Why the Tennis Serve is so Difficult & How it Can be Simplified
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- Опубликовано: 23 фев 2023
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In today’s video, I explain why the tennis serve is so difficult and how it can be simplified by compartmentalizing the required movements.
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It's the only aspect of tennis that is entirely under your control. And yet it is still so difficult.
Exactly. If I could learn a decent and consistent serve, my game would take a huge leap forward.
Perhaps most difficult too
Maybe it's so difficult because we have time to think when other shots are reactive, and then managed by instinct?
@@alexialang8656 I think that's true for me.
It's difficult because you are not really in control 100%. You have control up until the ball leaves you hand. So unless you are a robot, the ball won't be where you want to hit every time.
I'm by no means a serving expert but once I started slowing down the backswing up to the trophy "pose", I gained so much power it was insane. I still need to practice but when I hit it just right it feels great. Effortless power.
So if you're trying to figure out the key, take it slower in the beginning!!
Great video Nick ! Everything you said was exactly the problem I was experiencing . Only recently I started to toss the ball higher so I could implement the correct mechanics for my service motion. You stated that a low ball toss was tied into the fear factor and that’s exactly what I was doing. I was rushing my serve and I never allowed the racquet to get into the “ pro drop “position because of the fear that I had of tossing the ball higher. Only after watching other players with higher ball tosses did I realize what I was doing wrong with my serve. I now feel more confident when I step up to the line with a higher toss.
Great video Nick. I personally love the endless technical challenges of tennis. But when to simply initiate a point you have to throw the ball up 11 ft with your non dominant arm to a precise location while simultaneously performing a complex looping action with your other arm and time hitting a rapidly descending ball that has to clear a net and land in a small rectangle 18 metres away.....its kind of easy to see why Pickleball is surging in popularity:)
pickle ball is so fun. tennis is also fun but it's just way more difficult to get your skill to a point where you feel like you're actually *playing* the sport
İ tried pickleball but quickly returned to tennis as İ still find more challenging for the many complexities involved. Pickleball is more about instinctive reactions and a terrible sounding ball!!!
The serve is so difficult because of the toss. The more tips and videos on the toss, the better imo!
For sure, when your toss is in different position each time, it is like a completely different stroke. Hitting at 1:00 is totally different from 11:30.
"toss is the most important thing in good serve. If you chase the ball it will never work"
R.Federer
So I watched this video on Saturday night and decided to try it out on Sunday afternoon. And it worked like a charm! All I did was focus on the lag aspect when serving, and I noticed my serves had more power and depth, with pretty much the same effort as before. You really know what you're talking about, and again have proven why you're one of my main go-to channels for tennis instructions. Keep up the good work!!!
Good summary. I play rec-level doubles matches at about the 4.0 level. I'm always amazed that so many players at the 4.0 level can have good groundstroke and volley games yet the serve (and particularly second serve) can be extremely flawed and they never practice it outside of playing games. I've been fascinated by the serve for years and regularly spend time on the court on my own hitting serves. So many tennis players at the rec level wouldn't do this, ever.
I spent one whole summer practicing my serve almost exclusively because it's bad compared to my groundstrokes. The serve is considered boring to most but to me it's not boring if you know how to improve it.
So true! I’ve been working hard on my serve for almost 10 years! I’ve tried everything and only recently began to put it together. I’ve been watching the guys at the club where I play and almost all of them end up with some version of the waiter tray. During their backswing on the way to the trophy position they open up the racket where the strings are facing the sky. That’s also been one of my biggest problems. Getting the racket face closed and a higher toss makes all the difference.
nice I also remember alexandr dolgopolov having a low toss but v quick service motion
I'm glad you shared that. I have a low toss and I've been having problems during everything, especially the dropping of the racket down my back before coming up to hit it. I noticed that when my tosses are higher, I seem to serve better. Thanks for the explanation!
Superb explanation of intricate differences of the 3 types of service motions. Thanks.
Excellent video Nick, thanks!
Hahe! You’re the best Coach Nick! Have you been watching my videos? You sounded like me at the end of the video. Hahe Your the best my friend. I laughed so hard I spit my coffee on myself.😅 GOD bless you my friend. That was funny because I never hear you say things like that, and it was hysterical my friend.
Thank you Nick for this great tip. Adding a short lag between the toss & the rest of the serve motion has really helped me hit more Consistent & definitely faster serves. 🙏🏼
Thanks! I cracked up a little bit on the mic drop part haha.
One of your better videos. Thanks!
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾Good advice I need to implement with my next serve practice session
Great simple video, such a good coach.
such a good pedagogy, thank you.
Complete, detailed and very clear explanation as usual. Excellent!
🙏
Extremely well explained!
The best and funniest Tennis Channel. Lol thanks Nik!
Great explanation!
Tanner and Roddick are great examples of the abbreviated serve motion. I've tried that and can do for a while but it's just not natural. Always come back to something between the lag and arms together motion. These give time for you to bend knees and load after the toss. Thanks for the vid.
Great video ! I’ll use some of this in my teaching!
Very useful advice about lag, will try it out 👍🏽
Nick With the serve (I was taught to power serve by the national coach) and I'm just trying to figure out which serve motion is less complicated and less tiring for me to always do, so the serve has got less chance of breaking down. I find the abbreviated serve gives me much less time loading up.
The serve has to be done with the lag delay because its a lasso serve and to get enough time to lasso the ball in fully with the backswing (racquet drop) you need to delay the hitting arm. If you don't lag, you won't get enough lasso onto the ball and that pops the ball too flat past the lines at 100-130 mph. instead of clicking in at 100-130+ mph. You get more zip when you put lag in the serve.
I think this lag will also determine also how short and wide you can also lasso the serve as well. Because the lasso pulls the ball more down into the court when you do delay and it lassos the ball properly then you get those short wide big serves..
That's what I been finding out, sometimes I lag and sometimes I don't and when I don't, I end up rushing the serve and it don't have enough time to lasso the ball properly so it ends up missing the court lines. The lasso will feel weaker on contact and
not as strong if its rushed.
Love this tip. I feel more power.
Every single thing you said is on point! 👍
"the entire thing will be over too quickly"
I've never heard anyone describe that problem so perfectly before. I'm currently at that stage where my serve is too damn fast, that I can't possibly do anything to try to work and improve on my serve.
I can't even recognize whether I'm actually doing a proper flat or slice any more! Because the serve is too fast, and it feels impossible to look at the box in time to see where the serve landed, and now I feel like a total dumbass since now I have to rely on my opponent's call on where my serve was!
Oh, did I forget to mention that I sometimes hit my left leg out under me with my racket? That was fun 🤦
ruclips.net/video/3phu6nhLmik/видео.html
Hmm, great video on understanding serving variations. I've heard about these variations but no one really explained the rationale behind those variations. Thanks!
So spot on and great tips working on this right now. . .✊️😌💙😎
10:07 was the funniest part, I actually laughed pretty hard.
Thank u,for this excellent info🙏👍
Very helpful thanks
This is a great video analysis of the Serve Motion Most of the coaches cannot explain it and You end up confused They might say you don't toss the ball high enough You only use your arm only not enough of your body others Left Shoulder Collapse like Dementieva Nadal also struggled with his serve I learned my serve watching Roscoe Tanner John Newcombe Rod Laver Nastase but then someone said to me they toss at the throw meaning they start the throw motion before the toss A total Confusion Glad to see some comprehensive analysis from Nick that put things in order and clarify concepts. This is a video to keep and watch over and over Thanks, Nick!!!
I think a uniquely challenging component of the serve is that you likely never throw a ball with your opposite hand, let alone throw a ball and require absolute precision as you do with the toss.
great video Nick, so happy i found it just on time as i am trying to learn the serve from zero to one, as i start playing lefty, played righty before.
🙌
Excellent analysis. Appreciate how you emphasize which style is most conducive to establishing a fundamentally sound serve for most players. (Always exceptions though, right?) I always thought that club players trying to emulate Roddick's abbreviated takeback were setting themselves for problems. Incidentally, Pat Rafter is a good example of the up-together style. Tried that years ago, which seemed like the norm when I was taught back in the day, but eventually went to the Pete Sampras lag-behind style, and I feel it promotes a great progressive build up of power in the serve (as well promoting working on isolating components of the serve as you emphasize...).
Bravo! Especially the high toss. Too many so-called coaches talk too much about the low toss
Sooooo helpful! Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Love this video! I've experimented with different take backs over the years with the semi-abbreviated most recently. After seeing this video I went back to the full backswing with better results in terms of much fewer first and second serve faults. While my Babolat POP seems to record somewhat lower speeds it seems like the players receiving my serve are having more trouble returning it. So if the POP is correct I'll gladly take lower MPH in exchange for fewer double faults! It also feels more natural for me. (Dare I say the full backswing feels more intuitive? 😀)
I can't stop watching your videos and stop being amazed by how simply you solve my questions..
🙌🙏
Some great returns by Townsend in the first set. Watching Ben and Taylor play has been fun.
Another great video for us serve nerds!!
Great analysis. I think the serve is so difficult because it’s not intuitive. Your channel has helped my serve a ton. Especially the over rotation vid and the vid on how it’s different than a throwing motion.
Great to hear!
This is a masterclass for people who struggle to maintain serve consistency and wonder why. It provides explanations that you could probably never work out yourself - or get from a local coach. It perfectly explains why my serve tends to deteriorate over time. I need a serve practice session on my own every few months, to recover my timing and stop making the shortcuts you demonstrate. I have also recently watched your explanation of post contact pronation (or not) on the slice serve - and why people get so confused by this aspect of the slice serve. It really is material of the highest quality, for people trying to understand and improve their tennis technique.
Thank you 🙏
Best breakdown of serving issues I've seen
🙏
Tennis is a sport of a lifetime. This video will help keep the interest in a great sport of a lifetime.
💯🙏
Excellent
I try to learn the lag now. Great video Nick!😀
You can do it!
@@IntuitiveTennis
Thank you!
When i lag the racquet behind the ball toss, i can definetely feel more time available! Lag is the way to go! 😀
Man perfecting serving mechanics is so so complicated !!
I’ll keep working on it
I think the lag serve can be hard because you’re making one arm move in a different way than the other arm. It’s sort of like trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time. However, I agree that the lag serve does seem like the best option to learn with
Just compartmentalize: focus on your toss first while letting the racquet hang, then focus on moving your racquet up to hit the ball. the problem you describe is much more likely if you move the racquet arm up while trying to toss. Two entirely different movement patterns.
Thanks Nick a friend has advised me to shorten my take back as he says I slow up and stop and then accelerate. I have found by shortening the take back I am more likely to lose any rhythm I had, as you say difficult to work out what I have done. I have been trying to replicate how I throw a ball as I can throw a ball a good distance but my serve lacks real pop. I am unusual/unique? As I am left handed except for the serve when I am right handed that is because I throw right handed but am left handed and left footed in everything else. I am still working on what technique will suit me best. Thanks for your insights helpful to put in with other info.
I think the hardest part is tossing high enough so that you can hit at the highest point of the loop but not so high that the loop is interrupted. I tried to do it like Jimmy Connors, not abbreviated motion but not too high a toss either. It's just right. Obviously, he didn't have the biggest gun, but if I could serve in the fashion of Jimmy, I don't think that's too shabby for a rec player.
Hey coach, any comments on Oscar Otte's serve? Seems like that extremely quick cadence would be hard to time a split step against.
Nice video. I had to chuckle though as you can hear the pickle ball’s impacting off the paddle in the vicinity.
They don't have issues with the serve.
Nick, what about the "trophy phase pause of the serve of Andy Roddick! One of the best serving players ever!
Thanks for this video Nik. I used to have a serve I was pretty happy with and had a lot more power and consistency, somehow I’ve got away from that and my serve is now much worse. I think I’ve gone from more of a lag to an up together. Hopefully I can get back to a lag serve and get my serve back 👊
Find what works best and stick with it 🙌
I filmed myself serving and have found that my racket drop is improved when I start at the trophy phase. I notice that if I do the full motion, my racket drop is very shallow and my racket face is open meaning I'm not coming at the ball on edge. Maybe my toss is too low and I don't have the time for a complete racket drop. However, if I start in the trophy stance the drop is better and I can hit the ball with more power. The downside to starting in the trophy is that I lack some momentum. Is this the case with anyone else?
Wawrinka makes the up together technique work well for him and other players on the ATP are able to generate 115 plus power with the racquet starting at shoulder height but this is still the best school of thought on the serve
Great tips s, I have to throw high, I am just not quick enough for a low toss, it is trouble on those windy days. I am tall so I need to get it into the court or I hit it with the racquet angled back and it goes long. It is a 20 year struggle.
adding to the difficulty of executing that drop is the problem of getting rid of the old muscle memory
I have been liking the Tomic serve. It looks simple.
You're preaching to me on the low toss quick accel
I saw someone say that, during the serve, you should try to not look at the ball until the ball has left your hand during the toss. Is this true? For example, should we look forward instead of down at the ball before we start raising our arms to toss the ball and bring the racket into trophy position?
Edberg serve is one of the best examples of a lag serve
Are there any tips to help the racket head drop position be more vertical. My racket points too much to the 7-8 o’ clock during the racket drop position…when the pros drop the racket it’s around 6 o clock or even pointing slightly to the right.
Can confirm it's difficult. I had to learn how to play tennis left handed. The serve is the hardest shot to flip over, far harder than the one handed lefty backhand I'm using. Still can't generate much pace to it since my left coordination isn't quite there yet. My righty serve was my weapon.
10:07 LMAOOOOO!!!!
I saw a guy once at my club he was really overweight apparently useless at singles BUT he had an absolute monster serve both first and second a totally smooth service action he would routinely serve his way out of break points always in doubles he couldn't play singles, apparently he went to a tennis camp for a few weeks and did nothing but develop his service, it was a weird sight heavy set tummy sticking out but what a serve, speed, hitting his spots, kick, slice you name it.
He looked like hell but the serve was poetry in motion all but the strongest of club players couldn't break him. It was almost his party trick he looked like he had trouble climbing the stairs but had the best club level serve I ever saw.
I've encountered a lot of older club players who have an incredible serve and nothing else.
Thanks
Much appreciated 🙏
Great coaching thank you. Are you based in the US?
Yes, FL
Great breakdown. My experience is you have to take these breakdowns out to the court and serve over and over till your body finds out what's going on. You can hit a basket of 50 in half hour easy. When you hit something smooth and with good pace then try to duplicate. You have to look for both technique and results. If you're physically fit and advanced or semi advanced you have to be able to hit a flat serve inside the service box and have it go straight to the back fence without a second bounce. ( which is about 20 feet in back of baseline). If not sorry your serve is too slow. 😮 Most of the time it happens if you're not leaning into the serve or contacting too low or just a lazy arm action. Then you work on placement &spin. If you can grab a high school or college player have him return a basket and see how he reacts and then try to tweak your disguise.
I can tell you why I instinctively throw the ball lower: the higher your throw it the bigger the deviation is when the throw is not perfect, it's physics. So basically if you throw the ball low might be a sign you are insecure about the toss.
How about roscoe tanner.?
RIP the mic xD you convinced me with that!
As a novice player who struggles mightily with the serve and have an issue hitting it at less than full extension just as you described I can say for me it’s not about comfort. In fact “short arming” the ball feels terrible. The reason I short arm is because my toss is usually short. I find it difficult to control my toss and the higher I throw my toss the less control I have over it. So for me short toss leads to not enough extension. High toss leads to bad toss which leads to me being out of a good position to get the motion right. Been practicing the toss but progress is SLOW.
Have you tried raising the tossing arm completely extended?
@@Dan1elAndrade I think it’s extended but right now it does feel like I have to force that.
A player that I remember to have an extremely fast serve move is Dolgopolov. I think he might hit the ball on the rise.
What's your opinion of training items like the Serve Master or using a long sock w/ a tennis balls. The idea is to keep a fluid motion so that the end of the sock doesn't collapse and lose momentum?
ruclips.net/video/8qEdCyrpBfU/видео.html
@@IntuitiveTennis oh, this is surprising good that you like it. I just started using it... serve is smoother w/ less effort and harder, but have to fix my toss/contact. Seems better arms down/arm up together toss rather than using a lag...
Serve master is good to build the strength in your racquet drop and get that nice fluid motion. Great for people with waiters tray issue to work to keep the palm down at the start. . But it will not help you when you throw the ball up and you have to time the whole thing, like he says. I throw a ball and try to hit it with the serve master it is funny, everything goes wrong you barely start the swing.
@@info781 Oh I never tried to hit a ball w/ the Servemaster! it's helpful to know that feeling and to know it's the correct... I find w/ less effort I'm getting more pop on the ball. But syncing w/ toss is hard. I serve 6 balls then use SM before picking them up and serve them back. I hope it'll be a breakthrough.
what racquet is nic using?
Any drills?
RIP Microphone sacrificed during low ball toss LOL point taken I guess
For me the up to together rhythm is much harder, I was told by my coach to do the up together rhythm, and I had so many problems with my serve.
ruclips.net/video/Qge_Sn5QS8Q/видео.html - This guy is the right way.
I had a coach try to break me from tossing the ball high. I didn't toss it really high but higher than he liked. I couldn't do it. He kept trying and when I said; "Well Steffi Graf has a really high toss" he would just say; "yea, well you're no Steffi Graf." 🤣 Man I loved watching her play.
This is nothing but the truth here!!! My body cannot react that fast so I have to toss the ball a little bit higher so I can load my body more. My serve has a long way to go but it is slowly getting there.
I was recently told by a coach at my local club that I should pause in trophy position. He said even pros do it. I thought that contradicted what I've been told elsewhere. What do you all think? Is there any legitimate reason to do it? Should I start pausing?
Ask him what pros?
I think Nick is right about not pausing, it's just that the pause is easier to do...
I've always wondered if the Jay Berger serve is really bad or just ugly. It's definitely a simplification and he went to the top of tennis with it. Not many people have tried it though, so either we have too small a sample to judge from or it's basically flawed.
The highway is noise is distracting. But I like the breakdown.
This must be a different court because none of his other videos had the traffic noise in them 😉
Nik you’re a busy man I realize, if you could, you should add a section to your website/app, where we could submit a serve video, and for a fee you could analyze it, and/or do a segment of viewer’s serve video analysis on your RUclips channel.
It’s in the footer under video analysis
@@IntuitiveTennis Ah yes, found it! Thank you.
I think a low toss is the root cause of most serve issues because everything from the toss on is rushed, short, and cramped.
Adjectives and adverbs like: low, too low, high, too high, are relative subjective. Another youtuber would use the fence as a guiding ruler. For instance, if i go extend my arm with raquet in hand i can measure the highest point of my reach.
I wish Nick would have done that so that based on his height and racquet reach, he could demonstrate his ideal toss height AND location.
Nick doesn't Alcaraz have a short loop?
I had to stop tennis because i never was able to master an average serve. Idem for the smash. The loop was the nightmare. That's a shame because i had a good baseline game and loved this sport.
I feel your pain. I became so frustrated that I quit playing as well. I stopped playing in the early 90’s because I just couldn’t master the service motion. I would spend hours practicing my serve and I would never improve on it. All those hours were a waste of time because I was doing it incorrectly. Back then there wasn’t RUclips videos to watch or online video instruction to help improve. I started to play again in 2018 and my serve was still the worst part of my game; however, at least now I can record my serve and see what I’m doing wrong and then try to correct it. Sometimes I think that I now watch too many videos and try to implement advice and techniques for my serve from a variety of online coaches that has my head spinning and the feeling of frustration is rearing its ugly head. This time however I’m going to perceiver until I get it right. My biggest problem is incorrect muscle memory that has to be broken down and restructured the correct way. They say that “it takes time “; however, being 70 years old time isn’t on my side.
is that a wilson shift?
I thought so
Pure Drive 98.
Tell your coach that you want a session exclusive for serve drill. Minimal do 100 ball, and analyze every ball. Take your time, dont rush it.. feel what works and dont works for you. I did this training alone, with no coach, but every 24 ball i recorded myself and do some adjustment
I used to lag, and it felt pretty good. I changed because looking at Federer+Serena they don't lag much, plus some coaches encouraged me to be more up-together. But this video explains many issues I have with my serve now. Maybe I will try lagging again
Federer lags a ton? He flicks the racquet out down and behind him. That is a huge lag.
Good points BUT how do you compartmentalize the serve? You did not explain how to you can train parts of the serve and put them together. It is easier with groundstrokes. Where you can hit very slow balls with correct technique and then try it with faster balls. But you cannot slow down the toss!
I find myself lifting my front foot before my back can’t seem to fix it
Much like everything in Tennis, the serve is all about the little details. Non-Tennis people just don't understand this, that you're using your not just using your arms but whole body, and the slightest little thing being off can screw it up.