The Serve: Where Are We Now?
Part 2

John Yandell

So in the first article in this series, The Serve: Where Are We Now, (Click Here) we looked at the core commonalities in the swing path of all good serves.

Now let's dive into the numerous, bewildering variations on other elements, starting with the stances, but including body rotation, tossing arm motion and toss height. To make it a little less complex, we will deal with first serves—with more about the second serve in a future article.

Platform Stances

There are two major stance variations: platform and pinpoint. But for each variation there are multiple subvariations

Some of the greatest servers of all time have been platform servers: John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Milos Raonic, and Andy Roddick to name some. Novak Djokovic and Denis Shapovalov are two other platform servers.

But there are variations in the placement of the feet among platform servers, some slight differences, some more radical. All have the front foot parallel to the baseline or very close--but differ in the placement of the back foot.

McEnroe had probably the widest stance with his back foot maybe 2 to 3 feet behind the front foot and less than a foot behind the baseline. The toes of his back foot are turned away maybe 30 degrees from the baseline. Sampras is a little narrower, but his back foot is turned away further from the baseline than John.

Djokovic is a little wider than Pete, but with the back toes turned only slightly away. Federer is narrower than the other three, with maybe a foot between the feet, and the toes of his back foot, only slightly behind the heel of his front foot.

Roddick is the narrowest. His back foot is spaced a foot or less behind his front, with the toes of the back foot are at the about the center of his front. The feet are basically parallel.

These differences in the back foot have an impact on the amount of body rotation away from the court once the motion starts. Some of the players also rock back on the heel of the front foot before the knee bend starts. Roddick actually picks his front foot up off the court.

But not sure these differences have much technical impact. They are probably more about personal rhythm, ritual, and feel.

The real difference in the starting stances is in the amount of body rotation away from the ball once the motion starts. Basically the hips and shoulders turn on to a line drawn across the toes from the front foot to the back foot.

The turn is increased though when the back toes are turned further away from the baseline. As the animation shows, Mac has by far the most turn. Then Pete, then Fed, then Djokovic, then Roddick.

Commonality

Regardless of the amount of turn away from the court, the commonality with all platform servers is that the back foot stays in place through the knee bend and then pushes off as the server comes off the court.

For these servers, contact comes with the shoulders basically in the middle of the forward torso rotation pattern. This means with the shoulders still closed 30 to 45 degrees to the court at contact. The players all land on the front foot somewhere over the baseline, with the back leg kicking back.

Pinpoint

The other stance variation, the Pinpoint ,is probably more common in the pro game and is used by two of the biggest servers, Riley Opelka and John Isner, as well as by Danill Medvedev, Rafael Nadal, and Alexander Zverev.

The difference is that rather than keeping the back leg in place, they drag it up somewhere behind the front foot.

Isner starts by far in the widest stance and drags the back foot the furthest. He drags the backfoot up directly behind the front. Opelka is also wide, but a little more narrow than Isner, and doesn't drag the back foot up quite as far.

Medvedev is a little narrower than Opelka, but drags the back foot further than either Isner or Reilly, actually moving it slightly to the right of his back foot. Rafa starts with his back foot directly behind his front and drags it directly forward until it is behind his front.

The commonality is that all these players have the back foot in place at the completion of the knee bend, and push off more or less simultaneously with both feet. Both feet, though much closer together than with the platform, are also basically parallel to the baseline.

A major difference though with the platform is that with the close together position of the feet, there is far less body turn away from the ball, although there is definitely some in this case of these 4 players.

Less turn away also means the shoulders are more open to the court at contact. But, like the platform servers all still land on the front foot somewhere inside the court with the back leg kicking back.

One player who has almost no body turn away from the court is Zverev. He is also completely open at contact. For my analysis of his serve and what the lack of turn might mean, Click Here.

But still a front foot landing and back leg kick back.

More Complexity!

The common teaching belief is that servers should keep their heads up looking at the ball through contact. And some players do, for example, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Opelka and Medvedev.

But as many or more don't and have already turned the head to look forward at the court at contact. In our above examples this includes Isner, Djokovic, Rafa and Roddick.

What if anything do these differences mean? Well, that it's not stance specific. Other than that it's probably impossible to say except that great servers can do it both ways. And that's probably true at all levels.

Tossing Motion

Another common teaching belief is that the arms drop down together to the front leg at the start of the motion and then go up together until the tossing arm is fully extended.

Again we find that's not always the case. And, also again, we find great variety among top servers.

Pete Sampras drops both arms down together, as does Roger Federer, although Roger starts the arm drop from a lower position than Pete. Djokovic drops the tossing arm somewhat but not all the way down. Medvedev has a lower starting position but drops the tossing arm a few inches.

Isner starts with his arms already down at the leg and brings them straight up. Opelka starts a little higher than Isner, but also brings the arms straight up.

Roddick and Rafa have virtually no arm drop. They just bring the tossing arm straight up from the ready position.

What does that mean for you? In a great, original companion article in this issue elite teaching pro and long time Tennisplayer contributor Kerry Mitchell talks about the common tossing problems so many lower level players face. He concludes that eliminating the arm drop and going straight up often solves the problem. Click Here.

Tossing Arm Path and Height

But what about the actual path of the tossing arm and the path of the ball? And what about the height of the toss? It won't surprise you at this point when I say there is wide variation in both.

All the players release the toss at around forehead level. But, basically the more body turn, the further the tossing arm swings to the player's right.on the way up. Sampras and Fed the most. Rafa the least. And everyone else inbetween.

The more the arm swings with the body turn, the more curve in the toss flight back toward the player. Again, Sampras and Fed the most. Rafa the least. His ball toss goes directly straight up from the hand.

There are also clear differences in the toss height and how far the toss drops to contact. For Sampras and Fed, the toss drops over a foot before contact. Everyone else is less. Isner may have the least ball drop, but even his toss drops several inches.

Conclusions?

Confused yet? Is there a right or a wrong to any of these examples across such a wide range of variation? Obviously all these players have effective serves. And we can't clone them and teach them different variations to compare.

What we can say is what I said at the start that there are clear commonalities in the path of racket in the upward swing, as we saw in the first article. Click Here.

I have some ideas though about model motions I've used on the court with players from the pro level on down I'll share in a final article. In the meantime, what about the women? We'll look at that next!