Here’s our last video tip in this 7 part series on how to study and copy the tossing of motion of Roger Federer’s serve.
No question for me that this element of the toss really helped me become a much better serve and volley player.
So many of the prior tips have talked about creating a certain rhythm, a tempo in your overall tossing motion.
Well, the same thing applies here as well. And like the other tips, this is something you can rehearse at home.
Why? It’s all about the relationship between the ball and your front hip …
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Brent
Great observation. You can see the momentum and flow it gives him. His front foot also lifts and moves forward a little.
Hi Bryan.
So, next step for you is to get out there and absolutely copy that look that Fed is giving you.
Get back here after you experiment with it and give me some feedback.
Brent
Brent,
As always,thanks for all you’re giving us. As I was following your description of Roger’s serve in tip #7, I saw his left foot slide forward about 3 inches prior to the lifting of the ball.Others who do this are Youzhny and Haas,but more noticeably.What do you think?
DeWitt
Hi DeWitt.
Since these clips of Roger are when he’s hitting practice serves, he may be adding a thing or tow that he doesn’t do in matches.
That said, a slight step forward with your front foot is fine with me as long as you don’t foot fault.
Brent
Brent,
Thanks for the reply. In today’s match vs. Murray in Shanghai Roger didn’t slide the foot forward.I’m going to tinker with it because it might assist in the hip extension that you were encouraging.God,It’s mind-boggling trying to connect the dots everytime,but when it happens, it’s worth all the work!
All the best
DeWitt
Hey Brent,
The ball toss is one of the things that I struggle the most with. I know that in case I get a decent toss that my serves (all three, flat, topspin and slice) are reasonably good, but yet there is much room for improvement on the consistancy in my toss.
So I was delighted when I got the first notice about this mini course. After having watched the first 6 videos, I had the first chance – the other day – to actually do some service practice (winter season has started here in Germany and I cannot imagine anybody renting an indoor court for 30+$/hour to do service practice, right?). So it is not really easy to get out on a court alone and try these things. But I ended up finding time and tried it out. And in this little over 20 minutes it really felt as if these pointers helped a lot. There was much less question about the consistency of my toss. I had one series of 12 consecutive decent tosses and serves. This almost never happened before when I practiced serves.
I particular the fact that Roger’s palm is not facing upwards was something that never occurred to me, but I tried it and it seem to have worked for me. Of course, I have to continue practicing it and play around with these pointers in order to integrate them into my service motion, but from first glace your videos seem to be of great value for one of the bigger problems I have (had?
) with my serve.
So thanks a lot for all the great instructions that you are giving all of us.
Regards from Germany
Joerg
Hi Joerg.
Great feedback and congrats for finding a way to get out there to do some practicing.
Brent
Brent-
I posted to the 5th tip about this. What I see is not a direct connection of hip and tossing hand at the bottom of the toss, but from at or just after release to the top of the toss.
If you simply stand balanced, then raise your left hand and try to touch the ceiling/sky, it is at the end of the reach that the body starts to shift, the left hip shifts out/up, the right shoulder drops.
I see the same thing here.
I think it is messy if your hips start rocking at the bottom of the toss and neither you nor Roger do that.
I completely agree that the tossing motion sets the ‘loading’ motion of the serve into action (my words but I think what you mean in this tip).
And this week I’ve been really aware of this connection when serving and my serve is much more consistent when I do this corrrectly.
what do you think?
Not sure MD when Fed’s hip oves out in relation to his toss, but there is a coordination there I believe.
For me, when I think about allowing my front hip to move forward with my tossing motion, good things happen for my serve.
It may not be exactly synched in the way I’ve described it, BUT, that’s what I feel is happening when I serve.
And when I concentrate on getting that front hip out there as I toss. it works for me.
My suggestion is to tinker enough to see what works best for you.
The words, the phrases, and the “feels” may be a bit different for you, and that’s OK in my book …
Brent
These tips were very informative and helpful but I am struggling with one issue.
Brent,
How do you get the ball out in front toward the net (as you teach in your course on serving) if you bring your arm up parallel to the baseline? Does Roger hit his ball directly over his head?
Harv
Hi Harv.
I don’t bring my arm up along the baseline as Fed does.
As I mentioned in the the tip about the direction of raising the arm, I raise my arm more out towards the net post.
Brent
Hi Brent, agree fully. I used to not connect the forward hip motion and toss that well either and guess what happened then … especially since I don’t tend to throw the ball in front like you do but rather more parallel to the baseline … the ball often did not make it enough in front of me and hence no power. I would bet that that is where your forward tossing habit came from originally as with the coordinated hip motion now you could in theory also move to a more parallel throw … but old habits die hard and if it works why fix it
. In general, this approach is a very natural way to get the ball in front of you while staying balanced. This is also very well explained by Doug King, the best snapping action is really a combination of up, out and in front. Timing and staying balanced is very important and this is just a key element to very fluid action prior to the snap. Interesting thing to note … this also applies to the kick serve … but rather than rotating inwards the upper body jackknifes sideways into the court. This again can only be done in a controlled manner if the hip has moved into the court before that, in synch with the tossing motion.
Good stuff once again Brent … I always need to hear this from many angles so it really sinks in and the nuance I picked up from these series is keeping the hand parallel versus tossing with the hand up …. really helps for tossing (or should I say release) accuracy.
regards,
Lars
Morning Lars.
Good feedback. Thanks.
Yes, ‘release’ …
Brent
When I started watching this video, I thought you were going to reiterate the advice you gave in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyA9e-8ud9A, which was to lift the heel of the front foot during the toss. That originally seemed like a quirky thing to do, but now I focus on it when my toss is shaky, and it seems to steady the toss.
Actually Federer seems to lift the whole front foot as he steps a little to the right. But I guess the effect is the same. Lifting the heel or the whole foot means that you lift the front knee and therefore lift the front hip, which facilitates the forward sway of the hips.
Thanks for an excellent series of tips.
Nice job on the series Brent. Am having fun bringing back serve and volley, return and volley, into my game so I can be an All Courter. Was fun watching Stefanck, an all courter, play Murray in Shanghai.
I will use your toss series to improve my toss.
The greatest thing I have learnt from Brent since he started the players workshop was to go out 20 minutes prior to practice and practice the throw up.So that that the ball toss goes in the right position and the right height for the serve 95% of the time.
It works wonders for the direction and power of the serve and its something that can be practiced alone.
Its turned my serve from average to a weapon.
Harry
Adelaide-Australia