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The Perfect Motion...and the Throwing Stick
Now I see what you are getting at. It's a good thing to think about these things before something happens. Counts? I'm not so sure if counts apply the same for all tennis players and it might be left up to the individual. I can tell you this...there is a huge difference between throwing "the rock" as opposed to swinging a racquet...or a golf club.Originally posted by hockeyscout View Post
But at ten years old I can tell you one thing...it may be way to early to be overly focused on serve. Except this interesting specimen is 5' !!" at ten years old. If there would be one piece of advice I would give you it would be this...it isn't the quantity at this point but the quality that counts. Speaking of counts. What counts? Fluidity counts.
What you want to do at this point hockeyscout is lay the foundation for the "perfect" service motion. If the player has fundamentally set the foundation for the perfect motion you can serve all day and all night without risk of injury. If everything is working without any friction or hitches in the motion...the motion is accomplished with minimum effort (effortless power) and the player finds that by trying "less" they get "more". This is the same sort of axiom that you can apply to a golf swing.
Throwing "the rock" can absolutely be hazardous to the arm and shoulder so the baseball world didn't take too long to figure that out. You can throw your arm out with one throw and then you are ruined for life. I actually threw my racquet (for the last time) and threw my arm out. Fortunately for me it was my right arm that I threw out...I serve left handed and throw right handed. I had to switch hands to give the racquet a heave...if only I had taken that split second to think things over. But that is how injuries occur sometimes. Without thinking. I remember once that the great Detroit Tiger right fielder Al Kaline once broke his hand punching the water cooler after striking out. Or maybe he was jamming his bat into the bat rack...that might have been it. He wasn't the kind of guy to normally do that sort of thing but the one time that he did cost him...and his team.
The tennis racquet is actually a tool and if used correctly it prevents injuries like those common to baseball pitchers. That being said I don't see too many perfect service motions these days and many would appear to over time wear out certain parts of a persons body. Even so...with all of the bad swings it doesn't appear that the serving motion does a lot of damage in the short run. I wonder after the players career is over.
A perfect service motion has no friction. It has no hitches or abbreviations that will cause anything other than perfectly lubricated effortless motion. If the player is "teeing it up" in the right spot every time...nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong if the motion is perfect.
Throw in some strength and flexibility conditioning and there you have it...a recipe for a lifetime of injury free serving. I like the approach you are taking. Prehabilitation. Preventative as well as rehabilative. You speak of conditioning hips and legs and so forth. This is so important to having the whole entire body engaged in the motion. Much as a baseball pitcher prepares for the foundation of his delivery.
I am going to attach a couple of posts that I have written on the service motion in the past that might be of interest to you. In fact...I don't believe that I have ever read anyone write about the serve as I do. A little background on my service history. When I first started to play tennis...screwing around on the court with my parents and so forth...I would switch hands to hit forehands on either side. But when the man who eventually would be my coach took me aside to introduce me to the serve for some reason I chose to serve left handed. He was quite surprised. I was surprised too. The funny thing was that up until that point I had played a lot baseball and threw right handed...I did do some pitching. I played all of the positions as a matter of fact...even catching. Up until that point I was a predominately right handed basketball player although I was pretty good going to my left. But interesting enough...I move better to my right to hit a backhand. Most people move better to one side or the other.
My serve motion was pretty much instantly very, very good. It didn't hurt being left handed either. I got a lot of spin on the ball which made it doubly effective. The real turning point in my serving came when I was about 18 years old and I went to the Don Budge Tennis Camp and Mr. Budge took the time over the course of a couple of summers to really help me with my motion and my tactics. He taught me the "perfect" motion and his tutelage on tactics fit right in with my pitching experience. Once I had the ball in my service game I was "pitching" to my opponent. Down and away...up and in. That sort of thing. Blazing down the middle. Nipping at the corners. Subtle changes in spin and speed. Placement.
It isn't so much what the ten year old is doing now with the serve...it is when she is eighteen or nineteen that will be the acid test. But now is the time to lay the foundation and to begin to progressively build towards the perfect motion. Once she has the perfect motion she can serve all day and all night if she cares to. Multiple matches? It will just get better and better.
Three rules for injury serving...perfect motion...perfect motion...perfect motion. Once you are using the perfect friction free motion it is like throwing with a throwing stick...know what I mean?
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Kyle, you work for the USTA.
What ball counts limits (example, serves) are allowed in tournament play, academies and national training sessions?
In the USA now when a baseball pitcher attends a tournament, he's under set control limits or the coaches are in big time trouble (lose sanctioning, insurance, coaching licenses, ect).
I see a lot of tennis tournament schedules, and for me I worry about kids playing two or three matches a day.
I got a 10 year old girl who is 5'11, so, probably my circumstances are are real unique as we need to back off quite a bit due to the fact you have a young body trying to move in woman's frame.
But, if she was 5'4 tall and a midget, I would still be concerned with the ball count especially at this stage of the game.
What are your ball count specs? What are you trying to hold you athlete down to?
don_budge would be real helpful here as he understands baseball pitching - and how a numbers count system could relate well over to tennis.
We have a program we are using now, but, the extra input would be real interesting to see if we are on the right track.
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Good technique, good strength training and taking care of your body early on helps. And fair or unfair, genetics plays a role.
Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca RatonLeave a comment:
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Question for the tennis, basketball, golf and baseball guru don_budge!
don_budge - You're expertise in a wide variety of sports would help here - especially the fact you know baseball well.
“Serve Smart Guidelines” and “Hitting Reps.”
NOTHING IN TENNIS.
MLB (baseball) has established some very strict standards, guidelines and risk factors.
I am basically right now listening to what Major League (MLB) baseball coaches are telling me, as no one in tennis has spent the millions of dollars to research this area out like baseball.
Anthony Molina or Maria Shinskina and Monica Veil - talented kids with incredible promise at 9 to 15, who are out of the game due to injuries.
Thoughts?
I'd love to hear ideas from 10splayer, klacr, John, Geoff, Bottle, Don, tennis_chiro and others on this important topic.
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