Podcast #136: Avoid these three huge technique mistakes! (Part 3)
Alright. Before we get to our second question on today's show, I want to remind you all about the official sponsor of the Essential Tennis podcast. That is Championship Tennis Tours. You can find them online at tennistours.com. They're a supporter of the Essential Tennis podcast, which I really appreciate. To show your appreciation for their support of myself and the show, go check them out.
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Alright. Our last question on today's show comes to us from Vidron in Croatia. Vidron, [laughter] I'm really sorry. I'm probably killing your name, so I'll go ahead and just apologize up front. I'm not sure what the correct pronunciation is, so please forgive me. Vidron is a 3.5 player. Again, in Crotia. He wrote and said:
“The thing that I want to get advice about is an experiment that I tried on my serve. In trying to develop an aggressive and more powerful first serve while maintaining my second serve at its current level, I decided to change my toss, and throw the ball a bit lower and significantly more in front of my body to create more pace and more spin. But more pace mainly.
Unfortunately, this experiment led to losing my consistency on my second serve, and producing a whole lot more double faults than before. So my question is this: Is it recommendable to have 2 different types of service toss? Is it even possible considering the problems I've developed? And keeping in mind all those problems that pro-players often have with only 1 type of ball toss in various parts of their careers.”
Alright. So Vidron, do I recommend 2 totally different ball tosses and techniques? Because that's what that would mean. Basically, when you put your toss in a totally different spot, it changes the whole rest of your serve as well. You can't just make a big change to your toss and use the same technique. Everything else has to change to accommodate that new location.
So we're really talking about a completely different swing. Short answer is no. I definitely don't recommend that you do that. Mostly for the sake of consistency and unity in your game. And it would mean twice as much work for you to continually try to improve 2 totally different serves than if you used basically the same toss, and small changes in your technique between your first and second serve. If you tossed in essentially the same place between your first and second serve, you could keep things like your rhythm; the rotation of your body; your contact point.
Again, relatively speaking, all of those things could remain the same, whereas this big change that you're talking about much lower and much farther in front, all of those big technique elements have to be different. So we're talking about trying to develop 2 completely different service techniques. It doubles your work as a player as you try to continue to become better and better on the court.
I give this same answer when players ask me about something like maybe developing both the one handed and two handed back hand. Something else that I don't recommend for the same reason: it's 2 totally different swings, and it's just that much more to work on and try to improve as you try to get yourself to be a better player. The benefit almost never outweighs all that extra work.
This is especially since most of you listening I assume–probably over 90% of you listening–are just recreational players, people that have a regular job during the day. Or maybe you guys are students, and you have school during the day. You might have a couple of hours a week to practice and play. Maybe 2-4 hours at the most. You guys want to be smart about how you use your time. When you start really spreading out your asset of time, especially on the practice court as you try to improve your technique, doing things like this is just not something that I recommend.
Now this is unless your previous toss Vidron, if your previous toss was really high and it as far behind you, where you were constantly leaning backwards to get to the toss and it was super high so it kind of busted up your rhythm, and you had to wait for a long time to wait for the ball to get down. Unless that was the case, your change isn't going to lead towards better technique anyway. It sounds to me like you're trying to toss it low and kind of right in front of you, into the court a couple of feet, and probably making contact lower. [laughter] Basically, exactly what I was describing in my first topic today when I talked about bad habits on service technique. It sounds to me like you were trying to put it low right in front of you so you could make a low contact point and hit the ball just straight out in front of you into the box with a slightly open face to make sure that it makes it over the net.
This is really common technique, but it's definitely not a very athletic motion. It's not going to give you a lot of potential as far as developing a higher level serve in the future. Now a lot of players are very consistent hitting the ball this way. But it's not a technique that I like. Again, because it's just not very good as far as fundamental use of your body goes for creating pace and spin, etc. It's not going to leave you a lot of room for growth. Now there's one exception to all of this. I've told you that I don't like your idea. I don't like you having 2 totally different motions and tosses in general. I also don't like the idea of the specific technique you're talking about. However, there's one exception to both of those things. Previously, you were really struggling with your first serve, and weren't making it very often. This big toss change made an immediate improvement. Vidron has told us already that this hasn't worked out very well for him, but this is more for the rest of you listening. If that big toss change makes an immediate improvement and ultimately you're happy with the result, and in the long run, you're going to continue being happy with it, then fine. Go ahead and do it! Go ahead and make the change, and have fun playing. I don't think it's the best idea, and I also don't think it's the best technique. But if you see an immediate improvement in confidence and consistency, and you're happy with where it's at and you don't mind sacrificing some long-term potential for short-term success, then go ahead and do it. I want to make sure that I don't get too rigid and too strict about my views with technique. I know I have the tendency to do that: both on the podcast and in person.
Ultimately, all of you listening, it should be your goal to enjoy the game. To have fun. If you can make a quick, immediate improvement–even if it's not the best technique and you're going to be OK with the fact that it's not the best technique and it might limit you as far as potential a little down the road–go ahead and do it. But just keep in mind, it's not going to be my #1 suggestion! My #1 suggestion is always to be to learn the best possible technique, and work hard at it, and give yourself the best ceiling, your best change, to continue making yourself a better tennis player. I'm always going to be upfront with you guys about what changes will lead to the most long-term benefits, basically. It's always going to be the direction that I come at with my answers to your questions on this show. Those of you who comes out and work with me in person at a clinic, etc. That's always going to be my perspective, because that's just the way I think. I don't like shortcuts in general. [laughter] And tennis is no exception! I want you guys to learn the best possible technique. I just want you guys to know where I'm coming at in regards to that. So Vidron, thank you very much for your question. Hopefully you've got a good idea of what I recommend here. I'm sorry that your change didn't work out very well for you in general. Yes, I do recommend that you have some kind of unity between your first and second serve. They should be slightly different techniques, but I don't recommend that you use totally different serves for those 2. If you have a video camera, feel free to send me an e-mail with a video clip showing me your serve, and I'd be happy to give you some input. Some further input as far as specific technique is concerned.
But thank you very much for being a listener in Croatia. I appreciate it. Hopefully this episode has been a help to you!
Alright. That bring Episode #136 of the Essential Tennis podcast to a close. Thank you very much for joining me on today's show. I hope that you enjoyed it, and that it's been informative and helpful to you. And in wrapping up today, I wanted to remind you all about the different social networks that Essential Tennis is on. You can get updates on Twitter at Twitter.com slash Essential Tennis. You can also check out the Facebook fan page at Facebook.com slash Essential Tennis. And you can look at the instructional videos that I have posted at YouTube.com slash Essential Tennis. So go check all 3 of those pages out. Lots of good stuff in all 3.
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Alright. That brings today's show to a close. Again, thank you guys so much for listening, for downloading the show. I really appreciate it. I'll be talking to you guys next week in the next installment in the Essential Tennis podcast. Until then, take care, and good luck with your tennis.
