The two most important shots in tennis are the serve and return, yet I would wager they are the two least practiced shots across the board; from grassroots to the pros most time on-court is spent rallying and working on the fundamentals of forehands, backhands, and volleys.
is it possible that servers like Sampras and Federer compensate for their relative lack of height (with respect to the usual servebot suspects) with greater vertical explosiveness to jump relatively higher? it seems plausible that this could even be a generalizable balancing mechanism, since we usually expect players above 198 cm to be less explosive in their lateral and forwards movement.
on a related note, do you think it's a real phenomenon that lefty servers have an inherent advantage at some level (separate from the ad-court advantage conferred by tennis's scoring system)? from what i've read, lefty servers are more commonly described as having optimal disguise (e.g. Ivanisevic, McEnroe, Arthurs). is this different from the sort of advantage that a lefty gets in that they make righties think more on court because of less familiar rally patterns and thus become more reactive than proactive?
and finally, do you know if training various sorts of jumps is done frequently in tennis-focused athletic training, compared to, e.g., balance, flexibility, and first step explosiveness drills? would that training directly help with serves, and could serving help someone passively improve their jumps?
I think vertical jump helps for sure. I think Marc Kovaks says that at 6'7'' ish you are able to technically hit 'down' on the serve which is advantageous.
Beyond the score-board advantage that lefties have, I think the main thing is just the fact that a righty has to adjust from their usual perception and timing, and the lefty doesn't. Those players you mentioned—Mac, Goran, and Arthurs—all had disguise more because of great shoulder turn (Mac) and/or a low-toss (Goran and Arthurs). Both those things make reading a serve more difficult.
Tennis players certainly practice plyometrics and jumps/explosiveness etc.
was thinking about the NextGen YEC physical tests (https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/s/Ljjj3dOUBE) along with this article about the jump as a key part of the serve (https://www.tacticaltennis.com/serving-mechanics-the-jump/).
is it possible that servers like Sampras and Federer compensate for their relative lack of height (with respect to the usual servebot suspects) with greater vertical explosiveness to jump relatively higher? it seems plausible that this could even be a generalizable balancing mechanism, since we usually expect players above 198 cm to be less explosive in their lateral and forwards movement.
on a related note, do you think it's a real phenomenon that lefty servers have an inherent advantage at some level (separate from the ad-court advantage conferred by tennis's scoring system)? from what i've read, lefty servers are more commonly described as having optimal disguise (e.g. Ivanisevic, McEnroe, Arthurs). is this different from the sort of advantage that a lefty gets in that they make righties think more on court because of less familiar rally patterns and thus become more reactive than proactive?
and finally, do you know if training various sorts of jumps is done frequently in tennis-focused athletic training, compared to, e.g., balance, flexibility, and first step explosiveness drills? would that training directly help with serves, and could serving help someone passively improve their jumps?
I think vertical jump helps for sure. I think Marc Kovaks says that at 6'7'' ish you are able to technically hit 'down' on the serve which is advantageous.
Beyond the score-board advantage that lefties have, I think the main thing is just the fact that a righty has to adjust from their usual perception and timing, and the lefty doesn't. Those players you mentioned—Mac, Goran, and Arthurs—all had disguise more because of great shoulder turn (Mac) and/or a low-toss (Goran and Arthurs). Both those things make reading a serve more difficult.
Tennis players certainly practice plyometrics and jumps/explosiveness etc.