The Last Pickleball Serve Tutorial You’ll Ever Need

With so many great pickleball serve options out there, it can be challenging to choose the one that best fits your game. Should you put a spin on the ball? Should you hit it hard or soft? Should you aim for a corner or the middle line?

The truth is that you should develop multiple serves instead of just sticking with one. This helps you mix up your game and keep your opponents on their toes.

In today’s article, we’re going over some mechanics and tips that will help you serve better and score more points off your serves.

What Makes a Good Serve?

A unanimously agreed upon truth in what makes a good serve is that the ball is hit deep. This is perhaps even more important than power and how much height you put on the ball. A deep serve makes it harder to return the ball and keeps your opponents back longer.

Next, the most important aspect of a good pickleball serve is power. While power and depth might seem like the same thing, they aren’t. You can hit a powerful serve that barely crosses the net and lands short. But that would be a worse serve technique than a softer one that goes deep. 

Height is last on the list of importance. Adding height can help you serve it deep, and the higher bounce it causes can wreck the timing of your opponent’s return. This doesn’t mean you should lob your serve, but getting the ball to cross the net a few feet high can be a great way to serve the ball.

A Note on Spin Serves

Who hasn’t been awed by someone who can execute a great spin serve? The problem with spin serves, though, is that they can be extremely difficult to do consistently and take hours and hours of practice to master. There’s also a case to be fought against spin serves because each year, new rules come out to limit them more and more. If you’re an average player, spin serves can make other players on the court dislike playing with you–which is no fun for anyone. If you’re a more competitive player, it probably behooves you to develop some spin serves, but it may be a mistake to rely too heavily on it since you don’t know if it will even be legal in the future.

If you can do a great spin serve, use it. But don’t be surprised if it falls out of fashion or ends up costing you some points from time to time.  

Technique

Proper technique can make a huge difference in the strength of your serve. For most players, starting with your hips and torso facing the sideline will help them generate the most power and torque on their serve. By starting out this way, your arm and paddle will work like a whip (kinetic chain) and transfers a ton of energy into the paddle as it hits the ball. 

Creating the proper motion is about transferring your weight to your back leg, then to your front leg, as your torso rotates. Your paddle, shoulders, and torso should be facing the net instead of the sideline at the end of your swing. This means that you rotated all the way through the ball and delivered the maximum power and drive into it.

Should you bounce the ball or hit it out of the air?

We suggest you try out of the air first, but if you struggle with that, switch to the bounce. We suggest out-of-the-air because it will create the most momentum for the ball and help you hit a stronger shot overall. One of the mistakes people make, however, is that when they hit it out of the air, they throw the ball up. Instead of doing that, simply drop the ball as you bring your paddle forward. 

Practice holding the ball in your non-paddle hand and slowly bringing your serving hand into the ball. Focus on looking the ball into the center of your paddle. Then, try it in real-time. The goal is always to hit as close to the center of the paddle as possible, so you get a clean hit on the ball.

Practicing just a few minutes a day can make a huge difference in you becoming a serve master.

Ready to see these tips and more in action? Check out the full video from Enhance Pickleball. 

Also, check out the Pickleball University blog for more helpful pickleball tips, news, and strategies.