Hi guys this is Alex from Top Tennis Training and I'm here with Emily Webley-Smith
who is a WTA tour player and today we're going to do the video on the
five steps to the perfect WTA serve.
So Emily despite being not the tallest
player on the WTA Tour you still have a great serve so what do you think that
comes down to? I think it comes down to good technique and from a young age I've
always had good technique on my serve and that limits the possibility for it to
break down under pressure and also enables me to create a great deal of
power for someone of my height and build which I think there's no reason
everybody and all women can't do on their serves. So there's a potential that
shouldn't really be a big difference between the men's and the women's serve
perhaps just you know some power issues or the height but technically
this shouldn't be much difference. Absolutely I mean I think we are able to
hit the variety of serves that men do we should be able to obviously from a
strength and power point of view that's always going to be slightly down but
from a consistency basis and also from a good technique there's no reason why we
can't serve well.
So now Emily is going to show us the 5 Steps To The Perfect Serve so
Emily get into Position Number 1: Emily is now holding the chopper grip, she has
her body weight on the front foot and she's ready to serve
So Step Number 2: here Emily's going to shift back onto the back foot so the
body weight is going to the back foot and she's starting to separate the arms.
Now this is how throwing arm is going up and the playing arm so the hand holding the
racket is moving back into the back position.
So Step Number 3: this is where Emily is going to completely separate her hands
and now she's going to
transfer her body weight forward onto that front left foot. Now this is the
step that's the most important, it's the crucial step that most of the WTA
players actually fail at and that's why they sometimes don't have the same kind
of serve as the men and this is due to the left shoulder not being high enough
over the right shoulder. Now Emily gets into a great position there where you
see that elbow is almost in line with a throwing arm and it's that trophy
position with the left shoulder above the right that's creating a nice stretch
here over her side her hip is getting inside the court and now she's able to
release upwards and forwards but also use her body almost like a seesaw and
now she's able to generate power also from her side not just from her shoulder
and her from her arm. So together the body synchronized so the legs their side
the arm and the wrist is all going to be used together in order to create the
maximum power she can on the ball.
Step Number 4: here Emily is going to drive up with her legs and at the
same time her rack is going to drop behind the back so she's going to have
that looping, looping shape behind the back so that lasso action almost
around the back as she's driving up so its that lasso action and drive up into the
shot. So let's see one more time so it's back and BAM!
Now let's take a closer look at the throwing action and the contact on the ball.
Now just like using a tennis ball or throwing a heavy object from your hand you want to use as much
shoulder and rotation and you want to have this this arm being quite loose
through the throw you don't to have a tense arm so it's that throwing action
where the hand actually drops behind the back here and then the shoulder and
elbow, the elbow almost comes up first and then the elbow generates that quick
release at the top. So let's have a look at that in action on the serve.
Now one of the other crucial parts that we're going to look at is the pronation
and the wrist snap on the ball. This is a problem that a lot of players especially
club players, juniors, actually all the players in the world they struggle with
this just to get the right connection on the ball and this will depend on where
the ball will travel and whether you're going to hit the ball flat with spin or
with slice and it all depends on that contact on the ball and the pronation
that you have on the wrist. So alex is just explained about the pronation of
the wrist on the serve and here is an example of why the chopper grip can be so useful
in enabling you to hit a variety of serves and a variety of spins, as we
come to hit a flat serve the pronation of the wrist becomes more important as
you come up to the ball you want to pronate the wrist and make the contact
on the ball for the racquet is completely in line so it's a flat
racquet face on the ball but she's still using her chopper grip so she's opening
up the wrist almost like high-fiving the ball with her hand
but then the racket face is nice and flat on the contact and that can be
compared to a slice serve when you would want to come around the outside of the ball
with a slightly more closed racquet face and hitting the ball at around 2 o'clock if you were
to imagine that the ball was a clock face. So this again will create the ball
rotation to be going a little bit more sideways because she's hitting the right
side of that ball. Similarly on the second serve if you want to hit kick or
topspin you would come around the opposite side of the ball and you need
more wrist pronation for this particular serve. So as you come up to hit the ball
you are brushing up the back of the ball with the wrist pronation going left to right
over the ball. This is now hitting the left side of the ball. So there we have
it - we have the slice serve which is the right side of the ball which is a little bit
less pronation, then we have the flat one which is medium pronation and we have
the extra pronation if you're trying to get that topspin serve and the racket
face is actually going to be traveling sort of outwards so up and out so that
you're able to generate that easy topspin that a lot of the pros use.
Now a lot of the WTA players prefer the slice serve and the flat serve compared to the
topspin serve why does that happen? I think it's because naturally the women
aren't the strong in the wrist to pronate on the kick serve yeah and although
you will see a few players playing like that like Stosur or some of some of the
younger girls coming through but there's also an element if that serve isn't good
enough and it does just set up from the spin the women are very aggressive off
the second serve return so it does set you up and get you into trouble
if it's not done perfectly. The women prefer to use the slice serve into the
body on the second serve to jam the opponent up and also the flat serve for
the first serve as they seem to find this easier and when throwing the racket
head at the ball. Do practice all of those serves and it doesn't matter
whether you're WTA or ATP player still try and practice the topspin the slice
and the flat serve because it's that variety and that skill to actually do
things with the ball when it's up there that's what's going to set you apart
from the competition
Step Number 5 is also one of the most crucial steps. Here Emily will finish
onto her left foot and she will allow her right shoulder to come forward to
come through allowing her to create that rotation through her trunk and also will
help her with her balance because she's pushing back with the right leg she's
not able to really involve the body and push her body forward and again gives an
extra power on the ball so let's see it one more time.
Now after this position
because she's finished the shot there her front foot after she's landed can
either continue going forward if she's coming into the net or it can be a push
off step in order to recover back onto the baseline so let's have a look at that.
And there Emily chose to come forward into the net and this one Emily
is going to recover back into it more the defensive position.
So Emily why do
you think you have such a good throwing action why do you have such a good serve?
I think from a young age I played a variety of sports and a lot of them involved
throwing like cricket and rounders and I actually used to practice throwing
a lot, not necessarily for myself but just for the other sports and through
that transference from from those kind of sports I was able to develop a
good throw which also then developed into athletic javelin and on my serve I
feel very comfortable launching the racket head at the ball from a throwing
position. So being coordinated with your body in order to do the throw will
actually help you on your serve so do practice the throw a lot and it doesn't
matter what you're using it could be a baseball it could be a cricket ball
could be a tennis ball anything you can throw will help your serve.
Someone like Serena and Venus Williams their dad actually made them throw
tennis racquets so if you have an old tennis racquet how best to recreate a
tennis serve is to have an old tennis racquet that you can launch and you can
throw forward and you can actually see the racket go far and you're going to be
holding it exactly the same way as you would be a normal racquet.
If you want more tips on how to hit the serve including the pronation and what happens
bio-mechanically on the serve we do have a serve of course that's available and you
can find that on our website.
Anyhow I hope you enjoyed this video
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