Tommy Paul’s Kick Serve & “Cobra” Forehand Development

Key Points

• Relaxing and loosening up the arm and wrist to create the ‘‘cobra” feeling, allowed Tommy Paul to develop his forehand into the weapon you see today
• Between the ages of 14 and 16, Diego and Tommy isolated the serve and forehand and most of the time was spent working on that
• Tommy and Diego spent countless hours working on the slice to develop the variety in his game that has worked so well on the pro tour
• When trying to change Tommy’s forehand, it was important to get him to understand that he would lose ground on the forehand by moving back and looping the ball
• Tommy’s hands, arms and head would move and “flail” when running and hitting forehands, so Diego focused on the use of the non-dominant hand and keeping the upper body stable
• Using the kick serve as a first serve and learning all the different variations of spin and kick serves, helped Tommy Paul develop his word class kick serve