{"id":130,"date":"2009-02-16T22:55:56","date_gmt":"2009-02-17T05:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2009-02-16T23:19:37","modified_gmt":"2009-02-17T06:19:37","slug":"my-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"My serve"},"content":{"rendered":"\t

I recently had my tennis strokes filmed by high speed camera.\u00a0 It was very interesting.\u00a0 You know what I learned?\u00a0 I’m pretty good, and have lots of room for improvement if I play more (which is impossible because I’m old and am hurt all the time).\u00a0 Regardless, especially on my groundstrokes, I am fundamentally very sound (thanks to my parents for all the lessons).<\/p>\n\t

What was my worst stroke?\u00a0 My serve.<\/p>\n\t

I still win my serve most of the time.\u00a0 It isn’t devastating, but I have a big kick, I’m consistent, and I can control it pretty well.\u00a0 How hard do I hit it?\u00a0 About 100 MPH throwing my arm out.\u00a0 To put that in perspective, the best guys can serve near 140; the best women near 115.<\/p>\n\t

How can the women serve faster?\u00a0 Good question.\u00a0 I can certainly beat them in arm wrestling.\u00a0 Its technique, at least a lot of it.<\/p>\n\t

Additionally, how hard to you need to serve?\u00a0 Not 100+ MPH.\u00a0 If you serve at the edges of the box with some spin, most people won’t even return a serve in the low 90s.\u00a0 If they do, it’s popped up.<\/p>\n\t

Here is my serve versus the serve of Mark Philippoussis…the most dominant server whose footage I have available (and one of the great servers of all time).<\/p>\n\t

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\t

So you get these “key positions”, and here is my worst, the “Power Position”:<\/p>\n\t

This is when you’re loaded and cocked.\u00a0 After this its all racquet speed…how fast can I get my arm moving before I strike the ball?<\/p>\n\t

So what’ wrong…3 things.<\/p>\n\t

1)\u00a0 Ball toss:\u00a0 You can’t see it well, but my ball toss is not as far into the court\/out in front.\u00a0 This one is tough to change, because I am not tall.\u00a0 I need the net clearance I wouldn’t get it threw it farther forward.<\/p>\n\t

2)\u00a0 Shoulder rotation:\u00a0 We definitely look different in the shoulders, but the difference is not in elbow\/racquet position….its in the shoulder rotation.\u00a0 He’s dropped his shoulder perpendicular to the ground (180 degrees).\u00a0 Mine is about at 115 degrees.\u00a0 He has 65 more degrees of power.\u00a0 He’s more loaded.<\/p>\n\t

3)\u00a0 Hip rotation:\u00a0 This is single biggest mistake I make, and the most fundamental.\u00a0 This is the only completely bad\/wrong thing I do.\u00a0 His right hip is cocked.\u00a0 My right hip is already released (it is turned into the court).\u00a0 Mark’s right hip doesn’t look like mine until after he hits the ball.\u00a0 In essence, I’ve already unloaded.<\/p>\n\t

So what about Andy Roddick (world record holder)?<\/p>\n\t

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\t

Well…Andy is a freak, since he can get his arm moving faster than anyone on the planet other than major league pitchers….however, there is something to learn.<\/p>\n\t

Mark P. has better mechanics, but Andy isn’t far behind.\u00a0 His power position shows a tremendous load on the legs.\u00a0 He seems poised to explode up into the ball.<\/p>\n\t

In my defense, I had a knee injury during filming that kept me from a deep knee bend (but even a deeper knee bend would not change the fact I unload my hips before contact); however, the point remains valid:\u00a0 Andy is generating a ton of power from his legs.<\/p>\n\t

I need Mark’s shoulder rotation and Andy’s leg explosion.\u00a0 I reality I would just like to be able to hit it harder than the women.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently had my tennis strokes filmed by high speed camera.\u00a0 It was very interesting.\u00a0 You know what I learned?\u00a0 I’m pretty good, and have lots of room for improvement if I play more (which is impossible because I’m old and am hurt all the time).\u00a0 Regardless, especially on my groundstrokes, I am fundamentally very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[53],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3IMYj-26","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":79,"url":"http:\/\/chasingeden.com\/?p=79","url_meta":{"origin":130,"position":0},"title":"Tennis with a CEO","author":"kellio","date":"June 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I played tennis with the CEO of a Fortune 1000 company today.\u00a0 He came to the office, as he does every once in a while, to give an update on business, answer questions, etc...sort of a Town Hall meeting. 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