The Myth of the Archer's Bow

[johnyandell]

Correcto. If you break all your rackets you can try throwing a football as high as possible. Or a tennis ball!

[tasbaron]

..

I think several of the other writers here are looking at whether the hips move forward so that the feet, the hips, and the head can be thought of forming an arch at the deepest part of the drop and whether the legs pushing the hips forward is an important part of the upward launch. On this point, I tend to side with the thinking that there is an arch as well shown in this particular clip of Sampras.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/petesampras/ps_serve/ps_1st_serve/ps_1st_serve.html?PS1stSAdSide2.mov

Ray

Great post .. the forward weight shift acts on the center of mass (COM) of the server, which is concentrated around the hips, and so the hips (& body) move forward.

But the top half of the body lags, due to its flexibility and increased moment of inertia (or swing weight), giving the appearance of an 'archers bow'.

The critical thing is that the COM is forward of the feet before the leg thrust to produce forward (and upward) propulsion.

You can see from the 'after' videos of Scott and Beat that when they are concentrating on an artificial bow that they have no net forward mass (due to the backward bend of their trunk) and so produce little forward momentum, both landing behind the base line.

So I find myself agreeing with JY. .. but feel sorry for Scott (blue shorts), who had to change from a pin point stance to platform. No wonder he was shaking his head.

[johnyandell]

Right you can see the shape and the center of mass shifts. This is coming in large part from the nature of the knee bend and its depth.

I think the point stands that what you called the artificial bow--great term--is being taught to the detriment of many players. It comes from a lack of careful study and analysis plus, unfortunately, the herd mentality when it comes to trendy teaching...