Originally posted by tennis_chiro
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I don't understand all the confusion. Don_budge's alignment description just about has it. If we were to take a look at pitchers in the major leagues or quarterbacks in the NFL (not to mention golfers on the PGA tour), foot alignment prior to delivering a force to a ball under your own control (not a ball being hit to or away from you), especially in an overhead motion is pretty well set in stone. No quarterback in the NFL, regardless of his success in college, is going to be allowed to set up and throw with anything but the square stance they have found to be a requirement for success in that league. Tennis is an individual sport. We have a stick in our hand which makes things a little less obvious. But if you are going to look at Sampras or other great servers as examples, be sure you look at the right things.
Take a good look at Pete's right foot position when it delivers its last bit of force to the ground in our high speed slow motion archive:
Just before his right toe leaves the ground, that toe is in the age-old classic position: a line through the toes, ankles, knees points essentially in the same direction as a line to the middle of the service box. It's the same on every serve so as not to give away which corner Pete is serving to, but it is a constant guide for him to align his shot from. For my description of where I want that right foot, I want the right toe on that line through the left toe to the middle of the box. The position of the foot at the beginning changes slightly depending on whether you start back like Pete or rock front to back to front like Krajicek or Stich; but essentially when the back foot comes down, it needs to be perpendicular to this line I am talking about. So it is not really parallel to the baseline.
Now, as for deuce vs ad boxes, simply imagine the server standing on a circular turntable. Imagine the server like a piece of artillery aimed at a target, the middle of the service box in this case. When I move the server over to the ad court, I want that piece of artillery to be rotated on that turntable so the line is accordingly rotated over to the middle of the ad service box. The problem is with the visual reference markers which must be disregarded. The lines the server must pay attention to are the imaginary ones in his mind as opposed to the baseline at his feet and the net which are at a different angle when he serves to the ad court as opposed to the deuce court. If he is influenced by the different angles of the baseline and the net in his kinesthetic imagery, it will negatively impact his ability to serve equally well to deuce and ad courts. Players will always have preferences and the movement of the ball with slice spins creates actual advantages and disadvantages for right or left handers to either side (righties slice wide to the deuce, lefties to the ad), but a good player must be able to create an image in his mind of what he is doing that allows him to serve almost as well to either side.
But the idea that the stance is the same for deuce and ad courts is ridiculous. However, it is the same when viewed relative to that imaginary line to the middle of the box. In fact, it should be the same even if you have inappropriately decided to adopt a very closed, open or otherwise what I would consider inappropriate stance. Either way, you still need to rotate the artillery's turntable until the weapon is pointed into the middle of the target area.
don
Take a good look at Pete's right foot position when it delivers its last bit of force to the ground in our high speed slow motion archive:
Just before his right toe leaves the ground, that toe is in the age-old classic position: a line through the toes, ankles, knees points essentially in the same direction as a line to the middle of the service box. It's the same on every serve so as not to give away which corner Pete is serving to, but it is a constant guide for him to align his shot from. For my description of where I want that right foot, I want the right toe on that line through the left toe to the middle of the box. The position of the foot at the beginning changes slightly depending on whether you start back like Pete or rock front to back to front like Krajicek or Stich; but essentially when the back foot comes down, it needs to be perpendicular to this line I am talking about. So it is not really parallel to the baseline.
Now, as for deuce vs ad boxes, simply imagine the server standing on a circular turntable. Imagine the server like a piece of artillery aimed at a target, the middle of the service box in this case. When I move the server over to the ad court, I want that piece of artillery to be rotated on that turntable so the line is accordingly rotated over to the middle of the ad service box. The problem is with the visual reference markers which must be disregarded. The lines the server must pay attention to are the imaginary ones in his mind as opposed to the baseline at his feet and the net which are at a different angle when he serves to the ad court as opposed to the deuce court. If he is influenced by the different angles of the baseline and the net in his kinesthetic imagery, it will negatively impact his ability to serve equally well to deuce and ad courts. Players will always have preferences and the movement of the ball with slice spins creates actual advantages and disadvantages for right or left handers to either side (righties slice wide to the deuce, lefties to the ad), but a good player must be able to create an image in his mind of what he is doing that allows him to serve almost as well to either side.
But the idea that the stance is the same for deuce and ad courts is ridiculous. However, it is the same when viewed relative to that imaginary line to the middle of the box. In fact, it should be the same even if you have inappropriately decided to adopt a very closed, open or otherwise what I would consider inappropriate stance. Either way, you still need to rotate the artillery's turntable until the weapon is pointed into the middle of the target area.
don
Just a small note about Kevin Anderson.
his front foot is ALMOST parallel to the baseline on the deuce side at the
very BEGINNING of the serve motion
Some points should be in
PS A small snippet from his bio
He used to play tennis as well as competitively run 800 metre races... Played collegiately at University of Illinois for three seasons (2005-07)...Won 2006 NCAA doubles title...Reached 2007 NCAA singles semifinals and doubles final...Also reached 2007 team final...Earned All-American honors all three years...
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