Aiming kick serve

[EddieBrock]

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?

 

[Chas Tennis]

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: antipin 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.

 

[TennisCJC]

put some targets in the service boxes and hit 2 bucket of balls trying to hit the targets. do this twice a week for the rest of your life.

another thing that might help is to envision a "window" 2x2 feet big above the net so that a serve that passes through the window will land where you want it to land.

After a few months of practice you should be able to divide the box into left, middle and right and hit these 3 areas.

 

[FiReFTW]

practice makes perfect.

 

[Chas Tennis]

practice makes perfect.

Not always.

 

[FiReFTW]

Not always.

Well if you have the fundimentals in place and good mechanics, then

 

[snvplayer]

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?

I always struggeld with kick serve on the deuce as well. Personally, I try to swing more vertical and less side ways (from 6 to 12) whereas on I try to go from 7 to 1 in order to get the serve out wide. This means that my body moves more straight down and up on deuce side. On ad side, my body moves down and up out towards the ad side.

Good practice might be trying to hit a kick serve down the middle on the ad side.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

the way i think of aiming is like shoot a gun where the sights are off...
beyond technique, just worry about "shot grouping"... presuming the shape of the shot is accurate, doesn't matter if the placement is 10ft off... as long as it's consistent...
then work on readjusting your "shot grouping"

if your "shot grouping" is off, likely your technique needs to be addressed because you're probably making different mistakes every time.

i aim the kicker by feel. serving to deuce vs. ad side is definitely a different feel... biggest issue is that i tend to want to follow through the head in the direction i'm serving (which feels natural on the ad side wide). but on the deuce side T, feels less natural... and worse are the deuce side wide & ad side T with the kicker....

just takes reps reps and more reps

 

[EddieBrock]

put some targets in the service boxes and hit 2 bucket of balls trying to hit the targets. do this twice a week for the rest of your life.

another thing that might help is to envision a "window" 2x2 feet big above the net so that a serve that passes through the window will land where you want it to land.

After a few months of practice you should be able to divide the box into left, middle and right and hit these 3 areas.

When I first step on the court it's a bit counter intuitive for me to swing left to right and trust it's going to go exactly where I want in the box. Lately I'm started swinging at 7 and then started pushing towards where I'm hitting. I've gotten out of the habit, but as I indicated now my aim is off when I start. I wish there was something with racket angle I could do.