In this blog I'm gonna explain the platform and pinpoint stance.
What do these stances mean?
What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages?
I've compared the serve stances of the ATP top 10 and WTA top 10.
Also, the serve stances of the next generation and the serve stances of the fastest servers, I'm gonna show you.
Platform serve stance means that during the serve, your feet are not moving and are approximately a shoulder's width apart.
The feet are only moving when you jump up off the ground.
Advantages platform serve stance:
Better balance because of reduced movement.
Disadvantages platform serve stance:
Less power in the serve.
Many players who use this serve stance don't use their legs enough in order to jump to the ball.
Pinpoint serve stance means that during the serve, your back foot is moving forward towards your front foot. Most players are touching their front foot with their back foot.
Advantages pinpoint serve stance:
More power and more explosive because you can push off the ground better with two feet close to each
other. Also easier for the loading of your body.
Disadvantages pinpoint serve stance:
Keeping your balance is more difficult, because you are moving your back foot forward.
Also, it's more difficult controlling the toss.
TOP 10 ATP / WTA
In the ATP top 10 the players use both serve stances.
Platform stances with 50% of the players, and pinpoint stances with 50% of the players.
In the WTA top 10 it's completely different.
All players use the pinpoint serve stance.
NEXT GENERATION
When you look at the next generation of male players, you see that most of these players are using a pinpoint stance.
When you look at the next gen of the female players, you see that all these players are using a pinpoint stance.
FASTEST SERVES MEN / WOMEN
Most of the male players are using the pinpoint stance.
All the female players are using the pinpoint stance.
Now is the question: what stance is better?
I think both stances are good, with their own advantages and disadvantages.
It's not true that the fastest serves are the best serves.
When you look at the serve of Federer in the past, it was not the fasted serve in the ATP circuit, but he hit many aces because of his excellent precision and rotation.
Also his shot direction was fabulous, most of his aces went to the T.
The distance to the T is shorter than the distance of a wide serve, so the opponent has less time for his return.
It's also not true that the fastest servers are the highest ranked players.
When your serve is good enough, but your return is exceptionally good, you can be high in the ranking. For example, Novak Djokovic, ATP no.1, who has the best return in the ATP circuit.
But developing a fast serve is important to take away the time of your opponent.
No need to hit an ace every time, but with a fast serve you force your opponent to hit a weaker return and you can hit a winner with your second shot.
For the development of young players, it's important to practice both stances.
During the warm up of the serve in the practice, I let my players always start serving with platform stance, without jumping. This for practicing a good balance and a good toss.
Afterwards, everyone may jump and use their own serve stance.
Remarkable is that all women (top 10/next gen/fastest serves) use the pinpoint serve stance.
The reason probably is to gain more speed.
Most of the next generation male players are also using the pinpoint serve stance.
Maybe that's a sign for the future top 10 players?
Good luck with practicing your serve stance!