Jensen Brooksby Serve

[johnyandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on my article, Tour Strokes: Jensen Brooksby Serve

[bababa]

Amazing analysis. Something you could never see on TV.

[bowt]

absolutely awesome analysis very good

[stotty]

This is a really good walk-thru on Jensen's serve. I find Jensen uses what he has got to the maximum effect but technically he could use some help. especially on his serve. I see he's had the same coach for 13 years, which is an achievement for both player and coach when you think about it. It would be interesting to know about the background of the coaching scenario to know whether Jensen is one of those players who is just wired to do things a certain way or whether that serve could have been better developed. You'd suspect the latter but without knowing the history and background it's tough to say.

But it was a superb article by JY whose expertise is outstanding on these kind of things. I enjoy these kind of articles the most.

[jeremy93]

I saw Jensen play live in DC a couple months ago and I noticed he seems to get his weight forward very early in the motion. Great article John.

[don_budge]

Would love to get your thoughts on my article, Tour Strokes: Jensen Brooksby Serve

Great article. Illustrates some very important issues in modern tennis.

"These elements have to do with his stance, his body rotation and his leg drive, and maybe the timing of his entry into the backswing. Let's start with the stance."

Absolutely start with the stance. Then let's talk about the backswing. Scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. Amazing...isn't it? That a professional tennis player could have this poor of a service motion. Jannik Sinner has scrapped his old motion and traded up for the platform stance. I am not sure when I have seen an established tennis pro make such a change but it is certainly for the better.

I was watching just a bit of a replay between Sinner and Monfils and I could not get over how good Sinner's service motion looked. I wasn't that impressed with it before but I honestly couldn't remember what it was he was doing. The one thing that stood out to me was he was using a platform stance. I thought that it was a pin point before. I did a little research on the web and came up with this video that validated what I suspected about his stance...he had changed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ge53dBrls

There has been discussion about the Zverev serve and now what's his name...the American "phenom". Brooksby? Not impressed at all with that serve. But Sinner really ironed out some kinks by going to platform...keep in mind that both johnyandell and BrianGordon are also advocates of platform. As I am. I was impressed with Sinner's motion and trust me...this opens up the path going forwards. There is much to improve and now he has the solid foundation to work from.

I saw some more "pop" on the serve against Monfils. This serve will do nothing but improve over time. This is the kind of motion that will just get better with age...like Federer's. Not sure if it will be as good as Roger's...but certainly a step in the right direction.

Brooksby's stance is very, very lame. He doesn't look like he has any serious intentions with his serve...let alone bombing his opponent into next week. He has made a big splash lately...let's see what he does to back it up.

[dane10s]

John, I cant argue with a single thing you said……and i love to tennis argue lol!

[glacierguy]

115mph from that action isn't bad, but I suspect the weakness will show up in unreliability when it counts. I agree with pretty much all the comments above and the analysis in the article (obviously!), and would only add a couple more observations to the long list: first, he's got a touch of the Andy Murrays, in that his racquet is almost inline with his forearm at contact, thereby reducing the effect of internal shoulder rotation; and second, I just have a feeling that he could get his right shoulder a bit lower in the windup - I'd like to see more tilt.

[seano]

Brooksby is getting a lot of attention.

https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/jenson-brooksby-on-breakthrough-summer-what-he-learned-from-playing-novak-djokov

[don_budge]

Brooksby is getting a lot of attention.

https://www.tennis.com/news/articles...g-novak-djokov

It seems he has earned a good deal of it anyways. Of course there is always a certain amount of hype. Take his next opponent for example...Alexander Zverev. His picture was in the dictionary for a number of years under the word hype. But Jenson has earned the attention in that he has sort of "burst" on to the scene the last few months...seemingly out of nowhere. But with some real consistency. He has shown some consistency. Not just flash in the pan stuff. This is one of the big things you look for in "phenoms".

This is a nice match early on in the tournament and I'm pulling for Brooksby...big time. What's not to like in this young man. Truly an All-American type. Lord...we need that now. And Zverev...the antithesis. Whiney. Not a big fan.

But the more I think about it...scrap the service motion and start from scratch. That would be interesting. For a player of his stature to just say...forget about it. Let's take it from the top. Platform with classic backswing. Keep an eye on Sinner's motion seano. He has a nice opponent in his next round to test it on.

[kenh]

Andy takes a little step back (or so it appears to me) with his front foot with the result being more of a comma in his body by his hip getting further out in front of his body. It looks to me like Brooksby's body line is flatter and more vertical from his hips. Could getting an increased hip action and left side stretch add more MPH's to his serve? Baseball players talk about hip and shoulder separation in this case.

[don_budge]

Case in point...Jensen Brooksby didn't have the service game that he needs to have to dominate his serve against a player like Diego Schwartzman. Not even close. Scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. Just put the Andy Roddick idea as far away from the table as it can possibly be. That is about the worst idea I have ever heard with regard to serve motions.

[kenh]

Case in point...Jensen Brooksby didn't have the service game that he needs to have to dominate his serve against a player like Diego Schwartzman. Not even close. Scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. Just put the Andy Roddick idea as far away from the table as it can possibly be. That is about the worst idea I have ever heard with regard to serve motions.

The main point is not to copy the roddick foot work but to get the hip further in front. The trick is finding the easiest way for him to do it.

[don_budge]

Andy takes a little step back (or so it appears to me) with his front foot with the result being more of a comma in his body by his hip getting further out in front of his body. It looks to me like Brooksby's body line is flatter and more vertical from his hips. Could getting an increased hip action and left side stretch add more MPH's to his serve? Baseball players talk about hip and shoulder separation in this case.

The main point is not to copy the roddick foot work but to get the hip further in front. The trick is finding the easiest way for him to do it.

That's true and good points...and that is the point from my point of view as well. The easiest way and the Fundamentally Correct way to do this is with simply changing to the platform stance. Then it is a matter of installing a simple and correct backswing and the rest usually takes care of itself. I find the Roddick footwork nothing short of horrific. It may have worked for him but on the other hand his serve may have been even better from the platform stance. Pin point involves more moving parts and from a quality control perspective this is a big no no.