Hey everyone, Simon here with Top Tennis Training, and in this video
I'm going to analyze one of the greatest servers of all time and that's Pete Sampras.
Sampras didn't have the biggest serve but what he lacked in power he made up for with
disguise and placement so in this video we're going to take a closer look at his technique
and analyze exactly what he did that made his surf so unique and so special
now the first thing is of course the grip so Sampras use the continental grip
and this is much like most professional players
this allows for that supination and pronation through the contact zone and this is the grip
that most players should be trying to serve with if you're not already doing so
now san francis stands he used a platform stand so the pinpoint stands someone like raphael nadal
this is where he brings his feet together so his feet start apart and then he brings his feet
together whereas with sampras with federer and with djokovic they all start with the feet quite
wide so around shoulder width apart and they keep that position the entire way through the motion
now a slight difference with sampras was the position of his back foot he turned a little
bit more he turned it more to the left side of the court he was bringing this back leg
much more behind his body and this allows him to really rotate his body
much more than someone like a becker who would have his feet in almost alignment
that coil is crucial in san francisco because it it allows him to really store
the energy in the trunk muscles the especially the side oblique muscles but it also gives him
great disguise from this position his back is facing the net
it's very hard for the opponent to actually see where sampras is going to
serve and where he's actually going to open up how much he's going to open up if he's going to
open up more for a flat surf or if he's going to stay more side on for that kick serve and
it all starts with that back foot being slightly further behind the body's line
now at the start of the sam preserve he actually does something quite unique
and this is something that we haven't seen too many players use when they're serving the very
start of the surf sampras lifts his front foot like so so now all his body weight or 90 of his
body weight will go into that back leg you can try this right now if you simply stand up and put your
feet in that kind of position and simply lift the front foot like so so lift the toes off the ground
what this does is it shifts the body weight onto that back leg and this is something that
sampras wants to use because he wants to store up the body weight on the back leg so he then
has that forward momentum when he actually hits that serve as you'll see later on in this video
if you haven't done so already also click the link below this video and there you can download
our free serve guide all you have to do is click on the link that will take you to our website you
simply enter your email address and we'll send you that free guide right away you can download it and
it's the five steps to serving like a pro this will make it much easier for him to actually put
his body weight into the serve from that back leg to the front leg if you think about your forehand
if i'm stepping in with a neutral stance forehand and if i step in too early on my on my front foot
now my body weight has already transferred i have nothing now to go into the shot whereas
if i start off with my back foot taking the bulk of my body weight and as i step forward
i now have that body weight going from the back leg to the front leg that's the exact same motion
that sampras wants to have on his serve he wants to store up the energy on that back leg and then
later on transfer it through to the front leg and then into the shot also has quite a unique
starting position with the racket head and this is where you'll see him with his elbow away from the
body so he has a lot of space between the elbow and the torso and he has his wrist quite loose
now this is just building that looseness that relaxation in the hand but it's also
creating a lot of space for him to then have that relaxed and loose drop down
from that start position to the drop down position
and he doesn't have to force that drop it's happening because of gravity
it's happening by building up momentum so he's in that position at the start of the serve
now with the ball toss sampras has a few unique things that he does
on his serve and the first thing is as he's coiling the upper body
he'll then have his left hand his tossing arm come down to his groin
so it's coming from this position to this position what that does is turn the upper body so it coils
the upper body especially the shoulders but it also ensures that he's now tossing the ball
in line with the bass line so it's almost like a rainbow
fall toss is going from the right side of the court to the left side of the
court
this will be crucial in helping him to disguise that serve if i throw the ball outwards every
time i make a slight adjustment so if i want to hit a kick serve i'll throw it more to my
left if i want to hit a slicer if i'll throw it more to my right those slight adjustments can
be picked up by my opponent down there the returner and they'll know what my intention
is before i've actually hit that serve but with sampras because he's tossing the ball from here
to here now he can hit all the different serves with the same ball toss if he wants to hit a flat
serve or a slicer he'll hit the ball in front of his head if he wants to hit that kick serve
he'll let the ball drop more to the left side of his body and then he'll hit that kick serve
with that same ball toss as with the first and slicer so this ball toss is quite unique
it's something that federer has copied and also djokovic has copied to some extent you can see
that they turn the shoulders not as much as sampras but they still turn the shoulders
and have that similar ball toss going from the right to the left side of the court
from this position now sampras lets the racket drop now the racket is behind his right leg so
his back leg and he'll start to lift up into that trophy position now while he's lifting
and just before he reaches that power position so this position here you'll tend to see that
sampras let's go off the grip with his pinky his ring and his middle finger in that position here
now why is he doing this a lot of people have asked us about this and it comes down
to simply relaxation if i'm holding the racquet really tight my muscles are tight my muscles are
stiff and they won't be able to fire in that explosive way that we want them to fire in
now if i hold the grip quite loosely and i don't actually hold the racquet with the finger
the ends off the fingers but i actually let the fingers come off now my fingers are very loose
my muscles are loose and my muscles will work in the most explosive way when i'm hitting a shot
now this comes back to san francisco he's relaxing his fingers in that position
to actually get rid of any tension in his hand and in the muscles
the other thing that sampras does prior to reaching that trophy position
is he actually stretches the chest muscles by leading the way back with his elbow
so most players will lift up and they'll have their elbow in that kind of alignment
when they reach that power position whereas with sampras as he drops the racket
he starts to lift up by pulling this elbow back and almost imagining if you think about when
you're in the gym and you're doing a back row that kind of motion sampras incorporates into his serve
so he's dropping the racquet he starts to lift up and now this elbow is stretching the chest muscles
and making his range of motion much bigger because of this stretch in the chest
he's storing energy now in one of the major muscle groups off the upper body and those are the chest
muscles at the same time as he's stretching now the chest on this side he then also stretches
the chest on the left side so he's tossed the ball he's let go and instead of keeping his
palm up to the sky he turns his palm outwards like so and that creates more of a stretch
in the chest so now he's stretching the chest from both sides so that when he actually snaps
he has that contraction from the chest muscles which will increase his power and range of motion
at the same time that this is happening he's also dropping
the back shoulder so the right shoulder will drop down and the left shoulder will rise up
he started out here he's dropped the racket he's turned up now with the palm
and at the same time he's dropping the shoulder and while that's happening his hips and especially
his glute muscles are stretching into the baseline so he's almost leading into the court
as if he was going to sit in a chair so if you imagine now this line here
if there was a chair inside the court sampras almost imagines he's gonna actually sit in
that chair and he's stretching the left side of his body by doing so
this will also help him to then transfer his body weight into the court perfect for when he's served
in volume and coming forward transitioning into the net if you're someone like federer
who just stays on the baseline you'll have that upward vertical jump but you won't have so much
momentum going forward into the court whereas with a player like sampras or someone like sam groth
they'll really stretch the left side of their body so they're storing energy
and especially the the left oblique and when they then contract and have that shoulder over
shoulder action they'll then have the muscles squeezing and this will then pull them almost
propel them into the court far into the court and allow them to easily transition into that net
now this goes back to the body weight and once again starting off on the back leg if sampras
starts off on the left leg he wouldn't be able to stretch as much and he wouldn't have that forward
momentum carrying him into the court but because he starts out in that position now when he goes
into that stretch position he has the body weight going from the back leg to the front leg and into
the court then from that power position he'll have the racket drop now sampras had one of the
greatest racket drops on his serve and this was because of the flexibility in his shoulder region
this is something that wasn't by chance he worked on this on a daily basis
i've watched him a few times training at queen's club and at wimbledon on all the occasions i saw
him training after the session i'd see him with his physio or his fitness trainer doing some
special stretches to increase the range of motion in his shoulder joint so he's just increasing
that range of motion and this is something that all big servers will work on you want to have
a nice racket drop from the trophy position when you explode up you want that racket to drop down
as far as possible and this is only possible if you have that flexibility in the shoulder region
if you're tight if you're stiff you won't have much of a racket drop and you'll be losing that
range of motion that's required to actually accelerate properly through the contact zone
so depending on the serve sampras will change how much he opens up his body if he's going for
more for flats of he'll really open up so he's coiled up with his upper body and then he'll
uncoil using this left hand to really pull down to open up the shoulders so this left hand is crucial
on the sam preserve as soon as he reaches that trophy position this left arm will start to pull
down and pull away from the point of contact away from his target which is the ball and that will
open up the shoulders and start that kinetic chain that he wants off that seesaw motion the shoulder
over shoulder cartwheel type of action that then allows his right arm to reach up into the ball
now a lot has been made about the sampras snap this is where he's hitting the shot
and then instead of finishing in that kind of traditional finish
he actually hits the serve and snaps the elbow so he's in that kind of position
now if i hit my serve and allow the racquet just to travel outwards like so it's actually slowing
down right as soon as i make contact so i'm making contact and i'm slowing down the racket head
because of the racket being extended and being away from my body and i still accelerate through
this part it will stress my shoulder massively and i'll end up injured but if i snap down and keep
my elbow in that position and at the same time pronate now i can actually produce racket head
speed from the snap so during the contact zone i'm still creating more rack ahead speed and this will
allow me to easily change where i'm hitting on the court not for everyone but it works for sampras it
also worked for boris becker so some players can incorporate it into their own game now if you've
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then please share this video with them signing off simon from ttt all the best and see you soon guys