Tennis Kick Serve

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How to hit a Tennis Kick Serve

The kick serve is a weapon that every good player has in his or her arsenal. Unlike a flat serve, which travels in basically a straight line and has little or no spin on it (thus, it is called "flat"), the kick serve curves in mid air and then bounces in the opposite direction. This makes a kick serve very difficult for the returner to judge properly. Because the kick serve also has a large amount of spin that pulls it down into the court and makes it more controllable, this makes it a popular choice for a second serve. It is worth noting that at all levels of the game some players prefer to hit kick serves on both first and second serves. Rafael Nadal is a perfect example of this preference.

Before we get into the mechanics of hitting a kick serve, let's start with a discussion of how spin affects the tennis ball as it travels through the air and bounces. A discussion of spin is critical to understanding the kick serve, because a kick has both topspin and sidespin.

Tennis Kick Serve: Spin and Bounce are the Keys to the Kick

When the tennis ball spins from top to bottom in the same direction it is traveling, it has topspin on it. Another way to think about it is to roll a ball across the floor, which will cause the ball to have topspin. Topspin does two things to the tennis ball. First, it causes the ball to dive in the air. As the ball spins, it drags the air next to it along for the ride. On the top half of the ball, this dragged air is moving in the opposite direction of the oncoming air. This causes the dragged air and the oncoming air to collide, creating an area of high pressure. Below the ball, air is also being dragged in the direction of the spin, but on the bottom half of the ball the air is being dragged in the same direction as the oncoming air. Because the air here is relatively unobstructed, it moves past the tennis ball at a higher velocity, and higher velocity means lower pressure (from Bernoulli's laws of pressure).

This creates an area of (relatively) low pressure underneath the ball. Because the air pressure is higher above the ball than below it, this causes the ball to dive downwards as it moves forward.

Sidespin is created by the exact same type of air pressure forces as topspin, but simply rotated 90 degrees. The ball is spinning from side to front rather than top to front. This causes the ball to curve horizontally in the air, moving from left to right (or right to left if spun the other direction).

However, if you put both topspin and sidespin on the tennis ball it will spin on a diagonal, and the ball will both dive and hook. This combination is the type of spin you place on the ball when hitting a kick serve.

The bounce of the tennis ball created by this combination of spins is truly unique. If you hit a ball with pure topspin, the ball will "bite" on the ground and some of the forward spin will be converted into a higher bounce than you would get if the ball were hit flat. A ball hit with pure sidespin will skid on the ground as it moves left to right, and will continue skidding leftwards on the bounce, as you might expect. A kick serve reacts differently though. The ball will still bounce up high because of the topspin element of the serve, but the same "biting" action that converts the spin into high bounce will also make sure that the ball does not skid sideways. Instead, because the ball bites, as the kick serve spins right-to-left and bounces, it rebounds in the opposite direction, left-to-right. So a kick serve bounces in the opposite direction than it hooks in air, making it very difficult to judge and return.

So now that we understand how we want to spin the ball, and how that spin creates a great serve, let's talk about how to actually hit the kick serve!

Keep this in mind as we discuss the mechanics of the kick serve: because the key to the kick serve is its combination of topspin and sidespin, you are going to need to toss the ball in a location that allows you to put those spins on it. You will need to swing at the ball in a certain way to allow you to put those spins on it. Finally, you will need to set your arm and racket in a way that will allow you to swing at the ball to create those spins. The mechanics we outline here are what you need to do to achieve those key points.

Tennis Kick Serve Step 1: The Toss

The placement of your toss is going to be different on a kick serve than on a flat serve, because the ball needs to be in a different spot when you make contact in order to get those spins on it. You want to toss the tennis ball so that it is directly above your head when you make contact with it. Generally, a good trick is to aim for your opposite (non-hitting arm) shoulder when you toss. That way, the tennis ball will travel over your head en route to your opposite shoulder, putting it in the right spot at contact.

The distance you toss the ball out into the court can vary depending on how aggressive you want to be with your kick serve. Some players keep the toss behind the baseline, while others will toss it a foot or more out into the court. Tossing it further out will allow you to get more power and pace on the serve, but these are not necessarily fundamental elements to the kick serve (it's about spin, not power!). If you do choose to "go after" your kick serve and put some pace on it by tossing it further into the court, you must remember the first key point we mentioned about the toss: you still must make contact with the ball directly above your head. This means that if your toss drifts out into the court, your body must follow underneath it.

Finally, you have to let the tennis ball drop slightly more than you normally would on a flat serve toss. On a flat serve you hit the ball with your arm and racket fully extended at the point of your highest reach. The reason you let a kick serve drop slightly is because you need to swing up on the ball a little bit in order to get that topspin. Don't let the ball drop too much though; one to two inches, maximum.

Tennis Kick Serve Step 2: Increased Shoulder Turn

On a flat serve, you rotate your shoulders around as you wind up to the trophy pose so that your back is coming around to face your opponent. There is typically a greater shoulder turn on the kick serve though. The increased amount of rotation isn't too much, but it is noticeable. The key here is basically that a little bit later in your service motion, you are going to be swinging in a different direction (across the back of the ball, not through it) and this increased shoulder rotation is going to allow your arm to move more to your side when you swing later in the shot. This is what you're looking for.

Tennis Kick Serve Step 3: Swing Direction

As we said before, on the kick serve you swing up and across the tennis ball. You want the tennis ball to be spinning on a diagonal.

If you're right handed, you want the ball spinning from approximately 7 to 1 o'clock. This means you have to swing in that direction. The previous steps of this shot, from the toss location to how you turn your shoulders a little bit more, put you in position to swing up and across the tennis ball like this.

Keep in mind that at contact, you want your strings to be facing the direction you are hitting the ball. The direction your strings face though, and the direction you swing are very different on the kick serve, and this is key.

Tennis Kick Serve Step 4: Follow Through

Because you were swinging up and to the side, your follow through will be somewhat to the side of your body. More so than on a flat serve, where you follow through into the court in the direction you hit the ball. However, you still bring the tennis racket around to the other side of your body in a smooth and relaxed motion, despite the fact that the follow through, initially, is more to your side.