Ok...what's happening to me?!

[pmata814]

Earlier I posted a thread here about how much my serve imprved after only one hopper of balls when learning the Roger Federer serve motion. I went out 2 days later and instead of getting better I got worse. I didn't worry, because it's not the first time it happens. It's my experience that improvement is sort of like going up and down hills. Good day, bad day, better day, bad day and so on.

Except this time I've been out about 4 times to practice my serve and each time it has gotten worse! Today I hardly got a serve in! I feel as if I'm doing everything the same way I did it the first time? Any ideas?

thanks in advance.

[johnyandell]

Could be your expectations that you have solved the problem getting in the way. Try to focus on the process only.

Technically, we'd need some video to look at to say anything about the motion. Think about submitting something to Your Strokes!

[pmata814]

I think I figured out what was wrong. I went out yesterday morning and after struggling with the first hopper of balls I went back to my old toss (where I just toss it straight up and down instead of drifting the toss from right to left). Everything started clicking great just like my first time out there or better. I don't remember what toss I was practicing that day. As soon as I would try the different toss my timing would feel off, I could not get clean contact with the ball, and my serves would start missing.

I'm keeping all of the other parts of the serve the same but for now I will toss the ball straight up and down (as opposed to the toss drifting from right to left as in the article) until I feel confident with this motion. Later I will gradually start trying to implement the new toss again.

I don't think this will be detrimental to my serve (or shoulder) right? As long as I start the toss with my body sideways and ensure good torso rotation, knee bend and forearm position I should be ok right?

Thanks in advance.

[johnyandell]

Defintely, probably. Again hard to say without seeing it!