G’day,
Is it better to keep your foot back or bring it up in your service motion?
On the surface, both seem to work just fine. It really depends on what feels right for you and what you were taught when you were younger. It feels like players get to load more and explode upward with their legs when bringing the back foot up. Players seem to look more controlled when leaving it back, as well as looking more coordinated with their lower and upper body.
Take a look at the picture above. Both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic leave their right foot back. Both Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal bring the back foot up. If the Big Four are split 50-50, then you could imagine the rest of the men’s and women’s tours are also split roughly the same.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
I analyzed all 128 men and women at the 2024 US Open from match replays on my media terminal. I really didn’t know what to expect as a final result.
Personally, I always brought my foot up as a junior as I was serving and volleying on everything at the Albury grass courts. It felt quicker to get to the net. But I also knew I didn’t always correctly time my legs with the upper body and would occasionally get shoulder pain as a result. So I tried leaving the foot back and got mixed results. Even today, I sometimes go back and forth between the two motions and, depending on the day, will serve well (or poorly) with either.
2024 US OPEN MEN
Here’s the breakdown from the men’s draw.
2024 US Open Men’s Draw
- Foot Stays Back = 28% (36)
- Foot Comes Up = 72% (92)
- Total = 128 players
Almost three out of four (72%) male players at this year’s US Open preferred to bring their foot up in the service motion. That’s very lopsided. The men’s final featured one of each, with Jannik Sinner bringing his foot up while Taylor Fritz left it back.
So, what’s the benefit of bringing it up?
After watching all 92 players bringing their back foot up, three things stood out to me with this specific motion.
IMPROVE YOUR SERVE – HOLD MORE SERVICE GAMES
Webinar 3: Serve Strategy & Patterns
Webinar 11: Break Points & Tie-Breaks
Webinar 21: Serve & Volley / Return & Volley
Webinar 34: The 8 Serve Locations
1: Anchor
There were differences in how the back foot moved from being back to coming up. Some players picked the back foot up and moved it in the air, and then put it back down. Other players dragged it lightly against the court surface. Others really dug their back foot into the court surface, anchoring themselves to the court so they could “release” at the right time and explode up through the serve. Anchoring to the ground was a common theme.
2. Upper & Lower Body Coordination
This didn’t always go as planned. There were times when the toss was a little off, and the timing of the back foot coming up was a little off, and the upper and lower parts of the body didn’t look like they were working together. Some serves looked awkward, or had too much energy delivered for too little result.
3. Back Foot On The Ground
This varied widely. Sometimes the back foot was held back for a long time and only did a “touch and go” when it came up, spending very little time with the feet together. Other times, the back foot came up very early, and the player lost balance with two feet so close together for such a long period of time. Getting the timing right of when the back foot up (not too early / not too late) and how long to keep it on the ground slightly behind the lead foot distinguished good serves from great ones.
4: Knee Bend & Explode
Think of Ben Shelton. He loads all his energy back and then brings his back foot up right behind his front foot. He loads all his energy low with a big knee bend. He then explodes out of that position, up into the ball, and forward into the court.
Ben Shelton Service Motion
The fastest ten servers at the 2024 US Open are below. The three players in red (Dimitrov, Fritz & Tiafoe) all left their foot back on their serve. All the others brought it up.
- Ben Shelton: 143mph (230 km/h).
- Reilly Opelka: 142 mph (229 km/h).
- Jiri Lehecka: 137 mph (220 km/h).
- Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard: 137 mph (220 km/h).
- Otto Virtanen: 137 mph (220 km/h).
- Grigor Dimitrov: 137 mph (220 km/h).
- Tomas Etcheverry: 137 mph (220 km/h).
- Gabriel Diallo: 136 mph (219 km/h).
- Alexander Zverev: 135 mph (217 km/h).
- Matteo Berrettini: 135 mph (217 km/h).
- Taylor Fritz: 135 mph (217 km/h).
- Frances Tiafoe: 135 mph (217 km/h).
The fact that three of the 12 fastest servers kept their foot back instead of bringing it up proves that you can still get right around the same power doing it either way.
2024 US OPEN WOMEN
The gap between serving with the foot back or bringing it up gets even more expansive in the women’s draw.
2024 US Open Women’s Draw
- Foot Stays Back = 12 % (15)
- Foot Comes Up = 88 % (113)
- Total = 128 players
This is quite remarkable. Only 15 women out of the entire women’s draw of 128 players elected to keep their foot back when serving. Let’s see how many made it into the fastest servers.
- Coco Gauff: 125 mph (201 km/h).
- Paula Badosa: 121 mph (195 km/h)
- Jessika Ponchet: 119 mph (192 km/h)
- Naomi Osaka: 119 mph (192 km/h)
- Liudmila Samsanova: 119 mph (192 km/h)
- Aryna Sabalenka: 119 mph (192 km/h)
- Emma Navarro: 118 mph (190 km/h)
- Petra Martic: 117 mph (188 km/h)
- Taylor Townsend: 117 mph (188 km/h)
- Caroline Dolehide 117 mph (188 km/h)
- Beatriz Haddad Maia: 117 mph (188 km/h)
Only one server in the leading 11 (tied at 117 mph) kept their foot back when serving.
Coco Gauff Serving 2024 US Open
Gauff’s serve was not at its best at the US Open this year in the four matches she played.
- Aces = 15
- Double Faults = 38 (including 19 vs. Emma Navarro)
- 51% 1st Serves In
- 75% 1st Serves Won
- 46% 2nd Serves Won
- Service Games Won = 35
- Service Games Lost = 7
Gauff’s serve problems were multiple. Making contact too low was the primary issue. Not being able to control speed and spin was another. Sometimes the upper body and lower body got out of sync. This certainly looked like the case this year. Here’s Gauff’s serve data from the 2023 US Open, which she won (7 matches).
- Aces = 26
- Double Faults = 26
- 58% 1st Serves In
- 69% 1st Serves Won
- 52% 2nd Serves Won
- Service Games Won = 60
- Service Games Lost = 19
Gauff only served 26 double faults in 18 sets last year. She served 38 in 10 sets this year. There seemed to be a lack of communication with the lower and upper body.
SUMMARY
We overwhelmingly teach players to bring their back foot up on the serve to generate more help power from the lower body. That’s especially the case in the women’s draw at the US Open this year.
That does not make it right or wrong, as we saw excellent serve performances with both variations in the men’s and women’s draw. Just like the one-handed and two-handed backhands, there are pros and cons with both versions of the serve.
Data such as this is something we may have suspected with our eyes, but it’s always good to remove the guesswork. Only 28% of the men and 12% of the women leave the back foot back during the serve motion. It works just fine for Federer, Djokovic, Fritz and Tiafoe.
Coaches should expose young players to both versions to see what fits best.
Cheers,
Craig