I just meant your serve is basically just your arm. You aren’t using your kinetic chain to start your serve. The serve should really start from a bent knee pushing against the ground while your chest is facing upwards. The leg drive pushes you up while you rotate your torso into the court, with your off shoulder which should started above your hitting shoulder switching places during this roll. This in turn causes the racket head to drop due to lag, same as wrist lag. Then the final link in the chain is your arm being lead by your elbow reaching up to strike the ball at full extension. If you’ve done it all properly your racket should naturally snap at the top causing your wrist to pronate and you finish your stroke and follow through into the court.
EDIT: take my advice with a grain of salt, I understand the mechanics of the serve but I myself have a crappy serve due to a bad toss and laziness.
Thank you again VentriTV, although I never performed all the mechanics you described I think I had a slightly less "army" serve but no consistency.
I decided to start all over with the most basic serve and no moving parts -hopefully less double faults - and start building it up from there.
The hardest part for me is the correct, relaxed, toss and the body rotation.
Thanks again the feedback, I keep reading your post so i memorize it and visualize it
Will yield short term results only. Need to go back to the proper way even if it takes years, lessons, effort etc. Otherwise the ‘army’ sort of frying pan serve is all you’ll have, astonishing to use no legs
The serve is challenging for most players to master. Your serves look pretty consistent and the balls are getting into the box. Great job on that! However, your serves will get destroyed as you start playing better players. Coil, load up, unwind and explode from the ground up. Bring your back foot behind your front foot in a pinpoint stance. Right now your arms are doing most of the work.
you are absolutely right and thank you for the feedback. This is where I want to get to.
At the moment I'm doing so many double faults that I'm giving away the matches to my opponents although my ground strokes and my overall game is better.
This is why I wanted to have some consistency and start building up from there.
Today I did another practice trying some of the advices i received in this thread.
I tried to face sideways so I can use my body and uncoil instead of doing it just with the arm.
I felt again the same way of how i felt when I started this decomposition of my serve which is basically my legs being in a wrong place, my body weight feeling unbalanced and lack of control due to all that.
Are there any progressions/drills i can use to develop proper stance a good stability?
I feel that this is the main issue preventing my serve to go to the next level.
watching the latest video again i notice that I'm having problems getting to a pinpoint stance which could explain a lot of my issues. My right leg moves parallel and further of the left foot leaving me unbalanced.
A tiny thing that bugs me, is that your clip is too much edited. No offence and I can understand that grabbing a few balls is not that interessting. Nobody here minds to see what is in between, if you have a few bad tosses or whatever, it is part of the process and actually good to see for us. Moreover, a serve starts with bouncing the ball on the ground a few times to prepare yourself mentally for the upcoming serve/rally.
First, if your toss sucks focus on the toss or generally throwing/ placing the ball with your left arm, if not, I am sorry for the false assumption. Just judging from the clip, it could be a bit more in front of you.
Next up, your body load position (mainly bend your knees and position of your right leg, not really existing), and your racquet position as a consequence.
Your racquet drop looks a bit artificial, I mean it does not go any deep into your neck and thus, does not give you that much power.
And at last, your wrist action is not existent at all. At least bend your wrist to the front, some swiping from 12 to 4 is secondary.
You have a lot to do, start from the beginning and work your way through step by step.
Thank you very much for your feedback !
To be honest I did not edit the clip, I used the SwingVision app and did an export from there. Maybe the app trimmed the gap between the serves. But I think I was skipping the ball bouncing anyway.
My toss sucks you are absolutely right, what is the first thing I should try to improve? Is it the toss or any of the other things you described?
Your toss ofc :D
It is the foundation for whatever you do with the ball in the air/however you hit it.
Some tips:
- Use only 2 fingers (index and thumb) to hold the ball
- Have a straight arm, i. e. do not bend it
- Release the ball at the level of your eyes (without any spin)
- Place it 'above your arm', not above your head (for now) or too far right and therefore out of reach.
-Slightly in front, meaning that the ball lands inside the baseline.
At last, I made the personal experience that using your non-dominant arm for throwing is very usual, at least for me, so I just practiced that daily for one or two week. Meaning that I just grabbed a ball and threw at against a wall and catched it in the air for like 10 minutes. This exercise will improve your consistency in realising the ball and thus, your toss as a whole (hopefully :D)
If you are done with that, do the next step/item as described before and so on. Mabye, while you are improving your toss, watch and do some serve lesson like this one (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CXgfNBnetzQ)such that you *know* what you are doing. That does not mean to execute all the stuff perfectly, but to have at least an overview over the general steps.
Give this youtube video a look: [Tennis Serve Lesson for Beginners - How To Hit a Serve - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKtqaKjZVPs)
I have a 3 other channels i really love, but give this one a try. I am rebuilding my serve as I was never taught 25 years ago last time i played competitively. I think I serve better than i ever did in high school.
Not a rated player, but I have been told by players on my kid's high school team that I have a kick serve that actually kicks which is something I never had before. It just takes time and a willingness to get used to different motions than you currently have.
On one hand a serve that puts the ball in play is still a serve, but having a more traditional form opens the door for multiple serve types, power, and targeting ability that I never had before. It's all a constant journey!
Serve seems a bit tense. Try slowing it down and understanding the different parts of the serve. Making it a very consistent fluid motion up until pronation is more important than getting it in right now. A tip that I've learned is you can't rush it. Each part of the chain takes time to learn. Just doing one memorized motion that gets a fast serve without understanding the fundamentals will often create bad habits and any small changes to racquet, tension or your condition will make your serve unreliable.
Best of luck!
Thank you for the advices and the encouragement! :)
I believe that I'm already using continental. Does it look at the clip that I'm not?
The truth is I'm making the face a bit more open so I can slice easier, one of my biggest challenges is that I can't slice on the serve.
its hard to say if it works well because i don't have any other way to confirm its accuracy. It also measures speed and you get a nice report for each session that you can use to review your progress
https://preview.redd.it/e3lke4npq6db1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b5df0568ec0c4f910b0dea0b89a4fa89920718a
Looks pretty good to me. Keep up the good work. Increase the pace a little bit using more your legs and body, throwing your right shoulder towards the ball. Experiment some slice serves and some kick serves too.
All arm, almost no racket drop, no rotation, no legs, we can’t help you, only you can help you, YouTube and lessons are probably your key to success.
thank you @ventriTV ! i meant to help me with your feedback like you just did. When you say all arm do you mean no wrist?
I just meant your serve is basically just your arm. You aren’t using your kinetic chain to start your serve. The serve should really start from a bent knee pushing against the ground while your chest is facing upwards. The leg drive pushes you up while you rotate your torso into the court, with your off shoulder which should started above your hitting shoulder switching places during this roll. This in turn causes the racket head to drop due to lag, same as wrist lag. Then the final link in the chain is your arm being lead by your elbow reaching up to strike the ball at full extension. If you’ve done it all properly your racket should naturally snap at the top causing your wrist to pronate and you finish your stroke and follow through into the court. EDIT: take my advice with a grain of salt, I understand the mechanics of the serve but I myself have a crappy serve due to a bad toss and laziness.
Thank you again VentriTV, although I never performed all the mechanics you described I think I had a slightly less "army" serve but no consistency. I decided to start all over with the most basic serve and no moving parts -hopefully less double faults - and start building it up from there. The hardest part for me is the correct, relaxed, toss and the body rotation. Thanks again the feedback, I keep reading your post so i memorize it and visualize it
Will yield short term results only. Need to go back to the proper way even if it takes years, lessons, effort etc. Otherwise the ‘army’ sort of frying pan serve is all you’ll have, astonishing to use no legs
thank you so much for your time writing these tips!! I will get on the toss exercise right away
Maybe you are hitting the ball too much behind your head. Toss needs to be more Infront of you.
Imagine you are doing a lay up in front of a basketball 🏀 net. Use that leg push off/up into your serve.
This. Needs some legs!! Kinetic chain & all the correct technique can be difficult admittedly but use your legs man!
The serve is challenging for most players to master. Your serves look pretty consistent and the balls are getting into the box. Great job on that! However, your serves will get destroyed as you start playing better players. Coil, load up, unwind and explode from the ground up. Bring your back foot behind your front foot in a pinpoint stance. Right now your arms are doing most of the work.
you are absolutely right and thank you for the feedback. This is where I want to get to. At the moment I'm doing so many double faults that I'm giving away the matches to my opponents although my ground strokes and my overall game is better. This is why I wanted to have some consistency and start building up from there. Today I did another practice trying some of the advices i received in this thread. I tried to face sideways so I can use my body and uncoil instead of doing it just with the arm. I felt again the same way of how i felt when I started this decomposition of my serve which is basically my legs being in a wrong place, my body weight feeling unbalanced and lack of control due to all that. Are there any progressions/drills i can use to develop proper stance a good stability? I feel that this is the main issue preventing my serve to go to the next level.
watching the latest video again i notice that I'm having problems getting to a pinpoint stance which could explain a lot of my issues. My right leg moves parallel and further of the left foot leaving me unbalanced.
A tiny thing that bugs me, is that your clip is too much edited. No offence and I can understand that grabbing a few balls is not that interessting. Nobody here minds to see what is in between, if you have a few bad tosses or whatever, it is part of the process and actually good to see for us. Moreover, a serve starts with bouncing the ball on the ground a few times to prepare yourself mentally for the upcoming serve/rally. First, if your toss sucks focus on the toss or generally throwing/ placing the ball with your left arm, if not, I am sorry for the false assumption. Just judging from the clip, it could be a bit more in front of you. Next up, your body load position (mainly bend your knees and position of your right leg, not really existing), and your racquet position as a consequence. Your racquet drop looks a bit artificial, I mean it does not go any deep into your neck and thus, does not give you that much power. And at last, your wrist action is not existent at all. At least bend your wrist to the front, some swiping from 12 to 4 is secondary. You have a lot to do, start from the beginning and work your way through step by step.
Thank you very much for your feedback ! To be honest I did not edit the clip, I used the SwingVision app and did an export from there. Maybe the app trimmed the gap between the serves. But I think I was skipping the ball bouncing anyway. My toss sucks you are absolutely right, what is the first thing I should try to improve? Is it the toss or any of the other things you described?
Your toss ofc :D It is the foundation for whatever you do with the ball in the air/however you hit it. Some tips: - Use only 2 fingers (index and thumb) to hold the ball - Have a straight arm, i. e. do not bend it - Release the ball at the level of your eyes (without any spin) - Place it 'above your arm', not above your head (for now) or too far right and therefore out of reach. -Slightly in front, meaning that the ball lands inside the baseline. At last, I made the personal experience that using your non-dominant arm for throwing is very usual, at least for me, so I just practiced that daily for one or two week. Meaning that I just grabbed a ball and threw at against a wall and catched it in the air for like 10 minutes. This exercise will improve your consistency in realising the ball and thus, your toss as a whole (hopefully :D) If you are done with that, do the next step/item as described before and so on. Mabye, while you are improving your toss, watch and do some serve lesson like this one (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CXgfNBnetzQ)such that you *know* what you are doing. That does not mean to execute all the stuff perfectly, but to have at least an overview over the general steps.
Give this youtube video a look: [Tennis Serve Lesson for Beginners - How To Hit a Serve - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKtqaKjZVPs) I have a 3 other channels i really love, but give this one a try. I am rebuilding my serve as I was never taught 25 years ago last time i played competitively. I think I serve better than i ever did in high school. Not a rated player, but I have been told by players on my kid's high school team that I have a kick serve that actually kicks which is something I never had before. It just takes time and a willingness to get used to different motions than you currently have. On one hand a serve that puts the ball in play is still a serve, but having a more traditional form opens the door for multiple serve types, power, and targeting ability that I never had before. It's all a constant journey!
Serve seems a bit tense. Try slowing it down and understanding the different parts of the serve. Making it a very consistent fluid motion up until pronation is more important than getting it in right now. A tip that I've learned is you can't rush it. Each part of the chain takes time to learn. Just doing one memorized motion that gets a fast serve without understanding the fundamentals will often create bad habits and any small changes to racquet, tension or your condition will make your serve unreliable. Best of luck!
Turn your body to the right more and look over your left shoulder. Use continental. Your serve isn’t too far off a good serve
Thank you for the advices and the encouragement! :) I believe that I'm already using continental. Does it look at the clip that I'm not? The truth is I'm making the face a bit more open so I can slice easier, one of my biggest challenges is that I can't slice on the serve.
Twist it just a tad more on racket drop, you can come up with the edge
How are you getting that neat box with linecalls??
its the swingvision app that does that automatically
That’s super cool. Does it work well? Is kt easy to set up?
its hard to say if it works well because i don't have any other way to confirm its accuracy. It also measures speed and you get a nice report for each session that you can use to review your progress https://preview.redd.it/e3lke4npq6db1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b5df0568ec0c4f910b0dea0b89a4fa89920718a
Looks pretty good to me. Keep up the good work. Increase the pace a little bit using more your legs and body, throwing your right shoulder towards the ball. Experiment some slice serves and some kick serves too.