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How to hit a Kick Serve

Toss

The mechanics of the toss are the same for any serve -- flat, slice, kick, etc. The difference is in the toss location. For the kick serve, you need to toss the ball to a spot that allows you to swing up and across the tennis ball. Your contact point is directly over your head. The image below should help clarify this point:

Figure 1: I toss the ball so that I can hit it above my head

A trick to help you toss the ball to the right place is to "aim" for your hitting arm shoulder. In other words, if you tossed the ball but didn't hit it, the ball should land on your hitting arm shoulder.

You have some flexibility in how far into the court you toss the tennis ball. This flexibility depends on how aggressive you want to be with your kick serve -- how hard you want to hit it. The further you toss the ball into the court, the harder, typically, that serve is going to be. I sometimes hit an aggressive kick serve as a first serve and, if I miss it, I hit a safer, less aggressive kick as a second serve. The key here is that you get your body under the tennis ball regardless of where you toss it. You always want to be making contact with the tennis ball when it is directly above your head. That means if you toss the ball into the court, your body needs to move into the court as well. Compare Frank's toss location, seen below, with mine. You'll see that Frank follows his toss into the court so that our body positions are the same at contact.

Figure 2: Frank tosses further into the court, but his body follows his toss

Read Kick Serve Shoulder Turn »

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