ServeAce by Vesa

Where’s the difference?

When you toss the ball like you’re throwing it, you can clearly see how the player suddenly speeds up the tossing arm at the start of the motion. That jerk causes a loss of control and ruins the accuracy of the toss.

What you actually want is a smooth, consistent arm motion — and once the ball reaches eye level, you simply release it from your hand while continuing the arm path upward. No jerking, just a long, even movement — release the ball and let the arm keep going up.

You can see that in the video — it’s almost like lifting the ball. I could toss it the exact same way even without holding the ball with my fingers, just resting it on my palm.

That gives you a calmer, more controlled toss.

7 Steps: ⬇️

1. Proper continental grip (it can even be slightly more closed toward an eastern backhand grip)

2. Toss the ball over your head (in my case, I toss it slightly behind my head, around 11 o’clock)

3. Let the ball drop lower than you would for a first serve, giving yourself room to brush up on the ball

4. The racket path must follow a 7–1 o’clock direction

5. It is essential to stay side-on throughout the motion

6. After contact, your hand should move to the right (for a right-handed player) instead of following the ball’s trajectory

7. Your body should follow the direction of the ball

Also, what I need to add is that for a kick serve it is essential to have a good range of motion in external shoulder rotation and in the thoracic spine (thoracic extension).

An extreme kick serve like this should ideally be used as a surprise weapon against your opponent, especially on the advantage side, where it can push them far off the court and set up your next shot.

With extreme kick and slice serves, the ball has significant spin, which reduces speed. If used too often, your opponent can adjust and potentially attack you despite the high bounce.

So use it wisely, and let your opponent struggle to keep up!

Read below if you are struggling with a racquet drop ⬇️

The phase of the serve where the racquet drops behind the head is called the COCKING PHASE!

WITHOUT THE COCKING PHASE, THERE’S NO GOOD SERVE!

This is the last phase where we store energy, and in this phase, all the energy is concentrated in the upper body. At this point, the legs only act as anchors to stabilize the body.

Several things need to align for a good racquet drop:

1. The elbow must be high, pointing towards the sky.
2. The chest should also face the sky (thoracic extension – make sure to extend in the chest area, not the lower back).
3. The racquet should point toward the back hill.

HOW YOU ENTER THE COCKING PHASE DEPENDS ON YOUR STYLE!

There isn’t just one correct takeback (backswing). In tennis history, we’ve seen servers with a long takeback (Ivanisevic), a very short one (Roddick), or something in between (Isner). In the end, what matters is entering the loading phase of the serve (the trophy position) correctly.

However, the style I’m demonstrating in this video can help if you struggle with the racquet drop. Allowing the wrist to lag behind the arm and whipping the racquet while it’s still on the right side of your body (when viewed from behind) will speed up the racquet as it passes your head and help you enter the cocking phase better.

The key to this is a relaxed arm, wrist, and grip!

What I recommend is first checking your range of motion:

- In shoulder external rotation
- In thoracic extension

If you have limited range in any of these areas, that could be the direct reason you’re struggling with this phase of the serve motion.

Ready to master your racquet drop? Start practicing now!

You asked me yesterday for another angle of pronation, so I’m sharing this clip again because I think the arm movement can be seen very clearly here.

Also, on yesterday’s video I was sending a physical test to anyone who messaged me with the text from the description, so you can check whether the reason you don’t have pronation might be physical. If you’re interested, I recommend checking that video.

When it comes to pronation, I will always repeat this because it’s part of my mission to correct a common misconception online where this movement is called only pronation. Pronation is just one part of a more complex movement called long axis rotation. Long axis rotation consists of internal shoulder rotation and forearm pronation, where internal shoulder rotation makes up the larger part of the movement. Together, they lead to the racket face pointing toward the side fence after contact. This movement is present in all overhead actions such as throwing, spiking, serving, and smashing.