serve problems

[alexl]

Hi John,

I am trying to improve my serve because it is by far the weakest part of my game and really lets me down in matches.

I have taken videos of myself serving and read lots of your articles, and I think I’ve worked out the main problem, that I rotate my shoulders and hips around too early and too much, but I can’t seem to stop myself from doing this. Are there any drills to help correct this? I’m working on the racket drop also which I know is not a full one, but I’m quite inflexible so I might not be able to improve it. Could you have a look at these videos and tell me what you think please?

At the moment I am not trying any knee bend and sometimes start from just before the racket drop position, so I can concentrate on just a few things at a time. I know I have lots of bad habits so I’m sort of trying to start from scratch.

Thanks for any help,

-Alex

[evikshin]

Hey John, I came across this post, and I realized you wrote it awhile back, and didn't get any replies. So here's my 2 cents...

I think your lower body is a little stiff. You can utilize a lot more knee bend. It appears that you are using mainly upper body. Also, you should be leaning left too with your upper body as you toss the ball and get into trophy position--all the great servers have this left lean, it appears as if they "arch" their back, but it is really due to the fact that they bend their knees).

I would also work on throwing the ball further out and front and finishing with your left foot inside the baseline. Let that be a guideline. I had a similar problem where I'd finish in the same spot with my left foot that I started in. It robbed me of power.

Also, it looks like your using a mild continental, bordering on eastern. Am I correct, or are my eyes deceiving me? If that is the case, I'd switch to a full continental.

Lastly, I would work on more body rotation. On the Deuce side, it looks as if your shoulders are perpendicular to the baseline, 90 degrees...which is ok...but with your flexibility, you should aim for at least 130 degrees. Try to get more turn as you throw the ball up. I didn't actually start serving well until I mastered the body rotation. It took a long time, and lots of camera work.

evan

[johnyandell]

Alex,

Refresh my memory--did I give you some input by email??

John Yandell

[alexl]

Hi John,

No you didn't, I emailed the videos to you a while ago but I'm not sure if you got them or not.

evikshin,

Thanks for the commments. As I said, in these videos I have left out some elements of my usual serve like the kneebend, as I find it really hard to practice many things at once. I planned to put all the elements back together after I had sorted this particular problem of turning my shoulders to face the court too much. I was trying to do the most basic motion I could to make it easier to practice one thing.

My toss is a problem and I am trying to work on it, I can't put it in the same place everytime still. The toss is not far forward because I was trying to keep my feet quite stationary (just for the moment), so I would naturally not turn to face the court so early, but it seems to have failed!

Thanks for the observation on the grip, I have been holding the handle very loosely to try to make sure my wrist is also loose. I start with a continental grip, but probably shift it subconsciously by the time I hit the ball.

You're right my shoulder turn is definitely not far enough, maybe improving it could help me stay more sideways also.

[alexl]

John did you get the videos by email or do you want me to send them again?

[johnyandell]

Send them in a week when we are back from Zagreb.