Shoulder rotation and getting to trophy position

[glacierguy]

I haven't forgotten my promise to post video.... Not ready yet, but soon! Trunk rotation sorted, and now totally relaxed arm. Have Pocket Radar, and speeds are getting interesting. Have been serving for an hour, three times a week, and paying attention to the muscle memory thread.

And BTW, respect to Andy Murray for his performance at China Open.

[glacierguy]

Thanks Arturo, I watched Rafa and Henin videos, and yes, they're definitely rotating as racket comes up from shoulder, but neither break the elbow until shoulders have reached full rotation. I think that's my observation, that in my own action, once I start breaking the elbow my shoulders stop rotating even if in my head I'm telling them to rotate. And then when I check the video of pros, it's clearly something that everyone has already worked out! It just becomes more obvious if you're aiming for a lot of rotation (back facing opponent). Once I've got this sorted out, I'll definitely post a video .

[arturohernandez]

Definitely worthy!

It's kind of tangential to your point but if you look at the video and watch Rafa and Henin who both had abbreviated rhythms, you will see coiling as the racket comes up. I remember seeing a video long ago with later coiling but cannot seem to find it.

Sampras and McEnroe have very peculiar serves. Sampras in particular has a VERY flexible shoulder and trying to serve like him might not be the best model.

I think the timing of coiling should be practiced without a serve. Try throwing a racket really high or alternate throwing a tennis ball over the net and serving in as close succession as possible.

Then you will naturally develop a coiling because there is no way to throw something high without coiling.

Then use that seem feeling in your serve so that it feels natural.

johnyandell (correct me if I am wrong, please) feels that Federer might be the best model for servers (maybe for every stroke except of course the two handed backhand).

He is less extreme in his technique.

So I would learn to coil naturally by borrowing from your throwing motion which should be the most natural for you. Then, on the court, alternate naturally throwing with serving.

Your body most likely knows how to best toss a ball over the net.

The trick is coordinating it with the racket and contact.

Videos tend to get more attention. So if you want a better response you could try posting a video and then all the real tennis pros in this forum might venture to offer their opinion.

Hopefully, I am not being too simplistic here. You might be a 6.0 player who is trying to add 5 mph to a 115 mph serve.

But those are my two cents.

https://youtu.be/IyR7NNeXiJc

[glacierguy]

Guess it's not worthy.

[glacierguy]

Whilst working on serve I've noticed something that may be worthy of discussion. In a nutshell, if you are trying to get decent shoulder rotation (with line of shoulders rotating to near parallel with baseline), then it becomes easier if you delay the racket coming up into the trophy position. I find that it's best to rotate the shoulders first and only then start to bring the racket up. I have found that if I attempt both motions together, then video shows that my shoulders don't rotate nearly as much as I'm intending. I went and checked the videos of Pete Sampras and John McEnroe, both with extreme shoulder rotation, and neither bring the racket up until shoulder rotation is finished (roughly).