In today's video we're going to talk about what happens to the toss arm once
the ball is released.
Some players like Ivo Karlovic or Andy Roddick will toss
the ball and once the ball has been released the arm will continue moving up
and then it will actually start moving backwards behind their head like this
And this is usually done in conjunction with the entire body moving forward. So
while the weight is placed on the front leg and the hip usually will go a little
bit inside the court and then the non-dominant arm will go behind the head
in this way
Other players such as Federer will have a completely vertical position of the
toss arm. So what happens on these type of serves is that the arm usually
travels parallel to the baseline and then once it has reached this position
it doesn't go any further.
And players like John Isner and Nick Kyrgios will have a diagonal toss and
their toss arm doesn't go quite to the vertical position. So they will toss the
ball diagonally into the court and the arm stops about right here.
All these techniques work but they all have their own little pitfalls. So here
are the mistakes that I see at the recreational level. When you try to copy
the Andy Roddick/Ivo Karlovic technique where the toss arm goes behind the head
like this, what I see is that most players will have a difficult time
tossing the ball inside the court when this is the case and furthermore a lot
of players will actually end up tossing the ball behind the baseline.
So my advice is that if you were trying to achieve the toss arm going past your
head you cannot do it with a straightforward toss when the toss arm
is going into the court or even a diagonal toss because what's going to
happen is as you're tossing the ball diagonal into the court it's going to be
very difficult to stop at the correct moment and usually players hold onto the
ball too long and end up throwing the ball behind like this.
Another very common mistake at the recreational level is that players will
stop their toss arm once the ball has been released. So they toss the
ball and the arm stops about at the head level.
And while this will give you some
decent control on the toss you will have a very difficult time in getting the
shoulders to be in a cartwheeling position. So you're not going to be able
to get that non-dominant shoulder above the dominant shoulder if the arm stops
at your head level
The easiest way to toss the ball on the serve is the diagonal toss technique
because with this technique we have a very easy time to throw the ball inside
the baseline and we also have naturally a little bit of an arc where the ball is
moving right to left for right-handers. Now when it comes to releasing the ball
you will have to make sure that the arm does continue to go up a little bit. Now
it doesn't have to be all the way vertical you can stop right here ala
Kyrgios and John Isner, but as long as the arm is continuing to go up after the
ball has been released this will help you in creating this cartwheeling effect
where the non-dominant shoulder is above the dominant shoulder.
So the primary objective of the toss arm continuing to go up after the ball has
been released is the positioning of the shoulders. When we do this type of toss
where the arm is continuing to go up it makes it natural that the non-dominant
shoulder gets above the dominant shoulder and now what will happen as a
result of that you will be able to utilize an a very important power source
and you definitely should not neglect that. Now should you have the arm
continue to go up all the way vertical or even past your head? In my opinion
this is not so important. It is more important that you continue to go up and
make sure the toss is not inhibited and starts to go behind you. In my
experience I see a lot of recreational players who have a difficulty getting
the toss inside the baseline and their toss lands very consistently behind the baseline.
And what you're looking for is a slight stretching of the non-dominant side once
the ball has been released and you're going to feel it so once you release the
ball and you continue going up naturally as the racket starts going up you're
gonna feel a stretching on this side and that is exactly what you're looking for
as far as what the left arm is supposed to do after the ball has been released.
So don't forget to use the non-dominant arm even after the ball has been
released. It's a very important technical element of the serve and can help you to
serve with more power. If you have any questions please leave a comment in the
section below I'll be happy to respond, hit that like button and please
subscribe if you haven't already. I'll see you next time.