How to Improve Your Kick Serve

The kick serve, one of the most difficult shots to master in tennis. While it is difficult, there are common myths about the kick serve that are actually resulting in less "kick," not more.

Let's start by quickly defining what a kick serve is. "Kick" refers to the type of spin that the ball has and the outcome of that spin when it lands in the service box. A kick serve has a combination of topspin and slice (side spin) which make it hit the court and jump up and out the opposite direction. When looking at the trajectory of a kick serve, the ball will typically travel high over the net and rush down into the court due to the topspin. An effective kick serve has a combines pace with spin. Unfortunately, there are a few things that are often incorrect when learning to hit an effective kick serve...

Myth 1: Toss the ball behind your head. Tossing the ball behind your head does not create kick. It just makes you off balance. Instead of tossing behind your head, the toss on a kick serve needs to be closer to 12 o'clock. If the toss is behind you at 11 or 10 o'clock, it will be very difficult to get the combination of pace and spin needed to make the ball jump.

Myth 2: Swing slower to make sure the kick serve goes in. This one relates more to thinking of a kick as a second-serve. Swinging slowly, even with solid technique, results in less power and less spin. In short, the ball won't jump the way you want to. Instead, an effective kick serve requires more racket-head speed through the point of contact. The racket cannot hit through the ball to compress it like a flat or slice serve, but rather think about hitting just the felt of the ball to generate a combination of topspin and slice.

Myth 3: Arching your back creates kick. Arching your back when loading into the kick serve can help create a more exaggerated snap into contact, but it is not necessary for an effective kick. Your body-weight on a kick serve needs to move slightly forward, and mostly to your dominant side (to the right for right-handers). When the toss is behind our head, it is very difficult to snap our upper body back in this direction, so we end up falling toward our non-dominant side. This results in topspin but no kick or jump when the ball lands. Getting the toss in the right spot allows your body to effectively move to the dominant side, ALMOST parallel to the baseline, and as a result, your serve will jump off the court. 

Break these myths on your kick serve to boost your game!