The ball toss...

[tennis_chiro]

...He works at the Evert academy here in Boca Raton. 8 minute straight shot down the road from my club. They share the courts with the USTA training center. It's also where I saw Wawrinka practice.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

I know the area well. My address was on Egret Circle Drive in Delray Beach for the last 9 months of 1996, the site of Bucholz's initial Miami Open some 30 years ago.

don

[gzhpcu]

Stotty,
The Brent Abel video on the hand/palm position really helped me a year back when my toss suddenly went awry. Starting the way he recommends, helps to eliminate bending the wrist and elbow.

[gzhpcu]

Rod Cross in his book "The Physics and Technology of Tennis" mentioned that the benefit of a high toss is that by hitting the descending ball will result in more topspin on the serve.

[stotty]

High versus Low

Rod Cross in his book "The Physics and Technology of Tennis" mentioned that the benefit of a high toss is that by hitting the descending ball will result in more topspin on the serve.

For me there are no hard and fast rules about how high or low a ball toss should be. Other than when it is windy, a high ball toss can prove quite advantageous in some ways. Most club players throw the ball much lower than the pro's because they are insecure about the ball being that far away from them and having to time it on the way down. If you ran the stats on these things, I doubt someone like Kiefer is lagging behind those with more moderate ball tosses in terms of first serve percentages. I am guessing, of course, and don't know this as a fact.

[gzhpcu]

I know this is ancient history, but Stanley Plagenhoef carried out measurements of height of throw above the contact point for top tennis players of the 50's and 60's:

0 - 1" Newcombe, Graebner
1" - 2" Seixas, Savitt, Emerson, Osuna, Pilic
3" - 5" Ashe
6" - 9" Gonzales, Sedgeman, Hoad, Laver, Roche
9" - 12" Kramer, Mulloy, Richardson, Rose
12" - 15" Stolle, Ralston, Smith, Santana, Connoly
20" - 24" Lutz, Drysdale, Barthe, Brough