Winning Pretty:
Keys To the Kick ServePart 1
Chris Lewit
Is there anything harder in tennis than learning a great kick serve? The topspin serve is, in my opinion, the most difficult shot in the game and arguably the hardest to teach. Students often struggle for years before figuring out the proper mechanics--sometimes only by luck or trial and error. Other players give up and relegate themselves to hitting only slice and flat serves. A few talented players will pick this serve up easily, but for mere mortals--the less gifted 99 percent rest of us--learning the topspin serve comes as a tremendous challenge. I spent years in the juniors hitting thousands of balls before finally mastering this serve in my twenties. That was not until after college when I was competing on the ITF pro futures tour.
For me, it happened because I found a new coach, Gilad Bloom, who was a master of the serve, and he shared with me the secrets of the kick. I almost want to cry when I think about all the hours I spent hitting buckets and buckets of serves. My coaches in the juniors were great guys, but they didn't provide me with the technical framework and the checkpoints I needed to understand and master the shot. This is the same problem most players face. They are never exposed to the right technical framework or training system.
