Bud has a good serve. He has good power, good spin, good placement and good consistency. Bud wants his kick (or topspin) serve to move more sideways.
The kick serve is great for hitting a high bouncing serve at a right-handers backhand. This spin is created by a brushing up, sort of an inside out serve.
In order for Bud to get more movement on his kick serve he must do several things. First the serve grip must be a continental grip. Some players turn their grip so far that they are using an eastern backhand grip to serve with. Moving the serve grip past the continental would produce more topspin.
Second, the more you toss your ball over your left shoulder (if you’re right-handed) the more the ball will have topspin. Turn the shoulders away from the net on the ball toss. This will allow the toss arm to lift the ball over the left shoulder and still into the court. The toss must far enough over that the player must pronate his arm outward.
This is the third thing is to pronate the arm combined with external rotation of the shoulder. Pronation on the serve combined with the toss over the left shoulder produces an inside-out type of swing. The racquet head is brushed up and out by the thumb turning outward.
So, Bud, in a nutshell try doing those three things to improve the amount of movement on your kick serve. Turn the grip past a continental, toss the ball more to the left, pronate the forearm outward right before contact.
Thanks for the question, Bud and good luck.
Doug Hofer, USPTA December 1, 2005
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