toss for kick serve?

[yoh4u]

Most of the time people toss their ball behind their head to do a kick serve. Though some people use the same toss as a flat or just a little off to the side (slice serve) to do a kick serve to throw off an opponent. Is there a specific way on how to do a kick serve with a toss in front of you instead of behind you or above your head?:?

 

[charliefedererer]

You may want to read this recent thread on disguising the serve: http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=258579
Just about everyone agrees that it is far more important to have consistancy and placement than disguise on their serves.
Yet, you can develop an ability to hit flat, kick, and slice serves by tossing the ball to a neutral area just slightly to the right and forward to your head, then positioning your body, arm and jump to hit the different service motions. But this is hard to do, and so the first question is whether at your level this is really what you want to be concentrating on during your serve practice time?

 

[Babo]

I have a slice, kick, flat, and twist serve. I use my kick as my first serve and sometimes my second because it is my most reliable. I am a 4.0 player and when my toss is good the kick is even better. I first learned how to do my kick serve by tossing the ball slightly behind my head or out of sight, now I NEED to throw the ball in front of me just like hitting a flat serve to get the kind of speed I want out of my kick. What never helps though is throwing it a little off to the side (right if you are right handed) because I can't get the wrist flick from my racket and it kills both my elbow and shoulder. Hope this helps!

 

[Franz]

ok... to get this right, you gotta picture yourself at contact point. contact point for a flat serve should be slightly into the court and aligned directly parallel to your serving arm shoulder(at contact).if you were to use a kick serve toss with the same motion as your flat serve, the ball should be directly above your head(at contact) it should also be slightly into the court but not aligned with your shoulder but slightly behind you so you can catch it with a brush rather than go through it.

 

[LeeD]

I don't believe, up to 5.5 levels, that you need to disquise your toss for top, kick, slice, or flat serves.
First of all, your tendencies will be known by your third service game. Second, the opposition knows the chances of spin or flat serves. Third, he's watching the ball, not your toss, and most peeps can't instantly change their minds in one split second.
You can toss 4 spots for your serves, and easily make it to Q levels.
You can toss less than 4 spots, and position your body under the ball where it is needed to hit the specific serve.....but dat takes a bit of practice, eh?
Since by the time you have enough practice to toss identically every toss, you ALREADY are good enough to NOT ask questions about your service toss.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Relative Placement of Service Toss
T
​

(This image is from the old Operation Doubles web site). Note that these are relative (not absolute) contact points for various serves. The position of the head in this graphic is probably at the time of ball release, not at the time of contact. The head will move forward (and possibly somewhat to the left) after the ball is released. For instance, the ball may very well be directly above the head at contact for a topspin serve.

 

[kchau]

when i hit a kick, i dont toss it behind, i toss for my usual serve and move towards the ball a little bit.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

^ Yup, that's the way to do it (as I implied above).

 

[BullDogTennis]

I don't believe, up to 5.5 levels, that you need to disquise your toss for top, kick, slice, or flat serves.
.

that is absolutely the stupidest thing i've ever heard. so basically you play till you get to level 5.5 then you COMPLETELY change everything you've ever done by having to disquise your serve then? no, you learn the serve the first time by tossing the same every time, you dont cheat yourself. if your an old man and know you'll never play over a 4.0 level in an old mens double league than your theory is fine, but if you aspriring to be a high level learn it right the FIRST time.

 

[oneguy20]

It doesn't hurt to hit different serves off the same toss. I highly recommend this. It'll help you achieve a more consistent toss.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

that is absolutely the stupidest thing i've ever heard. so basically you play till you get to level 5.5 then you COMPLETELY change everything you've ever done by having to disquise your serve then? no, you learn the serve the first time by tossing the same every time, you dont cheat yourself. if your an old man and know you'll never play over a 4.0 level in an old mens double league than your theory is fine, but if you aspriring to be a high level learn it right the FIRST time.

Realistically, most of the tennis population will never get much past a 3.5 or 4.0 level anyway, whether they learn to disguise their toss or not.

.

 

[LeeD]

Stupid, of course......
So when and IF your game ever gets to 5.5, you'll find your strokes, including your serves, goes completely DIFFERENT than they ever were when you're a 3.5.
Some call it evolution. Some call it efficientcy evolvment. Some call it just you get better with MORE practice, and of course, you aren't a 3.5 anymore, so your game CHANGES.
But talking to some really good 7.0's, all say they don't CONSCOUSLY try to disquise and fake out the opposition. They do TRY to hit the best possible shot given the circumstances, knowing the opposition probably already KNOWS which shot they pick, based on experience and previous play.
If you ever reach a high level of tennis, you know it's not your ability to fake out your opposition, it's based on your ability to hit your BEST shots that makes the difference between winning and losing.

 

[OliverSimon]

Toss a little behind your net bending your knees and coming over the ball

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

that is absolutely the stupidest thing i've ever heard. so basically you play till you get to level 5.5 then you COMPLETELY change everything you've ever done by having to disquise your serve then? no, you learn the serve the first time by tossing the same every time, you dont cheat yourself. if your an old man and know you'll never play over a 4.0 level in an old mens double league than your theory is fine, but if you aspriring to be a high level learn it right the FIRST time.

Some/many 4.0 players would not have any problems making such changes to their service motions. I would think that most players who achieve a 5.0 or 5.5 level would have no problem at all making the adjustment to disguise their serve. Many of these players have experimented with these sorts of variations anyway. Don't see it as a problem.

 

[GuyClinch]

I believe just the physical change of the various spins throws people off - even if they see it coming. So its not really stupid at all to not worry much about disguise until later levels..

If you can vary pace and placement - as well as hit all three basic serves effectively you going to be a great server without any disguise at all.

 

[zebano]

Interesting. My main serves vary between topspin-slice and slice and it is directly related to my toss (my flat serve has a third toss). I suppose I probably should attempt to disguise the difference.