Advanced Tennis:
Sampras Serve - The Tossing Motion

by John Yandell

Throw the ball up in the air and hit it. The bio-mechanics of the serve seem complex, but how difficult can the toss possibly be?

Ask Pat Rafter, who continually apologizes to opponents, “Sorry, mate,” when he catches another errant toss - or Karol Kuchera, who caught so many tosses he drove Andre Agassi crazy at the U.S. Open. (Agassi lost the match - the first time a bad toss ever worked as a weapon.)

Pete Sampras’s motion is a perfect model for developing the toss, and also for the motion of the opposite arm through the rest of the motion.

As with so many other aspects of his serve, Pete Sampras’s tossing motion is an excellent technical model for developing a consistent toss. But the “tossing” arm, or the opposite arm, also has a significant - and controversial - role to play in the continuation of the motion after the toss. Sampras also provides a perfect model for the motion of the opposite arm after the toss and as it moves through the rest of the swing.

Think about the toss closely. The ball has to be in precisely the right place for the contact point to be exactly right - on every serve. It’s a skill equivalent to juggling - the ability to throw a small round ball to a precise spot in space, over and over again.

Many players achieve good ball placement on the toss only sporadically. Others actually develop fundamental technical swing problems directly related to a poor toss. A good serve and a good toss are interrelated and inter-dependent. If the toss isn’t positioned properly, it’s impossible to achieve the three core positions in the swing - the racket drop, the contact, and the followthrough - detailed in the previous article. These elements are the fundamentals for racket head speed. (See Part 2).

The Height of the Toss

Unfortunately, the best known and most often repeated theory of the toss is actually counter-productive and the cause of many basic serving problems. “Hit the ball at the top of the toss.” That’s a common tip repeated by players, teaching pros and television commentators. The model commonly pointed to is Roscoe Tanner, the great American player of the 1970’s and 1980’s, who had a particularly low toss. But Tanner was a rarity, one of a very, very few top players ever to toss the ball so low.


Like good servers at all levels, Pete’s tosses well above the contact point, so that the ball drops more than a foot before the hit.

Advanced Tennis analysis shows Pete Sampras’ toss drops more than a foot before contact, about the same as the great John McEnroe (For more information on Advanced Tennis, click here). I haven’t seen a player on the tour in several years who actually hit the ball at the top of the toss, have you? (Ok, maybe Conchita Martinez, but do you want her serve?)

In addition to his high toss, Sampras maintains great tossing arm extension. As with all great servers, Sampras finishes with his tossing arm fully extended, pointing almost directly upward. He then holds this position for a distinct interval before the arm starts to fall downward and across the torso.

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The same qualities are shared by the vast majority of past and current pro players - as well as thousands of successful competitive players at all levels. Virtually all good servers toss the ball one foot to several feet above the contact point, and then hold the tossing arm at extension. Remember Ivan Lendl? Steffi Graf? Boris Becker? Television commentators continually criticized their high tosses, but they just kept serving well and winning matches. Thinking about it, you can probably visualize the image of their tossing arms pointing straight up with the ball high in the air prior to the hit.

Are the vast majority of players with high tosses all technically wrong? Should the average player develop a radically different, super low toss instead? What’s the relationship between the toss height and a good technical motion anyway?

The key to understanding the height of the toss is the rhythm of the individual server. The height of the toss determines the interval of the motion - the time a player has to execute the swing pattern. The higher the toss, the more time the player has to move through the core positions we've examined in the last article.

The more you coil and use your legs and body for power, the more important a high toss becomes.

Some players, even at the height of the pro game, simply need more time than others to move through these positions. The height of your toss has to be matched to your personal serving rhythm, so you can move through the core positions, stay relaxed, and develop velocity through the natural acceleration of the racket head. If so many top players need high tosses in order to execute a full, smooth swing, how much more so the average player!

In addition, the more deeply you bend your knees, the more you coil your body for power instead of just using your arm, the more time you will need. And this means tossing higher. We will explore these advanced elements later in our series.

Roscoe Tanner’s ultra low toss and fast rhythm were the exception not the rule - maybe with a slightly higher toss and a slower rhythm, he would have served higher percentages in big matches - like his Wimbledon final loss to Bjorn Borg.

Click here for Page 2

To view the complete ProStrokes Gallery of digitally mastered Pete Sampras serves, click here.

For more information on John Yandell's Advanced Tennis, click here.

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Advanced Tennis: Sampras Serve - The Tossing Motion