Inside this video, you are going to learn some of the secrets to the tennis serve.
The serve is one of my favorite shots to teach, and it’s the reason why guys like to Andy Roddick and John Isner had great weeks in Brisbane and the Hopman Cup, respectively.
I want to thank Alexandra, an avid tennis player who is committed to improving, who sent in an email asking for some tips on the serve.
Hopefully my little secrets will help her and everyone else that watches this video.
I went to great lengths to find the secrets of the serve for myself and for all tennis players out there struggling with this fun shot.
And by the way, the footage you see in the video was during the US Open Qualifying in 2003 when I qualified for the first time at the age of 29.
In this match I took out Georgee Bastl, who is somewhat famous for beating Pete Sampras at Wimbledon. Brownie points for who can tell me the player I beat in the final round of qualifying
Hint: this guy was a top ten player last year. Double brownie points if you can tell me the score.
Leave me a comment about what you think of these serve tips and who I beat in the last round of Q’s at the US Open in 2003.
Until the next video….Jeff
Hey there, Jeff Salzenstein. And in this video today, there’s a couple of things that I want to talk about.
Number one, I want to congratulate Andy Roddick for getting to the finals of the Brisbane ATP event this past week. If you go back to my 2011 predictions a couple weeks ago, I predicted that Andy Roddick would not finish in the Top 10 and he proved me wrong just by starting the year and getting to the finals. Now of course, there’s a lot of tennis to be played this year but I want to commend Andy, I don’t think he’s going to make it into the Top 10 but he showed me this week that there’s a good chance I’m going to be wrong on that prediction. So I actually hope he does it and because he’s a good guy and he works hard and he’s very professionals.
Number two, I want to also congratulate John Isner who won the Hopman Cup with his partner, Bethany Mattek-Sands. Incredible accomplishment. I look for great things from John Isner this year, big game, big serve, and that’s awesome to see for another American tennis player.
So in today’s video, what I want to talk to you about is the serve. Now, I really like talking about the serve. I had a crappy serve when I was in college and I developed it into one of the best serves in the world throughout my career and it actually got better in my 30’s — I tapped out at 136 miles an hour at Indian Wells when I was 32 years old. And the reason that that happened was I studied the serve and I modeled a lot of different servers out there, I worked with John Yandell over at TennisPlayer.net. We did a lot of video analysis, I got a lot stronger, I learned all the greatest stretches and the strength exercise to do and the techniques to develop one of the best serves in the world. So, it’s something that I am very excited to talk about.
And I got a great email from a tennis player who is very dedicated to getting better. Her name is Alexandra and she sent me this email the other day. And she was talking to me and asking me, what happens from the trophy position or maybe the back scratch position, for lack of a better word, to contact and how to get that part right.
So, the way that that’s going to work for you, Alexandra, and everybody else that wants to improve their serve is the first thing you want to do is you want to get your stance right. I’m a big believer in the platform stance — Sampras, Federer, Roddick, Taylor Dent who since retired, all those guys keep their back foot back. Now there’s been some great servers that move their foot forward into a pinpoint stance, great servers now, great servers in the past. But I believe that you’re going to serve a higher percentage, you’re going to get more topspin, you’re going to serve better with a platform stance. It’s also going to allow you to stay more sideways on your serve, which is the key to creating more topspin and hitting a bigger serve.
So, some of you out there who are facing the net when you hit your serve, you’re going to stay more sideways, you’re going to get that stance right and you’re going to get the ball positioned, you’re going to need that toss just above your head – So not as far to the right for a righty, not as far to the left for a lefty.
So I’ve just basically thrown in a ton of information right there that can really help you with the serve. Just to summarize, you want to get your stance, you want to work on that platform stance, you want to get your ball positioned in the right place so you can hit just the right amount of topspin, and you want to stay more sideways on your serve.
I love to hear your comments. Check out Andy Roddick at the Australian Open, you’re going to see a great server there doing what I’m talking about. And leave me a comment below, share it on Facebook, send me a tweet, tweet it out. I would love to talk to you guys. Keep sending the emails because I love hearing everything that you guys are wanting to learn and that’s what I’m here for — is to share this information what I’ve experienced the last 30 years of being involved with this great sport.
I’ll talk to you soon and thanks again.
Jeff Salzenstein
http://www.JeffSalzensteinTennis.com
Jeff
Can you talk more about the platform stance and detail how you are doing that on your video. Thanks, Bayly
hi Jeff
easy question. u defeated fernando verdasco in the last round of qualifying at the ’03 us open 6-1,6-4. you are also in the record books as the oldest player to crack the top 100 for the first time.
Thanks, Erik…