Tennis Serve Video Analysis And Drills For A Higher Toss

Video analysis is an extremely effective was of analyzing a tennis serve – or any other tennis stroke, for that matter.

Just observing your stroke in slow motion can help you see where you got it right and where you got it wrong. Even more effective is a side-by-side comparison with a tennis serve that has good technical fundamentals.

I would like to thank Steven for graciously allowing me to use the footage from our lessons for this video analysis and article.

And since Steven is a medical doctor, we’re going to approach the process of improving the serve his way: We’ll look at the symptoms of what is going on with his serve; then, we’ll diagnose the causes of problems and prescribe some corrective drills to treat the serve.

The Symptoms – What Video Analysis Shows Us

If we just look at Steven’s serve and focus on the racket movements, we’ll see that he doesn’t really drop the racket low enough before accelerating upwards.

The rest of the serve looks fine; there are no major flaws to be seen at first glance.

So, if you rush into correcting the shallow drop in the serve, you may be trying to correct a symptom instead of finding a cause.

A more experienced eye will also notice a low toss that now suggests one of the reasons for the shallow drop. Steven simply doesn’t have enough time to complete a deeper loop/drop because the toss is so low.

A hint for a low toss is also a very early collapsing left arm which holds no tension or firmness, as you can see, but is very loose.

The Side-By-Side Video Analysis Reveals More

Once we observe Steven’s serve compared to mine, many more issues come to light and explain why Steven can’t find good power and consistency with his serve.

1. Racket position at the moment of the ball release

The issue of running out of time for having a deeper drop becomes even more obvious now.

You can see how much ground I cover with my backswing by the time I release the ball. Compare this with how much less ground Steven covers with his style of serving where he lags the hitting arm.

My racket is already very close to the drop, and I am in fact slowing down the swing before relaxing into the drop while Steven will have to tense up and rush in order to make it up to the contact point in time.

2. Maximum height of the toss

If we compare the toss height, we’ll see that Steven’s toss is lower than mine, so that compounds the “running out of time” problem that started with the lagging arm style of serving.

If he at least had a high ball toss, then a lagging hitting arm style wouldn’t be so problematic.

3. How deep the racket drops

The shallow racket drop is now even more obvious in a direct side-by-side comparison.

A shallow racket drop doesn’t give the player much distance to accelerate the racket. The player will therefore reach the ball at a low racket head speed.

4. Toss height above the contact

This is another illustration of the low toss but now in relation to the contact point.

I toss the ball approximately 1 racket length above the contact point while Steven’s toss is probably just half of the racket length above the contact point.

It is, of course, possible to serve well with a low ball toss but you need a much quicker serving rhythm like Alexander Dolgopolov.

As always, there are exceptions to the rule, and one of them is Ivo Karlovic.

He serves with a very low ball toss and a lagging serving arm, but he still manages to execute the whole serve in that short amount of time.

As you can see in the diagram above, he manages to execute the whole complex arm movement in that short amount of time he has available.

That’s very difficult, and I would not recommend this serving style to a recreational tennis player.

Diagnosis – What Holds Steven’s Serve Back

In order to properly diagnose the player and the cause of the current problems, we need to look at mechanical issues.

Specifically, how do the biomechanics (in this case the throwing motion) function? Are there any physical limitations – like a previous injury, some injury hampering the player now or perhaps a lack of flexibility?

We cannot just correct the player mechanically as if they are robots that somehow got programmed incorrectly.

In fact, the player typically executes the stroke incorrectly because that’s how they see it in the mind’s eye.

It’s their mental image that’s wrong, and we need to find out where they got it wrong.

Only when we correct the mental image of the stroke can we begin to correct the player’s mechanics. Otherwise, they will always revert to their original mental image.

1. Mental Reasons

To give you an example, in Steven’s case, what was the incorrect belief, and what was the mental image he was following?

Steven listened to his coaches preach about being relaxed on the serve. He wanted to be as relaxed as possible and took it a bit too far.

I discovered that as I was telling him to load up, coil and create some tension in his body. He responded, “But, aren’t we supposed be very relaxed during the serve?”

So, that’s how I realized where he got it wrong by taking the relaxation idea too far.

Then I understood why his arm was just dangling down and why his left arm collapsed immediately after the toss, resulting in a very low toss and all the problems that followed.

When we serve, we have to initially load and coil in order to store energy in our muscles so almost nothing is relaxed in that stage except the hitting arm.

We can start the serve relaxed of course but once we wind up, almost everything is coiled and loaded which means that there is some tension in the body.

We then release this stored energy in an explosive manner by driving the legs up, uncoiling and letting the hitting arm follow. In the last bit of the serve, we add extra power with the pronation snap.

In terms of the mental image, Steven told me that he liked the serving style of Ivo Karlovic and Venus Williams, who have the lagging hitting arm.

He copied their style, not knowing that this type of serve is more complicated since the arms are not coordinated and since there is way less time to execute the serve well.

Once I showed Steven the side-by-side video of him and me serving, he realized how much time he was losing by keeping his hitting arm down in the initial phase of the serve.

2. Physical / Mechanical Reasons

In terms of physical or mechanical reasons for the incorrect serve, Steven told me that he’d had a shoulder surgery.

Even though the shoulder may be healed now, he may still be unconsciously avoiding a stretch in the shoulder since such movements had caused so much pain in the past – both with the injury and after the surgery.

The brain tends to protect previously injured parts by not allowing the full range of motion in order to prevent another injury.

Second, we tested his throwing motion, and I saw that his arm motion was good but that he was not engaging his body enough into the throw. As a result, he was not finding power for the serve in his body.

So to recap, we have diagnosed the causes of the lack of power on the serve, a shallow drop and a low toss. These issues are caused by:

a) Mental factors

• believing that one has to very relaxed in the serve which causes the dangling arm and the tossing arm to collapse immediately after the ball release, resulting in a low toss
• having a mental image of Ivo Karlovic’s serve, which again causes a dangling and lagging hitting arm

b) Physical factors

• shoulder surgery that possibly prevents a stretch in the shoulder
• the biomechanics of the throwing motion is lacking body engagement and hence power

Prescription Drills – Higher Toss And Better Throwing Motion

Now that we have a clear understanding of what has been holding Steven’s serve back, we can we start working on correcting the serve.

The mental causes have been addressed since Steven has seen the pros and cons of the lagging arm serve and is creating a new mental image of the serve. He also understands that he needs to create tension and store energy in the preparation phase of the serve and not look for complete relaxation.

Now we need to improve his throwing biomechanics and increase the height of his toss – and in the process, we will also help him feel how to stretch the core muscles in his body, store energy and then release it.

Correcting The Toss

When I zoom in a bit to see the difference in the beginning of the toss, you can see how much less of a swing Steven has than I do.

By not swinging back towards him, he doesn’t bring any energy to the tossing arm, so the tossing arm basically has to initiate the toss from zero speed.

If the tossing arm starts the toss from a static position without any help of the swing or the body swaying in some way, then there is a high chance of problems.

The toss may be low or jerky and therefore inconsistent.

So, the first thing to keep in mind is to make the toss more dynamic – Steven needs to get a bit of a swing backwards and then initiate the toss.

Because players struggle with an inconsistent toss, they believe being still while tossing will result in an accurate toss since the body movement will not disturb the accuracy of the toss.

That is true only with extreme body movements.

But, in fact, when one is very still with the body as they are tossing the ball, they bring no energy to the tossing arm and they move unnaturally.

That results in a very stiff and unresponsive tossing arm, which responds with jerky movements. That is what actually causes an inconsistent toss.

The more you try to still yourself during the toss, the worse it will get.

You need to sway a little bit and create some swinging motion in your tossing arm in order to help it toss the ball.

I personally hardly feel my tossing arm; I feel that most of my toss is done through the body movement.

So, one way to feel how to engage the body in the toss more is to look for a stretch in the front part of the body, all the way from the left hip and up to the armpit.

Now if I just told Steven to toss higher, not much would have changed.

We need to talk to the body directly through feel-based exercises as only then can we expect quick and noticeable changes.

You can use two very simple exercises to stimulate and engage the tossing arm and also to engage the body to stretch more.

a) Toss a Heavier Ball

The first one is to simply toss a heavier ball, like a one-pound medicine ball.

If you don’t have a medicine ball, you can take a small bottle of water that weighs about the same and practice your toss with it.

This extra weight will force you to engage more of your muscles to toss it higher.

After some repetitions with this heavy ball, tossing a tennis ball will be much easier.

b) Stretch an Elastic Band As You Toss

The second drill you can do is to use an elastic band, step on it to hold it in place and simulate a toss by stretching it up with your tossing arm.

Overcoming the resistance of the band again stimulates the tossing arm and the side of the body underneath where Steven should feel a stretch.

He can then later rely on this feeling of a stretch, and he will get into the right position. Stretching upwards for a bit longer is the same concept as I have already explained in the “keep lifting” toss idea.

The final goal of instructions and corrections is always to go as soon as possible from thinking to feeling.

You can then also combine the stretch with the rubber band with a throw of a light medicine ball or with a shadow swing of the racket.

Improving The Throwing Motion

The way I would work on the throwing motion and the general biomechanics of the serve is with the medicine ball in the bag drill – or by throwing old rackets.

Since I’ve already made a video on the topic of serve fundamentals, I will just briefly show you the drills we did with Steven.

This drill helps the player synchronize the movements and create the speed of the ball – and eventually the racket – through a flowing fluid motion and not through jerky muscling of the ball.

If you’re a recreational tennis player and you struggle with your serve, then this is the most important exercise you should be doing.

The Battle – Between Old And New Movements

Now I want to show you a part of the learning process that I call The Battle.

It’s the battle between old and new movements, or old and new motor programs in the brain.

Let’s return now just to the ball toss drills for the left hand to show you an example of the battle.

The exercises with the medicine ball and the rubber band will help you overcome the old habits briefly, but do not expect that you’ll do the movement correctly from now on.

It will take quite some time now for you to battle it out with the old habits.

The final clip with Steven is 5 minutes long as I want to show the real struggle and the reality of battling a habit that has been forming for years.

If you’ve watched the clip you saw how challenging it is to just toss the ball higher.

Even when Steven managed to toss the ball really high and it seemed like he now got it, he already tossed the ball low again on the next attempt.

You will have to go through such a battle hundreds if not thousands of times before you overcome a habit.

Do not believe in any instant tennis instruction that is being marketed to you.

Changing a movement is an incredible battle. On Day 1 of the battle, you’ll be mostly losing.

But once you know how to attack the old habits – and the only effective way I know is through feel-based exercises and not through words – then you’ll be on the right track.

And once you’re on the right track, you can only get better.