Marat Safin. Lobbing Left Handed: A Rear View

This is a rear view of the ball toss on the serve and it goes some way towards confirming that the ball toss has evolved into something like a left handed lob.
In 1 Marat starts with his hands out in front of his body and in 2 the hands split and go about their separate tasks.

If the photos have loaded, run buttons 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and concentrate on Marat's left hand. See how he brings his hand over to the side of the body before he raises both hand and ball?
We have touched upon this before.
'I know. But don't you reckon it would be simpler to start beneath where he wants the ball to be (as in photo 1), and just reach straight up in a line, towards the contact zone?'
Yep. Much simpler.
'Then why doesn't he do it?'
Because he's awkward....
'Is he?'
I'm joking, dummy. He does so because he's a topflight professional and he wants to draw on every available ounce of power (or, more precisely, racket head speed).
The straight up placement you suggested might be fine for beginners and even good standard county players. But the pros want something extra.
'So how does he get more out of this ...this left hand lob?'
For now, think of the racket head as a trigger. In fact, for the duration of this article you can think of the whole hitting arm and racket head as the bigger trigger (I'll clarify this later).
Now flip to button 6.
'What am I looking for?'
You're looking for that something extra. Marat's elbow is your clue.
'I think I'm with ya. The extra turn of the shoulders puts more distance...between the trigger and the ball, right?'
Yes. That's very good. Do you understand how Marat's starting stance helps him achieve this extra turn?
'Yep. I see how the turned stance sort of takes his hand naturally over to the side. And I do believe I see a footline...and a shoulder line.
That's very observant...and both are relevant, but not in quite the same way as they are for a backhand. So, we'll leave them until a later date. Now let's run through the whole thing and concentrate only on the left hand.
In photos:
2: the palm is up and facing the sky and the ball rests gently on the fingers.
3: Marat reaches out and up with the fingers and ball
4: By continuing to rise in the ball's slipstream, Marat's palm and fingers have given guidance.
5: We can see the gentle arc of the ball as it starts to come back towards the hitting zone...
6: On it rises... and arcs
7 and 8: the ball rises beyond the hitting zone (in height)..
9...and as the ball falls back into the zone, Marat has had time to complete the lion's share of task 2 (see Kafelnikov).

Finally, I want you to run your mouse over 2 and 3 as fast as you can. Go on, do it faster still.
'And what are we looking at?'
Nothing really. It's just that Marat looks like he's doing some silly, foot-tapping Russian folk dance.
'Er...the samovar strut?'
Oh, do shut up...and put the kettle on.

map 2

images by evvy