The Push Serve and the Pull Serve

[cms56]

A little late to the party but one of my favorite drills to do with kids is to have them alternate throwing and serving from the service line. It really makes them loosen up and just naturally get the right motion. Sometimes they want to start pitching when they throw. But I make sure to have them stand in a platform stance.

On a side note, anyone else notice how Fed moves his front foot when he is warming up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dNCMhhhDU

It's an interesting little thing that he might have developed to get that feel...

That is a really nice video clip that shows how natural it is to push off the rear foot, and it's a classic throwing motion. Thank you for this useful "evidence."

[arturohernandez]

Actually, I also remembered that John had noted it in Roddick's serve. You can see how he moves his front foot forward and I remember John stating that it happened not just when he was warming up.

https://youtu.be/SZbxKuLEP_o?t=31

[jeremy93]

It’s amazing to me how so many well respective tennis coaches have literally the opposite opinions on several different technical subjects. How much to use the back leg and which leg you should push off more of is definitely one of them. I do think one of the confusions with this particular subject is the back leg should be used more earlier in the swing motion but then that transfers to the front foot to which the player uses more of the front foot when coming off the ground. So when you talk about which leg is used more, you have to talk about what part of the motion you’re referring to.

[John Yandell]

Well said!