Want to get a good platform stance serve like Dennis Shapopolov. Can a player in his 70s hit a decent platform stance serve with the front foot entering the court 1st? Have always tended to move my front foot and slid the back foot. How to push off without moving your feet?

Appreciate your input,

Allan Goodwin

And in regards to the stance it should very much be decided on where you need to go afterwards. Neutral/closed stance whatever people call it allows you to seamlessly keep moving forward. Open stance allows you to seamlessly move from out wide and back to the middle in recovery. Neither is right or wrong just depends what you need to do afterward.

But you touch on one point briefly, which is the most important point
in any stroke.

One thing that was not mention was your footwork when the ball is coming strait at you which
is what the video of Djojovic seems to show ,

This is what helps the rotation of the body,

Will give you my impresion when I can go to the courts and take a video.

Best Regards,
Eugenio

Didn’t mention the spin on the “z” axis – the other “horizontal” axis about which a tennis ball may spin (the axis that would be yer finger if you pointed towards yer opponent). That one only affects the way a ball “kicks sideways” after the bounce.

Watch a Rafa topspin forehand off a high ball in slow motion on TV, sometime, and note how similar its fight path is to a righty second serve – *including* the sideways kick. Nasty.

I’d have to modify the idea that the contact point (“the side of the ball”) controls the spin. With a Continental grip, if yer gonna get the serve into the box, then, yeah, making contact on the right side of the ball (with a relatively normal toss location) would be mandatory.

OTOH, play with this. Place yer toss well out to the right and strike it at about shoulder height with that same grip. You can come pretty close, then, to a pure “sidespin” “brush” around the vertical “y” axis. Depending on how far forward or back that toss is – say over the baseline vs. even with yer body – you can strike it anywhere between the very “back” of the ball to the far right side of the ball. All of these “brushes” produce close to pure sidespin at that toss height. Actually, with a Continental grip, depending on the actual toss height, you might get some underspin – and some *severe* consternation from yer opponent. 🙂

First, due to gravity, ALL serves MUST curve downward. A ball with less spin curves less.

Let’s talk about this for a right handed server. For a slice serve, with a theoretical purely slice spin (the balls spins rotating around the vertical axis only) there are three things that will “curve” the trajectory of the serve.

First, gravity itself, which will cause the ball to move in a curved path regardless of the spin rate.

Second, the purely slice serve which imparts lower area of pressure on the left slice of the ball, and a higher area of pressure on the right. This is due to the spin. The ball travels forward, the right side of the ball is spinning towards the forward direction, increasing the pressure on that side. Conversely, on the left side of the ball, the ball’s rotation is back toward the server, and in the opposite direction of travel, creating less pressure, thus the ball moves toward the left.

Third, ANY slowing of the ball induced by spin (even if it is just a right to left slice serve) reduces the forward speed of the ball, and gravity can pull it downward over a shorter distance than with a flatter serve. That is why a slice serve appears also to curve downward, because the more spin you hit the faster the serve decelerates, and gravity acts on that serve over a shorter distance pulling it downward faster.

Hope that helps.

Bill

I know why topspin brings the ball down (Magnus effect), but why does sidespin achieve a similar result? It makes sense that a ball with sidespin curves sideways, but I am confused about why it also curves downward.

Thanks,
Devan

I am in Honolulu. I can see the sunshine and my doubles partner texts me about chomping at the bit. We just won a tourney in Feb.(45 years winning tourneys in USTA), and it seems like a world away. These great memories remind me of USPTA Pro Jim Munsil out of Phoenix, AZ. Jim took juniors to great places like all-american, gold balls, armed forces champions,HS & college championships, etc. He is a master stringer, and headed up the USTA Phoenix as president. I am still in contact and will send this to him today. We just had lunch in Phoenix at Christmas, and he gave me the classic “suncube” hat so that I can pass tennis down to juniors. I do this with another tennis guy that came from Punahou, USPTA pro & pastor Jerry Hubbard. We are all U. of Arizona alums, and we thank you for your tennis memories and professionalism. THANK YOU JIM(S) & JERRY.

Long time students of the game all have their keystone teachers, especially if you’re old enough to have come from a time when the teaching was more personal and less academy (no value judgement, just different). Mine was Frank X. Brennan, Sr., from whom I heard about Tom Stow and others. It’s great to hear your stories on all of you mentors.

Thanks for the continuing emails through our staying at home. They’re greatly appreciated.

Very inspiring for me to read through your journey. I hope to see you on the courts soon once this pandemic subsides!

Your student,
Devan

M

Loved reading this. Well done. Thank you so much for taking the time to share.

Joe

I learned to move that way as a defensive back. If you didn’t put yourself out of balance toward the way you are going, you will never get there on time.

My goodness, I must have been following you since early tennis one days, 20 years ?
Great food for thought during these hunkering down days. Terry

John, Old Saybrook, CT

He is a 77 year-old guy with a very old-school game — flat and slice. His weaknesses are that he cannot generate his own pace very well, and if he has to take more than a few steps he is stranded out of position and cannot get back in time.

His strength is that if he can reach the ball easily he is invulnerable to depth and pace — and he has excellent consistency and control. He likes to wait just inside the baseline. If I hit him a high, very deep shot he will volley it from just inside the baseline. If the ball is merely reasonably deep he will take it on the rise and hit to the corner. If my shot falls a bit short, he will take it at the top of the bounce and direct it short and sharp to the sideline. Hitting down the middle results in my being run out of position as he takes time away from me until I break down.

On the other hand, if I can loop a slow topspin ball cross court to the sideline — short and sharp is better — I will make him run past the sideline. He will not be able to manufacture pace to hit the winner, and unless he places it perfectly I will have a large open court for hitting my slow winner.

I suppose you can say I do follow your strategy — but only for the first shot, when he moves me to a corner. Then I go for the sharp cross-court rather than hitting high and deep to the middle.

Thanks for your continuous teaching on helping players with their game

What is your definition of early preparation

I am curious to know this

Eugene

Doubles and volleys go hand in hand… if you play doubles you are more often than not at net so volley is your best weapon. SO that weapon needs honing.

I spend every (alone, but not lonely) practice session with 10-15 minutes of volleys against the wall and at varying distance – some close for reaction time training, but back further for technique (to avoid rushing the stroke). Volleys against a wall for 10-15 will give you more volleys than 1-2 hours of a game. with that I observe how to stop the swing and focus on the slight step forward and the block.

as always, Jim, your short and crisp tips are pearls. thanks for your generous help.

Marek