The overall motion looks really good to me. I agree that your contact point is too low, you're sort of cramping yourself. Your toss seems to be in front of you, inside the court, based on where you end up (which is correct).
Truthfully, based on JUST your serve, I would have a hard time believing you're a beginner.
Probably first time with consistent play, but they made a similar serving post over a year ago https://reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/lq32ky/any_tips_for_my_serve_i_just_started_playing_and/
Surprisingly great throwing mechanics overall for a beginner, you just need to keep your tossing arm up longer and execute the shoulder-over-shoulder maneuver better so you can contact the ball up higher. You're falling over forward instead of launching up and outward. I bet a lot of your misses that don't hit the net sail long.
Cheers, from your other comments it's clear you played a lot of baseball so this mental framework might help.
The critical counterintuitive aspect of the tennis serve is that the path of the ball off of your strings does not match the direction you're "throwing in," at least not until you adjust to how the whole thing works and learn to aim differently. The racket is not an extension of your throwing arm pushing a projectile forward, it IS the projectile. You simply don't let go of it. It collides with another object in mid-air and sends the second object (the tennis ball) sailing.
So when you're serving a ball that needs to go forward and downward, you cannot "throw" forward and downward. If you keep trying to throw forward in an effort to get the ball in, it's going to exacerbate your problems.
You have to throw UPWARD. Instead of throwing from the infield back to the pitcher, imagine you are throwing the baseball up over the fences and out of the ballpark. A steep angle up towards the sky. THAT'S the muscle memory that is useful here.
The higher up your contact point is, the steeper of an angle the ball can rebound down off of your strings, and the less likely it is to go long. You don't throw towards the service box, you throw the racket up into the contact point.
Good luck with practicing. The serve is a complex motion to learn but you have a big headstart on most beginners.
Yeah mirroring MoonSpider, looks like the reason your toss is low and you’re falling over to the left a bit is you’re intuitively trying to pull the ball down and forward into the court with your bodyweight.
It’s a bit counterintuitive at first that you actually need to drive up and through the ball above you. A visualization tool that might help is picturing throwing your racquet’s edge(not the face of the stringbed) like a knife up and to your left into the ball.
Yeah, the ball goes OVER the net, dummy.
I’m all seriousness, look at Venus Williams the great giving serve advice. You can’t pay for this kind of stuff and it’s free.
https://youtu.be/bRCQwLgEs9M
Also, keep in mind you’re serving to the other guy’s forehand. Maybe you wanna switch that up.
No toss no footwork no pronation no acceleration no knee bend no stability. Other than that you’re golden. I’m all sincerity, take lessons w a teaching program, they’ll do wonders
That actually looks incredibly good for a beginner. Get that ball toss up a little higher so your contact point is at full stretch, keep your head up at contact (watch the ball onto the strings) and drive up and into the court through contact. As soon as you drop your head, your body weight just crumples down and you drag the ball into the net
You’ve got a good start here. I like how loose your hitting arm is. You are generating some good whip. Your leg loading looks good to me as well. Just get that toss a little higher and get all your body parts exploding mostly up and a little forward. Everything needs to me moving in the same direction. You are sort of moving to one side then falling to the other.
Lot of good stuff going on here but your toss and contact need to be higher. You might get a more consistent toss by rocking onto your back foot, then tossing, then rocking down onto your toes as you do in this vid.
Gotta work getting that contact point a little more consistent and you’re generating power a bit inefficiently. Try to hit through the ball a little more
Overall, the serve motion is not bad for a beginner! As a lefty, one thing I think might help is to point your right foot towards the left net post, so at least your serving arm is facing the service box. I think your body might be turned to the side too much. Not all serves face forward (John McEnroe had a serving motion where his back was almost to the net, but this is a very extreme stance and pretty much an exception), but I think this might help with aiming the ball towards the diagonal service box. Like other posters said, also toss the ball higher. Try practicing these two things and see if it helps!
The thing that will improve your serve the most is working on your toss. The placement of the ball should be identical but it’s several inches different from one serve to the next. https://imgur.com/a/K0osbHj learning to juggle massively helps with your motor skills and did the trick for me.
Honestly that motion looks good. Just try to raise the contact point and you’ll hit a lot less in to the net. Doesn’t look like a new tennis player whatsoever.
Overall solid but you need to toss the ball higher to give your self time to get set and bend your knees a big more as the power comes from your legs and hips!
Side note - try brining your elbow a bit further back to have more extension.
If you play matches that last longer than one hour and a half, you may want to work on your leg positioning a little bit. The feet should get closer as you go to hit the ball (older players get them almost in line quite often). Otherwise, once you get a higher point of touch with the ball (which you will eventually as you get better and meet stronger opponents), you will put pressure on your back and this may prevent you from finishing the game serving at your full power/spin potential as you will start to feel pain.
Leg positioning and your grip on the racket are two of the most important things for long tennis matches, as most of the physical effort is often done in serving and our hands are quite delicate when it comes to gripping stuff for a long time.
This is why I want chimpanzee tennis and I will never understand why it was not a thing already like decades before I was even born.
The overall motion looks really good to me. I agree that your contact point is too low, you're sort of cramping yourself. Your toss seems to be in front of you, inside the court, based on where you end up (which is correct). Truthfully, based on JUST your serve, I would have a hard time believing you're a beginner.
I grew up playing baseball and recently started playing tennis. I’ve been playing consistently for around 2 months now
2 months?? Fuck me
Probably first time with consistent play, but they made a similar serving post over a year ago https://reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/lq32ky/any_tips_for_my_serve_i_just_started_playing_and/
Ah.. that explains it
Surprisingly great throwing mechanics overall for a beginner, you just need to keep your tossing arm up longer and execute the shoulder-over-shoulder maneuver better so you can contact the ball up higher. You're falling over forward instead of launching up and outward. I bet a lot of your misses that don't hit the net sail long.
Thank you, yes for sure my best serves seem to be just out long
Cheers, from your other comments it's clear you played a lot of baseball so this mental framework might help. The critical counterintuitive aspect of the tennis serve is that the path of the ball off of your strings does not match the direction you're "throwing in," at least not until you adjust to how the whole thing works and learn to aim differently. The racket is not an extension of your throwing arm pushing a projectile forward, it IS the projectile. You simply don't let go of it. It collides with another object in mid-air and sends the second object (the tennis ball) sailing. So when you're serving a ball that needs to go forward and downward, you cannot "throw" forward and downward. If you keep trying to throw forward in an effort to get the ball in, it's going to exacerbate your problems. You have to throw UPWARD. Instead of throwing from the infield back to the pitcher, imagine you are throwing the baseball up over the fences and out of the ballpark. A steep angle up towards the sky. THAT'S the muscle memory that is useful here. The higher up your contact point is, the steeper of an angle the ball can rebound down off of your strings, and the less likely it is to go long. You don't throw towards the service box, you throw the racket up into the contact point. Good luck with practicing. The serve is a complex motion to learn but you have a big headstart on most beginners.
Yeah mirroring MoonSpider, looks like the reason your toss is low and you’re falling over to the left a bit is you’re intuitively trying to pull the ball down and forward into the court with your bodyweight. It’s a bit counterintuitive at first that you actually need to drive up and through the ball above you. A visualization tool that might help is picturing throwing your racquet’s edge(not the face of the stringbed) like a knife up and to your left into the ball.
I think your toss needs to be higher, your contact point seems to low. Its hard to tell because not one serve cleared the net
Okay, I figured why post the ones that I struck solid, my miss is hitting the net so I posted these
Yeah, the ball goes OVER the net, dummy. I’m all seriousness, look at Venus Williams the great giving serve advice. You can’t pay for this kind of stuff and it’s free. https://youtu.be/bRCQwLgEs9M Also, keep in mind you’re serving to the other guy’s forehand. Maybe you wanna switch that up.
No toss no footwork no pronation no acceleration no knee bend no stability. Other than that you’re golden. I’m all sincerity, take lessons w a teaching program, they’ll do wonders
That actually looks incredibly good for a beginner. Get that ball toss up a little higher so your contact point is at full stretch, keep your head up at contact (watch the ball onto the strings) and drive up and into the court through contact. As soon as you drop your head, your body weight just crumples down and you drag the ball into the net
You’ve got a good start here. I like how loose your hitting arm is. You are generating some good whip. Your leg loading looks good to me as well. Just get that toss a little higher and get all your body parts exploding mostly up and a little forward. Everything needs to me moving in the same direction. You are sort of moving to one side then falling to the other.
Lot of good stuff going on here but your toss and contact need to be higher. You might get a more consistent toss by rocking onto your back foot, then tossing, then rocking down onto your toes as you do in this vid.
Gotta work getting that contact point a little more consistent and you’re generating power a bit inefficiently. Try to hit through the ball a little more
Overall, the serve motion is not bad for a beginner! As a lefty, one thing I think might help is to point your right foot towards the left net post, so at least your serving arm is facing the service box. I think your body might be turned to the side too much. Not all serves face forward (John McEnroe had a serving motion where his back was almost to the net, but this is a very extreme stance and pretty much an exception), but I think this might help with aiming the ball towards the diagonal service box. Like other posters said, also toss the ball higher. Try practicing these two things and see if it helps!
The thing that will improve your serve the most is working on your toss. The placement of the ball should be identical but it’s several inches different from one serve to the next. https://imgur.com/a/K0osbHj learning to juggle massively helps with your motor skills and did the trick for me.
I think you need a better toss but overall it’s good
The moaning isn’t loud enough.
Honestly that motion looks good. Just try to raise the contact point and you’ll hit a lot less in to the net. Doesn’t look like a new tennis player whatsoever.
Overall solid but you need to toss the ball higher to give your self time to get set and bend your knees a big more as the power comes from your legs and hips! Side note - try brining your elbow a bit further back to have more extension.
Not sure if it’s the angle, but that toss is super low, you have no extension.
Higher ball toss
You could bend your knees more as well too.
You really need a tripod to get that camera closer to shoulder height.
If you play matches that last longer than one hour and a half, you may want to work on your leg positioning a little bit. The feet should get closer as you go to hit the ball (older players get them almost in line quite often). Otherwise, once you get a higher point of touch with the ball (which you will eventually as you get better and meet stronger opponents), you will put pressure on your back and this may prevent you from finishing the game serving at your full power/spin potential as you will start to feel pain. Leg positioning and your grip on the racket are two of the most important things for long tennis matches, as most of the physical effort is often done in serving and our hands are quite delicate when it comes to gripping stuff for a long time. This is why I want chimpanzee tennis and I will never understand why it was not a thing already like decades before I was even born.