What motion works best on the serve? A half-swing that stalls behind the back or a full windmill motion that keeps moving start to finish? We'll take a look at how effective both techniques seem to be.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Episode 50: He who hesitates serves better?
What motion works best on the serve? A half-swing that stalls behind the back or a full windmill motion that keeps moving start to finish? We'll take a look at how effective both techniques seem to be.
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Thanks for another interesting podcast, and for mentioning my blog.
ReplyDeleteBill Tilden wrote that the best tennis motto he ever heard was: "Let the racket head do the work."
By that I think he meant that the best way to execute any stroke with fluidity, power, spin and grace is to utilize things in your stroke such as: the weight of the racket head, the racket swing path, the force of gravity, centrifugal force, and momentum of an object already in motion.
If the serve is the most important shot in tennis, then this idea applies probably as much to serves as anything else.
I tend to think that the long flowing unbroken circular swing is probably best for most people's serves.
I think that Roddick's serve power and effectiveness comes more from his extra-ordinary shoulder flexibility and depth of racket head drop, which offsets any pause or hesitation in his swing path.