SECOND SERVE NOT JUST A SECOND TRY
It is sad but true, that a distinguishing characteristic of many public court players is the lack of a second serve. Okay, it may not REALLY be sad; but it is true. Often public court players, including many of my fellow QEhardrocks, are self taught. And very often, the self taught player seems to treat the second serve as simply a second try. The brave ones count on the laws of chance to avoid double fault, and whack a hard serve, same as the first one, when they must make a second attempt. These players rack up a large number of double faults, if they are not having a wonderful day. More cautious souls do a kind of overhead bunt, to assure the ball plops into the service box. If there is a player of intermediate or better skill receiving the bunt, the ball will be given a good thump, and the point ended then and there. This blogger was for many years exactly the sort of player I describe, either whacking again, or bunting, the second try. But I played only rarely, and did not worry about it.
Of course, even for the professionals, the second serve is a second try. But much more than that, it is nearly always a serve that imparts heavy spin to the ball, to ensure that it clears the net and falls into the service box, and then behaves in a way that will cause difficulty for the receiver. The spin used most often is topspin, applied with some sidespin. If topspin is the dominant feature, the stroke can be termed a topspin serve. If sidespin is applied with the topspin, the serve is usually called a kick serve, or sometimes an American twist serve. These appellations are given to describe the high jump up and to the side, taken by the ball because of the spin, when it hits the court surface. However the kick serve, or American twist, is still regarded as a “topspin” serve. While topspin is widely used for second serves, the kick serve is used as a first serve for players who wish to serve and volley, often in doubles play. The extra time taken by the ball’s loopy trajectory allows a player to approach the net, and the kick off to the side and up can bring a poorly controlled return attackers can easily exploit.
When I was past middle age, after having moved back to Vancouver from Montreal, new friends invited me to play tennis. Vancouver has more free public courts than I have seen or heard of anywhere else. It is easy to get into playing here. I became enthralled with the game of doubles. This activity got me seeking a proper second serve, along with improved skill at all the other shots that help one play the game.
While my enthusiasm inspired me to get myself a fair bit of group coaching, it was actually a book that was the greatest help in solving the mysteries of the second serve. The kick serve is not that easy to learn, and I was happy to find The Handbook of Tennis, by Paul Douglas, (Alfred A. Knopf, publisher, New York) that had illustrations and text to detail the salient features of all the strokes of tennis, including the topspin serve, and its variant, the kick serve. That book is out of print now. It will likely never be reprinted, because the players and racquets depicted in its pages are now all retired. The book was first published when most players were still using wood sticks. My copy is a revised and updated edition printed in 1996. Despite the fact that we now use racquets made of spiffy new materials, with larger heads, that have greatly increased the pace that can be imparted to the ball, most of the strokes used to hit that fuzzy yellow orb remain little changed. The Handbook of Tennis is still an extremely useful tool for self coaching, and if, dear reader, you ever run across a copy, don’t be shy about picking it up.
This tutorial on the secrets of the topspin/kick serve borrows illustrations and text, and some few modestly altered phrases of text, from The Handbook of Tennis. Below that, see a page from tennis.com, and further down, several videos by coaches who are associated with tennis web sites.
DOING A TOPSPIN SERVE
As with any shot in tennis, a topspin/kick serve begins with the grip. The one-handed grips used for tennis have names that are associated with the locale at which the grips came into use, as a means of coping with the height of ball bounce on a certain court surface type. Readers who are not already familiar with these names need not worry about them. Just imitate the grip shown in the drawings. For all the still graphics below, click on it to enlarge.
The ball toss for a topspin/kick serve should not be into the court as for a flat, hard first serve.
The full stroke should look something like this.
Work on getting the spin.
Lest female readers be thinking that a second serve is somehow a “man thing”, watch Samantha Stosur play, and note how many times her use of the kick serve either wins the point outright, or gives her the advantage in the rally. Read Lindsay Davenport on Sam Stosur’s second serve below. Click on the graphic to enlarge.
For more demonstration and tips on practice, check out the videos below from people who are far better schooled than I in the secrets of the strokes of tennis.
TOM AVERY on the topspin serve
BRENT ABEL on practicing a topspin serve
RON WAITE on the kick serve by a less than agile player
Please note that Ron Waite’s emphasis on throwing the ball behind you is not necessary for everyone. An aggressive kick serve can be achieved by the player rising up and into the court beneath the ball when the toss is high, so shoulder, racquet, and ball, are all in the same position at contact as with Ron Waite’s version of the serve. But that is for a more athletic player.
ROGER FEDERER shows what a kick serve can do
See? Simple.
