Serve Step By Step Guide

hi it's jeff salzenstein here the founder of tennis evolution you're in for a treat because in today's lesson i am going to help you with your serve

what i've done is i've pulled together seven of my best tips on the serve that's right seven tips and if you can't get value out of this lesson gosh maybe

i'm not the coach for you not only are we going to give you those seven tips i'm also going to reveal one bonus tip at the end so you're going to want to watch the entire video to learn what that bonus tip is now before we get to

the lesson make sure you're subscribed to the channel make sure that you have your notifications turned on and hey share this video if you like it okay so let's get to this lesson right now to help you

take your serve to the next level so we're going to focus on the serve here and what i want you to take a look at here is when i get ready to serve

obviously i want to make sure my hand is relaxed but when i hold the racket again just like the forehand i'm going to have this trigger finger spread now it's a different grip we're using a continental grip here remember the

forehand grip is either eastern or semi-western but with a continental that's what i'm the grip i'm going to use with the surf i see too many players holding the

racket they bring the racket up like this they have either a forehand grip or a continental grip and they're very tight and you can see the racket angle here this is not going

to allow you to throw the racket up to the ball as easily but if you can get that trigger finger spread and you can get that wrist to relax when

you start your first move it's going to feel very nice so just practice holding the racket in that continental grip with the index finger spread i'll hit a serve right now

again i want you to notice the difference if i if i hold in a block grip and i see this with club players with junior players if they start like this if i see the wrist like this i

know there's a problem it's this is if i try to relax my wrist i actually feel tension right here that is why players aren't doing this if they have a block grip it looks like this you

probably have seen players that hold the racket really high because the wrist is cocked now if i spread that trigger finger like this i can now relax the wrist

and and throw the racket at the ball easier i can start my first move with a relaxed wrist so let's assume that you're switching

over to a continental grip now let's say you start to swing forward you're going to slice around the ball right the forehand grip it's easy to just plop it in like that

the continental grip if you try you're going to slice around the ball so what does that mean you you actually have to change the paradigm so what paradigm are we going to change

here what do you notice i'm not going to give it away quite yet what do you notice that i'm doing what did i change well one i change my toss so i see a lot of players trying to

learn how to serve like the pros and their toss is still out to the side they're used to tossing it here to get it in so you've got to learn to learn topspin

you have to learn how to toss it more over your head for one two you have to learn a different swing path

you can't go forward anymore i advise that you create what's called a circular swing path a circular swing path circular means if i get a nice turn

right here i'm swinging this way up and over my body like this and then i want you to notice where i finish i actually go behind my body now i know that is super

counter-intuitive okay that's this is not something to try to figure out you know i mean logically it actually makes sense physically it makes sense

with the physics of it but it's really hard for people to grasp it oh now i'm gonna finish on this side of my body behind me that's

just really strange i'm so used to swinging towards my target right towards my target i've got to change it so

what i want players to do is finish behind their body we call this the dirty diaper when you finish to the side like this so this is this is the

the main way that i teach topspin or kick is what's called the dirty diaper why is it called the dirty diaper because it's like you're holding a stinky dirty diaper like this but to really exaggerate i'm big on exaggeration notice how we went from a

forehand grip to continental move it to a backhand grip if you're having a hard time with this again you're gonna cut around the ball you're gonna cut around the ball so you

have to get to a backhand grip and then you have to finish behind your if you can just go out and you can finish behind

your body at the end see what i'm doing i'm swinging up and over in a circle and then i'm going back here so right when i make contact i'm making contact at the right moment right here

i'm swinging up and i'm swinging this way this way see this this way not this way so it does so many things it gets your

toss into that topspin position it teaches you the correct swing path it is a true statement that if you have a continental grip then you can pronate if you have a forehand grip like this

you will not be able to pronate on the serve now we need to talk about pronation in that it's really what we're talking about is really a rotation of the shoulder

okay that's another term for pronation we want to get that shoulder to to rotate in this fashion to create that pronation effect so we do have to have a continental grip

the subscriber who asked the question is absolutely correct if you have a forehand grip you have no chance now if you have a solid trophy position

that's going to help as well but what comes before the trophy position in order to make sure that you can pronate and rotate your shoulder appropriately

you've got to have a proper stance so i'm assuming if someone says hey i've got a great trophy position they have a solid stance because if your foot is lined up in this fashion like this

directly your back foot directly behind the front foot it's going to be harder to get that turn and when you make contact your body might be facing the net more like this

and if you're facing the net like this it's going to be difficult to pronate or to rotate that shoulder so it's very important that you have a

correct stance a stance where this foot slides back in this direction because this will allow you to turn and get into that wonderful trophy position

if you have a pinpoint stance and if you bring the foot up to the side like this it's going to be harder to pronate i'm not saying you can't do it but what i'm saying is that the more

that you bring this foot up to the side the more you'll be facing the net at contact and again that can make it more difficult to pronate it is true if you have a

great trophy position if you can get your elbow in the correct position i'm going to turn around like this if you can get your elbow in this position right here

at some place in the trophy you have a better chance of being able to pronate it's not going to guarantee it but it gives you a better chance

what about your ball position i see this over and over again with players that when they serve their toss is too far to the side so if they're out to the side

it's going to be more difficult to pronate more of a slice serve toss so it is going to help to get the toss location

at least above your dominant shoulder like this maybe even towards your head to help you learn this concept the more that your arm moves out to the side and makes contact

out here more difficult it is for you to pronate so ball position and ball toss matters instead of tossing it out here you can't

really pronate from that position you're going to have to practice getting that ball toss up above the head more or above the shoulder at least

okay so ball position is very important now i want to talk about what's called the side bend so when you make contact if you are a collapser like this

again we're trying to replace that movement with something else so instead of collapsing at contact we're going to focus on a side bend it contact now one

of the tests that we do at racket fit is with a body serve connection is we focus on can somebody's side bend a lot of people are restricted in here so you have to be able to your body has to be

able to do it so when you make contact look at how i'm side bending at contact that's very different than hinging at the waist and bending over at contact so what i think about doing is when i make

contact i am side bending into the ball and when i side bend that keeps me more sideways at contact so you'll see right here i'm side bending

at contact and so when i finish i'm in this position recently i made a video that talked about having a more extreme stance if you will in the video

i talked about having a stance i'm just going to move over here for a moment where you have your front foot parallel to the baseline and you turn out your

back foot like this so you're in a platform stance and you turn out and so that's a stance a platform stance that that models uh pete sampras arguably one of the greatest servers of

all time and the reason that we were talking about doing this stance is that not only does it give you more disguise but it really helps you coil and turn if you're having trouble coiling and

turning like this turning your back foot out will help a lot and that is a great tip if you want more topspin and if you want more kick but

you know what there's always pluses and minuses pros and cons to certain stances and certain ways of of serving and so i want to present another argument

against that stance because the comment or the question that came to me is hey if i do that should i also do it on this side of the court so as a lefty

i'm on the ad court right now as a righty i would be on the deuce court should i have this stance this extreme stance

and i'm going to say in most cases no so that means that your stance might vary from side to side from due score to ad court and this is why i say no

if you get into this extreme stance on this side of the court you really might struggle hitting a wide slice serve getting slice on your serve so this stance is really set up to hit

more top spin and more kick so what i would advise you to do most of you out there are not going to be able to do it heck i struggle with it when i was changing my serve at 28 years

old right before i broke the top hunter in the world i had a platform stance i brought my foot up i switched to the platform to model sampras but when i tried to get as

extreme as sampras my wide-sized serve suffered so i had to find a stance that was a little more moderate not as extreme so my advice to you

is i would actually point this front foot a little bit more in the add cord as a lefty and the deuce court as a righty and i would make sure this

foot is more parallel now you can still turn you can still have a great turn but it's just not as extreme and so what this is going to allow you to do

is hit great size surf so i come up to the line and i start pointing this foot and i'm not bringing this foot back and i'm not turning it out as much so you'll see if i point it like this

now i can hit great wide slice serves okay and so i can really focus now my front foot is pointed and this foot is more parallel

and i can hit the slice if i were to turn more like i like i was in the other court in that other video if i was to be more turned

it's just harder for me to get my body to rotate and to have as much slice most of you out there are going to actually hurt your opponents if you have a better slicer than kick serve the

slice skids it stays low you can go into the body the kick serve you have to actually hit it perfect for it to work if it sits up you're in trouble so i really like players focusing on

developing a nasty slice serve when they're playing because we want to avoid that serve sitting up if you go with the kicker so

this more extreme stance is great for disguise but i'm not getting a lot of slice there i turn my feet a little bit and even though i miss that well wide

you can see i have so much more slice on the serve so what i see players doing when they're learning to serve they want to move their back foot

so when they toss the ball they move their back foot up right away i see this move very often and it's very inefficient it's not a great way to serve some great servers

have figured out how to do it and how to make it work for them but when you're learning how to serve or if you want to make your serve more efficient i believe that you should work on loading your back leg better

and you should either use a platform or a pinpoint stance where you toss the ball and you load into your back leg like this before you jump off of both feet

you still are going to have weight on the front foot but it's going to be more evenly distributed if you move your back foot up like this you still should be pushing off of your

back foot a lot of players just slide this foot up because they don't want to put any weight on their back leg something they don't want to is they don't know how or

their body doesn't like it a lot of players struggle loading this back leg so we want to break this habit of of

shifting to the front foot too early and bringing this foot up to the side coco golf other servers they like to move their foot up to the side like this this is going to inhibit

your shoulder turn and your coil and your ability to even disguise the serve the way that you want so what you can do is you can put down a solid object like a brick

or in this case a sandbag so if you want to keep from moving the foot you need to prop like this if you find that you're having a hard time you keep moving this back leg if you can just set your stance where you want it

to be it's very simple right you just set your stance where you want it to be and you're going to notice if you're going to want to move this foot you're going to start kicking it

so what you want to do is get in your comfortable stance so for me this is a comfortable stance so i'm going to do everything in my power

not to move this foot okay if i if i want to move the foot if i'm tempted to move the foot

i'm going to want to pick it up but i'm going to run right into the sandbag today we are going to talk about the pelvis or the hips and what people are not doing and what

they should be doing if they want to develop a professional looking serve a serve that is elite and they can keep improving and so the biggest thing that i see

with players trying to use their pelvis is that when they choose to bend their knees they essentially squat there's a lot of squatting and the butt is sticking out

like this when that happens it creates an extra curve in the spine we call this an s posture so the curve is in the low back and you don't want that when you serve

now this is very different than going to the gym imagine going to the gym and squatting and shooting your hips back like this that is not how you serve

so the squat in tennis is very in a tennis serve is very different than a squat in the gym you want to be squatting like this notice how

my pelvis or my my pelvis is in a neutral position here as i bend my knees and go down if i were squatting in a gym i'd stick my butt back and sit back like this

very different right it's almost like i'm sliding down a wall with a neutral spine like this that's what you want to practice doing when you bend your knees on the serve

so when you prepare to serve a lot of you out there when you go to serve you're bending your knees and then you're sticking your butt out what you want to practice doing is tucking the tail

i call it tucking the tail so you have a tail here and you're tucking the tail underneath like this another way to look at it is pretend that your pelvis

is a water bucket a bucket i should say with water in it and if you stick your butt back like this now the bucket is tilted this way and

the water is spilling out forward but if you bring the bucket back to neutral like this now the water is not going to spill out [Music] now final tip i want to give you today

before you go and this one doesn't always solve what happens at contact but it can help you be aware of your posture when you finish your serve and i call it

hop three times so when you serve and you land if you could hop three times with great posture so when you land you can hop three times

see how tall i am when i land yes you may be collapsed at contact but then you can come right back up and stand up straight so if you got a lot of value out of this lesson make sure you

smash the like button i hope you're subscribed to the channel if you're not make sure you subscribe turn on those notifications so you can be updated on future lessons and hey thanks for your time today before you go

click the link below or somewhere in this video we're going to give you a free serve training we're actually going to share with you three amateur serve mistakes you could be making i want you to avoid these mistakes we're going to give you the

solutions we're going to help you take your game to the next level so go ahead and click in the description below there's a link there somewhere in this video we'll see you at the next one