Your Strokes:
Jonathan Ryle Serve

Analyzed by John Yandell

This month's Your Strokes demonstrates the peril in analyzing strokes through email or online message boards. Jonathan Rile, an Irish junior player, wrote in about his serve, and raised multiple technical issues.

He didn't think he got enough body turn, or that he used his legs enough. He was concerned about the amount of his shoulder tilt. He thought he was contacting the ball too far in front, with too much forward body bend at the waist.

And actually, he was right about some of these points. The problem was that, when I actually looked at the video he sent in, there was a far more basic issue.

Priorities

I encounter some version of this phenomenon with almost everyone I analyze. Players have multiple, complex technical questions about their strokes. They want to raise them all at once, and they want detailed answers, now. They think these answers will automatically lead to better technique, but that's virtually never the way it works.

For the vast majority of players, it is impossible to understand and change multiple technical elements at the same time. To really improve you have to prioritize change, and start with the most fundamental problems. Until you do that, all that other technical discussion is irrelevant and usually a waste of energy.

So what did I see when I looked at Jonathan's serve? The first element I always look for in any serve of any player at any level is the position of the racket at the bottom of the drop. Where should it be?

Amazingly I still hear knowledgeable people claim that good servers "scratch the back" with the racket in the drop position. But this is simply not the case. Instead the racket falls along the right side of the body, with a specific set of checkpoints. I call this the pro racket drop position.

Pro Racket Drop

There is no better example of this position than the motion of Pete Sampras, who may still have the greatest serve of all time. (Click Here.) If we watch his motion as his racket falls from the trophy position, we can see that at the bottom of the drop, the tip of the racket points directly downward at the court. For Sampras, the racket has fallen so far that the tip is at the level of the middle of his upper leg.

The other critical factor to look at is the angle between the plane of the racket face and the plane of his torso. They should form a right angle. By this I mean if you draw a line across the face of the racket and another across Pete's chest, they are basically perpendicular. You see all great pro servers in similar versions of this position.

So why is the pro racket drop position so important? This position of the racket at the bottom of the drop is what determines the path of the upward swing to the contact, and also the length of that swing.

The drop position aligns the racket head so that it can come more directly upward into the ball. If you actually come at the ball from a "back scratch" position, the swing is on more of an angle, moving further from left to right and creating a more glancing blow. My belief is that this inevitably restricts the transfer of energy into the ball.

The depth of the drop is important for a second reason. This is because it means the racket travels a greater to the contact, and this means the potential for greater acceleration.

The depth on Jonathan's drop far shorter than the pro model, and also slightly more to the left.

If we look at Jonathan's motion we can see that his drop is incomplete, and the racket tip is positioned slightly toward the left, somewhat toward the "backscratch position". Notice that at the deepest point, his racket tip falls only to his mid back. So not only is he coming at the ball at more of a left to right angle, the length of the upward swing is something like 2 feet shorter than Sampras, probably only a little more than half the total length.

So the racket drop is the first fundamental he needs to correct if he really wants to improve his serve, and why all that other technical discussion can only be productive afterwards.

Can Jonathan copy Sampras exactly? Probably not, but it doesn't matter. Not everyone can drop the racket as far as Pete, even on the tour. It has been said, that Sampras's shoulder joint was "touched by God" and who knows, that might be true.

Upper Arm Rotation

One of the reasons his drop is so deep is that he is able to rotate his upper arm backwards in the shoulder joint to an incredible degree. Technically this is called external rotation. Watch his elbow in the animation and you can literally see this rotation happening. Most human beings just can't do that.

And in Jonathan's video it's clear that his external rotation is substantially less. That's the main reason for the restricted drop. You can see the amount of backward rotation by looking at the height of the hand and the angle of the forearm at the bottom of the drop. Look how far back Pete has rotated the forearm, with the hand around shoulder level. If we look at Jonathan, his hand is actually slightly above the top of his head. That's a big difference.

And there is one more point to look at, the bend in the elbow. Sampras's bend at the bottom of the drop appears to be slightly greater, and this is allowing him to drop the racket tip even further down, and also probably contributing to his ability to position it along his right side.

So the question for Jonathan is this: if he relaxes his arm more at the top of the backswing, will it naturally fall further down and more in line with his right side? This would mean letting the racket fall so that his upper arm naturally rotates further back, but also, relaxing the elbow as much as possible. And hopefully the answer is yes.

Only more video can tell whether that happens, or how much it happens. But, regardless of the total amount of drop, the other key is that the racket has to align with the right side and point more or less straight down at the court. If that happens naturally without any other changes in his motion, great.

Adjusting the Elbow

But what if his shoulder isn't flexible enough to make a significant change in his backward rotation? Then I think he needs to adjust the position of his elbow slightly, to a higher position.

Great servers like Sampras reach that deep drop with the elbow close to the same height as the right shoulder. The elbow is also in the same plane as the torso and not angled forward. It's as if the upper arm was an extension of the shoulder, extending directly to the player's right.

Not every server - in fact few servers - can naturally achieve this position. To reach the drop position with the racket truly in line with the right side, most players have to create an elbow position that's higher and angled somewhat more forward.

In fact, if you look at Roger Federer's motion, it appears clear that he can't rotate the upper arm back as far as Sampras. You can see that his racket doesn't fall as far, with the tip reaching down to a little below his waist.

Again, you can also see the amount of external or backward rotation by taking a look at the position of the height of the hand at the bottom of the drop. Roger's hand is definitely not as low as Pete's, but it's still substantially lower than Jonathan's.

Still the racket has fallen along the right side with the racket tip point down. This allows Roger to take that same directly upward path to the ball, even if the shorter drop means the pathway isn't quite as long as it might be from a deeper position.

To do this, Roger has an elbow position that is higher than Sampras, and possibly also angled slightly more forward. That's a realistic position for most players, and I suspect probably applies in Jonathan's case as well.

As I said, the alignment of the racket for the upward swing is the most important thing, and if you can get a deeper drop, that is definitely better. But I think we'd all agree that serving like Roger Federer would be something we could all accept.

Backward Rotation Hand.

What Jonathan needs to do is physically find that position without the ball - racket along his right side, tip of the racket pointing down. He has to feel in his shoulder how far back he can really rotate, and whether he needs to raise his elbow position, and how much. You can't force the movement to the pro racket drop position. It has to happen naturally with everything relaxed.

The racket drop has to be the non-negotiable first priority. Until the extent of Jonathan's racket drop position is clarified, there is no point in addressing all the things he wrote to me about. Once that is established then--and only then--should he start to look at the other issues.

Body Turn

I would approach the issues in this order. First the body turn, which more than anything else is a consequence of the starting stance. Look at the position of Jonathan's front foot. It's almost completely open to the baseline. Because of this, his shoulders are somewhat open to the net as well.

As he starts his motion, he does turn, but because he starts open, his shoulders are at most about perpendicular to the net at the point of maximum turn. That's a lot less than most good servers. Look also at the line of the shoulders at the contact. Like some of the top women servers, Jonathan's torso is wide open or parallel to the baseline at contact. (Click Here.)

My suggestion is that he use Federer for a model, and start with the front foot much more parallel to the baseline. It can be completely parallel in the ad court, and open 5 or 10 degrees in the deuce.

He should also open up the back foot, pointing the toes slightly back the other way, away from the baseline. From this stance there will be a natural body turn away from the ball as a function of the windup and backswing. Basically the shoulders will turn onto a line that is parallel with a line drawn across the toes.

If you watch Federer, you'll see that this stance results in a turn away from the baseline of up to about 60 degrees. And note the angle at the contact - the shoulders are still partially closed to the baseline. It's the same but even more extreme for Sampras. (Click Here.)

As for the legs. This is like the backward rotation of the arm in the shoulder joint. Every player is different. You can't force the knee bend. The question is, how far down can you go while still retaining balance and good posture. The best way to test this is without the ball and using just the front leg.

If you can easily drop down 30 degrees without feeling a lot of tension, bending over at the waist or losing your balance, then that's about the right amount for your motion - or whatever that amount happens to be for you.

Shoulder Tilt

Shoulder tilt is one of the controversial issues in serving theory. Some coaches believe you should thrust the front hip out and consciously lean back to increase the tilt. I disagree.

It's true you will see some pro servers appear to do this, but if you look at a truly great motion like Sampras's, you see that this appears to be mainly a natural function of the stance and knee bend. You don't see some huge change in the angle between the torso and the hips. The whole body inclines as the knees drop, and the shoulder naturally rises as a function of the tossing motion. The "tilt" occurs automatically as a function of these factors.

So Jonathan, I wouldn't worry too much about shoulder tilt if you create a starting stance and level of knee bend that works for you, the amount of tilt should be naturally correct.

And that final issue, the contact point and the bend at the waist. Definitely Jonathan is bent over somewhat to his left and forward at contact. This could in fact be due to the toss being too far in front given the amount of upward and forward leg thrust in his motion.

The Toss and the Landing

Correcting this problem presents an interesting chicken and egg dilemma. Should the player attempt to change the toss and let the body adapt to that? Or is it better to change the body posture itself?

I say the latter. The key is to land more straight up and down. Federer is the perfect example. If you force yourself to stand more upright from the waist, and then land in that position, you will have no choice but to adjust the toss and bring it further back. Otherwise you won't be able to make contact with the ball.

We saw another example of this issue a couple of months ago when we looked at Jeff Greenwald's serve. (Click Here.) And the drill Jeff's demonstrated is very effective in correcting problems with posture and balance.

I call it the hoppity hop. The player lands on the front foot as usual, but then has to hop and gather his balance while standing only on the front foot and keeping the back foot back behind him.

My experience is that if you practice the hoppity hop you will quickly learn not only better posture, but will adjust the toss to that new posture more or less automatically. Otherwise you won't be able to reach the ball.

This drill forces you to stay more upright through the hit because your body feels this is necessary to be able to hop without bringing the back foot through. It's a great key to visualize during actual play. You simply imagine yourself landing in position to take the hop.

So that's it for this month. Let's see if Jonathan is able to improve his drop FIRST and send in some more video. Then maybe we'll see what he can do with the other issues. Stay Tuned.