ETI 010 | The Pete Sampras Snap

Amazing words, amazing new teach, amazing coach. I think you can add pretty much every big server on the pro tour to the list of players who “naturally” serve with extreme forearm pronation… Marat Safin… Ivo Ljubicic… Goran Ivanisevic… the list is long. One interesting aspect is that it happens naturally if you do it right, and you can’t “feel it” until after the hit, when you become conscious of the hitting side of the racket facing out instead of in. But the thing that’s interesting for me here, coach (I’ve been trying this way of serving for years) is what you say here about unlocking the pronation by aiming up instead of forward. That might be the whole “secret” of it. However, congratulations for finally trying to teach something that has been wrongly taught for years… Imagine, even Novak Djokovic doesn’t understand this dynamic. He does it right, but when asked about his serve, said that he “snaps the wrist forward” (showing a bending forward of the wrist) because that’s what his coach taught him, without realising that’s not at all what he actually does when he serves! The mind is truly a mystery….

I know this process but have not seen it illustrated in such a clever but simple way. This will help me a great deal thank you.

Dear Jim all I can say is WOW ! This was awesome for me as I added another 15 % atleast on my serve. Very easy to understand and implement, Well Done.

I was wondering do you have anything on the kick serve.

Thanks

I have to find out how to pay but I definitely order your instruction because for me it’s so clear the way you explain it

Hi Jim, thank you so much for these last videos on the serve. I have always had difficulties understanding what pronation really means in this context – but this about that “you should be able to tell the time” is just a genius way to explain it – thank you for that it has made a huge difference giving me a much harder serve going high over the net – still it works best for me if I still emphazise the follow through – otherwise the serve tends to become too short. Is that because I need to optimise the pronation?

Cheers

Klaus

This snap, coupled with the lower toss you’ve suggested in the past, gives me much more control for the kick serve. With practice, I suspect I’ll get more “kick” too. I did experience some drop off in speed whether trying it “kick” it or not. Any suggestions?

Great stuff Jim. Your analysis and common sense style are truly eye opening, and easy to follow/understand. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Hi Jim… Can this snap and forearm roll work for the slice serve?

Cheers Doug.

Hi Jim – firstly love the quick video clips and your style of preaenting.
Question- what grip would you use best for the Samparas sanp serve to avoid hitting inside out on the ball, ( dad used to call it the american reverse swing back in the Pancho days)
Ive tried very succesfully with an extreme backhand grip in practice but inevitabley when playing for real the brain kicks in saying”no way jose” .
Essentially I know I need to train my brain to understand the technical logic with the correct grip -hence the question – which grip is correct?
Cheers
Simon

Jim,

you are the best on understanding the serve and how important it is even when it comes to the top guys. Did you see how much better Rafa served against Novak in MC? I know Novak had a tough day but Rafa did hit some big serves and did not get broken. ( not so good though in Barcelona
guess he knew he could win by spinning them in.

Joe

Jim, tried your Sampras snap and it works great. My serve percentage even increased with this method. My opponent told me that the balls kick up after the bounce. I also likes your response to Andy 38 days ago. Thank you so much.

Playing badminton is a good way to learn this pronation which creates a lot of racquet head speed. Donald Kerr showed me this when I was on the Tulane University tennis team in 1975.

Im in southern CA, no teaching pros here really talk about this concept – they say “it happens automatically” for lack of knowing anything about it. I video taped in slow motion all the major ATP guys at Indian Wells and guess what – they ALL did this sampras pronation after contact. Even though I bring this up locally and even show pictures to local pros of the top ATP guys, they all say don’t worry about that part, and it may even damage your shoulder to forefully perform this exaggerated pronation. Anyway, you are one of the few guys that actually talks about it intelligently. Bravo! My question is, can you incorporate this sampras snap motion with all serves, or is it just for kick serve? can you use it on slice? on flat? on topspin serve? Thanks and great work!!! Semms on slice you should penetrate through the ball and carve it – how can you pronate to this degree on a slice serve to the duece court for a righty?

YES!!!….kick serve al a mode!!

Jim what a great teaching tool. Kids and some adults have such a hard time understanding the pronation concept. You have made my job much easier. I cannot thank you enough. Your the man.

GREAT TIP! IT INCREASED MY RACKET HEAD SPEED, WHICH AMPED UP MY FLAT SERVE AND IMPROVED MY SLICE SERVE. THIS TIP REALLY SIMPLIFIED MY SERVE MOTION.

THANKS, RANDOLPH

Jim: I learned this from a Van Der Meer video 5 years ago. It worked for me, though I was a novice then. In the meantime I learned from too many different clinics and they all have said something different and more than once I got tennis elbow from what they were teaching. The serve became my weakest part of my game. I am going back to this tomorrow. Thanks for bringing this up

My serve is getting so much better thanks to you Jim and i’m 52 yrs old )

Hi Jim,

I tried this last week and it works, big time for me. At practice, I was consistently getting more pace and spin to hit the back fence with my serves. During match play, I hit double the number of aces and many more unreturnable serves. It takes some getting used to and I find during the match my serve tends to wonder back to what it was and I have to practice the horizontal supination/pronation routine between points to keep the feel going. I’m sure with some persistence it will feel more routine. Thanks Jim.

Jim.
Very good instructional video. I have been already practicing a lot with this forearm rotation movement. Sometimes I get good results and other times don’t. How to be sure that the ball doesn’t go like a crazy stone to anywhere when rotating the forearm? This happens so frequently to me when trying to rotate the forearm: the head of the racquet faces left or right in the moment of the impact with the ball, shooting it out of the court…. How can I correct this? I’d appreciate very much your valuable help…

Jim,
what do yoy recommend, the Sampras forearm rotation or the wrist snap in the smash? My smash has always been weak and without pace.
Kind regards,
Sigurd