How to hit a Kick Serve

Swing Direction

A key difference between the serves is the direction you swing. When hitting a flat serve, the direction your racket is moving at contact is almost identical to the direction you'll end up hitting the ball. With a kick serve, however, the direction the racket moves is DIFFERENT from the direction the ball will go. You need to swing across the ball, as opposed to through it. You can see in the image below that the direction Frank's arm is moving is different depending on which serve he is hitting. REMEMBER! -- Frank is serving to the ad court.

Figure 1: Swing Direction -- more to the right (opposite for left handers)

Figure 2: Swing direction for a flat serve

Figure 3: Swing direction for a kick serve

Now the extra shoulder turn, which I talked about in the previous article, should make more sense. Because you are swinging your arm more to the side in a kick serve, you need to turn your shoulders a little further around. This allows your arm to move naturally.

Read Kick Serve Contact Point »

Back Kick Serve Shoulder Turn «

Look over there!

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