Ultimate Fundamentals: The Racket Path on the Serve

[gzhpcu]

Thanks John...

[johnyandell]

I say drop over exact trophy position, but if you want to focus on one that probably maximizes the ease of timing and also the contribution of the leg drive to the racket drop, the best model is Fed.

[buddyvance]

One more commnonality?

Would love to get your thoughts on "Ultimate Fundamentals: The Racket Path on the Serve"

It appears to me that there is one more thing all three players have in common. It appears to me that none of the players are actually looking at the ball at point of contact. Is trying to see the racket hit the ball at contact not something we should be working on?
Buddy

[johnyandell]

Buddy,

Great perception. Roddick in particular is not looking and the same was true of another great server, Greg Rusedksi. Fed I think is actually looking or at least has his head turned to the ball.

I definitely wouldn't try to look down. In fact the opposite. Many years ago we did some high speed video of Taylor Dent and correlated his head position with his serving percentages. His dad Phil, himself a world class player, felt this was key. Sure enough he had higher percentages on the balls with his head up.

It's a factor but compared say to the three key positions and other stuff like leg drive and body turn it may not be at the top of the list. I would work on those first while trying to keep the head up. If you serve develops well and it looks like your head position is still dropping I wouldn't worry about it. If you have trouble with your percentages, then you can try keying the head.