Hey guys I'm going to show you some great kick serve progressions that can
help you learn the kick serve and even if you already possess a kick serve and
have trouble with it, this is a great way to re-calibrate it and set the right mechanics.
Two fundamental technical elements need to take place in order for
you to perform a kick serve. Number one you have to toss the ball to at least 12
o'clock or even to 11 o'clock. You also have to maintain a sideways position of
the torso at the moment of contact and if you do
those two things the racket head will be slightly positioned towards the side as
you make contact with the ball. So if you apply these fundamentals naturally the
racket will have a more lateral swing path and you will be able to impart spin
on the ball. So the progressions that I'm about to show you are a great way to learn
these fundamentals and the first progression it's called the touch the
forearm with the handle drill. Basically you're going to hold the racket above
the grip in a continental grip and simply touch the bottom of your forearm
with the handle. You're now going to place the racket
behind your head and the racket being parallel to the baseline, the tip of the
racket pointing towards the side fence and the racket angled like this. This
will simulate the proper contact on a kick serve. And what's important that you
keep your elbow in place. Do not move your elbow as you performing this shot
keep your arm still and simply throw the ball into the strings and then simply
have the handle touch your forearm like this. So let me try a few. So basically
I'm just trying to keep my elbow still and I'm making the handle touch my
forearm and I'm generating topspin. This is a great way to get a feel for the kick serve.
The most common mistakes when players try this drill is number
one they don't throw the ball far enough towards the side they throw it over here.
Now the arm has to extend towards the ball and you loose topspin. You end up
with an accidental slice. So it's crucial that you throw the ball behind your head
into the strings. It's also important that we make this a stationary drill so
we're not leaning forward forward, we're not doing any of our rhythm, we're simply
in a stationary position mimicking the proper contact point and also working on
staying sideways and keeping the elbow still. Another problem that some players
experience with this drill is hitting the ball too thin or hitting the frame.
So the important thing that you have to remember is to actually watch the ball
as you're hitting and do not look forward and hit the ball blindly. This
will often result in a frame shot. So keep your eyes on your strings
and keep an eye on the balls flight path as you're performing this serve and you
will be able to make clean contact most of the time. The degree of difficulty is
pretty high on this drill so I recommend that you try this until you get ten good
ones inside the box and you can then progress to the next drill.
The next progression is now we're going to take a full swing but we're still going to be
stationary meaning we're not going to do anything with our body. I want you to be
in a sideways position and not move at all and take a full swing. So this will
require you to throw the ball behind you slightly to the left kind of mimicking
the previous drill. It looks something like this. In a completely sideways
position I just want you to swing at the ball like this and you should be able to
get some good topspin on the ball.
The common mistakes with this progression is
since both arms are now involved the toss starts to become very erratic on
some players and also some players have a tendency to start rotating into the
ball. So I recommend that you do this progression until you get 20 serves into
the box before you progress to the next drill. On this progression we're not
going to be stationary anymore and we're gonna utilize our whole body. So it's
very important that you don't throw the ball behind the baseline anymore you
actually now will have to throw it slightly inside the court where you're
still going to maintain the 12 to 11 o'clock
toss positioning for right-handers. So what that means is that now we're gonna
utilize a full body kick serve and we're going to be leaning inside the court the
same way we do on a flat serve. The number-one kick serve mistake at the
recreational level is that players will start rotating into the ball once the
whole body is involved. So in this progression I don't want you to do that.
I want you to maintain the sideways position of the body through the
entirety of the service motion. It looks something like this.
I'm gonna throw the ball at 12 o'clock and I'm gonna completely stay sideways
while I go forward. Now this is going to feel a little bit
awkward as you land but this is a crucial fundamental piece on the kick serve that
you learn that the body is sideways at the moment of contact. Now you can see
here that I'm getting nice topspin on the ball and without even hitting it
that hard by executing the sideways positioning throughout the entirety of
the serve. You can see that nice kicking of the ball. Now let me show you how crucial
this third progression is by comparing it to a real kick serve. So the only
difference between and the third progression where we're staying
completely sideways throughout the entirety of the service motion versus an
actual kick serve is that on an actual kick serve once the racket reaches
this level the back leg does come around and we're then ready to go into a split
step and hit the next shot. So take a look at progression number 3 where I'm
going to be completely sideways. You see here. Versus a real kick serve where
I'm gonna come around at the end and be ready for the next shot.
So you can see here there's almost no difference whatsoever. So this shows you how crucial
these progressions are. So these progressions are a great way to build
the correct muscle memory on your kick serve. The way I have it structured
you're going to be doing 10 on the first progression, 20 on the second progression,
and 50 on the third progression. I'm talking 80 balls actually inside the box
which means that it could take you a lot more tries and you might end up having to hit
a couple of hundred serves and this is a great way to build a correct muscle
memory for the kicker.