Tweet
On the tennis1 site a couple weeks back, Vic Braden narrated a clip of Federer hitting his kick 2nd serve, he referred to it as a topspin serve. Roger was hitting it close to his head and about even with his body as opposed to over his shoulder and a couple feet into the court as he does on his first delivery. Braden said this serve is potentially harmful to the shoulder and he requires a signed waiver before he will teach it. I thought as long as the toss wasn't behind you that it was ok. Any information you have would be much appreciated, John as I would rather double fault from time to time than blow out my shoulder!
-
-
I know Vic feels strongly about that. I'm not sure what studies or players he is refering too. In my opinion though I wouldn't worry too much.
If you look at Federer or any other top server and draw a line out for the the shoulder, you can see the upper arm is pretty much in line with that plane. Note how with the knee bend the player launches to his left--there is an entire article devoted to this in the Sampras serve series. This allows that line to stay in tact.
So long as the elevation of the arm doesn't go too much above that line and the toss stays in front of the plane of the body, I think most players are fine. There are hundreds if not thousands of high level competitive players using this motion. Not sure there is the epidemic of rotator cuff injuries you'd expect if de facto this motion caused them.
Comment