Important Roles of Non-Dominant Hand in Serve

Always use your Non-Dominant hand to track the ball

                 Roger Federer Serve

                Andy Roddick Serve

Common similarities in World Class Serve

 

These Players have Common similarities in World Class Serve.

1) Knees are Bend

2) Left hand is tracking the ball

3) Head is looking up

4) Right Shoulder is lower than than the upper shoulder ( commonly we call it a L-Shaped)

5) Finally, they are going to EXPLODE to hit the ball

 

Three Styles of Tennis Service Rhythms

 

Kick Serve Video

 



Learn Kick Serve

The ball toss for a topspin/kick serve should not be into the court as for a flat, hard first serve

Work on getting the spin.

Samantha Stosur’s Second Serve

The powerful Aussie’s kicker is one of the strongest in the game





1. When trying to hit a kick second serve, many players blow it before they even swing the racquet. Why? Because they toss the ball from the palm of their hand and release it too early. Stosur holds the ball with her fingertips and doesn’t let it go until her hand is above her shoulder. This gives her control. If you can’t consistently place your toss behind your head, you won’t master the kick serve. Stosur uses an Eastern backhand grip, which helps her brush up on the back of the ball.

2. You won’t find a better model for kick serve preparation than Stosur in this photo. Her balance is perfect. Her feet are close together, her knees are bent, and her back is straight. Her tossing arm is fully extended and the racquet is in the trophy position, with her hitting elbow behind her at about shoulder height. From this position she can explode up into the ball and hit it with both spin and power.

3. Stosur extends her legs up, but also into the court (notice the angle her front foot makes with the ground). As she drops her racquet down, she arches her back slightly so she can get under the ball. Stosur’s arm has tremendous snap; you can see how flexible and strong she is just by looking at the rotation of her hitting elbow.

4. Stosur makes contact near the tip of her racquet and grazes the ball with the strings so she can brush upon the ball. Contact at the center of the strings won’t create any spin. Stosur’s legs have pushed her off the ground and into the court. She keeps her tossing arm tight to her body, which ensures that she won’t open her shoulders too soon. Look at the muscles in her hitting shoulder and arm: They’re all flexed and working together. Stosur is being aggressive, which is essential for a great second serve.

5. Stosur’s hips rotate toward the court from her sideways starting position. Her right leg kicks backward and her weight heads toward her target, the ad court. Stosur is one of the few women on tour who do this every time they serve. Many of the other players, even a few of the top ones, fall backward or to the side on kick serves. If you do that, you’ll rob your serve of power and spin.

6. Stosur watches the ball all the way over the net, and she’s in good position to prepare for the next shot. Her racquet finishes to her right rather than across her body, which is unorthodox and not something I would recommend for a club player. However, it has worked for other pros as well, such as Boris Becker. Stosur has total control of her body from start to finish, which is the only way to hit a kick serve this good.

Article by Former No. 1 Lindsay Davenport won three Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal. She is an analyst for Tennis Channel.

             Samantha Stosur’s Kick Serve

         Roger Federer Monster Kick Serve

Kick Serve Demostration

Correct Toss For Kick Or Topspin Serves

Master The Topspin (Kick) Serve | Tom Avery Tennis

Practicing a topspin Serve | BRENT ABEL

The SPIN Doctor 

How to master your kick serve

 

Tennis Kick Serve Instruction

Type of Serve - Flat, Slice, Kick

In the game of tennis, there are four commonly used serves: the "flat serve", the "slice serve", the "kick serve", and the "underhand serve". Slice serves can be hit with spin to either the left or the right, and this distinction is often utilised to make the serve unpredictable and throw the opponent off balance. All of these serves are legal in professional and amateur play. The term kick serve is ambiguous. It may be used as a synonym for the twist serve or the American twist. However, kick serve is commonly used to refer to any serve with heavy topspin or kick on it.

Servers can gain a tactical advantage by varying the type of serve and the ball's placement. The flat serve and slice serve are used primarily as first serves because they are more likely to yield an ace or force an error, although they require high accuracy. Second serves usually have topspin or kick on them, which makes them less likely to land in the net or out of bounds. Kick serves also make a good change-up as a first serve.

1. Flat Serve

Advantages of the flat serve:
1. Speed of the serve gives your opponent less time to react and prepare for the return.
2. Helps to win easy points which in turn can also help you conserve energy.
3. Easy to learn

Disadvanatges of the flat serve:
1. Gives serve and volley players less time to get to the net.
2. Percentage of serves that go in can be very low.
3. Harder for shorter people to get the clearance over the net with out some spin.
4. When returnee gets their racquet on the ball the return can come back very fast because they are using the power you generated

2. Slice Serve

 

Advantages of the slice serve:
1. Ball bounces low, away from or into opponent's body.
2. You can use the spin to jam your opponent or pull them off of the court.
3. Percentage of serves in is high.
4. Easy to learn.

Disadvanatges of the slice serve:
1. It's a basic serve, people are used to hitting back slice serves

 



3. Kick Serve

 

Advantages of the kick serve:
1. Ball bounces high, away from or into opponent's body.
2. Ball bounces opposite direction of which it hits the ground.
3. Gives serve-and-volley players time to get to the net.
4. Hard to attack
5. Less experienced people have not played much against a kick serve and it may really throw them off.
Disadvanatges of the kick serve:
1. If your opponent hit's the ball off the rise it takes away the effectiveness of the serve, not allowing the ball to go far in any direction.
2. Hard to learn


Brush the ball from low to high, from 8 to 1 or 2 o'clock. Here is a great example of a kick serve illustrated by Patrick Rafter.


Partick Rafter - The SPIN Doctor

Roger Federer Monster Kick Serve

 

 



Serve terminology

Pete Sampras Serve

1. Ace – a serve that lands in the service box and is then untouched by the opponent.
2. Break – server losing his or her game.
3. Break point – one point away from a break.
4. Challenge – when either player disputes whether the ball landed in or out.
5. Double fault – hitting a fault on the second service. The server loses the point.
6. Fault – an unsuccessful serve that does not start the point because the ball does not land in the opponent's designated service box.
7. Foot fault – a fault caused by the server stepping across his base line or the center line before striking the ball with his racquet.
8. Hold – Server winning the game.
9. Let – a serve is called a let when the ball hits the net cord but still lands in the service court. Such a serve is not considered a fault and the server may repeat the service attempt. A ball that hits the net cord but lands outside the service box is still a fault.
10. On serve – both players have held each of their service games in the set or had an equal number of service breaks in the set, putting them "back on serve".
11. Service winner – a serve that is touched by the opponent, but not returned

Roger Feder Kick Serve