Tennis Kick Serve Drill: The Story Behind the “Dirty Diaper”

Ever wondered why this tennis serve is called Dirty Diaper? The reason why it’s called the Dirty Diaper is that one day I was going over this concept with a young boy and he said that the ending of it felt like he was holding his brother’s dirty diaper so we coined the name Dirty Diaper.

Basically, for people that want to learn how to hit topspin serves, we feel that this is a great drill to use.

Let me point out first of all by saying that if you’re a young boy under the age of 12 or 13 and you experience any type of pain in your shoulder or it doesn’t feel right, immediately stop and stick with more of the flat or the slice serve.

But I feel like if you do the right mechanics, if your body is relaxed and you do it at a slow pace, you should be okay. But just keep that in mind ahead of time.

The other thing that I want to point out is that you’re going to be finishing on the same side of your body when you’re done and there’s a tendency for people to be too straight with their arm and that could cause some stress as well. So it’s very important at the very end to feel relaxed like this.

This, again, is one of the go-to drills, whether you’re standing or whether you’re on the ground. The reason we’re going to put you on the ground is it’s going to teach you how to use your body correctly because too many servers are going to be facing the net when they hit the ball and they just come around and hit a slice.

But if you learn to stay more sideways on the serve and keep your shoulders tilted in this manner instead of facing like this, you’re going to keep it tilted in this manner, then you can learn the correct way to the path of the racquet moves.

This is different for a topspin serve. This is different than the flat serve where you pronate out like this. You’ll notice how the racquet strings are facing this direction.

When you swing and you’re done, you actually would want the strings to face towards you. This is how you can come up and over the ball like this. It’s almost like I’m swinging coming up and over like this.

I’m going to get down on my knees and I’m going to do the Dirty Diaper and go through this right now.

You can get down on both knees like this or you can find this position here with the back knee or back leg in this position; the back foot is on the ground. But I’m going to do this with both knees on the ground.

What you’re going to learn when you do this is that your toss might be too far out this way where you have to reach and kind of slice the ball. You’re going to be out like this.

But if you learn to toss it over your head, then you can get that Dirty Diaper feel. You can toss it over your head like that.

You’re going to notice that when you’re on your knees, your toss is going to be the biggest thing you’re going to learn about. You’re going to find that maybe your toss is out here and you have to reach and the racquet hits the ground.

You’re also going to find that it’s going to be hard for you just to relax and bend your arm like this.

Notice that most people are going to swing and their hand is going to be straight and it’s going to go down like this.

That’s a big change to make but that’s why we put you on the ground so you can learn that.

And really, it’s very simple. Once you get the mechanics down, the muscle memory, I know that’s a big disclaimer there, but once you get it down, it feels really nice because basically you’re just popping the ball up in the air like this.

Again, the reference points are: I’m going to start with my racquet here, strings are facing towards where you are going to hit the ball, I’m not in this position, I’m not scratching my back like this, I’m just relaxed right here, I toss it, and then I finish right here. If I tilt my shoulders a little more, then I can actually lift my elbow like that.

Start here, over my head, tilt my shoulders, notice the strings are facing like this, that’s it.

If I hold that too long, I will feel some tension on my shoulder because I’m holding it up. But, again, this is not something where you are swinging 100 miles an hour. It should feel pretty good if you get this right.

This is how you can start to develop that topspin serve.

Then you can stand up and do the exact same thing when you get the feel.

The big point that I wanted to drive home today is that I think you can learn the topspin serve, I know it, if you are willing to take the time. You can start on your knees and the key bullet points are again, how to start, obviously you have to have the right grip which is more of a continental grip but starting to move towards the backhand, and then you get the racquet start in the right place, you get your toss arcing over your head, and you find that spot right here.

Another good coach that I worked with talked about almost brushing, combing the back of your hair with the swing like that.

Now, you don’t want your hand too close to your head; you want it back here. But if you can brush like that off the back of your head, that’s a nice analogy as well.

And then you simply just finish on the same side of your body with the strings facing you.

Hopefully you enjoyed this Dirty Diaper drill and go out and try it.

For greater serve lessons, I want you to go ahead and click the link below and I’m going to help you absolutely transform your serve.

If you want to know more about this controversial tennis serve, read this post on the JST blog.