Thanks for being interested in submitting a video of your serve to us! To get your serve on video, head out to a tennis court. Don’t shadow your motion at home or in a gymnasium.

Some things about your video don’t matter. These are things like whether you’re serving on the deuce or ad courts, whether you’re on hardcourt or clay, the color of the court surface, and if there are stray tennis balls and buckets on the ground.

But some things DO matter! Take a look at these two camera shots. One of them has several problems that we’d like you to avoid as much as possible, and the other is a really great example of what we’d like to see.

NOT GOOD

• Camera Placement - The camera is placed on the ground, and is tilted upwards. It’s very difficult to see the baseline, almost impossible to see the near service line, and the net is getting “lost” in the busy lines of the building’s windows. Because the camera is not directly behind him (and because of the hoodie) we don’t know where his right shoulder is.
• Camera Framing - His tennis racket and the ball will almost certainly be out of the frame when he makes contact.
• Lighting - The sun is either setting or is behind clouds, giving us very “flat” lighting. This doesn’t provide a lot of contrast.
• Clothing - Dark gray sweatsuit. In addition to the dark-and-flat lighting, his dark-and-flat-colored outfit makes it much more difficult to determine where his joints are. The hoodie distorts the shape of his upper body.

GOOD

• Camera Placement - The camera is up off the ground, but not too high up. It’s at about hip height. We can clearly see the lines of the tennis court, and the net is not being lost in the background.
• Camera Framing - His tennis racket and the ball will almost certainly be in the frame when he makes contact.
• Lighting - The sun is out and it’s shining directly on his back.
• Clothing - Shorts and a well-fitted T-Shirt that are different colors. This allows us to see wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees. He’s not wearing a hat, which is helpful because the brim might block our view of a wrist or elbow.

Alright, now get out there and capture an amazing video of your serve!

Ready to submit your serve video to us? You can choose to submit anonymously. Or, if you wouldn’t mind us possibly using your serve video in our promotions, you can choose to include your name and email. If we end up using your video, we’ll contact you and make sure you’re still cool with us using your video before we publish anything.