Service Form Check: Common Focus Points For Beginners And Intermediates

There is only one shot in pickleball that you have complete control over no matter what, and that is the serve. An effective serve can be the difference between winning a match comfortably and struggling to get points on offense. Here are five tips I give to players who may be struggling to improve their serve, starting from the ground up:

1.) Notice where your front foot is

When learning how to serve, many players are taught one specific rule: make sure your feet are behind the baseline during the serve. However, many players simply aren't aware of just how much power they can generate by simply having their foot angled a different way. Many beginners and intermediate players overlook this critical detail, unaware that they are capable of much more powerful and effective serves. Next time you're serving on the court, try to point your front foot at the closest net post, or directly parallel to the baseline. What this does is enable your body to rotate more through the service motion, which is one way of generating more power and depth on your serves.

2.) Bend your knees, and keep them bent!

Many players are taught to bend their knees through the service motion, but very few are taught to remain low throughout the shot. This often leads to very inconsistent serving, where players will pop up the serve and send it long, or contact the ball too high and send it directly into the net. It is extremely important to keep your knees engaged through the service motion, pushing through the court on the serve and staying low to ensure proper weight transfer.

3.) Throw your hips into the serve

One of the most overlooked parts of the service motion is what your hips are doing. Many people tend to isolate the rotation in their service motion to the upper body, which by itself is correct but is not the full picture. If you are struggling to serve with power and depth, I would suggest imagining throwing your hips through the point of contact during your service motion. You will know if you are doing this correctly if you are unconsciously taking a slight step forward into the court during the follow through of your serve. This is a signal that you are properly transferring your weight, and therefore your power, into the ball effectively.

4.) A good takeback comes from your shoulders, not your arm

The most common and intuitive way beginners and intermediate players take their paddle back on the serve is to pull their paddle back super far, winding up with their arm to generate distance between themselves and the ball. While this may give them power, taking your paddle back with your arm by itself can lead to inconsistency which can make your life very difficult. The best players take their paddle back by rotation their shoulders and having a very small paddle loop with their arm. The fundamental concept here is that power is not generated directly from the arm, but rather using your whole body, specifically your bigger muscles like your shoulder, core, and hips.

5.) You're gripping the paddle too tightly!

Finally, the last tip I usually give to beginner and intermediate players is that they are most likely using too tight of a grip on their paddle when serving. Many players believe that holding their paddle with a tight grip will allow for more control, but this could not be further from the truth. A tight paddle grip will lead to tighter muscles which will slow down your swing motion, which leads to less power, spin, and consistency. The very best players grip their paddle with a light grip, allowing for full flexibility through the motion and increased paddle speed. On a scale of 1-10, I would suggest holding the paddle at around a 3-4. You will know if you are holding the paddle loosely enough where you feel like you are not dropping the paddle through the motion, but are able to completely and freely control the paddle in your hand.

Those were five tips for beginner and intermediate players to focus on while trying to improve their serve. If you would like to improve your serve even faster, please book a lesson with me and let me know this blog post is what made you decide to take lessons with me.