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How to hit a Kick Serve

Shoulder Turn

Another difference between the flat and kick serves is the amount of shoulder turn during the preparation and racket drop. Typically, you get more shoulder turn -- you turn further around -- when hitting a kick serve. The reason (which we will go into detail about in the next article) is that you need to put your body in position to allow your arm to move correctly when you swing later in the serve. If you take a look at the image below, I am pretending to throw a tennis ball in two directions. First, straight at the camera and, second, to the side. The amount of shoulder turn I get changes depending on where I am pretending to throw. I get more shoulder turn relative to the camera when I pretend to throw the ball to the side. This same concept applies to the flat and kick serves.

Figure 1: My shoulders are more sideways when I throw to my left

Now lets take a look at Frank's flat and kick serve side by side. Frank's flat serve is on the right and his kick serve is on the left. We've draw line through his shoulders at the various stages in his preparation to show how he gets a little bit more shoulder turn when he gets ready to hit a kick serve.

Figure 2: More turn on the kick serve

Read Kick Serve Swing Direction »

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