THE TOSS ARM
Just how does the toss
arm work? Down straight and up straight? Down and back toward the racket
arm and then up and forward to the net making a circular motion?
The toss arm works like a hand lever on a water pump, it simply goes straight down
and then straight up retracing the same path in both directions. Straight down,
straight up. Simple. Boring. The toss arm is bent holding the ball to begin
with, then lowers to straighten itself before lifting up straight as a whole unit. [Here
the arm unbends to straighten for execution, unlike the backhand where the mantra for the
stroke arm is not to straighten when it bends/unbends, or folds/unfolds.]
Tennis personalities Vic Braden and Jack Groppel claim "shoulder rotation"
for the serve is achieved by dropping the toss arm down and swinging it across
the front of your body back toward the racket arm and then swinging it back up and forward
to toss the ball, creating a roundabout circular motion. There is no evidence shoulder
rotation is lost without a roundabout circular motion, just look at Pete Sampras, Gonzalez,
or virtually any other great server. The fact the ball arcs on the toss back to the
server or forward does not mean at all there has been a backward, roundabout circular motion
of the tossing arm. "Proper" shoulder rotation accounts for why the toss arm moves like
it does and it's not the other way around. Stefan Edberg is the one notable exception,
his toss arm really does go back, but one example does not make the rule. Revolutionary Tennis
shows how proper shoulder rotation is achieved without the confusing roundabout circular tossing
motion, simplyfying your efforts,
and Vic's attempt to invoke a baseball player's fielding/throwing motion
to "prove" his point is sophistic. If you want more on
this tontería please click here.
How do you hold the ball? I was taught to hold it like holding a triangular paper
cup where the ball pops up from between your index finger and thumb, but any old way
seems to work nowadays and you'll find ample info on this elsewhere. But to add,
the hand does not throw the ball up, you open the fingers and the ball is
released. The momentum of the toss arm going up and of your body moving is how
you "toss" the ball.
The toss arm itself works as a whole. There must be continuity, fluidity, and
completion. A simple toss drill
instills this in you.
You've heard the most efficient way to move an object is to move the center of the
object. The middle of the toss arm is roughly the elbow, and I always picture my
toss arm being pulled up from the inside of my elbow by a string like a
marionette. In this way my arm is relaxed, straight, and lifting from the larger
mass, the upper arm/biceps. Or you can imagine there is a hand cupping your toss
arm elbow from beneath and it lifts the toss arm from that point.
Too often you will lift the toss arm from the hand and wrist as if someone from
above had lassoed your wrist and was pulling it up. This can send your toss
awry because the toss arm breaks, or bends, on the way up.
THE TOSS FOLLOW-THROUGH
Did you know after releasing the ball your toss arm still needs to keep going
up? Let me repeat that. The arm/hand keeps rising after you release the
ball. Mucho importante.
The ball leaves your hand and the arm/hand keeps going up as both part of the
lifting process and to prepare itself as the upper limb on your Bow. You don't
let go of the ball and stop the arm/hand, you let it go and follow through up and
you're gonna hold it like that before you swing at the ball. You've heard the
term "toss arm up," right? Sure, for balance, direction, control,
timing. But there's more, it's to set up the Bow. The more you keep it
up there to work in conjunction with your lower body the better your serve could
be. Just how it works to do that I'll explain in the very last section for the serve.
Yes, you may quick-toss the ball and not really keep raising the arm for a follow
through but if you want to improve you need to either lift the toss arm higher or at
least toss the ball higher to satisfy one of the original key demands: (more) time
between the toss and the hit.
You (a right hander) toss the ball to the right of the service box into which you
are serving. Using the net post on the same side is a good reference, tossing at
one o'clock is good too, where 12 o'clock is the backhand corner of the service box into
which you're serving. Point is, it's off the side a bit so you can swing around a
bit instead of literally from behind your head. Of course you can toss the ball
behind you and off to the other side and make it work to some degree or other but if you
want to improve your serve just keep it simple.
You may find it helpful to your toss if you imagine a spring between your toss
arm and the side of your body. This imagery I'm sure is found elsewhere. When
you slowly drop the toss arm down to your front leg the spring is compressed and its
release allows your toss arm to "bounce" up and rise faster than it dropped,
in effect accelerating upward. Once you have started the toss sequence, that is
once the toss arm begins to drop there is no turning back, there is no more thinking,
there is no more caution or carefulness. The horse is out of the barn. Drop
the toss arm fully and lift it right away because the deal is you're putting the ball
up in the air to strike it, it's not about "how" the toss arm goes down and
up (which explains why there are so many different looks in the pros with their toss arms).
You're not Pete Sampras, you don't have the attitude he has going into the serve so
don't toss like him. Learn to toss how you're gonna toss. If you want to be
like Sampras you'll have to grow into the form like just like he did, you can't start out
that way. If you're a young junior hopefully you'll have a teacher who knows how to
open new doors for you to stimulate your serve's growth. If you're an adult you know
the value of working your way up to a certain proficiency, the time it takes, and the roles
genetics and luck play. "A man's got to know his limitations," Clint
Eastwood said as the character Dirty Harry in the movie by the same name. I think he
was talking about his boss's obsession with trying to improve his tennis serve.
I've described the literal action of the toss arm, but since the serve is a symphony of
body parts there is more involved to stabilize the toss.
First, look up in the direction of your toss, do not look at the ball in your hand and
follow/look at the ball down as the toss arm goes down and then follow it up.
Second, focus on your stomach before you start the process, you're going to use the
stomach muscles more than any other muscle group for your serve. While you will
focus on your body center (groin) and move it to be efficient and balanced it will be
your abs in particular which form the foundation for the serve. Unlike groundstrokes
your body center on a serve works to keep you balanced statically since you are not taking
steps, this leaves you free to concentrate more exclusively on the stroke itself (unlike
groundies where you have to focus more on approaching the ball, balancing actively,
adjusting the stroke for timing).
Third, move larger muscle groups to control the smaller muscle group which is your
toss arm. Moving your body head to toe first (using abs and groin muscles) will
help you control the toss arm to a great degree. It's not like you're standing
still pitching horseshoes. You're going to shift your body weight and go into
your toss motion. It's very hard to stabilize the toss by isolating the toss arm
by itself, we don't toss and then shift the weight. The toss arm works with, and
off of, the moving body.
I've been noticing how advice on the toss goes something like this: from
tennisone.com: "Both players (Roddick and Federer) release the ball with their
weight on the back foot..." [photo from tennisone.com]
On the near right, from the USTA High-Performance Coaching, Vol. 7, No.
1/2005: "Picture 1: Here we see all three players beginning their service
motion with their weight being transferred to the back foot and the tossing arm
moving upward to the right side of the body."
On the far right, from the USTA High-Performance Coaching, Vol. 4, No.
1/2002: "As the players start their action and toss the ball up, their weight
is primarily on the back foot."
They all say you move the arm upward or release the ball with the body weight on the
back foot.
Hello! Reality check! The body weight is going forward for the most part when the
toss arm starts going down and at the very least when it starts going up. You don't
release the ball with your weight 100% ON the back foot - yikes! - the weight is being
transferred forward onto the front foot during this process as you see Ivanisevic on the right
displaying, his front toe that was up is going down. The analysis in Ivanisevic's second
photo above opines as he "toss(es) the ball up" his "weight is primarily
on the back foot" is directly contradicted by the larger sequence beneath.
Some pros, like Tim Henman, for example, continue shifting their weight forward
after the ball's release, but does this mean the body weight is on the back foot at
the release point since the body weight is not transferred 100% onto the front foot
by that time? No señor. Do you say a horse is floating in the air because
all four hooves are off the ground in a single photo? No señor. And of a
photo of a human in mid stride, do you say humans walk on one leg at a time? Ay
señor.
ADVANCED
The toss arm lifts and becomes the front limb of the bow, where the bottom limb is
the front leg. Together their rigidity as a whole will empower the slingshot effect
of the bowstring (racket arm), i.e. keep the toss arm up. Obviously the arm's muscle
group isn't as strong and thick as the front leg's, so it has to work a little more to
allow the racket arm to gain benefit from the tension as it "pulls" the racket
back. Keeping the toss arm up is not a passive thing to do for balance and direction,
it helps you to swing faster and lift you up to the ball. More on this in my last
section.
TROPHY
No matter if you have a low toss or a high toss you reach a point during the sequence
that's called the "trophy serve": the front toss arm is up and the back arm is
lower, racket held up. You can see this in the montage on the right, with
Henin-Hardenne, Pancho Gonzalez, Federer, Sampras, Ivanisevic.
Vic Braden, in an August, 1989, TENNIS magazine cover piece on the serve, "Braden
Shatters Serving Myths," tries his best to make us believe the trophy serve is
a "myth" (Vic small photo right). He says we all incorrectly mimic this
look on our serve that "destroys the continuous swing that you seek on the
serve." He claims the tennis trophy sculptor "wanted a certain look, he had
the server raise the toss arm while dropping the elbow of his racquet arm."
Of course Vic exaggerates when trying to prove his point, as seen in his photo with his elbow dropped
really low. A real tennis trophy he rails against does not look that way at all. And some of the
pros in the montage above right have their elbow low and their toss arm up...? Hmm. Maybe
he's saying the tennis trophy is wrong since there's a ball in the toss hand and not in a player's hand
when the toss arm is up. Wait, that's the second ball...
For Vic the trophy serve is a no-no, along with the high toss. A high toss
indicates a player needs more time to hit it because of "hitches in their service
motions that delay their swing."
Vic invokes John Newcombe as an example of a proper serve, but the photo on the
left shows Newk in a trophy serve. And his back elbow will drop from this point
before striking, just like with Rafter or Roddick.
The trophy serve is inescapable, even for Vic, whose form from the same article I
also include on the right: his tossing arm is raised above the level of his racket arm,
the back elbow is dropped. Heck, even in his advertising, he shows the trophy look.
Vic opines the trophy serve leads to dropping the racket arm elbow and destroys the
continuous motion. Oh, the uninitiated. Your elbow drops precipitously if
you bend your racket arm too soon out of the gate, that is you must let the ball rise
a good bit first while continuing to lift the racket before cocking the arm. Down
together, up together, you see. You can't blame a low elbow or a lack of a
continuous motion or hitches on the trophy serve, it doesn't add up if you look at the
pros. Calling the trophy serve a "myth" and that it has "ruined
more serves" is to do all students a disservice and hurts the game.
The question is how much time do you need between the ball release and
contact. Do you toss to the height of the outstretched racket and hit the ball after
it has dropped a few inches, or do you toss it higher than that before hitting
it? Considering one arm drops and lifts straight up to release the ball in front of
you, which takes little time, while the other drops and goes back and lifts up and bends
and unbends and reaches up and forward to meet the ball , which takes more time, I think
the answer is obvious. Toss it higher than the reach of your outstretched racket.
I was taught to hit the ball at the apex of the toss but I don't think I really do
that. I know if I hit it while it's descending I get more action on it. Jimmy
Connors comes to mind of a pro with a low toss, and a couple of others, but I found a good
clip on tennisone.com to calculate his ball toss height. From slightly above but
looking parallel across the court we see his ball rise (photo right with arrowheads)
above the head of a seated adult male spectator in the near background to the left with
the white baseball cap and the ball drops to below his chin at contact. My guess
is 12 to 18 inches of drop.
A low toss means it's barely high enough and your swing has to catch up to the timing
forced upon it. Rushing is not a good idea when it comes to tennis' most difficult
stroke, the swing itself needs time to develop because it has more to do than the tossing
arm. If you're like most players you really aren't hitting the ball as well as you'd
like to because your toss is on the low side, every student always begins with a toss that
is too low and teachers have to work them into tossing higher. Hence the toss can't
be "low" if you want to improve your serve, toss higher.
If you toss the ball too high there will be a pause at the trophy serve position, the
racket actually stops, something you see occasionally in the pros. This doesn't mean
it's a bad thing to do, pros are successful with it, but it's more difficult to work
with. Is it better to toss it too high? Nope. Is it better to toss it
low? Nope. Is it better to toss it high? Yup.
Vic's science fact against a high toss says that a ball tossed 6 feet above the impact
spot accelerates down through the timing window at 4 times the speed of a racket-high low
toss and thus makes it harder to hit. While technically accurate in the real world
it's specious. Who asks a student to toss 6 feet higher than the contact
spot? And though the ball spends less time within the timing window from any toss
higher than an outstretched racket it gives you more time to hit it. Take the time,
but don't dillydally.
It's not toss height that counts but the time between the release of the ball and
contact, the time your swing and body need to develop. Hey, if you've got a quick
strike then go for the lower toss, you'll be the exception. But if you want to go
faster than the equivalent of 40 mph on the freeway, you will need more time between the
toss and the hit.
TWIST
Come on baby, let's do the twist. Come on ba-aby... Wrong twist.
Big secret here, but it's an easy one. You toss the ball, the toss arm goes
down and up; the racket arm drops and rises. You know this. Now turn the
back shoulder sideways more -- and keep that toss arm out in front where it's supposed
to be. Voila, you now have "proper" shoulder rotation being set up and
you didn't have to start out convoluted and take the toss arm back, down, and up.
The hips do not turn sideways more, just the shoulders, as shown by Boris
Becker on the right. The hips hold their
position while the shoulders "wind-up" above them, and by holding their position
you allow the shoulders to release their wind-up best. No hip rotation here, their
contribution is more vertical. The hips are all about aggression, not rotation.
If you start with the Simple Service Stance the neutral position of your shoulders
means they are already turned to match the rest of your body which is turned to the
side. But the shoulders will not be turned to begin with if you start from the
Stance In-Conflict, they will be open, and this means you have to get them back
(re-turn them) to a neutral position before tossing. All that extra stuff makes your
serve harder to do.
At every level the shoulders should close, or turn, in the sideways
direction, during the toss, but it's not about moving both shoulders, or about
swinging the toss arm back to help you "turn." It's the back shoulder that
closes more. Sure, you can think about closing both shoulders, but this can lead
to your toss arm going awry too easily, even though it will when you first practice
closing the back shoulder. Opposite directions here, toss arm one way, racket
arm and back shoulder another. This is the beginning of the Spread across the pecs,
which others have talked about and is right-on.
Think toss the ball ahead of you with a simple down and straight up motion of the
toss arm while at the same time you close/turn the back shoulder more. Easily
achieved from the Simple Service Stance.
SEESAW
Simply stated, since the front arm goes up higher and sooner than the back arm you adopt
a seesaw effect in the shoulders where the back shoulder is lower than the front. The
seesaw goes the other way when the racket arm delivers the racket up to the ball - but
just the shoulders, the front toss arm stays up as long as it can, and when it drops it
does not drop to hang by your side, the forearm remains up.
Next: The Upward Swing (& click here
please).
PHOTOS:
Trophy Montage: Sampras, Feder, Henin-Hardenne, USTA High-Performance Coaching, Vol. 7,
No. 1/2005. Ivanisevic, TENNIS Magazine, September 1996, photo by Stephen
Szurlej/TENNIS Magazine. Pancho Gonzalez, the International Tennis Hall of Fame,
tennisfame.com, and the bio on him is courtesy of Bud Collins' Tennis Encyclopedia, our
famed tennis beat original. Vic Braden: TENNIS Magazine, August, 1989, photo by
Dom Furore/TENNIS Magazine. John Newcombe: from FAME, a hardcover compilation of
tennis greats edited by Eugene L. Scott of Tennis Week; photos provided therein by the
International Tennis Hall of Fame, additional ones by Ron Angle, Patricia Barry, Michael
Baz, Jeanne Cherry, Michael Cole and Le Roye Productions, R.T. Combe of Earnshill,
Melchior DiGiacomo, Art Seitz, and The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. Becker,
TENNIS magazine, July, 2005, photo by Paul Zimmer.
