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Advanced Tennis: Sampras Serve Developing Advanced Footwork 

by John Yandell 

Page 2

The Coil

Watch the start of Pete’s serve in the animation. He begins with his front foot raised. Don’t be distracted by that raised foot. That’s idiosyncratic -  a personal, stylistic touch in Pete’s motion that has nothing to do with his core bio-mechanics. Recently, I was in an elevator with a woman at a tennis club who was


As Pete releases the ball, he starts to shift his weight forward, letting his knees bend. Pete reaches the full knee bend with the tossing arm extended.
 telling her friend how much better she was serving since she started raising her foot like Pete! I don’t think so. Maybe she experienced a placebo effect, but the raised foot has nothing to do with his actual motion or the advanced footwork pattern.

Note: As Pete’s arms drop, he lowers the front foot until it's flat on the court. Then, as he releases the ball, his weight begins to fall deeply onto the front leg. 

Try it like Pete if you absolutely must, but, the simplest starting stance is with both feet already flat on the court and your weight evenly balanced. The key is the shifting of the weight to the front foot, the knee bend, and the timing of this shift.  The shift starts as the tossing arm begins to extend, but after the actual release of the ball. 

Note how deeply Pete is able to bend that front leg! At the bottom of the bend, his upper leg may be at something close to a 45 degree angle to the court. At the deepest point he’s come up somewhat on his back toes, is well balanced and in control of his body weight. 

Two views of Pete’s full knee bend. His upper leg is close to 45 degrees to the court.  Note that the torso stays in line. There is no back arch, his entire body inclines naturally due to the knee bend.

Pete has NOT leaned forward or back at the waist. A common misperception is that great servers arch their backs during the wind up. In reality, Pete’s torso stays in line from hips to <% ns_puts [nsv_get mkm_includes mkm_oldContentFooter_inc] %>