How to serve in tennis step-by-step (bonus: the kick serve)

TL;DR: To serve in tennis, hold the racket with a continental grip, stand side-on behind the baseline, and toss the ball slightly in front of you and to your hitting side. Important: As the ball rises, bend your knees, then drive up with your legs and swing up to the ball, letting your forearm turn over through contact so the racket finishes across your body. Then, you hit this first serve flat or with slice for pace, and use a kick serve, with heavy topspin, as a safe second serve.

Most of the power in a good serve doesn't come from the arm. In their review of serve research for the journal Sports Health, Kovacs and Ellenbecker report that the legs and trunk produce 51% to 55% of the energy and force that reaches the hand.

Little tip - if you serve with only your arm, it has to work far harder to make up the difference, which is why arm-only servers tire quickly and often end up with sore shoulders.

Tennis serve: 8 stages

Coaches and sports scientists often describe the serve in 8 stages, grouped into 3 phases. The widely cited model from Kovacs and Ellenbecker is a useful checklist when something goes wrong.

The preparation phase covers the start, when you set your feet and grip, the release of the ball from your tossing hand, the loading, when you bend your knees and tilt your shoulders as the ball rises, and the cocking, when the racket drops down behind your back.

The acceleration phase covers the swing up to the ball and the contact itself.

The follow-through phase covers the deceleration of the arm and the finish, when you land and recover for the next shot.

Each stage sets up the next. A poor toss forces a poor loading position, and a weak leg drive leaves the arm to do everything. When a serve breaks down, look at the stage before the one that feels wrong.

How to serve, step by step

These are the steps for a basic serve with a little slice, which is where most players should start.

The examples assume a right-handed player; if you are left-handed, mirror everything.

1. Hold the racket with a continental grip, as if you were holding a hammer. Our guide to tennis grips explained shows how to find it.

2. Stand behind the baseline, side-on to the net, with your front foot pointing towards the right net post and your feet about shoulder width apart.

3. Hold the ball lightly in your fingertips and lift your tossing arm straight up, releasing the ball at about head height so it rises a little higher than you can reach with your racket.

4. As the ball rises, bend your knees and let your hitting arm come up into the "trophy position", with the racket pointing up behind you and your elbow at about shoulder height.

5. Drive up with your legs and let the racket drop behind your back, then swing up to the ball.

6. Hit the ball at full stretch, slightly in front of you, letting your forearm turn over (pronate) through contact so the racket face finishes pointing away from you.

7. Let the racket follow through across your body to the opposite side and land on your front foot, inside the court, ready for the next shot.

The toss deserves most of your practice time. Kovacs and Ellenbecker recommend a toss slightly to the side of your head rather than straight above it, so you hit the ball with your arm at around 100 degrees from your body. A toss directly overhead, at 12 o'clock, forces the arm into an awkward position and is linked to shoulder impingement. If your toss drifts, catch it and start again: under the rules, catching a bad toss is not a fault.

Flat, slice and kick serves

There are three main types of serve, and the difference between them is how much spin you put on the ball and how much speed you give up for it. A study of elite male players by Sakurai, Reid and Elliott, published in Sports Biomechanics in 2013, measured both.

The trade-off is clear: the kick serve carries more than two and a half times the spin of the flat serve but travels about 25 mph slower. That spin is what makes it safe. Topspin pulls the ball down into the box, so you can hit it well over the net and still land it in, and the high bounce pushes the returner back.

Most players should use a flat or slice serve as their first serve and a kick or a heavy slice as their second. The research review by Kovacs and Ellenbecker also notes that the lower body works in much the same way for all three serves. The difference comes mainly from the toss, the angle of the racket and the direction of the swing.

How to hit a kick serve

The kick serve is the hardest serve to learn because the racket has to brush up and across the back of the ball rather than hit through it. These are the changes from your basic serve.

Toss the ball a little further over your head, slightly to your left rather than to your right. Don't let it drift behind your head, though: a toss that forces you to arch your back a long way is hard on your spine and your shoulder, and you can still hit a good kick from a toss only slightly more to the left than your normal one.

Bend your knees and keep your body sideways for longer than on a flat serve, so the racket can come up from below the ball.

Swing up and out, towards the right net post, brushing the back of the ball from about seven o'clock to one o'clock on a clock face. The racket should finish to your right side rather than across your body.

Aim high. The ball should clear the net by a metre or more, and the topspin will bring it down into the box. Start at the service line hitting gentle kick serves before you move back to the baseline. Most players need weeks of practice before it feels natural, so give it time.

Your second serve

At club level, a reliable second serve matters more than a big first serve. A double fault gives away a point for nothing, so the goal is a serve that lands in nine times out of ten and still doesn't sit up for the returner.

Use spin rather than slowing your arm down. A slow, flat second serve is easy to attack and still goes into the net when you tighten up. Swinging at close to full speed with plenty of kick or slice gives you both control and enough weight on the ball to stop the returner stepping in.

Pick a target with a safe margin, such as the middle of the box or the returner's backhand, and keep the same routine for every second serve: the same number of bounces, the same breath, the same toss. Under pressure, a routine you trust is worth more than an extra few miles an hour.

The rules of the serve

The serving rules come from the International Tennis Federation's Rules of Tennis, revised for 2026. Before you start your motion, you must stand still with both feet behind the baseline, between the centre mark and the sideline. You serve from the right side first in every game, alternating sides after each point, and the ball must clear the net and land in the service box diagonally opposite.

You can release the ball in any direction and must hit it before it touches the ground, which means an underarm serve is legal. It is rare at the top level and often seen as a surprise tactic, but nothing in the rules forbids it.

A foot fault is called if, during the motion, you walk or run to change position, touch the baseline or the court inside it with either foot, or step beyond the imaginary extensions of the sideline or the centre mark. Jumping is allowed: one or both feet can be off the ground when you hit the ball.

A serve that clips the net and then lands in the correct box is a let and is replayed, but a let doesn't wipe out an earlier fault. If you miss the ball completely when trying to hit it, it is a fault. If you toss the ball and decide not to hit it, you can catch it or let it bounce and start again without penalty.

Common serve mistakes and how to fix them

The most common mistake is a forehand-style grip. It makes the first few serves feel easier, because the racket face points at the target, but it blocks the forearm rotation that gives the serve its speed and spin. Switch to the continental grip early, even if your serve gets worse for a few weeks.

The second is serving with the arm alone. If your knees stay straight and your feet stay flat, all the work falls on your shoulder. Think of pushing the ground away as you swing up, and land inside the court.

The third is an inconsistent toss. Most "swing" problems are toss problems in disguise. If the ball lands in a different place every time, your swing has to change every time too. Fix the toss first.

The fourth is aiming too low. Many club players try to hit the serve down into the box, which sends it into the net. Hit up at the ball and let gravity and spin bring it down.

Drills to build your serve

The toss drill: stand in your serving position without a racket and toss the ball, letting it drop. It should land slightly in front of your front foot and a little to your hitting side. Do twenty tosses at the start of every session until they all land in the same small area.

The service line drill: stand on the service line and hit gentle serves with your full motion into the box. Being closer lets you feel the brushing contact of slice and kick without worrying about the net. Move back a few steps at a time as the serves start to land.

The target drill: put a towel or cones in the corners of each box and serve ten balls at each one, counting how many land within a racket length. Do it with your second serve as well as your first, and write the numbers down so you can see progress.

Get your serve checked by a coach

The serve is the one shot you control completely, which also makes it the easiest to groove the wrong way. A coach can spot a toss or grip problem in a few balls and give you drills to fix it before it becomes a habit. If you are planning a training trip to Spain, our private tennis lessons let you spend a whole session on your serve.