Real Tennis Players - Like You! - Asking For, and Offering, Advice on the Sport They Love
Player to Player is USTA.com’s regular feature in which everyday tennis players are given a forum to ask advice on the sport they love – and their fellow players will dish out advice. We’ll post a number of the best responses we receive to our question of the week.
PLAYER TO PLAYER DOESN'T WORK WITHOUT YOUR QUESTIONS, so please send any queries you’d like answered, or responses to other players' questions, to Player@USTA.com.
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This week's question from Ruth: | | "My boys 13 and 10 are fortunate to be in a free tennis program that has achieved statewide fame. This program caters to people who cannot afford ongoing training. Now the coach is saying that the kids need to play in USTA tournaments. After comparing players that have received expensive tennis coaching I find that my kids do not measure up. The only kids that go to team tournaments from this program are the ones that receive expensive private coaching on the side. Would it be more of a benefit to pay for private coaching or go to tournaments?" | |
Please share your advice with Ruth by emailing Player@USTA.com and include your name and hometown.
Got a question of your own? Send that along, too! | |
READ OTHER PLAYERS' ADVICE
Last week’s question from Santo of Santa Clara, CA
(Please note: There's no need to send additional responses to this question)
"I need some good tips on the kick serve. I'm aware of the usual advice about brushing 7 to 1. However, I've tried this for close to two years now and I only get a moderate kick with the ball looping in. How do I improve my kick serve?"
PLAYER RESPONSES:
From Barry Kidney
Check to see that you are hitting up at the ball. The tip in Tennis Magazine of standing 5-feet from the court fence and hitting over it works great. If you keep hitting the fence you know where to start to fix your problem.
From Scott Harris, Riverside, CA
If you have had previous baseball experience, especially pitching, try two things.
1. Put your toss a little behind, or directly over, your head
2. Throw a curveball at the toss with your racquet
From B. Myint
For years I had the same problem hitting a kick serve. No matter how hard I tried pronating, brushing up, or hitting from 7 to 1 o'clock, nothing seemed to work. I think the problem was that they're all abstract concepts that are really hard to put into practice. Try this instead:
Imagine you're in construction and you've been asked to hammer a nail into the ceiling directly above you. Practice the hammering motion a few times while standing up and keeping your head pointed to the ceiling. Now imagine that you've only got one swing in order to drive the nail into the ceiling, so you have to muster all the force you can: from your knees, hips, shoulders, and wrist. The key is that all of the force goes upward, not outward.
Once you're comfortable with that key difference, translate it to the service line. First, adjust your toss so that, when you hit the ball, it is positioned just like a nail in the ceiling directly over your head. Swing the racquet upward just as you would the hammer, but rather than blasting it with the side of the frame, brush the strings violently upward against the ball.
At first, this might seem like a recipe for miss-hits, but the basic principle is similar to hitting a heavy topspin forehand. The only difference is it's happening over your head, rather than at waist-level. For a little added help, shift your hand slightly toward an Eastern grip and lower your grip so that you're holding it only with your thumb, index, and middle finger. (Let your ring and pinkie finger dangle off the end.) This will loosen your wrist and enable you to brush up against the ball even faster.
Keep practicing the motion of hitting violently upward -- not outward -- and you'll get it.
From Robie Parlade
Hello fellow Tennis patron,
I, Robie Parlade, USPTA 10is Pro & Wilson Staff Advisor have an ez trick for you on the kick serve. It took me 2 years too in order to be able to hit it as a junior. However, now that I am a USPTA Teaching pro, it's as easy as 1-2-3 if & only if you MASTERED THE SLICE!
Warm-up:
Hit a few slice serves & listen to the sound of the impact. You should hear the ball brush across the strings like a "shkkkk" high pitched sound (unlike a "tongg" low-pitched flat sound).
1) Toss the ball between 10 & 11 (directly to your left, slightly in front of you NOT BEHIND!)
2) Bend your knees (NOT YOUR BACK) to get underneath the ball.
3) Hit the ball just like you hit slice, focusing on the "shkkk" sound!
TRY THAT WITH THE FOCUS BEING ON SLICING THE BALL WITH A 10:00 TOSS! If you think brush up 7 to 1 ... you will be hitting up on the ball flat and out every time! Think slice the ball & focus on the brushing sound ("shkk") and feel (grading cheese) & it's EZ 1-2-3.
From Ralph
I often receive compliments on my kick serve, so I'll chime in. The brush up the back is a good start. When that begins to become wrote and comfortable (about a season) the racquet feel becomes more of a cupping or snapping over the apex of your serve. Play with that for a few more months, then incorporate, if you're physically able, EXPLOSIVENESS, the same except more, more snap, more jump, more pre-coiling, and more wrist all while pushing your limits of comfort in aiming for the side lines (don't worry, these balls will now be so "heavy" they rarely make it out of the service box).
Do these steps all well and in 3,000 to 4,000 kickers from now you'll have your opponents returning from the adjacent court alleys. Seriously.
From Rob Dimond
Go to Palm Springs--Mission Hills and find Dennis Ralston, former Davis Cup coach and players and coach to Arthur Ashe and Chris Evert -- and he will help you. He helped me and used that serve to win Wimbeldon doubles at 17! Good luck.
From Phil, Briarcliff Manor, NY
The "kick" in the kick serve is the height to which it bounces after it hits the ground and the direction the bounce takes. The direction is taken care of by the 7 to 1 swing. So that you have down. The height of the bounce is determined by how high over the net the ball reaches before it dips down, hits the ground and hops away from the opponent. In order to hit it high over the net you have to aim for the bottom of the ball. In order to bring it down into the serve box from such a height you have to generate RPMs on the ball (otherwise known as english) by maximizing racket head speed. That is done by a deep knee bend, maintaining your thighs, and trunk in a straight line, exploding upward into the ball, whipping your arm upward and following through on the same side of your body. The best guys to watch in slo-mo are Edberg, Becker and Sampras. Just hit the pause button and then press FF, or frame by frame. It's awesome!
From Scott Urquhart, Camarillo, CA
I use one myself. The key is the wrist action; you need to start with your wrist cocked back towards your ear, then when you swing, you snap your wrist away from your ear towards your alley in a brushing motion. Try it right now without a racquet. Touch your ear with your right fist and then snap it away to 3 o'clock.
Also make sure your toss is up over your head and not your right shoulder.
*Please note that any advice given out in this forum should in no way be confused with actual medical advice. Before starting any new exercise regimen or altering your existing one, we strongly urge you to consult with your regular physician.
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