Every now and again we may find a new common element that all the pros do for a certain stroke and that is a great discovery that allow us to understand the game so much better.
A few years ago after reading John Yandell's article about the myth of the toss I've learned that all the pros toss the ball for the serve with an arc. In other words, for a right handed player the toss goes from the right to left. It is a simple and easy discovery but it is one of the most important elements for the development of a good serve. It is one of the aspects that Brenton needs to improve on his game. I know is working on it...
A few days ago I was analyzing my own serves and discovered that I was tossing the ball in an arc but the ball, after it was released from my left hand, was going back towards the baseline. Then as I was experimenting new serves I started to toss the ball in an arc but the ball was going forward. As a curiosity I've studied the toss of the pros and what I found was very surprising:
We can say that the pros toss the ball with two arcs right to left and back to forward. Again another simple discovery but with huge repercussions. I was very surprised because I knew some players toss the ball with the left arm parallel to the baseline, like Sampras, Agassi, Safin and of course you think that with the arm parallel to the baseline the ball should be straight and parallel as well. But no, even those players toss the ball forward and it didn't change for either first or second serves.
Knowing as a fact that all the pros toss the ball with a forward arc, allowed me to improve my serves greatly. I understood that one of my faults was that on the toss I was releasing the ball to late, higher than all the pros and that was bringing the ball backwards. I felt a great difference of speed and leg drive on my serves straight away.
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