







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