How to Hit a Tennis Kick Serve

The kick serve, a variation of the slice serve, is an effective, high probability/low-risk serve to use while playing tennis. The kick serve is also known as the topspin serve, or the twist serve. It gets a significant amount of topspin on the ball, so that if performed correctly, the ball can bounce extremely high. Here's how to hit a tennis kick serve.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A tennis racquet
• Tennis Balls
• Tennis Court

1. To hit a tennis kick serve, start by standing on the baseline, facing the right net post (or left net post if you're a lefty). Have your right foot behind your left foot, with your left toe right behind the baseline.

2. Next up: the toss. Try to toss the tennis ball fairly high (above where your tennis racquet can reach if your arm is fully extended) and close to right above your head. This will allow you to snap your wrist and get the proper spin you want to put on the tennis ball to hit a kick serve.

3. 
   Extend your arms

   Now the most important part... hitting the ball! After you toss the tennis ball you are going to want to bring your tennis racquet behind your back, near the back of your head. Now you want to time your swing so that you hit the ball where your arm is as high as you can get it. To tell where this is, try standing in place and reaching as high as you can with your racquet. This is where you should be making contact with the tennis ball.

4. 
   Snap your wrist

   As you bring your arm up to swing the ball, snapping your wrist is extremely important. The motion is kind of like how you throw a football - this is where the topspin comes from in the kick serve. So you want to time it so that you hit the ball after you snap your wrist and your racquet is at its highest.

5. 
   Follow through

   Finally, just like with any other serve, follow through. If everything went correctly, the ball should go over the net and dip then bounce higher than it normally would with a slice/flat serve. Now go out to a court and try to hit a tennis kick serve!

Tips & Warnings

• Practice, practice, practice! You should try to hit at least 50 serves every day to obtain a consistent first serve.
• Make sure you bend your knees prior to swinging.
• Keep your head up! This is very crucial. Many times if you don't keep your head up and look at where the ball is going, the ball will end up hitting the net. So once you hit the tennis ball, keep looking at the spot you hit it in for about a half second.
• Make sure you don't start off hitting too hard, and make sure you stretch prior to serving.

Resources

• How to Hit a Faster Tennis Serve
• How to Chip and Charge in Tennis
• How to Return a Fast Serve in Tennis
• How to Effectively Cover More Court in Tennis
• How to Play Classic Doubles in Tennis