It turns out there are two different ways to drop the racket on the serve and
the first way is the classic racket drop what I call the on edge racket drop. So
basically the racket will drop once we get into the trophy position. It will
drop on edge meaning the edge of the racket is going to drop into this slot
and then it's going to come out on edge on the other end. So it basically looks
like a loop. The racket will drop in on edge and then come back out on edge you
can see this looping action. This is the on edge racket drop.
Another way to drop the racket on the serve is the open-face racket drop and
this type of racket drop is used by some of the greatest servers in the
history of the game. Players such as Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer
and Andy Roddick use the open-face racket drop. And it looks something like
this.The racket will come up to the trophy
phase and now instead of going back on edge like this the racket will simply
drop with an open racket face and now this doesn't influence how low the
racket is going to drop it's still gonna drop the same amount as it would on an
on-edge racket drop. Simply the elbow is going to come up and the racket is
going to drop to the same position that it would on a on-edge racket drop.
The difference between the on edge racket drop and the open-face racket
drop is that the on edge racket drop will always have a loop. So the players
that have the on edge racquet drop will always come into a loop like this so the
racket will go back inside and then come back out on this side. So it's a little
looping action here, while the open-face racket drop will not have a loop the
racket will simply fall straight back into this slot and then come back out on this side.
However you will see variations and how the racket is
dropping on the players that do employ an open-face racket drop. So on flat
serves the racket will drop straight back like this and then the elbow will
come up. On kick serves however the racket will still drop with an open face
but there will be a little bit of a loop because the body is going to be more
sideways and the toss is more likely going to be straight above or slightly
to the left for right-handed players. So there will still be a little bit of a
loop however the loop will take place with an open racquet face something like
this so open racket face with a little loop on kick serves and on flat serves
no loop and a straight down open faced racket drop.
There is also the hybrid racket drop. So players that have an open-face racket
drop on flat serves and then an on-edge racket drop on kick serves
So what is the best way to drop the racket? Well it really doesn't matter
which way you do it and the funny thing is that on my serve I was not aware that I
do the open-face racquet drop on my flat serve and I also was not aware that I'm
doing the on-edge racket drop on my kick serve the same way that Raonic does it
and this proves that I went through playing tennis at the highest level for
for 20 years without knowing how exactly my racket drop is occurring.
I have a strong suspicion that the other players presented in this video are not quite
aware how the racket is dropping. So you can see it in slow motion and it's a
little bit deceiving, but we have to put the racket drop in the proper context. So
what's going to happen when the racket is about to drop. It has to be done in
conjunction with the non-dominant side of the body has to be done in
conjunction of how we are accelerating the serve. So what's going to happen on
the racket drop is that we are going to be on our toes with the knees slightly bent
with our chest up towards the ball our non-dominant side is going to be
vertical to the ground and now when the racket is dropping in conjunction with
that we are going to start dropping the non-dominant side so the shoulders are
going to reverse positions at the same time the body is going to start
straightening out and we're going to get enormous vertical momentum. So this is
what makes the racket drop in a powerful way. If we employ all these power
characteristics of the serve the racket will drop on its own and the elbow will
come up towards the ball like this. It's very important that the racket drop is
not an isolated movement of the wrist or the arm because then the acceleration is
going to be a lot less and also there's the main reason why some of the very
common mistakes occur at the recreational level such as the waiter
serve or the opening of the racket face that occurs too early.
Those are isolated movements of the arm and they are occurring at a much slower
speed and the only way to fix them is to work on the fundamental aspects of the
serve and develop all the multitude of power
sources on the serve and if we accelerate the serve properly this racket
drop will occur intuitively. I'm gonna hit a serve now as fast as I can
and we'll take a look at a couple of different things. Number one I'm gonna
try to feel how I'm dropping the racket at the conscious level and also I want
you to look with the naked eye, no slow mo and try to see whether I'm dropping
it with an open face or on-edge and I've a strong suspicion and you will not be
able to see it because the acceleration is gonna be too fast. So let me hit this
one as fast as I can and we'll take a look.
As far as me consciously
feeling the racket drop is simply impossible. See the serve accelerates so
fast. Once the racket drop is initiated
because it's occurring in conjunction with so many other power sources that
it's impossible for us players to feel how exactly the racket is dropping.
So what this means for you as a recreational player it means that you
must accelerate the serve properly and you must learn all the fundamental
elements of the serve and then once you execute those fundamental elements
correctly and you are able to accelerate the serve properly you will be just like
any other high-level player and you will be unaware how exactly the racket is
dropping and this is the only way to have a proper serve, because we need the
acceleration and if we are able to feel the racket drop and what that means is
that you're not accelerating the serve fast enough.