Sampras Serve: Radical Torso Rotation: Page 2

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Starting Stance

So how exactly does Pete use his hips and shoulders to generate more racket head speed than any player in the game?

It starts with his serving ready position or starting stance, that is, how he lines up to begin his motion. Pete starts
his motion with his torso sideways or square to the net. This appears to be fairly conventional. He also starts with his front foot
turned open to the net and the toes actually up in the air. This as we pointed out in the last article is idiosyncratic, changing
immediately as the motion actually starts. Despite what some club players may believe, it has nothing to do with his core bio-mechanics,
and imitating it definitely won’t help your serve.

The key to understanding Pete’s stance and therefore his torso rotation, is the position and angle of his back foot.

But look at the position of his back foot: the first key to understanding what’s about to happen. His back or right foot is about 3 feet behind him, or to the left of his front foot when viewed from behind. Note the toes of this back foot are actually pointing away from…