The tennis twist serve originates from the type of spin used on the tennis serve. Once the serve bounces in the opposite service box, the spin causes the ball to take a “twisting effect” hence the name “tennis twist serve.”

This requires learning to properly place the ball, followed by putting power into the shot, and, finally, putting spin on the ball. There are various types of spin that can be used.

The Different Spins for the Tennis Twist Serve

The main ones are topspin and underspin. All spin serves have either one or the other. The third kind of spin is side spin and this is applied along with either topspin or underspin. In actuality, there is no such thing as a serve that has only pure underspin.

All slice serves also have sidespin. There are, however, topspin serves that have only a small degree of sidespin, and these are usually what are referred to as the kick serve.

The tennis twist serve is a variation of the kick serve that combines topspin with a more significant amount of sidespin. Applying any specific type spin onto a serve may be one of the more complicated things that some players need to learn. But the rewards for learning to do so are great.

Using The Tennis Twist Serve At the Pro Level

There are players who have a natural tendency to slice their serves, while others find it a lot easier to put topspin on theirs. Even at the professional level, there are players who know how to hit one kind of serve but are not as good at hitting the other.

This is more evident on the women’s tour. Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport are two of the strongest servers in the history of women’s tennis, having great speed and accuracy with their flat serves. When hitting second serves or spin serves, they both prefer to hit slice serves. It’s not that they cannot or do not know how to hit topspin serves but they are just not as proficient doing so.

On the other hand, Australia’s Samantha Stosur serves almost exclusively with topspin. She can produce a very heavy and high kicking serve but her lack of variety probably cost herat the 2009 French Open where she lost in the final to the cunning Francesca Schiavone.

One of the reasons why Serena Williams is widely considered to be the best server ever in women’s tennis is her ability to hit all kinds of serves with almost equal aptitude.

Tennis Twist Serve for the Serve and Volley Game

The tennis twist serve used to be a commonly used shot for serve and volley players especially on fast hard courts. This is because the ball doesn’t travel as fast through the air so the server had more time to rush forward and get closer to the net.

When the ball bounces, it kicks up high and to the left side, which is the backhand side for a right handed receiver. This was usually the weaker side or the side less adept at handling high balls. It then became that much tougher for the receiver to hit a quality return that could put the server in trouble. As the game evolved, more players started returning with greater aggression.

Today’s players are also bigger and stronger so they have fewer problems handling high bouncing serves. Hard courts are also a little slower than before making it even more difficult for the net rusher to put the baseliner under pressure.

Tennis Twist Serve: Advantages

Nevertheless, the tennis twist serve is a shot that any player should desire to learn, if only to add variety. The basic principles of hitting the serve remain applicable for the twist serve as they are all the same for any kind of serve. The following is a review of these principles. At the beginning, you have to have the proper stance.

This is followed by the backswing when you toss the ball up to the right place, take your racket back while turning and tilting your shoulders, coil your torso, bend your knees and look straight up to the ball.

Tennis Twist Serve: Backswing

After this backswing, you get ready to hit by taking the racket behind the back, bending the elbow and cocking the wrist. The legs push down off the ground and help launch you up to the ball. The head remains fixed on the ball. The forward swing then commences. The body uncoils from the legs and hips to the torso and shoulders.

The elbow quickly extends and leads the forearm and wrist which at first remains cocked but then snaps mightily as it extends and makes contact with the ball. The forearm continues to pronate fully and the arm extends out forward into the direction of the ball before coming around to finish the follow through.

Meanwhile, during this whole time, the body has continued to uncoil until you are now facing forward again. The leading foot comes to land (this is the left foot for right handed players) followed by the other. Then finally, you recover by a split step and get immediately into the proper ready stance for the next shot.

Tennis Twist Serve: The Basics & The Grip

To learn the tennis twist serve, you must pay attention to certain details. There are some fine adjustments that enable one to hit this kind of serve. Every shot in tennis starts with a proper grip. Most players prefer to hit this serve using the eastern backhand grip.

Even players who would otherwise use a continental grip for their flat and sliced serves frequently switch to this grip. But it is still possible to hit it with a continental grip if your arm is loose and flexible.

Tennis Twist Serve: Toss

The next and most important thing you must know is where to toss the ball. On a flat serve, you toss the ball forward and a little to the right if you are right handed. A slice serve is hit off a toss that is similar but slightly further to the right, though it is possible to hit both serves off the same toss.

The kick and twist serves usually cannot be hit off a toss in front of the body. Rather, the toss should be above the head. If you do not hit the ball and let it bounce, you will see that it will do so behind you and to your left if you are right handed.

Because you are tossing to a different location, your body and your stroke will adjust accordingly. On all kinds of serves, you have to look at the ball directly and keep your head up. Since you are tossing above your head on a tennis twist serve, you will need to arch your back in addition to coiling your trunk. This facilitates your ability to look up and hit up onto the ball.

You then proceed to hit the ball. The toss has made it possible for you to brush up the back of the ball and across it from left to right. For less sidespin, you brush up more over the ball. For a true tennis twist serve, you brush more exaggeratedly across the back of the ball from left to right. Imagine that the ball is the face of a clock.

You will be brushing it from 8 o’clock to 2 o’clock, whereas for less sidespin, you brush more from 7 to 1. This all happens very quickly. Remember that at this point in the service motion, the racket head is moving at maximum speed.

Tennis Twist Serve: Follow through

The tennis twist serve also has a different follow through as a result of the toss and the wrist action at contact. The racket continues and finishes with the head pointing downward as the wrist completes its pronation. But the arm does not come around the body anymore. It stays on the same side, whereas on the flat and slice serve, the finish is on the opposite side of the hitting arm.

The tennis twist serve is quite useful as a second serve and also as a first serve to keep the returner guessing. If you keep hitting only a slice second serve, you will be too predictable. You can’t use a soft flat serve because many returners at the club level have the ability to aggressively return these serves. They do not have to deal with any disconcerting spin and unfamiliar bounces. The kick and twist serves can be used to throw them off. Anyone who owns a complete set of serveshas an advantage against any opponent.

Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer

If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.

The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!

Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

The post How To Hit The Tennis Twist Serve – Technique and Tips on the Twist Serve in Tennis appeared first on Tennis Instruction.

The problem is, few club tennis players have been able to master the tennis technique behind the tennis kick serve, mainly because it requires exquisite timing in addition to synching the body perfectly to unleash on the kick serve.

Every great tennis player will own a kick serve, and while this type of spin is less powerful than the flat serve it can be a major asset on the second serve due to the increased amount of topspin and clearance over the net providing the much needed safety during a tennis match.

Principles behind how to hit a kick serve

The serve is frequently regarded as the most important shot in tennis because it is the shot that begins the point and therefore determines largely how the point will be played out. Often, when we think about players with great serves, we think of the players that hit with the fastest speeds and have the most aces.

While this is true to some extent, another skill that the great servers possess is the ability to hit different kinds of spin serves. There are also great servers who specialize not in hitting the fastest serves but in hitting the best spin serves.

Any good serve, whether by virtue of its speed, placement or spin can be an ace or service winner. Good serves also often force short returns that can be put away easily. Variety in spin and direction, as well as disguise is just as important as speed.

How to Hit a Kick Serve: Mastering the Use of Spins

The major types of spin applied on the serve are topspin, back spin and side spin. Almost all serves have a certain degree of side spin. It is how side spin is combined with either topspin or back spin that determines if a serve is going to be a kick serve, twist serve or slice serve. A kick serve is predominantly a top spin serve.

A twist serve has as much topspin as side spin. A slice serve has backspin and side spin. Spin increases the air resistance on the ball, thereby making it move slower than a flat serve. However, this disadvantage is significantly offset by the increase in the margin for error available and the control provided.

For this reason, spin serves make the best second serves. There is a saying that you are only as good as your second serve. It is true that double faults are a mortal sin in tennis because you are basically giving away points for free.

Spin also greatly affects the trajectory and bounce of the ball, making it awkward to return and preventing the returner from establishing a rhythm. For right handed servers, a kick serve bounces high and slightly to the left of the returner. A twist serve bounces high and farther to the left of the returner.

Differences between the Slice, Flat and the Tennis Kick Serve

A slice serve bounces low and bends to the right side of the returner. For left-handers, the directions are all reversed. Therefore, if you want to improve your serve and have a very reliable second serve, you will need to learn how to hit a kick serve, a twist serve and a slice serve, to go along with your basic flat serve.

For many players, the flat serve is their bread-and-butter first serve. For many left-handed players, it is the slice serve, because this goes wide to the right-handed receiver’s backhand. However, there have been players in the history of the sport who have specialized in how to hit a kick serve. These players include Stefan Edberg and Patrick Rafter, both former top-ranked players and two-time US Open champions.

The US Open is played on fast hard courts and both of these men are serve-and-volley players. The ball bounces high and fast so kick serves are very much useful for setting up a quick dash to the net. The spin makes the ball travel slower through the air, giving them more time to close in to the net.

Benefits of using a Tennis Kick Serve

The high bounce makes hitting a passing shot difficult for the returner. Today’s top singles players don’t serve-and-volley anymore but they still do in doubles. If you want to develop a similarly aggressive, net-rushing style, you have to master how to hit a kick serve.

The technique of the kick serve begins with the right grip. The continental and eastern backhand grips are the main acceptable grips. A variation of the continental known as the hammer grip is also used.

The difference between the two is only in how the fingers are spaced along the handle. The eastern forehand grip is not recommended for the kick serve because the tendency with this grip is to hit only flat serves.

The proper toss is the most crucial thing to learn in how to hit a kick serve. The ball should go up over your head and if you don’t hit it, it should bounce slightly behind your left shoulder. Therefore, the peak of the toss will be almost directly over your head.

Technique on How to Hit a Kick Serve

The general technique of how to hit a kick serve uses the same principle as for producing all other kinds of serves. The directions or sides noted will be for a right handed server. If you are left-handed, simply change each direction to its opposite. At the beginning of the motion, the weight is on the back leg.

The shoulders and hips are turned sideways. As you toss the ball, take the racket back in your usual manner. You can use either the platform or pinpoint stance, whichever is comfortable. The platform stance has the feet about body width apart, while the pinpoint stance has the feet closer together. Toss the ball up over your head and look up to it by turning your head up. You should keep your head up all the way through contact and even slightly beyond.

Trophy Pose for the Tennis Serve

As you take the racket back and go into the trophy pose, your knees bend and your hips, trunk and shoulders coil. However, because the ball is directly over your head, your back will automatically be slightly more arched than on a flat or slice serve, where the toss is more forward.

The forward swing phase commences when the kinetic chain is set in motion. The legs push down on the ground with the balls of the feet. The hips uncoil, followed by the trunk and then the shoulders.

How to Hit Kick Serve with the Correct Contact Point

At the same time, the racket head is taken down by cocking back the wrist. As the shoulders uncoil, the right elbow goes up, leading the forearm, wrist and racket, which remains pointed downward. The shoulder-over-shoulder motion continues as the rest of the body continues to uncoil. By this time, the legs have already extended and propelled the body upward to the ball.

The right way of contacting the ball is another unique and crucial thing to learn in how to hit a kick serve. The arm extends, the forearm pronates and the wrist whips the racket head sequentially in a very fast manner to hit the ball. However, instead of just hitting the ball squarely, the ball is hit from the 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock position (5 to 11 for lefties).

Brushing Effect used on the Kick Serve

The wrist makes the racket head move in such a way that the ball is hit in this manner. It brushes upward along the back of the ball and slightly from left to right. Topspin and a little bit of side spin is applied on the ball. Because of this motion, the follow through will finish on the right side of the body. Through proper weight transfer and timing of the hit, the ball will be a very heavy one that is difficult for the opponent to attack.

The finish of the kick serve should take the body inside the court but the landing should be balanced in order to make recovering for the next shot much easier. Alternatively, after landing, immediately sprint to the net.

How to Hit a Kick Serve Using it to Your Advantage

The kick serve is most commonly aimed at the backhand wing which is usually the side less adept at handling high balls. However, in order to be truly effective, your kick serve should have variety in direction as well.

Practice aiming it to the right hip in order to jam the returner. You can also hit it occasionally wide to the deuce side, making it bounce high to the forehand. Keep your opponent guessing by changing it up. Also, mix up your kick serve with other kinds of spin serves as well as your flat serve. Through constant practice, you will learn to be proficient with it. Above all, use it in a match in order to gain experience and confidence with this particular shot.

Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer

If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.

The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!

Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

The post How To Hit A Kick Serve – Learning the Proper Tennis Kick Serve appeared first on Tennis Instruction.