Hi John, I am not sure that these clips tell the entire story of what can be learned from the Alcaraz. The things that will help most club players are #1 he keeps his head up until after contact without looking to see where the ball lands allowing him to throw the racket upward on contact. # 2 The tossing arm stays up until contact allowing Carlos to have a consistent ball toss and to get full extension at contact.. #3 Carlos has great balance on his serve with a good knee bent exploding upward where he lands forward inside the baseline on his front foot. The things that club players should probably not copy is the stiff abbreviated backswing where the doesn't drop down by past his back foot. Most club players would benefit from the racket being more relaxed and dropping down toward the ground while the tossing arm goes up. This provides a longer lever for more easy power making it easier to create more racket speed by starting slow and gradually gaining uncontrolled momentum. It seems that Carlos has a slight hitch slowing down the racket after he starts and then regains speed for an effective deliver causing his racket drop to be a bit late.. In general, Alcaraz has too tight of a grip and too much tension in his arm at the beginning of the serve which is problematic for club players attempting to develop a smooth relaxed motion. He could probably keep his tossing arm tucked little longer delaying the backward arm thrust. Alcaraz is a terrific talent and his serve is solid, but certainly not the strength of his game compared to his movement, touch ground strokes. and even his volley. I prefer the serves of Sampras, Federer, and Ellsworth Vines as models for my students. There are too many things in the Alcaraz serve that club players should not copy.

great video, and analysis Thank you !!

Excellent analysis, John. I knew that Alcaraz had tweaked his serve, but I couldn't tell what was different.

You should always include an actual continuous video in a serve analysis. Alcaraz has a hitchy motion which is suboptimal and can not be seen in this post. Further, I think he falls off to the left too much which straightens out his slice serve (especially on the Ad side) making it less effective. And as far him kicking in first serves to the Ad side, have you ever seen Federer do this. No. Half the time he puts it in the net and the other half he is roughly neutral after the return. First serves are for winners at his level. I am surprised that with his talent and six coaches that these flaws haven't been worked out. Especially because his second serve is very solid which should allow for more aggressive placement on first serves.

One thing is very evident ..his elbow is significantly lower with the side lag motion

John thanks for the video. What do you think Carlos needs to do to improve his serve mechanically?

Do you think Roddick's recent criticisms of Alcaraz's serve are accurate? He said he thinks it's gotten worse - a few mph slower over the past two years and also that the slice doesn't tail away as much as it should

What do you consider to be the pros and cons of a pinpoint stance (Alcaraz) vs a platform stance (Rune) prior to unleashing the coil?

It's very difficult to have your head level when your shoulders are asymmetric. The more abridged takeback accounts for most of the change

Should have posted serving to both sides, even and add, that makes an important difference in my humble opinion. Orlando, USA, March/2024.

I noticed a definite pause in Carlos' motion in his match with Sinner. Isn't that a big No-No?

Oddly enough, Alcaraz's service preparation resembles that of Pat Rafter.

In your interview with Gavin MacMillan, he says, "Alcaraz goes away and in, so he loses the stretch reflex but he's strong enough that he muscles it." Do you see this as a problem with Alcaraz' serve? If so, what is the fix? (This other coach suggests Alcaraz is actually engaging the stretch-reflex: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d9GGpcaCxMrNf30.html. I see his point and am not sure what MacMillan is referring to.)

“His legs drive upward” - yes they do but his torso drives upwards too. In fact, the whole body drives upward, surely? Just pinpointing the legs as the upward driving force is misleading, imo. I coach here in the Far East (way-past Montauk!) and use judo as an example: when you do a shoulder throw in judo you certainly aren’t using just the legs; the muscles around the stomach area and the back play a huge part too.

Why is the volume on your channel always so low?