I appreciate your advice which you delivered with experience and sincerity. Thank you very much. I have been trying to do a racquet drop for years and recently began to use a shortened starting point where my serving arm starts at head height to my right side and just itching to drop. But that has not worked well, unfortunately. Instead, I will try your advice of loose arm and feeling its weight prior to initiating the motions and the toss. Of course I need a shoulder tilt too, which is hard as well!
Hi Steven, thanks for your comments, feedback and challenges. Being a passionate tennis coach who wants to help, I can’t help but offer to take a look at your serve and give you some advice. Let me know if this is something that interests you and I will follow up with instructions to submit your video. Best, John
John- The palm does not have to face down with strings facing to sky and ground in initial position. Taylor Fritz- whose serve you have already analyzed- has racquet on edge paralel to base line with strings facing front and back of court. His racquet rises on edge into racquet drop. Then he drives up to ball. He has hit 130bmph serves and is a top ten talent. It is working for him. I love his serve and am working hard to replicate his motion. 🎾
John, maybe the open face racket drop is not really important as long as the racket goes up to the ball on edge (just before pronation happens). Two of the best servers ever Sampras and Federer have an open face drop. Shapovalov is the most extreme of all. His racket drops with a completely open face to the sky.
Thanks for your feedback and contribution to the video. I agree - ultimately the angle of the racquet up to contact is more important. However, for the many recreational players who struggle with an open face and maintain the open face to contact, the intention to close the racquet in the drop is an important step in solving the problem. Best, John
Most of us need to supinate to get maximum shoulder external rotation for full racquet drop. Some people are so flexible that they can get full external rotation without supinating first. Shapovalov and Berrettini are prime examples. They do get the racquet stuck behind their heads a bit and I doubt most rec players could get away with it. BTW, Djokovic with his extreme flexibility used to do something similar, but he corrected it and improved his serve.
@@marktace1 Thanks for the follow-up comments, Mike. Yes, Djokovic did change his serve and it changed his career. His serve was a real problem before 2011...he lacked confidence and double faulted on big points, not to mention the potential for injury. Here is my review of the transformation of his serve: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VpJoHm5v3NY.htmlsi=xZHsYTsNXNp8tBif. Best, John
Awesome talks about the mechanism of racquet movements in serve. At one time years ago I was trying to consciously make racquet drop as some online coaches teach and it just felt hard and awkward to do in a series of quick motions.
wow..what great instruction..i cant thk u enough!!!...i love tennis vids even though i dont play(hopefully this year)...knowing the importance of non-dominant arm in tennis would u say the position and tension of the left arm during the serve toss can effect the dropping of the raquet..i ask this silly question because in golf getting the rt elbow(and not dropping the club) stuck can be attributed to bent left arm(creating a hindering brake)..lack of complete turn..and tension..things u mentioned...and seeing so so many tennis players struggle on their 1st serve(tension and over-hitting)--im just curious if tension in the tossing arm can prevent this looping action in the right arm..in any event u rescued my golf swing and the trapped arm/elbow preventing my drop of the club..i subscibed and look forward to more great vids from u..thks again..your instruction was so enlightning..
Thank you so much for your kind words and contribution to the video. I hope you get out there and start playing tennis! Keep me updated on your progress.
Really great advice! The only stroke I need to lift my game high enough to beat ATP players is my serve and I’m trying!!! This video inspired me with your great insights and last tip🙏🎾🏆
That's awesome! Keep up the great practice and keep me updated on your progress! Let me know if you want me to perform a video review of your serve. Best, John
@@PerformancePlusTennis I’d love that but I haven’t worked in 4 years. If I could pay I would! I’ll get there thanks to your help. A big bow of gratitude 🙏🎾🏆
@@PerformancePlusTennis I just uploaded a short unlisted video of me hitting my second serves. In matches I double fault maybe once a set or so. My first serve looks the same but faster and flatter and I hit about 40% but get a few aces and non returnable winners. The serve is my weakest stroke and I have tried every style and technique but this faster motion helps me at least be consistent. Here’s the unlisted video if you are open to checking it out. Much appreciated: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-trlM40kudWo.htmlsi=w_-PstNYJcVogQqD
@@PerformancePlusTennis I just played about 7 ITF Futures (I’m 58) and I won around 30 points in each match (against top 1000 atp ranked players) but I couldn’t get enough points in a row to win many games. I broke their serve many times but in the end I didn’t win a match…yet! But I played an ITF Masters tournament and I won it easily in my age group. I just know I can beat these young kids as I train with them and I can crush them in stroking down the middle and drills…it’s just their serves are 130 mph and I’m not used to that. They don’t crush my serve. They just get it in down the middle so that’s good for me. Thanks coach john! Greetings from greece 🇬🇷
I think you should try to put the racket, that is, wrist and elbow, into the "correct" positions and angles before launching up. Then let it happen relaxed and you might get lucky.
First of all, I would like to thank you for sharing all these great and useful tips throughout the whole serving motion, BUT still I want to point out that the video is not directly answering the question you pose in the title, and that's probably the specific point some of us wanted to know in this video... I clicked in the video hoping to learn some drills or tricks that can help myself achieve the natural racket drop, but none of them are mentioned... The title would be better named "The 4 fundamental techniques that you have to know for proper tennis serving" to indicate the video content IMO. But still thanks for the valuable content that you put up anyway, as many of the people would definitely benefit from knowing the fundamentals. For people like me that are looking for the "natural racquet drop" specifically, one thing that I learnt was to focus on leading with the elbow with loose grip, which helps me make quite some progress to a certain point. Let me know if there are some other useful tricks, drills or mindset to help achieving that.
Hi Alson, I am sorry the video did not meet your expectations. If you perform the 4 fundamentals as presented and rehearse your serve without a ball, then you will begin to feel and develop a natural racquet drop. If you want more guidance, I do offer a video analysis service, which you can learn about here: performanceplustennis.com/performance-plus-serve-stroke-video-analysis-description/. Best regards, John
I think on a different tips that help me , don't try to hit down targeting the opponent service box , you might end up pushing the ball , with much less power on the serve . Try to hit the ball aiming for like , 8 inches above the net . That is where the get the solid contact point . The ball will drop down inside the opponent service line , just by the help of gravity naturally ..
My drop itself is pretty good but I struggle getting the 90 degree angle with the elbow pointing straight up and the rest of the arm making the L shape. What’s the best exercise or stretches for mobility to free it up?
Thanks for your great question. There are a number of exercises, most quite simple to increase mobility, but difficult to describe in text form. I will produce a video later this week covering this topic....stay tuned!
His Ball Toss video is the best most comprehensive ball toss video on RU-vid ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qvm6PJ3pLbY.htmlfeature=shared
So when you say to just set up correctly and then make your move, and the racquet drop will happen naturally what exactly is "the move"? What is the sensation we are looking for to initiate the movement? Is it the dropping of the non-dominant arm that initiates the rotation of the shoulders, that in turn "pulls" the racquet? From reviewing videos I was staying way too closed at impact, and by thinking about pulling the racquet by opening my shoulders, it seems more natural to get a racquet drop....but I have tons of work to do lol.
Thanks for your great questions and contribution to the video! "Make your move" refers to driving the legs and pulling the toss arm away from the stretch/ vertical position. That is the sensation you are looking for, but most be in a balanced, "loaded" position to make / time the move. I hope this helps. I am also offering a free serve analysis for a limited time. Here is the link to sign-up if interested: performanceplustennis.com/?ff_landing=17 Kindly, John
@@PerformancePlusTennis Hi John and thanks for taking the time to reply. I’m 50 and have only been playing around 6 months total, so not sure if I am at the stage yet of benefiting from a serve analysis, but I definitely will consider!
