John Yandell: The Myth of the Toss: Page 2

Some of the greatest servers in tennis history have also had the highest tosses.
As the animations shows, Pete has an amazingly high toss. Precise measurements will have to wait
until Advanced Tennis has the chance to do multi-camera quantitative filming, but for the purposes
of an estimate, we can say it drops at least 18″ and possibly as much as 2 feet.

Rusedski’s toss is much lower, as the animation also shows, but it still drops substantially.
We can estimate this drop to be at least 8 to 12 inches or possibly a little more.

The point of this analysis is not to say player should try to copy an exact toss height
from another player. The point is the toss height determines the interval of the service motion and the
amount of time you have in turn determines your rhythm.

The average player needs to experiment with the height of the toss to find an interval that
allows him to develop a smooth, relaxed rhythm. This will depend on the individual ability of the player,
and also the complexity of his biomechanical motion.

The height should be sufficient so that the motion is complete, with a full racquet…