Interactive Forum April 2016: Justine Henin Serve

[johnyandell]

Justine Henin Serve


For many years there has been ongoing discussion and debate and argument about stances in pro tennis. Pinpoint, extreme pinpoint, platform, compact platform. What are they and what are the pluses and minuses? What can we tell from the stance of Justine Henin? It’s been six years since her retirement after nine Slam titles. More on this later, but before she ever won her first she changed from an extreme pinpoint to the platform stance you see in this amazing high speed footage.

So how is it a woman who stands about 5’6” had so much success while the huge majority of the other top women and many of the men had or have some version of the pinpoint? Your thoughts? And what else do you see in her motion?

[curiosity]

Its not where the legs are but what you do with them

I enjoyed and miss Justine.

There is a belief among female players that a pinpoint stance, one with the back foot moved slightly ahead of the front foot just before launch, is required for max power due to having an unfused pelvic bone. If the legs are used simply to push, extend, upwards, then I agree with the notion.

However, Justine did the right thing "if one is able." She begins her serve launch much like Federer does in this one regard: She does not simply push up or forward (balance shifting) with her back leg. Instead, like RF, she uses the back leg to push up and toward the sideline a bit, to get her right hip rising and both hips rotating. This helps begin UB rotation while getting the right hip out of the way, preventing it from slowing UB rotation. No?

[seano]

Justine Henin's Serve

Justine has a lot of good qualities to her serve; good leg drive, deep racquet drop, shoulder over shoulder, the ball is on the inside of her hand at contact helping with the internal shoulder rotation. Her left arm has tucked in at contact, helping with the whipping action of the racquet thru contact.

But there are some interesting little things that show up. Her balance is off some, particularly on the Ad side. On the second overall serve (1st serve,rear view) she lands on her left foot but it is pointing towards the opposite net post. She then needs to take some adjustment steps to get ready for the return of serve. On her second serve (deuce side, 4th overall) She also lands in a very knee flexed position, where she seems to be too bent and needs to gather her balance. Is this due to her feet being too staggered in the beginning? Could she get more rear leg drive and maintain better balance if the front of the rear foot was aligned closer to the arch of the front foot?

It tough to see but on her second serve (3rd overall, front view, Ad side) it looks like at the completion of the swing, her grip has shifted to a eastern forehand grip, and her arm stays completely straight through out the follow through, no relaxed deceleration. On others she bends the elbow more and seems more relaxed in the follow through.

Just some thoughts, thought I'd get the ball rolling.

Sean

[llll]

what i noticed most is justine gets no shoulder turn/ trunk rotation away from the net when she starts her toss which would give her alittle more power if she would coil/uncoil her trunk and shoulders
however she managed to win 7 grand slams
so her serve is fine.....

[johnyandell]

When I first filmed Justine at Indian Wells in 2004 she had a pinpoint and would hit up to 10 doubles a match. Carlos Rodriquez used the high speed footage of Sampras's serve that we had recently shot to remodel the serve. Going to write in detail about that eventually, as per his use of the Agassi forehand footage.
One of the interesting things to me though is how far she lands in the court--much further than Pete or Fed! And what that may or may not have done to her balance...

[johnyandell]

IIII,

I would say her turn away is pretty good by the time she gets to the fully loaded position with her legs! Better than the huge majority of women serves even (or especially) today. If her toes on her back foot were a little more open like Pete and Fed she would get more though.

[kruger]

The Eyes Have it !

I was at the Newport Tennis Hall of Fame when Mark Philippoussis played Pat Cash. Mark was having a terrible time getting his first serve in and turned to the crowd saying, "What am I doing wrong?" I replied, "Look at the contact point a second longer!" He did and aced Cash on the very next serve. The point is...we need to be looking at the ball as it is being hit and even a bit longer. When we look up too soon to see where the ball is going, we miss and will continue to miss regularly. After the ace, Mark turned around and asked if
there was a fee for the advise!
PS- Watch Justine's eyes and see how it done.