SAVING ANA IVANOVIC: CURING THE WAYWARD TOSS






ANA IVANOVIC HAS SUFFERED WITH CRONIC TOSS
PROBLEMS THROUGHOUT HER CAREER


DESCRIPTION
The ball toss is one of the most common ailments with many players when serving.  Ana Ivanovic is a player who struggles with her ball toss constantly. 

For many years I have taught the importance of using an intelligent wrist instead of focusing on the ball toss. However the toss is important because the wrist can only operate effectively if the ball is within a reasonable range.  If you have to reach or in some cases step to reach the ball, as Ivanovic does often, your serve will suffer with inconsistency.

The usual cure for a wayward toss is to work on the toss arm so that the ball can be placed in the perfect position for the ball strike.  Ana Ivanovic told me that coaches have been trying to work on her left arm toss for years.  They had tried a variety of drills and gimmicks but the problem still persisted. It was after hearing this that I started looking for an alternative method of creating a more accurate toss.

THE DRILL
The problem with players who have erratic ball tosses like Ivanovic is sometimes not a question of training the toss arm; with Ana it’s actually a coordination issue involving both arms. 

A simple drill I like to use to create coordination between the left and right arms is to have the player close their eyes and serve without the advantage of sight.  Think about what happens without sight.  If you can’t see the ball you are forced to resort to feel and timing to hit the ball.

What begins to happen without the advantage of sight is that the toss arm is forced to "find" the racquet arm.  For a few minutes the player will miss the ball completely.  Initially you will swing too soon or too late. You may also swing either too far to the right or too far to the left. With some feed-back from a coach or a friend standing beside you as to where the mistakes are occurring, you begin to calibrate your toss and your swing. Slowly you begin to make some contact, usually “framing” the ball, but soon you are coordinating the rhythm and placement of the ball instinctively.


Once you can consistently contact the ball with your eyes closed you have created true coordination on your serve. You will soon be hitting most of the unsighted serves into the service-box. 

 Stop focusing your efforts on your toss arm and start spending time working on the coordination of both arms.  

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