Do you basically aim the serve by feel or there any tricks/techniques I can use to get better at aiming? Sometimes when I'm trying to kick down the middle on the deuce side I end up way over on the ad side and other times when I'm aiming for the middle of the box on the deuce side I'll end up the other direction and hit to the forehand side.
After playing a few service games I can usually get a better feel and start aiming better, but I still need pretty big targets. How can I start aiming better from the beginning of the match?
You have an unknown technique. Make sure any advice is for a high level serve or who knows..?..... Take high speed video of your service motion to see your technique and, particularly, the right-left orientation of your racket face for the kick serve at impact.
There is a false statement regarding a high level kick serve - 'Stay to the side for the kick serve'. The body does stay
more to the side, but not
to the side. This shows in overhead views of the serve. The line between the shoulders or chest is more like 45 d to the direction of the baseline in the Salazar kick video. But there may be variety in kick serve techniques.? Best to see side-to-side angles with more overhead videos. But overhead videos are hard to find. Search:
Salazar Toly flat kick overhead Fuzzy Yellow Balls pictures.
A second factor is that internal shoulder rotation causes the racket face to rotate pointing to the side as the racket moves forward for a high level serve. Mis-timing impact then can cause the ball to go wide. Search: a
ntipin high speed tennis serve Youtube
1) First, the racket is closing as it moves forward. ("Closing" here means that the highest edge moves forward faster.)
2) Second, as viewed from above the string face is rotating to point more to the right from ISR as it moves forward to impact. Serve type unknown.
How your racket face faces and its consistency of angle might account for the side-to-side distribution of your results. An important factor for a high level kick serve is that the ISR has not rotated as much relative to the upper body and the ball is struck lower in the ISR racket head path, when the racket is still rising to provide top spin.
Another factor is the direction of the hand path. Compare Salazar's hand path for the kick to that of the slice and flat.
It would be nice to have videos of these factors in overhead videos. These would also show the variety among individual kick servers.
To understand, use high speed video starting with your technique.