Tour Strokes: Kei Nishikori Serve

[johncraig]

Great analysis on the Nishikori Serve. He played in the 2018 Oracle Challenger at our club following the 6 months of recovery from his wrist injury back in 2017. I carefully observed and filmed him practicing his serve before the tournament started, and concluded exactly the same. Does he have mobility limitations in his shoulder? (His grip would suggest some limitation). Or has been trained with poor technique and now it is so embedded, he can't change it? Either way, he is recruiting the wrong muscles and producing a movement that is limiting performance and prone to injury. I tried to show one of his coaches my video (not Michael Chang) and he blew me off...

[stroke]

John, it looks to me like Tsitsipas may have the same flaw? His grip certainly looks flawed similarly to Kei.

[johnyandell]

Not the same rotational flaw. Not sure about the grip.

[stotty]

It's certainly an extreme flaw. I guess tour coaches have all and sundry wanting to give all sorts of advice and probably end up shutting their ears to it. In this case it's a great shame Kei's coach shut his ears.

I am strongly against possessive coaches for exactly this kind of reason.

Great article...loved it.

[johnyandell]

Thanks Stotty!