May 2019: Dominic Thiem First Serve

[gzhpcu]

Stotty,

Just Google "Roscoe Tanner Serve" and then view under images.

[gzhpcu]

or this

[curiosity]

Tanner had lots of shoulder turn. With his low toss, his left arm was slightly above horizontal on trophy position.

What strikes me in Tanner's serve is the extent of his UB rotation from start to contact, 170 degrees? I also note the start of UB rotation before his racquet drop is underway. Putting massive momentum into the torso before the hitting shoulder is pulled hard under, back, and up...seems to make the best use of our ability to get the torso rotating, full of Mo, before the clutch is let out and the arm is pulled into action. I'm reminded of Roddick's form of synchronization, though different: He was off the ground and rotating while his racquet was still going down. He was my first lesson in where to find power before the ISR into contact phase. Can neitherr see too many films, nor watch each one too many times.

[J011yroger]

JY or anyone else, any idea about the exaggerated matador like finish, (Shapo does it too) and the warmup with feet square to the baseline (4:30 in this video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx36NzibOrM

Thiem is overall very deliberate in his finishes in practice.

J

[johnyandell]

This a usta video? What now? Matador like finish is? Welcome btw. Good to see you crossed over from the dark side... (TW)

[J011yroger]

This a usta video? What now? Matador like finish is? Welcome btw. Good to see you crossed over from the dark side... (TW)

He finishes like this in warm-ups and doesn't seem to as much in real matches. Shapovalov also has the matador finish.

J

[johnyandell]

JR,
Ok I see what you are talking about. Roger and others keep the elbow bent and tucked although the whole arm does move back. Murray does something similar to Thiem. In my opinion it's not helping any and might lead to over rotation and making a balanced landing more difficult. Hard to fault Thiem's serving effectiveness though.

[J011yroger]

In my experience players under pressure have the tendency to crunch, pull down, make themselves smaller, or however you want to describe it, the matador finish feels good, and helps accentuate the out and around motion. I didn't know if there was any bio-mechanical thing to go along with it. DT also holds his finishes in practice too, like kids were coached to in the late 90s and early 00s it was all the rage on the East Coast and irritated me to no end when people did it in matches. I am 6'2" ish and serve platform so I look at Thiem, Sampras, and Fed a lot.

Thanks for the reply.

J

[johnyandell]

If you are serving like Thiem I would see no reason to question it...

[J011yroger]

I am serving like the Chinatown knock off Rolex version of Thiem...

J

[johnyandell]

Still could be pretty good.