The Kick Serve: Part 4: Prehabilitation

Prehabilitation means regular flexibility and strength training. In the first article on the kick serve, I presented the technical reference points (Click Here) for developing the motion. The second article covered drill progressions for all the variations. (Click Here.) Then in the third article we discussed the various controversies regarding teaching and hitting the kick and detailed 5 common errors I see in trying to develop the motion. (Click Here.) Now in this final article, I want to present the last critical component in my system. This what I call my prehabilitation program, something I use with my students everyday at my academy. Prehabilitation has two parts: flexibility training and strength training. In my opinion a dual training program of this type is critical for keeping the back and shoulders healthy and strong for high performance players – or any player – who wants to develop the kick as part of the offensive repertoire of a complete server. So this article presents over 20 exercises drawn from a wide range of disciplines and training methodologies synthesized into a original training program that I believe will produce awesome results for any player. I truly believe that we have become so conservative…