Service footwork

It is worth remembering that, even on the serve, you hit the ball with your feet. That is always true of every stroke since the momentum you inject into the ball must first be "stolen" from the earth using your feet. It is especially true of the serve since a consistent serve depends on a consistent toss, and a consistent toss depends on balance. That the toss requires that you be on balance is pretty easy to understand. If you are off balance even a little bit as you bring your arms up, your brain will be working overtime to keep you from falling on your face - all while you are trying to toss the ball into a space not much bigger than the ball itself. The best service motion in the world is useless if the ball is in a different place every time you try to hit it. A 125 mph serve that commonly buries itself into the center of the net or the back fence is of no use to anyone but your opponent.

To that end the first place to look at if you want to improve your serve is your footwork. The key to staying in perfect balance while waving your arms about trying to hit a serve is always to achieve and maintain dynamic balance. When you are in dynamic balance, you regulate and fine-tune your body's attitude solely by tensing and relaxing your quadriceps muscles. Contrast this with static balance where to maintains an upright position you must constantly be adjusting your center of gravity necessitating gyrations of the upper body which, of course, interfere with concurrent fine motor actions such as tossing the ball.

Hello
Classic Serve Stance: Front foot toe is on the "flight line" (yellow). Front foot at an angle of 45 degrees to the line. Rear foot perpendicular to the flight line and about 10 inches back so a slightly closed stance (more back to the court).Many pros today use a more closed stance.

Starting Position

It is, therefore, essential that one is in dynamic balance before the throwing arm reaches the shoulder level during the toss. The requirement of dynamic balance is why the service usually starts with a rocking motion transferring bodyweight, say, from the front foot to the back foot then to the front again. There are variations on this theme among the pros which have made it difficult to identify what constitutes "correct" footwork on the serve, but the bottom line is that you must initiate some weight shuffling before the ball is released to establish dynamic balance. That balance must then be maintained throughout the stroke often by converting the earthbound static balance to free flight (jumping), which is yet another form of dynamic balance.

Great footwork on the serve starts with how one lines up to hit the ball. Initial foot placement varies from the deuce court to the ad court, but the basic orientation of the feet is around the line of intended direction of the ball (the "line-of-flight" or flight line). The front foot is always just behind the baseline oriented anywhere from parallel to perpendicular to the flight line. The placement of the back foot is flexible. Regarding the distance of the rear foot from the flight line today's pros tend to use a semi-closed stance with the toe of the back foot about 12-18 inches behind the front foot more towards the back fence than the side fence. There have been those (like John McEnroe) who put the back foot WAY behind the front foot - basically both feet just behind the baseline. In the golden, olden days, pros put their toes of both feet on the flight line, but then they were proscribed from jumping during the service motion (doubtless a failed plot by the freakishly tall to maintain their natural advantage over the rest of us). Nowadays, the permission to grab some air on the serve make it possible to start the serve in a closed stance. However, many top pros use something resembling the classic, slightly closed stance. An open stance on the serve, with the back foot on or over the flight line, is right out! That is for beginners, and it makes tossing the ball difficult and hitting with authority impossible. Notwithstanding that prohibition, you are free to select whatever back foot position results in the most consistent toss and makes you feel least like a pretzel.


Separation of the Feet

A bit more critical, but just as eclectic amongst the pros, is how far apart the feet are at the start of the serve. Some start with a broad stance while others have their feet together. You can see the problem - no uniformity amongst those who presumably know what they are doing. I believe initial foot separation is a personal choice and you should choose a comfortable distance this important caveat; the whole point of a consistent stance is to help get you into dynamic balance. That means that the initial stance has to potentiate ping-ponging bodyweight between the feet and to bend the knees. It matters less which foot carries your weight at any given moment than it does that your weight doesn't stay on either foot for any length of time.

Platform and Closed Stance ala Federer and Sampras The back foot is much further from the flight line (yellow) encouraging extreme shoulder turn for power (closed stance). The back foot stays back until the player takes flight. The timing of the Unit Turn (toss) phase is more all-at-once requiring a titch more co-ordination.

Pinpoint vs Platform Stance

Once dynamic balance is established there is yet another choice to be made regarding how and when the back foot comes forward.

This is the subject of some hand-wringing on the part of teaching pros, and there are lots of instructional videos and articles describing two basic "stances": the pinpoint stance and the platform stance. I take issue with the use of the word "stance" since the initial placement of the feet is the same in both of these "methods." I know I am persnickety, but I believe it is important to point out and understand that what they are discussing is how to make the transition from a static "pose" to a state of balletic and dynamic motion; a waltz is not a stance.

Anyway, to serve using the pinpoint method: From the initial stance one rocks back onto the back foot briefly then as the weight moves forward the back foot is dragged forward until it is right up against the front foot - ankle bone to ankle bone as it were. As this is happening the knees are bending, and the weight is moving forward onto the front foot and eventually settles on the ball of that foot (auto-magically of course because you are now in dynamic balance). While your lower body is performing this complex choreography, your upper body is assuming the trophy pose.

The platform stance is similar except that the rear foot does not move forward with the bodyweight, preferring to stay behind and it is in the same position in the trophy pose as it was in the initial stance, i.e., somewhere behind the front foot. From that position the back foot can participate in the leap into the air that powers the Load phase of the serve.

It is generally held that the pinpoint stance results in easier access to power on the serve; a curious concurrence since many of the most powerful servers of all time, Sampras and Federer among them, use the platform method. Power is not inaccessible from the platform stance, but I can validate that it seems a lot easier to hit with pace from the pinpoint stance. For that reason, I don't believe that the desire for ultimate power is a determiner of whether you should use the pinpoint stance or the platform stance. Other discriminators that have been mentioned such as placement (better with the platform), toss (better with the platform) and balance (better with the platform) have not borne out in my experience. Bottom line: Pinpoint vs. Platform stance is a personal choice based on comfort and your own results.


The Server's Shuffle

That leaves the last, and in my experience most important, consideration; how you get from a static stance into dynamic balance. Here again, there are several variations that one sees in the pro ranks, and I have no prejudice in this regard, so I present them in no particular order. I do recommend you pick one that feels good and stick with it. If your toss goes awry, it is because you are not reaching true dynamic balance before the toss reaches the critical point (tossing arm straight out at the level of the shoulder). That means that either your knees are not bent, or you are refusing to play "hot-potato" with your body weight. If you need proof that imbalance is the problem with your toss ask yourself if your weight is on the balls of your feet at the critical time, the moment the ball is released. If it is not then either you picked a dance step that is not comfortable for you or your initial stance needs adjusting. For instance, if your back foot is not far enough back you may not be shifting your weight sufficiently to that foot; just "tapping up" does not transfer enough weight to create dynamic balance. Conversely, if the back foot is too far back the weight goes back and just parks there which is also no good. The key to athletic balance is the constant shifting of body weight, not where it is when. If you can get your weight moving and keep it moving it doesn't matter which foot is carrying the weight when the ball reaches the critical point of the toss. With that in mind, here are the common dance steps that pros use to get their feet (and bodyweight) moving on the serve:

    Server Shuffles of the Pros
  • "Classical Service Motion"
    • All weight on the forward foot to start...
    • ...rock back onto the back foot then forward again...
      • ...toss before weight reaches the back foot(Federer)
      • ...toss as weight reaches the back foot (Murray,Roddick)
      • ...toss after weight leaves the back foot (Stan Smith)
  • "Staggered Service Motion"
    • All weight on the back foot to start...
    • ...rock forward onto the front foot...
      • ...toss with weight on the back foot. (Sampras)
      • ...toss with weight on the front foot (Sharapova, Thiem)
      • ...toss with weight on both feet (Djokovic)
  • "Abbreviated Service Motion" or "Half Serve"
    • ...just toss the darn ball. (Gael Monfils)
    • Weight evenly distributed between the feet to start...
    • Arms never go "down" - toss begins at chest level.

The last of these, Gael Monfils, is the most interesting because he is the exception that proves the rule. Gael starts in the pinpoint stance, and since both feet start together there is no apparent weight transfer happening, so how does he get into dynamic balance? If you examine videos of his serve closely, he takes a tiny step along the baseline with his forward foot just before the toss. He is also bending his knees at this point. The problem with this is that the weight transfer, while efficient, is so subtle that I cannot see how any mere mortal could remember to do it, and if you are reading this you are very likely merely mortal.

The common thread in all of these patterns is that the ball goes up into the toss while you transfer your weight from one foot to the other. It doesn't matter from which to which or where the weight is when the ball goes up - the weight has to be moving. Other than that the knees must break before the ball reaches the critical point - if your knees are locked your toss will be bad.

That is not to say that since there are so many variations on this theme, you shouldn't pick a pattern and stick to it. The little dance you do before the ball toss is the most important piece of footwork in the game. On it depends the quality and consistency of your toss which in turn determines the quality and consistency of your serve.

Editorial Recommendation

I realize the foregoing, while upholding the Jeffersonian virtues of freedom and self determinism, might leave one with too many choices. If your inclination runs more towards the authoritarian then I recommend you just do this:

    Classic Footwork
  1. Align you feet to the flight line (yellow) as seen below.
  2. Start with your weight on your front foot.
  3. As you bring both arms down in front of you shift all of your weight onto your back foot. Your knees may still be locked.
  4. All of these happen at the same time:
    • Bend your knees and lean your body back along the baseline.
    • Shift your weight forward onto the balls of both feet.
    • Drag your back foot towards your front foot until they are side-by-side and touch one another (pinpoint stance).
    • Bring your tossing arm up.

The rest of the service footwork is simplicity itself. From the trophy position with knees bent, feet together, on your toes and leaning back you leap directly upwards spinning like a whirligig around the tilted axis of your body. The earth will accelerate away from you and rotate a bit more in the clockwise direction (looking down), and you will carry that momentum to the ball which is patiently waiting for you at exactly the right point in space for you to hit it.

Classic Serve Footwork (ala Stan Smith): Lining up with toes nearly on the flight line (yellow) it begins with weight on the front foot. One rocks onto the back foot then forward again as the knees are bent, and the weight moves from heels to toes. The rear foot follows the weight then pauses briefly next to the front foot (pinpoint stance) eventually moving forward to catch the weight.