Novak Djokovic's Perfect Ball Toss
Summary
TLDRIn this transcript, the speaker discusses the importance of the ball toss in tennis, highlighting Novak Djokovic's evolution and perfection of his serve. The conversation revolves around the intricacies of the ball toss, its impact on serving success, and the journey of Djokovic's serve from its early days to the refined technique that helped him dominate the sport. The speaker also promotes a seven-day serve challenge, encouraging viewers to improve their own serves by focusing on the fundamentals and progressions of the serve, as exemplified by Djokovic's dedication to refining his technique.
Takeaways
- 🎾 The importance of the ball toss in tennis is often overlooked by casual viewers but is crucial for players, as an incorrect toss can lead to a disastrous serve.
- 🏆 Brad Gilbert, a renowned tennis commentator, praised one player's serve as the 'perfect ball toss' on the ATP tour, sparking curiosity and discussion.
- 🤔 The player Gilbert referred to with the perfect ball toss is Novak Djokovic, whose serve has undergone significant evolution and improvement over the years.
- 📈 Djokovic's serve transformation began around 2011, which coincides with his rise to dominance in the tennis world, indicating a strong correlation between serve quality and success.
- 🎥 The video script includes an analysis of Djokovic's serve from 2005 to 2009, highlighting the flaws and changes in his technique.
- 🚀 Djokovic's dedication to improving his serve is evident through his willingness to work on fundamental drills, even in front of others and at the top of his game.
- 🌟 The 'Goldilocks' serve motion is introduced as an ideal target for tennis players, aiming for a toss that is neither too high nor too low.
- 📊 The script compares Djokovic's serve with other players like Alexander Zverev and Bernard Tomic, illustrating the impact of different ball toss styles on serve effectiveness.
- 💡 The importance of practice and progressions is emphasized, with Djokovic's serve evolution serving as an example of the results of consistent, focused training.
- 🏆 The Seven Day Serve Challenge is promoted as a resource for players looking to improve their serve, offering drills, video instruction, and the opportunity for serve analysis.
- 🔥 Novak Djokovic's serve serves as an inspiration for tennis players, showing that even the best can improve by focusing on fundamentals and practicing diligently.
Q & A
What aspect of tennis was Brad Gilbert discussing during the Australian Open?
-Brad Gilbert was discussing the importance of the ball toss in tennis serves, specifically mentioning one player's serve that had the perfect ball toss on the ATP tour.
Why is the ball toss so crucial in tennis serves?
-The ball toss is crucial because if it goes wrong, it can lead to a disaster, affecting the rest of the serve. It can cause players to miss first serves, result in double faults, and lose power and control over their serves.
Who did Brad Gilbert refer to as having the perfect ball toss on the ATP tour?
-Brad Gilbert referred to Novak Djokovic as having the perfect ball toss on the ATP tour.
How has Novak Djokovic's serve evolved over the years?
-Novak Djokovic's serve has gone through a significant evolution. It was not always perfect, and there were years where his ball toss technique was not ideal. However, he worked hard on improving it, and by 2011, he had developed a serve that was considered perfect.
What is the 'Goldilocks serve motion' and why is it important?
-The 'Goldilocks serve motion' refers to a ball toss that is neither too low nor too high. It is important because it allows the server to load up their body and explode into the serve without having to wait too long or rush the motion, resulting in better control and power.
What are some common issues with ball tosses as seen in the script?
-Common issues with ball tosses include tossing the ball too high, which can lead to double faults and deceleration in the serve, and tossing it too low, which can hinder the server's ability to load up their body and execute a powerful serve.
How did Novak Djokovic improve his serve according to the script?
-Novak Djokovic improved his serve through dedicated practice and hard work. He went through various drills and even served on his knees to refine his technique. His efforts resulted in a serve that is now considered perfect.
What is the seven-day serve challenge mentioned in the script?
-The seven-day serve challenge is a training program designed to help tennis players improve their serves. It includes various drills and progressions that break down different aspects of serving, such as the ball toss, pronation, and achieving higher serve speeds.
What kind of access does signing up for the seven-day serve challenge offer?
-Signing up for the seven-day serve challenge offers 48 hours of access to each day's content for free. After signing up, participants are also offered the opportunity to gain lifetime access to the program at a discounted price.
What is the significance of Novak Djokovic's willingness to practice basic drills?
-Novak Djokovic's willingness to practice basic drills demonstrates his dedication to improving his serve, even at the highest level of his career. It shows that even the best players engage in fundamental exercises to refine their techniques and overcome weaknesses.
What was the result of Novak Djokovic's hard work on his serve?
-As a result of his hard work, Novak Djokovic developed a serve that is now considered perfect by many, including Brad Gilbert. His serve has become a powerful and consistent weapon in his game, contributing significantly to his dominance in tennis.
Outlines
🎾 The Art of the Perfect Ball Toss
The paragraph discusses the importance of the ball toss in tennis, particularly on the ATP tour. It highlights Brad Gilbert's comment on one player's serve, which he considered to have the perfect ball toss. The speaker agrees after analyzing the slow-motion replay. The paragraph emphasizes that while viewers may not notice the ball toss, it is crucial for players, and a poor toss can lead to a disastrous serve. The speaker also mentions a seven-day serve challenge and a video on improving the ball toss.
🏆 Novak Djokovic's Evolution of Serve
This section focuses on Novak Djokovic's serve evolution from 2005 to 2019. It points out that Djokovic's serve was not always perfect and underwent significant changes over the years. The speaker notes Djokovic's rise to dominance in 2011, correlating it with his improved serve. The paragraph also compares Djokovic's serve with Alexander Zverev's, highlighting the issues caused by a too-high ball toss and advocating for a 'Goldilocks' serve motion that is neither too low nor too high.
🤸♂️ The Perfect Serve Toss Analysis
The speaker delves into what makes Djokovic's serve toss perfect, emphasizing his years of refinement and hard work. The paragraph describes Djokovic's tossing motion, his use of the off-hand, and the ideal power position he achieves. It also discusses the optimal height and timing of the ball toss, which allows Djokovic to serve efficiently and with power. The speaker admires Djokovic's willingness to work on his serve through drills and progressions, even in front of the world.
🥇 Seven-Day Serve Challenge and Progression
The final paragraph promotes the seven-day serve challenge, a program designed to improve tennis serves through a series of drills and progressions. The speaker shares Djokovic's struggle with serve drills, illustrating the value of practice and progression. The challenge includes exercises for various aspects of serving, such as toss improvement, hitting serves over 100 miles per hour, and mastering different serve types. The speaker encourages signing up for the challenge, offering lifetime access and the opportunity to have one's serve analyzed and potentially win cash prizes.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ball Toss
💡Novak Djokovic
💡Serve Technique
💡Australian Open
💡Brad Gilbert
💡Seven-Day Serve Challenge
💡Perfect Serve
💡Double Faults
💡Serve Motion
💡Tennis Evolution
Highlights
Brad Gilbert praised one player's serve as having the perfect ball toss on the ATP tour.
The importance of the ball toss in tennis is often overlooked by casual viewers but is crucial for players.
A poor ball toss can lead to a loss of power, control, and an increase in double faults.
The player with the perfect ball toss, according to Brad Gilbert, is Novak Djokovic.
Novak Djokovic's serve has gone through an evolution and was not always perfect.
Djokovic's serve in 2009 had a low and droopy elbow, which was not ideal.
The transformation of Djokovic's serve began around 2011, which coincides with his rise to dominance in the sport.
Novak Djokovic's ball toss is considered perfect because it reaches its peak at the right moment, allowing for efficient serving.
Djokovic's toss is not too high or too low, but just right for his serving mechanics.
The ball toss should not be too high, as seen with Alexander Zverev's, which can lead to double faults.
Novak Djokovic's serve motion and ball toss are the result of hard work and dedication to improving his craft.
Djokovic has practiced serving on his knees and other drills to refine his technique.
The seven-day serve challenge is designed to help players improve their serve through a series of drills and progressions.
Novak Djokovic's serve evolution serves as an example that even the best players must work on their technique to achieve perfection.
The video includes a preview of the seven-day serve challenge and encourages viewers to sign up for the upcoming session.
The seven-day serve challenge offers video instruction, analysis of serves, and opportunities to win cash prizes.
The importance of the ball toss is emphasized, and the video provides analysis on how to improve it through specific drills.
The video concludes with a tease for an upcoming analysis preview and prediction of an Australian Open match between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev.
Transcripts
hey so uh i was watching the australian
open the other day
and brad gilbert was remarking on this
one player serve saying that it was the
perfect ball toss on the atp
tour and i was looking at the toss they
showed it in slow motion
back and forth and i looked at i thought
you know what i gotta agree that is
absolutely the perfect ball toss
and not a lot of people when you're
watching
the sport of tennis on tv really remark
about the ball toss
and how important it is but everybody
that plays
tennis knows how important the ball toss
is that
you know that ball toss does not go
right
it turns into a disaster right
everything else falls apart
this one you can miss so many first and
unfortunately second service throw in a
lot of double faults
you lose power of the toss it's not
there you lose control
all kinds of things go wrong you know so
much of the serve
is set up by the ball toss and also if
you're not
watching uh tennis or playing tennis
that much and you just hear about a ball
toss you you would think
well that's easy you just throw the ball
up and hit it like how hard can it be
but when you play tennis and especially
when you put nerves in there and if you
have some things that are not
technically perfect
about your serve the ball toss can
again be very difficult to execute i'm
getting ready to do right here i'm going
to put this up here actually
we're getting ready to do a seven day
serve challenge
and so if you haven't signed up yet if
you're watching this video you haven't
signed up yet definitely go sign up
because we're starting
on um monday and on tuesday
we're actually gonna have a a uh video
on the 10 minute fix for the ball toss
so you want to make sure that you go
through that
all those exercises but anyway i wanted
to come on
if you if you can guess who do you think
it is who do you think
brad gilbert was talking about when he
said that this player had the perfect
ball toss any guesses out there before i
reveal it
uh and let's get right into it i don't
wanna i don't wanna waste i don't wanna
waste any time because i wanna actually
do a lot of
analysis and share my screen so brad
gilbert said
the player with the perfect ball toss
was
novak djokovic so we're gonna share the
screen
right now and get into this lesson for
you
and the thing that really excited me
about this
for uh people who play tennis
was that novak serve has gone through
quite an evolution
and was not always perfect and in fact
what we're going to do
is we're just going to start them out
from i think this starts out let's see
what year it starts out at
so this is the evolution of novak's
ball toss let's just take a look at it
hopefully it's playing
well for you guys long introduction here
all right novak djokovic 2005-2019 we're
probably not going to go all the way to
2019
we'll go as long as we're learning
something so here he is 2005.
not a bad serve kind of flowing there
okay
then 2006
2007. one thing i want you to notice
this is 2007 was the first year i'm
going that doesn't look great
2008 something's going on
watch 2009 okay 2009
i'm starting to think it's not like he
had a bad ball toss in 2009 but
for you as a recreational player
what i want you to know is that you know
tennis is a journey and novak now i
i think he's got the the perfect serve
technique just not the perfect ball toss
technique
and this is a player on the professional
tour
i think at the time he was number three
in the world who clearly
look at look at how his elbow is so low
and droopy here
and he almost serves it in look at that
he almost serves it in like he's hitting
a hook shot
in basketball or something so
his serve for a while went through some
different transformations and
some were better than others and and
like i would say that one was just bad
let's let's see if it's the same thing
in 2010 this is a year later
let's see if he's changed yet or if it's
still the same yeah
again it's getting almost more
pronounced
and worse really really weird to see
novak
uh was such an unorthodox serve
on the professional tour let's see what
year this is kind of
um peaking my curiosity now to see how
many years he had this really really
awkward looking serve and what year he
started to change it
so here he is and now all of a sudden
look at that
and this is what an interesting thing
guys
and i swear i did not plan this watch
this
what a big deal to serve is do you guys
remember
when did novak really start to dominate
i would say it was a brown that 2011 and
on year novak started to dominate
roger and uh nadal and became number one
in the world
and look how much he went to work on his
serve
look at that that's completely different
do you guys see what i'm talking about
that's completely different than it was
in the year before and the year before
that so he really cleaned up his serve
he really went to work that took a lot
of work
no one could just tell him to look like
that he knows what a good serve looks
like and what he doesn't
he somehow i don't know how the coaches
let it happen especially when he didn't
start off with this
but somehow somebody let it happen to
where he developed this
weird weird serve motion
and i don't know who it was i would love
to know
who should get the credit for this but
at some point
they must have had a long talk him and
him and his coach or maybe novak just
came to his coach and said you know what
my serve i'm watching all the pros on
the tour
my serve's got problems and he went to
work
and uh now we know he has the perfect
uh serve motion besides is the perfect
toss and his service really really
improved in fact
you see how i got the australian open
hat
i was there on rod laver arena last year
fourth row watch them play ronich and i
was thinking man this guy's serve is
awesome like it's he's just not thrown
in there it's a perfect serve
so let's take a look at what the perfect
serve toss
is not here we have somebody alexander
zarev
who has a decent serve motion
but i would say his serve toss is the
reason
why one of the biggest reasons
why he throws in so many double faults
and probably why he decelerates on a
serve so
you want to develop something i call the
goldilocks serve motion
and uh it's a toss it's not too low and
it's not too high alexander rev's toss
is too high watch how high that thing
goes
right there look how much higher that is
than he is look out
he's a big dude look how tall that thing
is
it looks like it could be you know one
almost two alexander's or revs above his
head and alexandre revis
uh i think he's six foot six or
something like that or maybe even taller
i don't know but look
and and so now see how far that had to
drop
and then that went long okay let's turn
down the volume
what's let's oh that was his double
fault see that would end up being a
double fault
okay so that that toss right there
going up so high and having to wait
so long is causing a double
fault just like we talked about that
toss if it's off
especially when you're nervous can make
you hit double fault so that's a
that's a toss that's too high
so you're throwing it up there too high
you're doing that now
i think you can also toss the ball too
low
i and you might be thinking well pete
what would you rather have a toss it's
too high or too low i guess i'd rather
have it too low
and that lesson can go wrong but then it
forces you to maybe
speed up at such an uncomfortable rate
and plus you can't
load your body up as much to really get
all the juices the
perfect kinetic chain out of your serve
so this is bernard atomic and i think
he's got the opposite problem he throws
it up there it's pretty efficient
you know but the ball doesn't really
drop and then he's hitting it so he hits
it
almost on the way up what i love about
novak's toss let's get into
novak's toss let's really take a look at
that
i think we might have lost his screen
please don't tell me we lost the screen
okay good
please play for us sometimes when i go
live the videos start to not especially
the more videos i
play doesn't play well so i knew i was
taking a little bit of a risk here
and it's coming to bite me hopefully
hopefully the video will play here in a
second
okay cool here we go
so novak's toss you can't see it right
there but it's basically reaches
its peak and then he's ready to hit it
so i know
let's let me find the per oh this one
this is a good one
okay so we're going to blow this up
and take a look at the serve toss we're
going to slow it down
why why did brad gilbert say that
novak's got the perfect
serve toss let's take a look at it
so he's playing grigor dimitrov looks
like they're on the other side
and this is novak years and years of
working on his craft
he's got a flow toss what i would say
too like his arm flows up there
look besides the ball besides watching
the ball
look at how much he uses that off hand
he gets himself in what i like to call
a deep tilt see his shoulders are in
alignment but his
his his elbow almost appears to be
drooping down but it's
not that's because he's got himself in a
deep tilt and he's got himself in this
perfect
l power position before he goes into
something i call the secret power source
but it's all being set up by this
beautiful tossing motion with his arm
the toss goes up now it reaches its peak
and no back jumping it's probably
you know just maybe a racket length
above where he's going to hit it so it's
not going to drop that much so
it's high enough to where he can really
load up his body and explode into the
serve
but it's low enough to where he doesn't
have to wait forever and a day to where
he all of a sudden starts thinking about
it
and if the wind's there the wind can
blow it around
it's in the perfect spot it's also
in the perfect window of opportunity to
where his throwing motion
can really be used here so you can see
it's not right over his head like a lot
of people think it is
it's a little bit off to the side so he
can basically
use his throwing motion right through
the hitting window
and then go up and the ball
drops a bit and now he's hitting at the
apex and uh he's bringing in
the slice serve here he's slicing this
one out wide let's see if it
let's see if it fooled anything let's
see if it got griegor if grigor was on
this one
yeah so he's stretching so so novak oh
he's gonna put it back and play pretty
deep but novak got a pretty good look
at the first ball to go the open court
and a nice little one-two punch so he
should be controlling the point from
here on out
so that's what i love about novak
ball toss is not only is a perfect
and we're going to stop sharing the
screen here
but he earned it that's what i love
about it he earned
his ball toss he worked hard on it it
didn't come
easy it didn't come natural uh there's
there's videos of novak
you know going through all kinds of
drills where you see him sometimes
serving on his knee and he was having a
lot of trouble doing that
like um you know let me see as i'm even
talking to you guys if i can find that
and i'll share that
but the guy has worked really really
hard on his serve
and he didn't always have a perfect
serve so that's the whole idea
why i'm doing the uh seven day serve
obsession challenge so we get obsessed
about our serve
and and we can get better
uh and novak's a great example because
he didn't always have the perfect serve
he had to work on it and now
it's absolute perfections novak serving
on
his knees let me see if i can
find this video that would be great
oh yeah cool i found it guys watch this
uh i'm gonna blow this gonna bring this
up he's with todd martin
2010 maybe maybe todd martin i'll share
the screen here in a second the video's
not plain yet i don't want i don't want
you to waste any of your time
but uh one thing that's kind of cool
remember i said 2011
he had the perfect serve and this is
when he started to dominate
on the tour and so this started to
happen in 2011
and you know that he just didn't get
that
in one outing right he had to work on it
he had to really go to work on a serve
so maybe
todd martin had an amazing serve by the
way maybe todd martin
should get a lot of credit for novak uh
improving his serve and getting rid of a
lot of the crazy
junk that he had so i'm just gonna come
here
and share the screen again just so you
guys can see
and and that's another thing i love
about this
is that in my uh seven day serve
challenge is i have a lot of
progressions you know a lot of simple
progressions that you're thinking
well i'm not a baby anymore you know why
are you having me do this or having me
do that
look this is a professional look at look
at
todd martin here by the way he just
makes that look easy
and and you're watching novak's gonna
try it you're gonna see him struggle
um but that's what pros are willing to
do who want to get good they're willing
to do
the simple things they're willing to do
progressions they're willing to break
down their serve that's how you get a
really good serve
you don't get a really good serve by
going out there and practicing just
bucket after bucket of serves
that's a good thing to do but if you're
serving the wrong way it just reinforces
bad habits
and you can see here that novak is
struggling
you can see look he loses his balance he
barely he barely can do it
uh there's another one where he where
he's falling over but they're just going
to work
he's got a this is this could be
embarrassing too so
well think about this look how many
people are watching novak right now
working on a serve and he's willing to
go out in front
of the world one of the best players
in the history of tennis he's willing to
go out in front of everybody get on his
hands and knees
and do an elementary serve drill and you
know what
look at that that ball clearly didn't
even make it to the net he's struggling
to do it
he's looking bad i know at one point i
don't know if we're gonna see it but i
know at one point
he actually falls over and and basically
has to catch himself with his arms
because he he had a tough time doing
this drill
so that goes to show
that you know novak can break down a
servant and do the simple things and
really go to work on a serve
you can too that's why i made the seven
day serve challenge because we do
a bunch of drills where we break
everything down like i said on tuesday
we're talking about the toss in this
drill
on tuesday we go through a 10 minute
toss fix
so we're working on fixing our toss
we work on pronation another day we work
on
uh learning how to hit a serve over 100
miles an hour or
you know yeah i mean if you have a
server that's like 85 90 miles an hour
and you can't break 100 i think you
could break 100 after you go through the
seven day serve challenge
if you are in the 50s or 60s well you
could probably learn how to add 10 or 15
miles an hour to your serve
we go through powerhouse serving we go
through the how to hit a better slicer
how to hit a better kick serve
and we break the serve down into
progressions like this
so if that sounds good to you make sure
you go to we'll watch this last serve
from novak
make sure you go to
sevendayservchallenge.com before
monday i'm talking about this on
saturday
so make sure you go there before monday
and you
you sign yourself up because you're
gonna love it
you can send me videos of your serve and
i can analyze it
um we do a whole bunch of cool things
you can win
cash prizes it's it's really great so
you get your video instruction
you can also pick up you get you can do
it for free you sign up for free
but if you decide that you want um
longer access
when you sign up for free you get 48
hours access to each day you decide you
want to own it for life
you basically on the page after you sign
up will offer you
lifetime action lifetime access
for the lowest possible price so pay
attention to the next page when you sign
up because i give you the lowest offer
that you're going to get
and that's it and i can't wait to see
you and hopefully you'll do it because i
i think it's going to be a lot of fun
and uh i hope you enjoyed this serve
analysis video
and good luck watching well good luck
with the seven-day serve challenge but
have fun i meant to say
watching the finals of the australian
open novak djokovic
and daniel mevadev i'll be back later
today with my
uh analysis preview slash prediction of
that match i think it's going to be
awesome
you guys take care
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