Serve comparison: 3 coaches, 3 pros

What is it that distinguishes a good serve from an outstanding serve? where are the secrets? Where to look at? The first task is to find objective data. The second task is to understand it.

Here we are going to compare our serves (Brenton, Richard and mine) with Federer, Roddick and Sampras.
In the future I will post more pros serves and and some of their data which might be very interesting.

The coaches:

07/05/10 ------------------------05/03/10





The pros:

















Here are some interesting facts about the different serves from Brenton, Richard, Andre, Federer Roddick and Sampras :

Point of release of the ball on the toss:

Roddick: above the head

Brenton: above the head

Sampras: just above the head

Andre: just above the head

Federer: just above the head

Richard: eye level

Time the ball is on the air (between the release and contact):

Richard: 1.1 seconds (220 frames)

Federer: 0.96 seconds (193 frames)

Sampras: 0.91 seconds (182 frames)

Brenton: 0.73 seconds (147 frames)

Roddick: 0,73 seconds (146 frames)

Andre: 0.72 seconds (145 frames)


Time with both feet on the air:

Federer: 0,35 seconds (71 frames). Start 19 frames before contact. Finish 51 frames after contact.

Roddick: 0,35 seconds (70 frames). Start 23 frames before contact. Finish 47 frames after contact.

Brenton: 025 seconds (50 frames). Start 18 frames before contact. Finish 31 frames after contact

Sampras: 0,24 seconds (48 frames). Start 20 frames before contact. Finish 27 frames after contact.

Richard: 0,24 seconds (48 frames). Start 13 frames before contact. Finish 34 frames after contact

Andre: 0,175 seconds (35 frames). Start 14 frames before contact. Finish 20 frames after contact.


On the time of release, where is the player looking at:

Brenton: he is looking up, to where is going to toss

Richard: he is looking up, to where is going to toss

Andre: he is looking up, to where is going to toss

Federer: at his opponent!

Roddick: at the ball

Sampras: at the ball