Tennis Return of Serve Lesson - How To Deal With Kick Serves.
The kick serve is the most commonly used second serve for tennis players around the world. A good kick serve will bounce up quite high and move away from the returner, often ending up inside the doubles alley on the advantage side. It will also clear the net by some distance and then dip in before it reaches the lines, making it very consistent, a perfect option for the second serve.
Many club players struggle to return kick serves and in this video we want to help you deal with them using four different methods.
How To Deal With Kick Serves In tennis:
Method One - The easiest way to deal with a kick serve is to move back and let the ball drop. By stepping back a few feet, you're buying yourself time and allowing the ball to drop down to a more comfortable strike zone. This option is the most defensive one because you end up far out of the court, so in order for this method to be effective, it's important you hit the return quite high with aggressive topspin and aim crosscourt which will give you time to recover into a good position on the court and make attacking the shot hard for your opponent.
Method Two - Taking the ball on the rise. This option is much harder to execute but the rewards can be great. By taking the ball early, you're taking time away from yourself so you'll have to shorten your swing and be very alert to make a clean contact. The major upside is that you're hitting the ball before it gets too high in your strike zone but you're also taking time away from your opponent. With this method, you can aim the return right at the server's feet which will catch them off guard and maybe force an error or easy response.
Method Three - Hitting an inside in or inside out forehand return. This option is most effective on slower courts such as clay courts or slow hard courts. You'll need time to execute this option and you'll have to be quick at getting around the ball and creating space. Remember, with a kick serve, the ball will be moving to the left (if the server is right-handed) so it's important to create more space so that even when the ball curves to the left, you're still in a good position to execute a good shot.
Method Four - Slice the return. You can use this option when moving back or when stepping in and moving forward. The key here is to make sure you get the racket head above the contact point so that you can cut down on the ball.
12 сен 2024