How nice if your tennis kick serve has a high bounce, so that your opponent can’t attack you on your second serve.
How do you feel if your kick serve is able to generate a weak return from your opponent?
If you are struggling to hit a high bouncing kick serve, you are definitely not alone. In this video lesson, I am sharing some great tips and exercises that you can use to improve your kick serve.
Please note that this is not a step by step tennis kick serve tutorial. This is for players who are already trying to execute a kick serve during a tennis game. If you apply these tips, I am very sure your kick serve will improve.
Improve Your Kick Serve With These Tips And Exercises.
Tip #1: Check your grip. Make sure you are using the Continental grip
o have a good kick serve or other types of serves, the first thing to check is your grip. To have a good kick serve, you need to hold onto the continental grip. If you are using the Eastern forehand grip to serve, it is very difficult for you to have a good kick serve. So, the first tip for you is to go and check your grip again and ensure that you are holding the continental grip.
Tip #2: Rolling drill
The second tip for you is to develop a better feel on the ball. When you are serving, the contact point is above your head. This drill helps you to develop a feel.
What I need you to do is to practice rolling the ball along the palm of your hand. For a start, you can choke up the continental grip and hold it near the throat and practice rolling the ball along the palm of your hand. Once you have done that, you can shift it above your head and practice the same thing. This is to develop the feel of the contact point.
Tip #3: Unstuck drill
The next tip is my favorite tip. I want you to pay special attention to this because this tip has helped my students to learn the serve so much better. Once you have done the rolling part, in order to add more pop to the serve, unstuck drill is going to help you a lot.
To do this drill, I need you to hold the ball firmly. And instead of rolling, rub the ball along the strings of the racket and rub it hard. Now, as you approach towards the edge of the racket, you are going to get stuck there. When you’re stuck, I want you to push off to get “unstuck” or get the racket off the ball. Make sure you get a feel of it. Feel that it’s stuck, and then push off to get unstuck from the racket.
Another thing to watch out is the butt of the racket should be pointing to the sky after you get unstuck.
Now, practice this around 10 times. After that, shift this activity above the head. So, you are going to do the same thing, stuck, and then unstuck but with a feel of pushing it above the head.
Tip #4: Hit the ball and focus on finishing on the same side
After you have practiced the unstuck drill, the next thing to practice hitting the ball. To apply what you’ve just learned, try hitting the ball and focus on finishing somewhere on the same side.
If you are a left-handed, your finishing will be on the left side. If you are a right-handed, your finishing will be on the right side.
Note on the the toss: you just need to toss simply above and slightly behind your head. Then, you can bring your racket up behind your head and contact the ball over the net.
When I am demonstrating in this video, you’ll notice that after I serve, the butt is actually pointing to the sky and I am finishing the racket on the same side. Now, if you are able to consistently serve the ball over and finish on the same side with the butt facing up, then you can proceed to the next stage.
Tip #5: Now hold the bottom of the grip
The next stage is to hold the racket at the bottom of the grip. And continue to practice hitting the serve and focus on finishing on the same side.
In the above image, when I am serving, I am holding onto the bottom of the racket and putting it behind my head. You will also notice that when I am serving, my body is facing sideways. So, you must follow this, serve with your body facing sideways even after you contact the ball. Never rush to turn to the front to look at where the ball is going. Therefore, maintain this sideways position for as long as you can.
Tip #6: Contact point of the ball
he next part we are going to talk about is the contact point of the ball. Imagine that the ball is a clock, and the top part is 12 o’clock and the bottom part is 6 o’clock.
For the kick serve, if you are a left-handed, the contact point should be somewhere from 5 o’clock to 11 o’clock. And if you are a right-handed, the kick serve will be somewhere between 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock.
Tip #7: Serving from the baseline.
The next part is the most exciting part, and that is serving from the baseline. So, you do the same thing as you have done at a ¾ court. You move back to the baseline to serve over. I want you to think of right now is to hit the ball as high as you can over the net. Don’t focus on any target, just focus on bringing the ball up as high as you can.
Note on the mental image: I want the ball to go up as high as it could without thinking about any target. A left-handed person must face onto their left and practice while facing that way, and vice-versa for a right-handed. The crucial part in this exercise is to have the mental image of hitting the ball up as high as you can.
Tip #8: Bonus Tip: Visualize hitting the ball as high as you can.
Now, this is the bonus exercise that I want you to try. This will help you to visualize hitting the ball up as high as you can. Just stand next to a wall or a fence and imagine you are going to serve the ball over that fence. Since I am a left-handed player, I will be standing with the fence on the right side and I will attempt to serve the ball over the fence. If you are a right-handed, you will be facing other way. Your job is to try to serve the ball over the fence.
When you are doing this drill, your racket swing speed will naturally accelerate as you try to brush the ball up over the fence. After a few attempts, go back to the court and adopt that feel to your kick serve. I am sure your kick serve will kick up by a notch.
To sum up, here is a brief of what I have covered in this lesson.
1. To get a good kick serve, you must hold the continental grip. If you are holding onto the correct grip you will have a good serve.
2. We practiced the feel of rolling the ball along the string of the racket and then we practiced the same activity by rolling the ball up above the head.
3. We learned about the feel of pronation by rubbing on the ball and then pushing off to get unstuck. Remember to keep the butt of the racket is pointing to the sky.
4. Then, you have also practiced serving some balls along the mid-court. Remembering that the focus is on finishing while the butt of the racket is pointing to the sky, and on the same side.
5. Furthermore, I talked about the body facing sideways and staying sideways as long as you could. Do not get so eager to turn to the front after you serve.
6. Then we have also practiced about serving at the baseline. Here your mental image should be, “I want the ball to go as high as I can.”
7. When you are practicing at the baseline, focus on brushing the ball up as high as you could without thinking about any target.
8. Finally, the bonus activity for you was to stand by a wall or fence and attempt to serve over the fence. This can help you to accelerate the swing speed as you try to clear the wall or fence
Most tennis players want to learn a high bouncing tennis kick serve because they understand the benefits of saving them from the returner’s attacks. Follow these tips and apply the correct techniques and you will get a high bouncing kick serve.
Let me know your results after implementing the tips. I really look forward to hear from you.