Rear foot placement on platform serve

[seano]

John -

I've been going over your great series on the serve and I have a question about the placement of the rear foot in the platform stance. Maybe it's just Ad court vs. Deuce court question, but you are advocating turning the rear foot away from the baseline to increase body rotation. Rick Macci wants the rear foot parallel to the baseline to increase rear leg drive. From your video's it's evident that Fed, and to a greater extent, Sampras both turn the rear foot away. Thoughts?

Sean

[klacr]

Sean,

Take a look at this article, specifically the segment titled "Starting Stance", even more specifically, The last paragraph. Hope that helps.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...rve_part1.html

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[seano]

Rear Foot Placement

Kyle -

Thank you for your help and the referenced article. That was my understanding of the rear foot placement. 3/4 the way thru his "Body Rotation" article in his latest series on the serve, John talks about experimenting with pointing the rear toes towards the rear fence more, was curious.

On another subject; role of hip flexion vs. leg extension on the upward drive, any thoughts?

Sean

[johnyandell]

Sean,

For the average player up to say ranked junior or college level I would say don't worry about that. For elite competitive players, sure, it's worth the experiment. On the leg drive versus hip, well, that's a biomech question that goes beyond my expertise. But I will say that whatever that relationship is supposed to be it will be with the context of appropriate use of stance and leg drive, as well as ball position at contact.

One more note. I've been traveling and didn't see this til now. But in general if you want to address a question to me specifically, put it in that section. I let the forum be the forum and don't read or interject in all the threads.

[klacr]

Sean,

I have to agree with John in regards to the foot position. Depends on the level of player. If not an elite competitive player, Don't obsess over it. Focus on the larger issues like toss and racquet drop. The rest may in fact take care of itself.

As for the hip flexion and leg drive, you may want to refer to Brian Gordon's work on the serve. Here is a link to one of his articles that touches upon leg drive(towards the middle of article)

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/biomechanics/brian_gordon/the_backswing_part_1/the_backswing_part_1.html

I trust Brian's expertise in biomechanics way more than my own. Probably due to the fact that he is a biomechanist and I'm not. Hope that article helps.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[seano]

Foot Placement

Kyle -

Thank you for all your help, you've been very helpful. I really appreciate it.

Sean