Sampras' Serve Analysis

[vmiller]

John,

Great articles on Sampras' serve! I have a few questions if you don't mind taking the time to answer them.

1. I've always had trouble using my legs in my serve until I started using my back leg more. Your article, along with many others, mentions shifting the weight to the front foot. I assume this to mean a large majority, if not all of the weight. What I don't understand is how hip and shoulder rotation could be driven by your front leg. Or, do you initiate hip and shoulder rotation AS you are using your rear leg to transfer your weight forward?

Maybe my initial problem was that I was transferring my weight forward too early and then had no means of effectively producing rotation. Keeping weight on my rear leg definitely improved my serve, but maybe I can make a better improvement by timing the forward transfer better? What do you think?

I'm not sure how much this relates, but I've also dramatically improved the consistency and power in my overhead by using my back leg to launch up after it.

2. You suggest using the same stance and alignment for the ad and deuce courts, which would result in, I think, quite a bit more rotation when serving from the deuce court (for a right hander). Why don't you think it's a good idea to adjust your stance so that you're using roughly the same amount of rotation on both sides?

3. Roddick! Do you think it's possible he has a better spin/speed ratio than Sampras? He seems to use a lot less rotation than sampras, which is one of things you cite as a big factor in the production of Pete's spin/speed combo. Do you ever plan on doing an analysis on Roddick's serve? It would be especially interesting if you compared and contrasted his motion with Sampras'.

Thanks,
Vin

[johnyandell]

Just a couple...

Vin,
Very simple questions too...I'm joking because I think they are actually very complex with no simple answers.
On the rotation I would say you definitely do not want to try to vary the total rotation in your motion depending on the court. That's a recipe for disaster. In general Sampras lands on his front foot with the shoulders about parallel to the net.
Now the contact point may vary and be at different points in the rotation, but if you want to make yourself crazy just start looking at all the Sampras serves and see if you can tell the angle of the torso to the baseline in every serve in the Archive. (Infact write it down and email me if you do.) But even if you knew the angle down to a degree that would NOT be something to key. It's the stance, the turn along the stance, the knee bend and the motion of the hand to the ball.
Same exact deal on the legs and the hips. You do not consciously push off OR rotate--at least if you serve well. I'm not sure one of the main points of the articles was clear enough. IT'S LOCK AND LOAD. Pete turned and coiled and then boom.
The weight stays back for a while--when his arms drop it's about equal on the two feet from there it shifts forward. Again do it by feel not analysis.
AND yeah I have some stuff about Roddick and speed spin. Will be talking about it more later.