Two questions for Bill on the serve...

[EdWeiss]

Tanner Serve

As you guys seem totally devoted to unearthing all there is to know about the Tanner serve, I recall that Roscoe himself did an article in World Tennis magazine (it could have been Tennis magazine for some reason I recall it as World Tennis) describing his serve. I would guess the article was around 1977. I do recall that he said that his goal on the serve was to get all of his body momentum going both up and forward at the moment of impact with the ball.

[gzhpcu]

Ed,
I used to have a copy of that issue. It included a series of photos (shown from the front) showing all the phases of his serve. Unfortunately, I no longer have it...

[EdWeiss]

Given Phil's response (he actually had the issue and remembered the pictures) I think it is now official: the Tennisplayer.net forum crowd are the biggest tennis fanatics in the world. I mean that strictly as a compliment!

[stroke]

This was a great thread on the serve, Bungalow Bill I feel really does a good job of explaining the role of the wrist in the serve, and the talk about Tanner's serve is great. He may have the only pre-modern shot in tennis that would be interesting to study even today. As great as Borg's forehand was back in the day, he was probably kind of arming the ball by today's modern forehand standards. John, I know you offered to take a look at Roscoe's serve, if you got the video, which I guess never happened. I sure hope you get a chance to look at some footage of his serve, your analysis is always about as good as it gets.

[Bungalow Bill]

This was a great thread on the serve, Bungalow Bill I feel really does a good job of explaining the role of the wrist in the serve, and the talk about Tanner's serve is great. He may have the only pre-modern shot in tennis that would be interesting to study even today. As great as Borg's forehand was back in the day, he was probably kind of arming the ball by today's modern forehand standards. John, I know you offered to take a look at Roscoe's serve, if you got the video, which I guess never happened. I sure hope you get a chance to look at some footage of his serve, your analysis is always about as good as it gets.

Thanks for the stroke of confidence, STROKE! lol

My insight from Tanner's serve came from the sometimes discounted advice of Vic Braden. Vic Braden had a sort of coaches love affair with Tanner's serve, so naturally I was around to hear a lot about it. To this day, Vic still references his serve.

[GMann]

Roscoe Tanner Serve Videos Finally Sent!

This was a great thread on the serve, Bungalow Bill I feel really does a good job of explaining the role of the wrist in the serve, and the talk about Tanner's serve is great. He may have the only pre-modern shot in tennis that would be interesting to study even today. As great as Borg's forehand was back in the day, he was probably kind of arming the ball by today's modern forehand standards. John, I know you offered to take a look at Roscoe's serve, if you got the video, which I guess never happened. I sure hope you get a chance to look at some footage of his serve, your analysis is always about as good as it gets.

I just wanted everyone to know that I finally mailed the Rascoe Tanner VHS Videos to John on Saturday. The first one is Vic Braden's video on the serve where he studies Rascoe's serve motion. The second one is that obscure instruction video that Roscoe himself put out that not many people know about. Hopefully, John can analyze this video and figure it out for us. What I noticed the most was how Tanner seemed to be using his hips into the ball so that the arm and wrist seemed to be mere conduits to the hip and lower body generated power. I also noticed his incredible shoulder strength and flexibilty which is probably what us mere mortals will not be able to duplicate regardless of the knowledge we gain from analyzing the motion.

Sorry to all for the delay guys. It's so much easier to write than it is to mail.

Regards,

GMann

[stroke]

That's good news GMann, I was about to send off a tape I have of Tanner's 1977 Australian Open Final vs Vilas, but I am sure John will have all he needs on Tanner's motion from your tapes. Tanner's motion seems simpler than Roddicks(who some feel is an updated Tanner serve) to me. As you have pointed out, and I agree, Goran's is the closest to the Tanner motion. The main difference to me, other that a slightly higher ball toss by Goran, is that Goran seems to drop his elbow lower, closer to his body, just before turns his elbow towards the ball(and goes into his full racquet drop), than Tanner.

[gzhpcu]

Great news! I have the Vic Braden video on the serve, and unfortunately it just shows Roscoe Tanner's upper body and not the full body motion. Hope the second video is complete, otherwise the 1977 Australian Open video might still be useful... Thanks to both of you!

[GMann]

Great news! I have the Vic Braden video on the serve, and unfortunately it just shows Roscoe Tanner's upper body and not the full body motion. Hope the second video is complete, otherwise the 1977 Australian Open video might still be useful... Thanks to both of you!

The good news is that the second video does show Roscoe's whole body, but he's probably close to 40 years old when he's hitting the serve. It still looks pretty darn hard. Stroke, I agree with GZHPCU that it certainly wouldn't hurt to send that Australian Open video to John because you have footage of him in his prime. Just send it to John at his address earlier in this thread and he will send it back to you after he's dowloaded the data.

I'm looking forward to the videographical guru's analysis.

John, let me know if you don't get the tapes by Monday.

[gzhpcu]

That would be a great article for the July issue!