A New Teaching System: Serve: Swing Keys

[John Yandell]

Got an interesting detailed comment on the article from a subscriber who wishes to remain nameless. I have my thoughts but would like to hear from you guys here before I respond:

Thanks for doing this series on a topic that I think is so valuable. As always your content is great.
I must confess I prefer the text approach with moving images embedded because I can overview the contents quickly and read while I watch and easily see valuable clips repeated which embeds the stroke etc in my mind...

If you are going to do video lessons, I think keeping them fast paced and with voice over action pictures is key, with less of a head standing there talking...squeeze out all the fluff, the intros, the stuff that takes time to get to the meat. Just get to the main dish and pound away at your points in order...

As a point of comparison, and I hate to bring up a competitor because I've been a loyal follower of yours for years, I do find the video lessons that the tennisoxygen guy does pretty effective, especially with his pace and voice over discussion of slow motion video of the pros, with line drawings. It's great to be able to imprint the images of the pros doing serves by simply scrolling slow mo through the videos that you and the TO people present.
It's just what you prescribed.

The lesson you just posted had a great set of images of the elbow moving up and swing path...this came first and I liked the repeated series of images...but then you went back to the toss, which actually precedes the swing, and this was confusing in my mind...and then you moved into the second serve motion...pretty soon, all the images got mashed together. I think it would have been better to do two shorter lessons. One on the first serve motion in order of swing images needed, and the second on the second serve motions/images.

So honestly, I love your stuff, but since I have a media background, I just thought I'd give you two cents worth from a loyal fan about how to improve the new format...video is tough to do...and my view may not be the same as what many others want, as I see from the forum...

Good luck with it. keep pushing the envelop!

[jimlosaltos]

video

Would love to get your thoughts on my latest, "A New Teaching System: Serve: Swing Keys"

I particularly liked the way you re-cropped your existing videos to focus in on various elements of the serve. Good stuff.

[klacr]

Great video on "Swing Keys"

Clear, succinct and relateable to players at any level. Having concise images and visualization power is an enormous factor in the feeling, thinking, cerebral game we know as tennis. Like the late Robin Williams once said..."tennis is chess at 90mph".

Having an order, a strategy and a image burned into your brain on what needs to happen and what you need to feel is advantageous beyond what any buzz words or cliche teaching tips are circulating in the world.

The worst part of this article...It represents the end of a marvelous series on the serve and John's teaching system. I really enjoyed it. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I hope there are more series like this in the future on the forehand, backhand and volley. Knowing John, I have a feeling he is one step ahead of us.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[hockeyscout]

This is great ...

My eight year old is watching it and getting her head wrapped around it. It's a bit complex for a younger kid, however, she's on it. Hopefully she'll figure out a new way to reinvent what she see's on this site in these articles, videos and game matches she is seeing. She's very verbal, so the video was nice.

[stotty]

It's been a great series, and this was a great way to round up. The videography in this last video is really quite wonderful and quite simply the best I have seen.

John, you've become awfully good with that camera of yours.

[TheWatcher]

Been away for too long. Came back and dived into the entire new method serve.

My thought is that this article pulled together the series in multiple ways. Confessing that I have studied a lot of online serve gurus--some of whom I think you mentored. The detail, sophistication, simplicity and easy camera presence are all the best I have seen.

[John Yandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on my latest, "A New Teaching System: Serve: Swing Keys"