A New Teaching System: The Serve: Technical Elements

[bottle]

The higher the shoulder, the more this unselfconscious body countering and passive external rotation will take the racket head to the right, no? And right hip higher than left will get right shoulder higher, no?

[tennis_chiro]

...For instance, with respect to the pro racquet drop, this doesn't even seem like a feature of the serve that should be consciously practiced. It results from the inertia of the racquet and the arm, the latter which externally rotates at the shoulder much as the arm externally rotates in pitchers as they move up the kinetic chain from a stride through pelvic rotation through upper torso rotation. Just as a pitcher's arm naturally externally rotates back relative to the shoulder at it moves forward, the server's arm bends and externally rotates -- naturally. Personally, I don't think this should ever be taught or consciously incorporated into a serve. Rather, I think it should be a consequence of learning to relax the arm and thus to allow it to flex and externally rotate as the pivot progresses. The drop is simply a natural consequence.

I think would be informative to track the racquet head in Federer's serve. Yandell could do this well with his high speed analysis. If from that analysis it did not appear to move backwards relative to the ground, but only relative to the moving shoulder, we might infer that what is happening with the racquet is not so much an active drop as a passive "letting it drop."

What seems like a relatively minor relaxed comment by cms56 here is actually a very deep comment about how the "pro power drop" position is achieved.

don

[bman]

Good video John, though for us long-time members it is basically just a summary of your already very indepth series on the Federer serve.

Was hoping there might be some insights into how to teach the serve, but it appears that will be coming next month. Looking forward to it.

[cms56]

Translating the analylsis into teaching points

Love the analysis. It's top drawer, as usual for Yandell. I wonder, though, how much of the analysis John would recommend teachers and coaches convey to students. For instance, with respect to the pro racquet drop, this doesn't even seem like a feature of the serve that should be consciously practiced. It results from the inertia of the racquet and the arm, the latter which externally rotates at the shoulder much as the arm externally rotates in pitchers as they move up the kinetic chain from a stride through pelvic rotation through upper torso rotation. Just as a pitcher's arm naturally externally rotates back relative to the shoulder at it moves forward, the server's arm bends and externally rotates -- naturally. Personally, I don't think this should ever be taught or consciously incorporated into a serve. Rather, I think it should be a consequence of learning to relax the arm and thus to allow it to flex and externally rotate as the pivot progresses. The drop is simply a natural consequence.

I think would be informative to track the racquet head in Federer's serve. Yandell could do this well with his high speed analysis. If from that analysis it did not appear to move backwards relative to the ground, but only relative to the moving shoulder, we might infer that what is happening with the racquet is not so much an active drop as a passive "letting it drop."

[johnyandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on my latest article "A New Teaching System: The Serve: Technical Elements"