Serve Tip: Separating Toss and Arm Action 

Best video on coordination of toss arm and hitting arm for the serve

This video really simplified the serve mechanics for me. Most people make the mistake of not separating out the mechanics like the instructor,Nassim, did in this video. I found his separation of the tossing arm and the proper hitting motion to be most valuable. It takes away a lot of the confusion with the mechanics.

Nadim, I just watched a string of your videos and they are top rate! The slow recordings and repeats and going frame to frame, comparing the right and wrong angles of the elbows to the shoulders when serviing.... all backs up what I have seen in other videos and yours is so methodical... great teaching skills. Thank you! I also like your suggestions on progression for refining the serves. I'm in Berkeley, CA

This video is a game changer for me - The cue of the apex to start the right to left makes me realize how early I was activating the arm only to “hurry up and wait”. Cannot wait to practice this, Nadim - thanks.

Great tip on how to do the half serve. Separation is the key. Thank you! Nadim, you are the best of the OTI instructors, such clear instructions!

Great post.. I think the key is having the racket facing down when the toss is at the apex to get the full pronation and swing from the racquet.. I suspect most beginners pull back to soon and lose 50% of the velocity by doing this

very simple execution and good to adopt thank you 👍

Best advice on serving coach.. I've been seperating my serving motions, experimenting on tossing arm up first or serving arm at half position first also both tossing and racquet arm up at same time however I was able to synchronized or get best result by 'waiting' on half-position till my toss reached its apex or 'stopping' mid air then I went to 'second' position..the results are consistent well striked serves nearly 100 percent of the time. You kinda 'validated' my experiments. Thank you Coach 👍🏻🎾🙏🏻

great video, it helps me to understand to swing to hit as long as the ball reach to the apex. usually i'm too rushed or to late to swing to hit. the timing you explained is helpful for me.thank you

I'm 67, 4.0 player and about 2years ago I decided to totally rework my serve. It's been a long road. I got to the late ball toss with arm as you suggest on my own, but have been struggling with consistency. Your shoulder rotation tip, then timing at apex is great. I see lots of pros that bend knees at different times and I go between platform and pinpoint, so I'll fit these tips in and see where it goes. Thanks and I look forward to viewing more of your vids!

One of the most useful video for the serve, thank you!

Great tip Nadim!

Nadim, thank you for this excellent discipline, looks very helpful. Gordon

Best serve lesson I'v seen so far

Great tips Nadim! Many thanks! Chung- Vietnam

Wow!! So much information in such a short video!! 😎 Love the way you broke down the steps of the serve. By watching you I can tell my timing is off. Thanks Nadim!! You are the BEST!! Great video!!👍 Getting out there today to fix it!

Good solid tip! Thank you!

Very concise and to the point, on my way to the court to try it out!

your serving videos are the best!

Tank You Florian, excelent !!!

simple and easy to follow. Thanks!

Super helpful practice drills. Thank you so much.

I had inconsistent tosses and elbow dropping issue. I managed to solve both issues after following this video. One of the best serve tips I received so far..Thanks a lot for this video 👍🏼

Exactly. I couldn't serve until I imitated Roddick. Racket back and ready to follow the toss. ONE SERVICE MOTION, beginning with the toss. Optimal toss height becomes an easy adjustment to the pace of the service motion. Practice slow, medium and fast serves for complete control.

Too good too good too good. Thank you so much for your videos. Top notch

Really enjoyed this, thanks!

Great Video. Now to execute!

Thank you sir for such a great video

Very good for the overall coordination thur elbow lead.

EXCELLENT INSTRUCTION!!!!

Excellent!

Great instruction. I have a request. I have incorporated the half position into my serve and it is working beautifully!! I’ve never served more consistently, thank you. But now I need a video showing how to connect the half position to a full swing (for more power?). I’d also appreciate tips on how to control the direction. Thanks Nadim

Great video, thanks!

Good and useful tip even for some advanced (club) level players.Thanks.

Great video.

muy bueno!!!!! saludos

Great Great video !!! Thank you !!!

Too good idea!

Thank you

Thanks very much for this. I've been using this simplified serve in matches for the last few months and it has increased my serve consistency, racket head speed, ball speed and level spin. The simplification of the serve motion makes it easier for me to get the serve rhythm right - previously I had issues with getting to the trophy position too early.

This was interesting Nadim! I think that crunch time tennis also has a swan like position (of course his is different), only he calls it secret power source.

Very good! That's the key 👌🤙

Very very good

Nadim, great tip! I can't wait to try it out tomorrow against my weekend warriors. I'll let you know the results.

Nice videi

Probably best way to start to serve in right way not only separating but also simplify complete process serve by remove shifting weight balance (Rocking motion) since this will be most tricky part in order to combine all concern of serve to make it complete one piece . but rocking motion should master in the end if you want to increase the speed of the serve dramatically .

Exact issue I am having. Coordination of hitting arm and toss arm. Will work on this tomorrow. Can you do a video on the right to left that you talk about.

Nadim, as usual, this is great! One question, though: as you make your toss and your arm goes up to “vertical,” does your weight shift forward (and upward?) somewhat from your back leg?

Beauty demonstration. It however does not describe what happens w/ arm rotation. Demo shows it partial but (rightfully) you are hitting light. BTW for the ages this type of serve is called Virginia Wade serve and I use it as I do not now any other way. VW (no, no it is not Volkswagen) way is way easier than coordinated.

Interesting drill, based on 2 problem areas of many students. I have found that laying the arm and wrist in that position is extremely tiring for most persons. So expect that the process will take a while. Also, notice that the laid back wrist has thumb down, not thumb up, which seems correct, but is more difficult. We are always looking for little things to enable us to reach our students.

Hi Nadim, thank you for the excellent video. Any suggestions to prevent the ball going behind you or too far across the body on the toss?

Hello Adam! Thank you very much for excellent lesson. I have one question: We start the backswing with so called half position of the right arm. What we get and what we lose with that approach? What are the advantage and shortage of that kind of serving? Best regards, Emil

After apex, don't you mean let racket drop to left, then swing up, not right to left?

Picking this coach's serve technique: The pull-down of his tossing arm (left arm) was delayed during serve (4:43), which hindered his body rotation and his serve speed.

Good tip I got on you tube. Will work on it

Excellent stuff, are there some eg WTP players who actually serve like this?

What's the RU-vid channel for Nadeem??

Apex means the peak??

Nice instructions, but my body make up is I’m always tight,

What grip do you suggest on your serve?

Great points! One thing I noticed, your left hand needs to pull to the side of the body at contact to complete full rotation. Your left hand seems to be stopping at the middle of your body.

But how do you get to position one, and coordinate that with the whole process?

are you hitting a slice serve because you don't seem to be pronating.

Your content is great and much appreciated. Please, do no take my following comment as negative, but rather as constructive. Please talk less and demonstrate more in your videos. Start with a brief, and I mean BRIEF, description of your lesson, then get into SHOWING what you want to teach, NOT TALKING MORE about it. Check out RacquetFlex on RU-vid. See how he gives a SHORT intro, then gets straight into video of what he's teaching. Often he shows the lesson video and covers it with what's called a voice over, that is, verbally describing what's being demoed in the video while it's playing. This allows him to present better video of what's being demonstrated and to provide better, more concise descriptions because the speaking is done off camera. Add ing the voice over description after shooting the video demonstration allows the opportunity for different verbals takes (take 1, take 2, take 3) and the editing out of verbal mistakes with trying to do he verbal part of the teaching on camera. Trying to show and tell at the same time is just too difficult and frankly results in clunky, less instructive videos that make your viewers wait to long to get to the points contained in the real instruction. You and Florian have been doing videos too long to be using such a dated production technique. You can do better with just a little pre-planning and your videos will result in quicker, more effective instruction videos that keep your viewers tuned in and focused on what you're teaching. That's what builds viewership, likes and most importantly, subscriptions. For an example, watch this video from RacquetFlex: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eMq0oS36lf8.html . If you want more details, I am a video professional and can I can help and advise you on how plan, shoot and edit these kinds of productions. I'm not looking for a job. I just like your videos and want to help.. Contact me, if you're interested. Sincerely, James.

Just you’re meant to have a continental grip when serving (hand at bottom of grip).

Pıease little words, but lot of practice :) Thanks

Very good advice but I see a pronounced palm down and crinkle on the front side of your wrist throughout the serve action until the racket drop. You don’t seem to emphasise the importance of these 2 actions, without which you won’t get a deep racket drop and power. I feel the take back, racket drop, timing, one or all of them, breakdown when the wrist is not loose throughout the whole process. All online coaches do not address this except a certain HighAltitude Tennis who did a clip on the importance of palm down and crinkle on the front side of the wrist some 7 to 9 years ago and many netizens rubbished it. Watch the great servers, Kyrgios, Raonic, Sampras, Federer (he disguises it and crinkle is only seen at the later stage of the racket take back), Joko (more pronounced) Serena (also disguised) Osaka........ they all have the palm down and crinkle on the front side of the wrist.

How on earth did you dress up? Long sleeve, half sleeve and polo!? 🤔😒😳