Arguement about hitting up on the serve

[klacr]

I am not sure if it is pointless. I have a young lady on my team who is sure she has to hit down on the ball as if she is spiking a volley ball serve. She has very little shoulder tilt and has difficulty putting spin on the ball. In several sources I have seen over the years the comparison has been made that serving is like throwing a ball high into the air. Right now I believe that one should be exploding up into the ball and letting the down on the ball happen naturally.

Ralph

This rabbit hole can go deep...

When I'm teaching people to serve, especially kids, I normally describe to to them they they are throwing the ball upwards, I give them a target, like a cloud and tell them to see how close they can throw the ball up to the cloud. I also tell them we are playing catch, but they will be on the court and they need to pretend I'm in a helicopter above them.

With adults, I take them to the side of the court where we have canopy that rises over a table, chairs, a water fountain and shelving units. I have the adults play catch with me over the canopy. But I have the adults start fairly close to underneath the canopy so that they must throw at a high angle over the canopy to the other side where I catch it. If they throw it forward it will go under the canopy, not over. They tend to get it quickly.

In all these exercises, the students have a visual cue. I also find that by teaching them to throw up or swing up on the ball, its easier and more naturally for them to create that snap to come down.

With that said...

I have two boys I teach, both 14 years old. They are friends. The first boy is a big bruiser, hard flat groundies and pretty tall for his age (reminds me of someone at that age ). He naturally wants to hit down on the serve and he does quite well with it. The 2nd boy, is smaller and is very fast, solid shots and quite crafty. He feels the need to hit up and over the ball.

They both have good serves, just different ways of conceptualizing it and a kinesthetic feel for what they think needs to happen.

It may be a height thing as well. Taller players feel like hitting down, shorter players feel like they need to hit up. That's just a random statement with no real research behind it. Take it with a grain of salt.

What actually happens is not as important as what the player needs to feel. If you asked every player in the top 10 if they hit up on a serve or hit down I don't think you'd get a consistent answer. And I'm quite certain that their answers would be incorrect to what it may look like on their stroke videos. Those players that said "hit up" would appear as if they may be "hitting down" and vice versa.

Also, can it be either depending on type of serve, 1st or 2nd serve?

It's a great question to ask and a terrific thread to hear these opinions.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton