Upward Swing on the Serve: Most Complex Motion in Sports?

[tenniscoach1]

The thing that annoys me the most about the articles on the site is they are pre-cursor to sales, advertising based promoting a book/coach, anecdotal in nature and there are zero references, documentation and studies.

So Brian - clearly you are a high end coach - but, do you have published scientific papers?

Here is an example of the type of thing we are looking for here - Mark Kovacs - references are listed.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445225/ ...

Is this site just not letting you post white papers with references and more in depth information just due to editorial reasons?

[BrianGordon]

I think it is safe to say a flat entry can limit ESR exiting the backswing and that the potential upward swing consequences can limit the contribution of ISR to racquet speed around contact.

[seano]

Brian -

Is it safe to assume that the lack Khachanovs consistently reaching a full 180 of ISR, is in part because of your explanation, the decreased ulnar deviation range of motion, decreased overall range of motion in the upward swing by decreasing drop depth, and complication of the adduction process in turn delaying elbow positioning and subsequent timing of elbow extension?

I love geeking out to your explanations

Sean

[BrianGordon]

Hi Sean -

My biomechanical explanation is it is poor mechanics. At the least this pattern tends to cause: decreased ulnar deviation range of motion, decreased overall range of motion in the upward swing by decreasing drop depth, and complication of the adduction process in turn delaying elbow positioning and subsequent timing of elbow extension - all of which he displays. The good news is at his size (6'5") and strength he can bludgeon the ball in, but a work of mechanical efficiency it is not - in my option.

I guess the key to ISR-ESR coupling is dynamic flexibility in ESR and contractile speed in ISR. It is possible to measure these things but I don't mess with it. I work mostly with juniors so flexibility is generally not a problem - I do work on ISR speed. For older players I suppose the opposite is true - flexibility tends to wain but they generally have developed more speed in ISR in the school of hard knocks.

Hope you are well!

[seano]

Brian -

Hope all is well and the Miami & Boca Raton teaching is successful. In this months Interactive forum it features Karen Khachanov Serve. In his racquet drop, it appears that he doesn't keep the racquet face on edge and have it disappear behind his head (as you recommended in a previous video) but rather almost has a waiters tray sort of look to it, a la Pete Sampras. He does bring the racquet back to edge at full racquet drop. I have 2 questions -

1) Is there a bio-mechanical explanation for this movement? Or is it just a very flexible shoulder?
2) What testing would you recommend to measure a students external to internal shoulder capability? Things to look for (scapula movement, as an example)?

Thanks,
Sean

[BrianGordon]

Hello folks. Over the years I've worked to get better at explaining my understanding of stroke mechanics, such as it is. These comments encourage me that I'm finally improving a bit. Thanks so much jeremy, doctor and of course stotty for considering this presentation and the kind words. BG

[stotty]

A brilliant walk-thru of the four parts of the serve. I will be really interested to see how to best set the table for the mechanics leading up to the upward swing. One assumes if something goes awry with the wind-up and backswing then the critical rotations in the upward swing simply won't happen.

The visual explanation of the terminology is so very useful.

[doctorhl]

Brian, best explanation and visual of the upward swing motion ever! And the fact that duplicating that upward motion, which produces the majority of the ultimate swing speed, can never be achieved without proper emphasis and training on the correct sequencing of the prior phases.

[jeremy93]

Thanks Brian. Very interesting stuff and looking forward to the rest of it!!!

[johnyandell]

Let's discuss Brian Gordon's latest article, "Upward Swing on the Serve: Most Complex Motion in Sports?"