A New Teaching System: The Serve: Technical Elements

[doctorhl]

Three equal ability groups taught by one quality instructor- 1. one group live model visualization only, 2.one group variable speed video visualization only, 3.one group verbal instruction only, with all groups having equal service practice time. Sadly, no one can extract uncontrolled variables( many researchers have tried). Even though results would be meaningless, it would be interesting anecdotally to see the results with large number of subjects. The best coaches seem to know how to adjust percentage use of #1,2 and 3 depending on the learning style of the student and insertion/withdrawal at appropriate time in the development stage...an art form that takes years to develop —- expert eye, expert feedback language, expert timing of instruction delivery.

[jeremy93]

Great! I did learn that the racquet should be perpendicular to the hips when the racquet is at the bottom of the racquet drop.

[don_budge]

The Serve...An Upside Down Golf Swing

I must say despite all the years I have been coaching I find the serve immensely complex. To me it's all a bunch rotating segments, pulleys and levers that at times take a great deal of fathoming and understanding.

It is difficult because there are so many servers that have different styles and all serve well. Sometimes I have the impression that the more one thinks of it, the tougher it gets. I envy naturals who just do what comes naturally, and do it really well.

It is an extremely complex motion to teach. It is a bunch of this and that and it does take a tremendous amount of knowledge and understanding. Then you have to reduce it all to its simplest terms and communicate it to the student in the lowest common denominator state.

As for the variety of motions...I often find this to be amusing. If you watch the professional golfers they all basically look the same. Some of them may have their own individual nuances in their motions but by and large they all look pretty much the same. The same cannot be said for service motions of the professionals. But that being said I am constantly amazed at the really bad motions on tour. There aren't too many teaching models out there. John chose Roger Federer...the other day I mentioned the beauty of Martina Navratilova's motion as a possible teaching model.

John has done a good job in taking the service motion in a piece by piece sequence. Grip, setup, backswing, trophy position, forward swing and follow through. But how do you put it all together to the student for them to have a chance to comprehend the whole complicated business. Demonstration is a big help here. If you have a perfect motion yourself it is a huge advantage as a teacher.

It is in the delivery of the teacher...at least much of it is. Sure the nuts and bolts are of tremendous importance but it is a different proposal to actually get them to do it. So there is the danger of overkill in trying to get them to understand...and if it is possible you try to lead them into something that resembles a natural motion.

I tackle both the overhead smash and the serve together. I move the student quickly to and fro between these two shots...shots that are hit over the head. But I am always talking about beginners or rather students in general in my methods even though I coach the more advanced student in much the same manner...which may be why some question my methods. But I am a firm believer in fundamentals...as John is...and there is a fundamentally sound way of hitting overheads as well as serves.

It certainly helps to have a golf background as well. It's complicated but the teacher that can keep it the simplest has the best chance of success with any given student.

Basically it is a matter of aiming at a target from the very beginning in the setup position and then it is a matter of keeping everything on line throughout the motion so that at the cataclysmic moment everything comes off without a hitch...with all of the appropriate energy dead on target. Taking dead aim...in the words of the great golf instructor...Harvey Penick.

[stotty]

It is difficult because there are so many servers that have different styles and all serve well. Sometimes I have the impression that the more one thinks of it, the tougher it gets. I envy naturals who just do what comes naturally, and do it really well.

No that's not the difficulty. Most coaches recognise a good serve when they see it regardless of style. It's more fault finding and correction that can be a conundrum.

[gzhpcu]

It is difficult because there are so many servers that have different styles and all serve well. Sometimes I have the impression that the more one thinks of it, the tougher it gets. I envy naturals who just do what comes naturally, and do it really well.

[stotty]

Stotty,

Great question and the point was also made by another poster. You know what? I am not really sure. I plan to go back and look at some placements from various camera angles and see. We know that the angle of the racket head and it's path is the final determinator, but can that be created in multiple ways?
One of my big insights personally in working on this series was how Fed and other top servers (though not all) got the full arm rotation on all the placements. Thought that was quite interesting with the advice about around across and around and through etc that you often hear about placements.
That is what caused me to look into the hand and arm rotation differences. Maybe the shoulders is another way to produce the same. (Of course anyone could do the same investigation in the stroke archive and post the links...)

Thanks for that. I did wonder. I have an orthodox serve and it feels for all the world that my shoulders are playing a part in direction.

I must say despite all the years I have been coaching I find the serve immensely complex. To me it's all a bunch rotating segments, pulleys and levers that at times take a great deal of fathoming and understanding.

[johnyandell]

Stotty,

Great question and the point was also made by another poster. You know what? I am not really sure. I plan to go back and look at some placements from various camera angles and see. We know that the angle of the racket head and it's path is the final determinator, but can that be created in multiple ways?
One of my big insights personally in working on this series was how Fed and other top servers (though not all) got the full arm rotation on all the placements. Thought that was quite interesting with the advice about around across and around and through etc that you often hear about placements.
That is what caused me to look into the hand and arm rotation differences. Maybe the shoulders is another way to produce the same. (Of course anyone could do the same investigation in the stroke archive and post the links...)

[stotty]

I have been working my way through the series again and have a question about direction, placement.

When I was a kid information was handed down by better players. One thing that was continuously handed down in my generation was the key to direction.

Back then the better players would tell us to delay opening the shoulders to serve down the middle (deuce court) and open them a fraction early to serve wide. I am talking minuscule amounts.

We all took onboard the advice and, might I add, have accurate serves.

Now was it baloney we were told back then or was there something in it that triggered positive things to happen? Just curious...

[johnyandell]

Bryan,

Thanks. I think so myself. Glad you agree!

John Yandell

[bch1]

Serve Technique

The best serious of videos going over all points of the serve I have ever seen!

Bryan Hiner

[bottle]

omigod

[tennis_chiro]

Certification Is Not Enough

Hi Don,

Yes, I imagine the hip trainer might be more critical for golf and baseball. So you are certified in the Graston Technique. One ATC did in for me to help a knee injury (post-surgery). It worked a little. Not as effective as another technique. There's is a good amount of scientific skepticism on GT. What's your take, being certified in it?

Doug

Doug,
Unfortunately, Certification doesn't mean that much. I have lots of certs. Probably will get more now that CA is requiring us to do 24 hours of annual relicensing postgrad work instead of 12. For Graston, it just meant doing 2 weekends and taking an exam that was pretty straightforward for a chiropractor. It was only a few hundred dollars each weekend. But you had to pay $2700 for the set of Graston tools. When I took the first course over 10 years ago, I opted to buy the tools because I was so impressed with the results. I've done a lot of soft tissue work and been trained in all kinds of techniques: Shiatsu massage, Nimmo deep tissue work, trigger point therapy, applied kinesiology. I've had quite a bit of Rolfing done to me. One of the weekend seminars I took over 20 years ago doing one of the first 100 hour certification courses to sit for the Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician exam was offered by Mike Leahy who founded A.R.T. (Active Release Technique) a short time after that. I've used the techniques Leahy taught us to work on numerous rotator cuff injuries. ART is one of the gold standards in deep tissue therapy now (and costs about $5000 in gold to take the courses). Graston is a lot like ART, but a lot easier on the thumbs. This is coming from someone who is not certified in ART. It's also a lot easier on the patients. The thing I liked right away about the Graston tools was that I could feel things I couldn't feel with my bare hands. The explanation is that you are feeling scar tissue and adhesions between the muscle and the sheath in which the muscle is supposed to slide freely. Those adhesions would have been a natural sequela of your knee surgery. You need to get rid of them, but the body doesn't like to give up any of its tissues. Pritchard at Somax calls them microfibers which he "reduces" through microfiber reduction.

In any case, I've found the Graston Therapy to be very effective. Sometimes even miraculous. Unfortunately, it does not work as well as I would like on tennis elbow. Great for the muscles well away from the site of the inflammation, but the attachments at the epicondyle (medial is tennis elbow, lateral is golfer's elbow although a bad backhand can easily give you golfer's elbow) need a lot of time to calm down and heal. On the other hand, I've had great luck with Graston for rotator cuff problems. Patients who had problems for months or more made tremendous progress in just a couple of weeks and as little as two treatments. But be careful. The therapist needs to be knowledgeable and conservative. The tools give the therapist tremendous leverage. I'm pretty careful, but even I have made patients very sore the next day. That is also part of the treatment. As well as breaking up the adhesions, the therapy stimulates growth and production of fibroblasts and the microtrauma initiates the healing cascade. Actually following through fully with the treatment protocol includes icing and exercising to emphasize increasing range of motion. I'm most successful when I am working in the belly of the muscle as opposed to the origin or insertion. However, you often don't have that option and have to get very close to the bone.

I'm aware there are some studies out there that discount a lot of the claims, but there are also good studies that support those claims. It's being used by other health care providers besides chiropractors and there are a lot of clinicians and patients who swear by the results. An awful lot of professional sports teams are employing Graston. It seems to me it gives superior results with a lot less patient as well as provider discomfort.

The patient is usually a little sore the next day and needs to employ ice and exercise. But if there is a long standing stiffness or reduced range of motion associated with an injury or even healing process, Graston should definitely by one of the first therapies to try.

don

[DougEng]

As I pointed out in my comment, take Pritchard's analysis with a grain of salt and a little skepticism. I've always felt he was playing a little fast and loose with his numbers derived from just 2-D analysis. It's still great fun to watch the video. It would be nice to have the same 3-D analysis Brian did on more of those elite servers. My experience tells me that the hip turn is, however, very important. I think it enables the server to get into the proper "power position". I haven't got any data to back it up, but I feel like the power derived from that turn is much more important than the power derived from bending the knees for a deep leg thrust. In reality, you need both, but I see too many kids struggling with inefficient kinetic chains when they are trying so hard to get huge thrust from their legs. I feel they need to master the rest of the chain before they start applying leg thrust that propels them a foot off the ground. You can serve over 100mph with almost no leg thrust (Schlaken!), but it's murder generating anything significant without a good sequenced release of the chain from hips to shoulders to etc.

BTW Doug, I bought one of Pritchard's Power Hip Trainers, but for my golf swing. I think his concept has some validity, but the machine is very difficult to get to work. I couldn't get the damn thing to stay connected to my hips. Never got around to modifying the rigging enough to give it a good try. Still hope to. I need some distance on my shots these days! I also do my own version of "microfibre reduction" when I do Graston Therapy (GrastonTechnique.com). But I charge about $40 per treatment instead of $400 that it looks like Pritchard charges (without any kind of state license as far as I can tell either).

In any case, the more articles you can put up like that last one about Pete's serves with all the numbers, the better. It would be nice to see some more of those with comparisons of more top ten players.

don

don

Hi Don,

Yes, I imagine the hip trainer might be more critical for golf and baseball. So you are certified in the Graston Technique. One ATC did in for me to help a knee injury (post-surgery). It worked a little. Not as effective as another technique. There's is a good amount of scientific skepticism on GT. What's your take, being certified in it?

Doug

[tennis_chiro]

We're spoiled! We've come to expect nothing less,

Don,

You don't ask for much do you? We are going to try to do some additional 3D in Cincy. Little more difficult than our usual magic. OK exponentially so...ok borderline impossible...ok we may pull it off...

JY

You see, John, you've spoiled us. Here's the motto used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ("Seabees") during World War II:

"The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer."

And no, I wasn't there!

don

[johnyandell]

Don,

You don't ask for much do you? We are going to try to do some additional 3D in Cincy. Little more difficult than our usual magic. OK exponentially so...ok borderline impossible...ok we may pull it off...

JY