3 Types of Tennis Serves: Flat, Slice, and Kick

An In-depth Guide

If you’re looking to develop an effective serve that’s a weapon, then it’s crucial to understand and learn how to execute the three different types of tennis serves.

The three primary types of tennis serves include the flat, slice, and kick serve. In this article, we’ll cover these topics for each type of serve:

An overview
The advantages and disadvantages
How to toss the ball
The ideal contact point and racquet angle
Tips for the best result

We’ll start by talking briefly about why you should learn the three types of tennis serves.

Article Contents

Why Learn 3 Serves

Flat Serve

Slice Serve

Kick Serve

Beyond 3 Types of Serves

Serve Tips

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Why Learn 3 Different Types of Tennis Serves?

When you’re first getting started with tennis, your primary goal will likely be to develop a single reliable serve that allows you to begin a point and play the game.

As your game improves, learning all three types of serves will allow you to compete at a higher level by bringing variety to your service game.

Remember, when you serve, you have a considerable advantage because you begin the point on offense and can control and dictate the point from the start.

However, your ability to control the point is tied heavily to executing an effective serve that keeps your opponent guessing and prevents them from establishing a rhythm.

That’s where variety is king and why learning the three different types of serves is crucial.

Serves for Different Players & Court Surfaces

Your ability to hit more than one type of serve will allow you to be more competitive against different players and on various court surfaces.

For example, if you’re 6′ tall and playing a 5’4 opponent,” then you might be able to take advantage of their height by hitting a kick serve that’s way out of their strike zone or even over their head, making it challenging for them to return.

On the other hand, if you were to try that same serve against a 6’5 opponent,” then you may find it lands much closer to their strike zone, allowing them to hit an easy return.

For the taller opponent, who might not move as well as a shorter player, you might hit a slice serve at their body because they’ll struggle to reposition themselves quickly when returning.

The same goes for court surfaces. If you’re playing on a clay court, you may love your kick serve, where you benefit from the higher bounces that make this serve even more challenging to return.

However, on grass, that same kick serve won’t jump nearly as high, so you might rely on your slice serve, which stays low, making it challenging to return when playing on grass.

Ultimately, the greater variety of serves you can hit, the more you can adjust your strategy to compete at a higher level against different players and on various court surfaces.

The Flat Serve

The flat serve is perhaps one of the most sought-after serves in tennis because it’s synonymous with power and the ability to hit an ace.

The flat serve gets its name from the fact that minimal spin is applied to the ball when making contact. As a result, when the flat serve hits the court, it tends to bounce low and continue straight forward from where it lands in the court.

Advantages

Speed: The faster a serve is hit, the less time your opponent will have to react, which can cause players to make contact with the ball late or mistime their shot.
Easy points: A well-placed flat serve is perfect for winning a point outright with an ace, or at the very minimum, forcing your opponent to block the ball back for an easy setup or putaway shot.
Low bounce: as the name suggests, flat serves have minimal spin. As a result, when the ball hits the court, it stays low, which forces a player to have to bend and get low or return out of their strike zone.

Disadvantages

A low margin of error: Easily, the biggest downside of the hard flat serve is that it’s challenging to keep it in, let alone place it well in the service box. As a result, the overuse of a hard flat serve can lead to giving away too many free points or forcing you to rely heavily on your second serve.
Reaction time: The same speed that makes it difficult for your opponent to return a hard flat serve can make it challenging for you to field a well-executed return off of a flat serve because you’ll have less time to react.
Serve and volley: Due to the shorter reaction time that you may have fielding your opponent’s return, it can be challenging to move forward and volley.

Helpful Tip
Generally, the taller you are, the easier it will be to execute a hard flat serve because you have more clearance over the net and, therefore, a higher margin for error. If you’re short, the flat serve is more challenging to execute because you have less clearance over the net, which reduces your margin of error.

Flat Serve Technique

Let’s take a look at some of the details that will help ensure you can hit a great flat serve.

Grip

First and foremost, it’s important to make sure you’re using the correct grip for the flat serve. The good news is that you’ll use the continental grip for all three types of serves, so you only need to learn this one grip if you’re not already familiar with it.

Toss Placement

When hitting a flat serve, you’ll want your toss to be roughly 12-18 inches in front of you and approximately 6 inches to the right of your tossing arm’s shoulder at the peak of the toss. For an in-depth review of the serve toss, be sure to check out our post on perfecting your serve toss technique.

This photo was snapped at the height of the toss so you can get a sense of accurate placement.

Flat Serve: Toss Placement

Contact Point & Racquet Angle

Next, let’s talk about how to make contact with the ball. Since you’re looking to hit the ball flat or without any spin, you’ll want to try to strike the ball directly from behind without brushing up on the ball or hitting the side of the ball.

Here’s a photo that shows the contact point against the ball as well as the correct racquet face angle, which is flat to avoid putting spin on the ball.

Flat Serve: Contact Point & Racquet Angle

Flat Serve Video

Now that you know what to look for when hitting a flat serve, here’s a video that shows the entire flat service motion. I’ve included brief stops to help you get a sense for toss placement, contact, point, and racquet angle.

Tennis Serve Toss - Flat Serve Placement

Flat Serve Tips

When hitting a flat serve, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Avoid Overuse

Many players enjoy hitting a big flat serve and rely almost exclusively on it as their first serve even if they only make 10% of them. The problem with this mentality and a low first serve percentage is that it takes a great deal of pressure off your opponent.

Typically, your opponent will be in defense mode when returning your first serve because they know that you can throw anything at them. However, once you miss your first serve, the pressure equalizes to a degree.

On your side, there is pressure to hit your second serve in, which forces you to take some pace off the serve and subsequently gives your opponent more confidence in their return.

As a result, it can be beneficial to avoid overusing a big flat serve and to use other types of serves that have a higher margin of error while focusing on quality placement to put the pressure on your opponent.

Use it Strategically

Since a big flat serve has a lower margin for error, it’s worth being thoughtful when you choose to use it. For example, if you’re up 40-15 when serving, you might throw a big flat serve in to try and close out the game. If you miss, the pressure is still on your opponent to hit a great return off your slower second serve.

On the other hand, if you’re down 15-40, a big flat serve can be a considerable risk. If you miss, then you’ll have to rely on your second serve to keep you in the game with your opponent, who is ready to take a chance themselves and close out the game.

Use the Middle of the Net

The middle of the net is its lowest point, so it’s easier to execute a flat serve at that point of the net on either side.

The Slice Serve

The slice serve is a highly effective serve that can become a huge weapon when perfected. What makes the slice serve unique is the sidespin applied, which causes the ball to move from right to left (if you’re a righty) and continue to move in that direction off the bounce.

The slice serve’s name comes from the brushing action, or slice, applied to the tennis ball to produce sidespin.