[tennisbiz] Re: Stopping student from leaning in too early on serve

<x-charset iso-8859-1>Jamie,

You might try creating a tossing habit by placing a target in front of the
baseline the appropriate distance and angle toward the service area and have
your student practice the toss repeatedly trying to have the toss land on
the target until it becomes more habitual.

I would suggest a towel or flat spot target of some sort.

I have had luck with having my student visualize standing in a narrow alley
and lifting (not tossing) the ball in the direction they wish to serve.

Sometimes the student is moving their arms much too fast on the downswing
and the toss will end up behind them. I try to create a slow-slow-fast
tempo. The idea is to get your student to place the ball in the proper spot
for contact not throw or toss the ball there. As the student progresses,
the toss must be moved around for different types of serves, so therefore it
is important to get your student to control their left hand so the toss can
be placed where needed. By slowing down the tossing arm this can be
achieved and also by concentrating on the direction of the toss also. One
must practice or train themselves to control the left or non dominate
tossing hand as well as the racket hand and this comes from repetition. I
would start with a simple slowing down of the toss hand and concentrate on a
target area for the toss to land then incorporate the swing. Make sure that
when practicing the toss that the student uses a full motion up to the so
called back scratch position.

Good luck with your student.

Ron Woods, uspta

  
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Received on Tue Oct 21 2003 - 14:25:44 CDT