contact-point-pendulum-serve
maurice101 asked 5 years ago
I see all the pros contact the ball very close to the body during the pendulum serve. All club players I play with do not to this at all. I understand this hides the swing before the contact point but I think there is more to it. A coach told me there is a bio mechanical advantage of dong this. What would this be??
I do find this hard to add this to my serve.
Tom Academy Coach answered 5 years ago
Hi Maurice, yes contacting the ball close to the body on the pendulum serve will help with generating spin and having control in fact with most serves this is true. The natural body rotation is utilise more when contacting the ball close to the body and you get more of hinge effect between the elbow which if you contact further away means the elbow is straighter and doesn’t get the same snap.
A good player to watch do this pendulum serve with a very close contact to the body is Robert Gardos from Austria, he has brilliant pendulum serves which he uses a lot and does this element very well with great use of his body too, so have a look at him on youtube, that can sometimes help you get a better understanding to see it in action.
If you can get this close contact and a good acceleration on your serves I think you’ll feel you have more control over the precise placement and also generation more spin. Lastly it does encourage the body to become more involved in the serve which means you can get ready quicker and recover for the next shot.
