Will Hamilton: The second part of your serve is your toss and your backswing. From your stance, both arms separate and they drop down at the same time and then they come up at the same time. Coaches call this motion down together, up together. If we focus on my toss for a minute, when my arms separate, my tossing arm drops down and then it comes straight up and I release the ball about the top of my head. After, I release the ball, I continued to raise my tossing arm until it's pointed straight up and I leave it here until I swing forward. Now, when I toss the ball what I'm looking for is no spin on the tennis ball, that's the easiest way to control your toss, if you don't have any spin on the ball. The way to do that is to just open your fingers up when you toss the ball that should give you as little spin as possible. Also, when you toss the ball, you want to toss it, so it's about one to two feet higher then your contact point, if you didn't hit it, if you let it fall down it would bounce about a footer show into the court and inline with your front foot.
If we now take a look at my hitting arm, when my arms separate and drop down my hitting arm begins to rise, but I leave my palm facing the court. So even though I'm holding the tennis racket, my palm is down, and I continue to bring my racquet up until I gets to this position, which is called the L position because my racquet and my arm look very similar to an L, this position is going to allow you to swing forward correctly later in your serve. Now, if I put this two arm motion together, both arm separate and they drop down together, then they rise together until my tossing arm is pointed straight up, my racket, and my hitting arm look like an L.
As I begin my service motion, my arms separate and they drop down together. We'll first going to focus on my tossing arm. Once my arm drops down, it rises up and I release the ball at about the top of my head, after I release the ball I continue to raise my arm until it's pointed up. If we now look at my hitting arm, once it drops down I begin to raise it, but I keep my palm facing the court as I bring it up, I continue to bring it up until I get it to the L position. If you watch these two things together, my arms separate, they drop down together, and then they rise together at the same time until my tossing arm is extended up in the air and my hitting arm looks like an L.
This is Bob Brian in the beginning of his service motion. We're going to show you a sequence of four pictures to demonstrate how his arms start together, separate, drop, and rise together. Now in this first picture, his arms are together, but now his arms have separated and dropped down. Now his arms have begun to rise, he is holding the tennis ball in his tossing arm in his fingers and he is bringing the racquet up with his hitting arm, but he is keeping the palm of his hitting hand facing the court. Now he's virtually completed his preparation. He just toss the ball, he just continue to raise his tossing arm, he'll probably raise it a little bit more and he's got his racquet and his hitting am in an L.
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