Improving my serve

I've been really keen to improve my serves in the last two weeks and I recorded myself again and what I've discovered was very surprising.

This was my serve last August, the same I've posted before:




The main aspects that I wanted to improve was to keep the right leg back without bringing it forward keeping the right hip more perpendicular to the net at contact, to have more shoulder rotation at the start of the wind up. I've also concentrated on keeping my weight more on the back leg until at least the completion of the toss .

This was not a bad serve, I kept the right leg more time on the ground but still it collapsed and my hips at the contact were almost parallel to the net. The flight of the ball on the toss was arced but vertical:

03/06/10



The next serve was a bit better.I've loaded a lot of weight on the back leg on the windup and kept the right leg behind without collapsing it. At contact my hip is much more perpendicular to the net. The problem was that the ball at contact is still over my head and very little in front of the baseline. The flight of the toss was a bit forward but arced:

03/06/10


The next serve wasn't very good. Didn't correct the problems there. Notice how the flight of the toss is backward, meaning that the ball as soon as it is on the air is going a bit back:

03/06/10


Again one more interesting serve. Although the ball goes backwards on the toss and I hit it just over the line of the baseline I managed to keep my hips more perpendicular and my right leg back. I am getting somewhere:

03/06/10


On this serve I've tried a new shorter windup. My backswing is much shorter and the racket goes up earlier. I think it gives me more racket acceleration although it forces me to change other aspects. The ball goes back, the hip was more horizontal at contact but I feel the backswing is better:

03/06/10


Big change on the next serve. I'm experimenting a bit and with the high speed video it is easy to see the differences. On this one I've turned my shoulders before the toss. The tossing arm is going parallel to the baseline, just like Sampras used to do it. The difference was that Sampras, on the toss, must release the ball earlier otherwise he wouldn't be able to hit it in front of his head (still need to confirm that).
I was very happy with the result. My legs didn't collapsed at all, My hip is much more perpendicular to the net. However the contact seems to be a bit behind the head and just a bit in front of the baseline. The good thing is that what I need to do next is becoming more and more clear...

03/06/10


Two days later, after watching all of my previous serves I've noticed that I need to toss the ball more in front. In fact the flight of the toss on all of the pro players that I have observed is arced and goes forward, the contact point is further in front than the point of release of the ball on the toss, even for second serves. I was not aware of that. I think it is a big thing.
This next serve is a great improvement. The flight of the ball goes forward and at contact I'm hitting the ball much more in front of the baseline. However the contact is still not in front of my head. The hips were more perpendicular:

05/06/10


Almost the same as before. As I was serving this last three serves (including the previous one) I visualized Federer's serve and although I can explain why there is something about the way I start my motion that reminds me of Federer,(if only the final result could remind me of him). That's how powerful visualization can be.

05/06/10



and another one:

05/06/10




Conclusions:

Recording my serve on high speed video allowed me to have a great awareness of what I'm really doing. I am very happy because I know what I need to do. Players sometimes take years to correct these problems and I am changing it in weeks. The changes are huge and surprisingly it didn't take me so many serves as I thought I would need. it is a proof that we can all do those changes if we put our mind into it. The hardest part is knowing exactly where the problem is, and that's where the HS video is gold.


What I need to do after watching all of my videos is to try and keep the flight of the toss going forward and that means releasing the ball of my hands a bit earlier. I want to make sure that at contact the ball is not so close to the baseline and a little in front of my head. I will keep experimenting with the shorter backswing. It is a great improvement and the video allowed me to know exactly where and how to improve. I can't wait to go on court again...