Michelle Sie scheduled a lesson in 1988 and said that her second serve was nowhere to be found.
As she began hitting a few, it was obvious what the primary cause was.
Michelle had an aggressive forehand using a semi western grip and just carried that grip to her serve.
It produced a screwball (baseball term) with an axis of rotation of 4 o’clock to 10 o’clock and far too many netted serves.
I decided to try what might described as a kinesthetic trick with her routine to see if progress could be found without a total overhaul of her motion. It looked as if a good motion was hiding somewhere inside.
Here’s the kinesthetic trick.
Her new routine as she bounced the ball with her racquet dangling behind her was to choke up on the racquet while using an eastern backhand grip. Yes, it felt wonky and she initially questioned my sanity.
After a couple of bounces, I had her slide her hand to a full length grip while keeping an eastern backhand.
When she assumed the ready position with the racquet on edge and pointing to the center of the deuce court, I encouraged her to nudge her grip a bit. I said ‘you’re the judge on how far you nudge.’
The first serve Michelle hit had an immediate switch in rotation as the ball had a slider rotation and greater clearance over the net.
Each ball thereafter had the same rotation and here’s where the trick came from.
When she nudged the grip, she returned to a Federer like semi western which was a bit less than her normal forehand grip.
Pretty neat that without any mention of a swing change, the routine completely changed the character of her serve.
Here’s hoping she eventually nudged to eastern forehand after a few weeks and later to composite or continental.
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