably don't know how influential they can be...

Great clips, John. You captured his serve wonderfully.

Is it me or is his racket drop not as deep as some?

[klacr]

It may be a while before we see this serve again. Janowicz pulled out of the Davis Cup tie this weekend against Australia. He says he has a herniated disc and it may require surgery. He hurt his back in the gym, not on the court. Tough blow for the youngster.


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

The monster takes a powder due to foolish weight lifting in the gym.

[don_budge]

Body Tyype???

The monster takes a powder due to foolish weight lifting in the gym.

I know that tennis_chiro has written quite a bit about Jerzy "Joe" Janowicz...as I have as well since his sensational coming out in Paris last winter. He has been advocating that Jerzy beef it up a bit and put on some muscle. Let's hope that he hasn't hurt himself seriously doing just that.

Lifting weights, yoga and any other kind of exercise that is used to improve or change the condition of ones body must be done with a professional or at least with considerable and careful thought about what is being done, what is to be accomplished and how are you going to safely arrive at your goal.

I have injured myself a couple of times trying to do just that. Once lifting weights and once attempting yoga. Both injuries were very minor but both taught me an important lesson. Use your head.

Recently I posted a yoga exercise for shoulders in another thread and that too must be approached with caution. Playing tennis is relatively safe compared to some of the exercise regimens that are designed to improve or change your physique. But I wonder...if Jerzy might not get more out of a yoga geared program with related exercises than whatever it was that he was doing. He does have a very unique body type for tennis afterall. I would think that more than muscle mass that he would need more strengthening of his joints as in knees, hips and shoulders. "Strength Flexibility" in his case may be more beneficial than beefing up.


Check out this "naughty little thing"...talk about fear of women. This is a great workout though. It's the kind of workout that I would recommend to Janowicz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tufb3aLdt8M

But with regards to the serve...he needs more spin. The same goes with his forehand. He doesn't have to use it all of the time but he should have it in his repertoire for any given situation that he may need it for. Someone said "situation shots" recently. As it is now he tries to blast his way out of every situation...that is when he is not employing his drop shot strategy. He needs to investigate all of the points in between.

He needs to review his whole serving philosophy. It looked to me that he lost his rhythm against Murray in the Wimbledon semifinal and it looked to me that the pinpoint stance was the culprit. On a frame so big...once again the standard platform stance makes more sense. Moving parts create deviation of motion. Once the deviations get the better end of things it starts to feel as if it is not working and then the doubts creep in. He looked very uncomfortable at times hitting second serves and he just doesn't have the big spins in his bag of tricks. He needs a big slicing ball that isn't hit so hard that takes his opponent way off of the court to go along with the bomb up the middle in the deuce court. A big bounding kick serve taking his opponent way off of the add court is a must to have at your disposal...to go along with the big slice up the middle. Plus a slew of deliveries into the body. He should have all of the Stan Smith video various options at his disposal. In a nutshell...he needs way more variety to realize his full potential as a server. Big bombs are nice...but what happens when they aren't falling inside the lines. It's only a very fast...fault.

Stan Smith on serving...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxcMr1Ya5w0

His serving game is not nearly as sophisticated as it should be. That being said...neither is the rest of his game. He is really flashy...and he is very powerful. But his talent is so much bigger than just that. He is being under utilized. His recent injury just may indicate that he is being mismanaged as well. His stuff doesn't hold up under pressure...yet. He needs more margin for error. The recent Brad Gilbert articles about playing points differently, tactically speaking, make a lot of sense when one thinks of a Jerzy Janowicz. Brad may make a good coach come to think of it for this young man. tennis_chiro would make be an excellent influence upon him. He needs to let the game come to him at times...instead of trying to force himself upon it.

As it stands now...Jerzy is too one dimensional. But he has the potential to play the whole game...but is it too late? Does he have the right management behind him? I believe that his game is really immature given his abundance of talent. He is underdeveloped as it stands now. If you know what I mean.

Well...I have to go now. Time to stretch the old shoulders with Esther...not to be confused with the patron saint of women and rotorded shoulder servers...Escher.

[tennis_chiro]

Really depressed by this

I know that tennis_chiro has written quite a bit about Jerzy "Joe" Janowicz...as I have as well since his sensational coming out in Paris last winter. He has been advocating that Jerzy beef it up a bit and put on some muscle. Let's hope that he hasn't hurt himself seriously doing just that.

Lifting weights, yoga and any other kind of exercise that is used to improve or change the condition of ones body must be done with a professional or at least with considerable and careful thought about what is being done, what is to be accomplished and how are you going to safely arrive at your goal.

...l:

Actually, what I have been saying was that I expected him to put on 10 to 15 lbs of muscle just in the course of normal maturation without any significant weight training for building muscle with heavy weights. If someone of Jerzy's stature took on serious weight-training with heavy weights for power and strength, he would put on more like 40 or 50 lbs of muscle on that frame he has and that would definitely not be good for his tennis.

He needed to be very carefully trained primarily for prevention of injury and durability in light of the strain of pro tennis and all the training that goes into it. He does not have a problem with lack of power, although he should normally gain some muscle and power just in the course of doing the kind of training he needs. Look at the way Murray's body has changed over the last few years. Or even Djokovic's. Nole doesn't appear thick at all, but I bet he has put on well over 15 lbs of muscle over the last 3 to 4 years. On Jerzy's 6 inches longer frame that would be nothing. But it would have meant a little more weight and kick on the serve and just a little more spin and pace on the groundies. Most of all, it would mean more stability for him in the long run and protection from injury and more ability to recover from the wear and tear of all the match play. As big as he is, he has to stay very light.

For a pro tennis player to herniate a disc working in the gym is the height of stupidity. This year Jerzy became a multi-million dollar a year cottage industry. He needs professional guidance. Good trainers know better than that. There is a reason players do so much training with rubber tubing and body weight exercises. I'm really disappointed to hear Jerzy herniated a disc. If so, that is a major setback. Recovering from that is tough for anyone. But coming back to the kind of light-footed mobility he was demonstrating this summer is going to take a tremendous amount of work under the right kind of guidance. There are different degrees of damage done by disc herniation and some can be completely rehabilitated; but if he goes under the knife, he will have lost a significant amount of the potential he had at the beginning of the summer; the potential for getting to the top 5 may be gone. This is not Tommy John surgery for the elbow where the patient comes out of the surgery stronger.

He could still be a much better player than he has been, but getting beyond the edge of the top 10 was going to require so much more of him. It wasn't just his shotmaking and power that attracted me to his game; it was also his phenomenal mobility and quickness. He would need absolutely all of that to take advantage of his height with more movement towards the net in the scenario that I was imagining and hoping for him. Even with an apparent full recovery from his injury, he will not be as quick as he was. And he will be hesitant and apprehensive for quite a while. And that tiny little difference is the difference between good and great.

So, yeah, I'm really depressed by this turn of events. I had really great hopes for him.

don