Hi guys Nick here from Intuitive Tennis. Today I want to show you three different
ways to take your racquet back and your serve. One way to take the racket back on
the serve with a full backswing and this is a technique that's used by some
of the great servers of all time. Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic both
had a full take back on their serves. Currently Roger Federer, Serena Williams
and the Pliskova sisters, all great servers, use the full take back and
basically what it is is that the racket tip at some point will point either
straight towards the back fence like this or will point a little bit more to
the side and it's usually accompanied by a full extension of the arm something
like this and I want to try one
And that's a full take back on the serve you
can see that my arm was fully extended here before it started going into
a bend in the trophy position.
One big advantage of this style of take back is
that this type of motion is very fluid it's usually uninterrupted it's very
flowing continuous motion and it's gradually increasing in pace so when I
start slowly here and gradually I'm going to start speeding it up and it
usually results in a perfect racquet drop and a perfect contact with the ball
This stake back is also very versatile so this will work with a serve where the
toss arm and the racket arm will go up together like this and it will also work
with a lag where we toss first and the racket kind of lags behind so for
example Serena she will toss first and then the racket will go into a full
backswing here and then Roger Federer does a little different he will go up
together with the arms and also have a full take back. The full take back on the
serve also works great with both a pinpoint stance and a platform stance so
the pinpoint stance is when we bring the back foot up forward and the platform
stance is when we just keep both feet together and I want to try both and with
a full take back and see if it works. So now I'm going to first try at the pin
point with a full take back.
Okay that worked and I'm going to try with the platform.
Okay a little more
comfortable with the platform because that's the serve I have that's my serve
but it's versatile I didn't really feel uncomfortable bringing the back foot
up and with a full backswing
The one possible disadvantage with this type of
take back could be that some players at the recreational level will start
snapping the wrist open as they take the arm fully extended all the way back and
this is actually a big problem as we go into the trophy position because now
we're possibly going to have less of a racket drop and so it's very important
that as we go into a full backswing here that we remain with the wrist neutral. We
don't want to bend it backwards so we want to stay in neutral with the wrist
and then as we come back into this position we have a perfect trophy
position.
Another way to take the racket back on the serve is the semi abbreviated take
back and basically the racket will not go all the way to the back fence as it
is on a full take back but it will simply go to the side fence as it goes
up into the trophy position and this is a very popular take back technique and
some of the greatest servers of all time use this technique
Ivo Karlovic the number one ace leader of all time and he will have the racket
drop all the way down like this and as he takes it up into the trophy position
the racket tip will travel towards the side fence and we have Sabine Lisicki
who was recorded having the fastest serve of all time on WTA Tour. She has
a similar take back to Karlovic where the racket will go down first and then as it
goes up the tip of the racket travels to the side fence.
There's also John Isner who has a slight variation on the semi abbreviated take
back and John Isner will also have the racket go to the side fence as it goes
up into the trophy position but he will not allow the racquet to drop as low as
Karlovic does. He has a little bit of a shorter I'd take back yeah but it's
still semi abbreviated because the racket doesn't go back to the back fence
it goes up towards the trophy position while the tip of the racquet is facing to
the side fence. One big advantage of this semi abbreviated take back is that and
as it is on the full take back we generate a tremendous amount of momentum
and because the racket can uninterruptedly and go up into the
trophy position and then into the racket drop and then into the contact. One
advantage over the full take back is that in this position we have the luxury
of being able to wait a little bit before we start going up. Where in this
position we really can't wait back here because the further path so we
immediately have to start going up while on this type of serve you can see that
on Karlovic there's a slight pause on the bottom and then from here the racket
and uninterruptedly goes into the trophy position, racket drop and then into the
contact. And the big advantage of a semi abbreviated take back is that it
guarantees us a very solid trophy position and so the reason why
is let's compare it to the full take back when we take the racket back fully
and there is a little bit of a wrist play involved as the racket goes towards
the back fence and this is not the case and the semi abbreviated because when we
take the racket up with the tip point to the side you see that the wrist can
actually fall this way and we want the wrist to remain on this side of the body
we do not want it to snap this way and so in a semi abbreviated a take back you
can see that the tip is going to the side and the wrist is very unlikely
going to all of a sudden snap backwards. While if we take the racket all the way
to the back fence there is a chance that the wrist might continue to go this way
and then we end up with something like this in a trophy position. This type of
take back is also very versatile so let me try out both the lag and the up
together type of serve and see what it feels like so first I'm gonna go up
together with my toss arm and the racket arm now let's see what it feels like.
Okay that feels pretty good and I'm gonna try the lag with the semi abbreviated
take back it happens we might serve so I better make it since it's my type
of style.
Okay that feels of course good because there was a lot of reps with
that serve. When it comes to the platform stance and the pinpoint stance on the
semi abbreviated take back, both are perfectly fine to use. So let me try the
platform stance first on the semi abbreviated take back and see what that feels like.
Okay it feels good and let's try to pinpoint same way.
And they both feel pretty good so that shouldn't really mess with this type of
take back you have very versatile when it comes to your feet.
And finally the last way and you can take your racket back on your serve is
the abbreviated a take back and this serve was made famous by Andy Roddick. So
basically the racket will not go down, it will not go back, it will go straight
into the trophy position from here.
The one disadvantage of this style is that
no momentum is being created so when we have a semi abbreviated and we go up we
get momentum when we go all the way back and we go up we get momentum. Here we go
simply straight up and now we got to go from from zero to a hundred and this can
be very difficult for most players you got to remember that this is a very rare
serve on the professional tours and out of the top 20 best servers of all time
we only have one server and that's Andy Roddick that serves with an abbreviated
take back.
This serve is also so short and abrupt that it doesn't work in a
regular platform stance and also does not work with a pinpoint stance it only
works when the feet are somewhat closer together in a starting position so kind
of a closed stance a platform position and because it's so short and abrupt we
really don't have time and to move the feet up so let me try one Andy Roddick
style with the feet close together and the racket abbreviated.
Yeah so me I feel
a lot less power of course there's a few players that this might work well for
but the vast majority of tennis players will find a decrease in power and when
we start right here. The abbreviated take back is actually a very good way to
learn the serve as a beginner. From here we don't have to really worry about the
backswing too much we're just learning to have the racquet in the proper trophy
position and then working on having the proper racquet drop and contact. So if
you're a beginner it's okay to start here and then over time gradually you
can develop some kind of backswing to gain a little bit more momentum and
power.
So can you change the take back on the serve? Yes you absolutely can. There are
so many variables on the serve. It's a very complex shot you have to figure out
what works best for you and it's wise to play around and try all these techniques
and you will definitely feel which one works best and it's interesting what
happened to two players on tour Andy Roddick has a normal serve and at some
point very early on in junior career he for fun just started serving like this
and all of a sudden started popping serves and he felt amazing and he never
changed since that day. On the woman's tour the exact opposite happened where
Petra Kvitova had a serve where she would start like this and then she would
have a very similar serve to Andy Roddick. There was a there was a semi
abbreviation but she would go not very low and I'm from here she were
taken into the trophy position and she won Wimbledon with this serve. Then
maybe four years ago she all of a sudden changed to a semi abbreviated take back
with a full lag like this where the racket came all the way down ala Ivo
Karlovic and as she goes up to the trophy position here and she won
Wimbledon with this style of serve. So you can see that it's very possible to
improve your serve if you find the type of take back that matches your game
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