JEFF COHEN: Hi, I'm Jeff Cohen. In today's segment, we're going to talk about the serve. There are basically three types of serves. You have a flat serve, you have a kick serve, and you have a slice serve. Okay, to get started with the serve, we're going to talk about the grip and how you should start as far as stance goes. The most popular grip is the continental grip, which is used by most players, beginner or advanced. That's the preferred grip of choice. And when you start to serve, you always want to be a little bit sideways before you throw the ball up. For the most part, your arms will go down and up together. And once again, there are three types of serves. You have a flat, you have a kick, and you have a slice. When you hit the flat serve, for those of you who are right-handed, you're going to hit the ball at about 1 o'clock. And for me to demonstrate that, think as if there's a clock directly over your head, right over your head is 12 o'clock. A smidgen to your right is 1, 2, 3 and so on. So for the flat serve, you're going to hit the ball at 1 o'clock. For the slice serve, for all you righties out there, you're going to hit the ball at about 2 o'clock. And for the kick serve, which is a fairly advanced top spin serve, you're actually going to arch your back a little bit, use your legs a little bit more and you're going to actually make contact with that ball around 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock. The most important part to this whole process is without a doubt the toss. You have to develop a good toss. Without a good toss, nothing else matters. Now, let's talk about how we can get that toss where we want it to go. You're going to have your continental grip. You're going to start a little bit sideways and the arms are going to go down together and up together. And the way that you want to load a big power source for you is to make sure that your hitting arm gets in a back-scratch position, so it's going to look something like this. You're going to get that racket in that back-scratch position then it's just a matter of accelerating up using your legs if possible and meeting the ball with your arm fully extended. One of the tips that I have is throw your racket towards the clouds, so make sure that you reach up for the ball. That will give you optimal power. And just prior to the back swing, make sure you use your non-dominant hand for little support. You can use that somewhere near the throat of the racket. When you swing up for the serve and you make contact with your arm fully extended, remember, you're going to swing up and you're going to finish across your body. Be prepared to hit the return of serve, just in case your serve comes back. So remember the two T's, toss and timing. In order to have a good serve, you must have a good toss. With a good toss comes good timing. Good luck on that serve.
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