Interactive Forum March 2017 Venus Williams Serve

[johnyandell]

Venus Williams: Serve

She’s hit first serves at 129mph. Venus’s serve clearly is one of the biggest weapons on the tour. But what about her technique? We've looked at the role of the back leg in Dr. Ben Kibler's articles. Here is Venus with an extreme foot forward stance.

Also what about that head position at contact? Is it the most radically downward of all the top pros—women or men? Is this a case of talent over technique?

Or do we make too much of technical variations?

[johnyandell]

Venus Williams: Serve

[hockeyscout]

Incredible grip and hand strength. And, magical rotator cuff. Heavy bones for a woman. Terrific genetics, 99 percent of the service game. Great player. It's tough teaching a woman to serve. Venus has a HUGE head. It's hard to control for a woman that size. Not as good a motion as Martina Navratilova ... she had a mans serve technically. Just beautiful Martina's serve. Never seen a woman with such a mobile shoulder. Surprised she does not have the records.

[Alfred140mph]

Does it make anyone else wonder if there is too much emphasis on technique?

[don_budge]

Does it make anyone else wonder if there is too much emphasis on technique?

If you look at many of the service motions on the professional tour it makes me wonder if there is ANY emphasis on technique. There are so many hodgepodge and convoluted motions that it makes anything resembling a good motion look like an acquired taste. It used to be that most motions resembled something of a standard.

Why should there be any emphasis at all? Venus is a perfect example...in her imperfection. There is very little that is redeemable in this motion as far as any tennis teacher or coach can take away. So what if she can hit the ball hard...compared to other "females". The question always is "what if". What if she had a fundamentally perfect motion without all of the hitches and wasted motions?

Technique serves as a means to an end...it is not the end itself. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...well, you know what I mean.

[sjhara]

I just finished watching Venus at Miami where there is a good camera side view of her serve. As with all things technical, players develop techniques that are unique to their body and the way it moves in space, what they want to accomplish with the ball and the court, and to the way in which they have been coached and the way they have learned.
Venus, I think is caught between her initial coaching and the way her fabulously athletic body has adapted to the high speed demands of the game.
She probably was taught to serve in a down together up together longer pendulum back behind her type swing , but as her serve has tried to develop to a more powerful rotational one the original is interfering with the modern.
There is a front side and back side to the serve. In Venus serve her racquet and racquet tip go to the back side too soon which interferes with the rotational aspects of her barrel or core. In a similar motion from Ivo Karlovic the initial racquet and arm moves are similar, but his racquet tip remains more on the front side of the serve helping the rotation and shoulder over shoulder move. In John Isner’s serve you can see even more of the front side serve.
Yes Venus’ amazing athletic skills make it possible to serve 129 mph, but her personal serve technique interferes with a reliable second serve as well more variation in spin and speed in her serve.