Lesson 5: Pronation - The "Waiter's Tray" Mistake
An extremely common technial error people make on their first serve is to open up the racket face too soon on the upswing. Andre's position in both frames is known as the "waiter's tray" position because it resembles how a waiter carries a tray on the palm of his hand.
Instead of the "waiter's tray" position, Andre needs to get in the "Big L" where the butt cap of the racket points to the net and the strings face the side fence (not up to the sky). This will allow him to get the twising motion - what we call pronation - that gets the racket to travel fast into contact.
Andre's body position is excellent in this sequence. In fact, his body position looks identical to Nalbandian's. But his racket orientation will undermine his ability to pronate into the ball properly.
Andre's racket face opens up too soon. This prevents him from getting into the "Big L" position properly, which will compromise the turning, or torque motion, into contact.
Here is another student example (left hand clip) of the "waiter's tray" position. Watch how the strings of this player's racket face the sky as the arm extends upward. From this "waiter's tray" position, it becomes impposible to rotate the arm and racket into contact. And it is this torquing motion - this twisting of the entire arm and hand - into contact that leads to big serves.
The Waiter's Tray
The player on the right, Florent Serra, demonstrates the perfect "Big L" Position right before impact. His strings face the side fence in this final frame, and the edge of his racket runs parallel to the ground.
The Big "L"
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