There are several reasons why technical issues with the serve can manifest at the worst times – pressure from the game, fatigue both mental and physical, or environmental conditions. Consider these possible solutions to a flawed serve.
Pickleball is a fantastic sport for players of all ages and skill levels, but it’s essential to recognize and address common serving mistakes to improve your game. Focusing on your footwork, ball toss, power control, paddle technique, and variety of serves, will get you on your way to becoming a more formidable player on the court. Remember, practice makes perfect, so dedicate time to working on these aspects of your game and watch your pickleball skills soar.
Pickleball Serving Mistakes
Overview
#1 Mistake: Faulty Foot work
One of the most common mistakes made during pickleball serves is incorrect footwork and body positioning. If you are serving the ball out on a consistent basis, check to see if your feet are too close together – this may indicate that you are struggling with an ability to maintain balance. If your feet are too far apart – this may indicate a lack in an ability to generate power. If your serve is weak or inaccurate, this may be an indication of improper body positioning; such as, leaning too far forward or backward.
How to Fix It
To correct faulty footwork issues, begin by practicing a proper stance. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, with your front foot pointed towards the net and your back foot slightly angled. Bend your knees and keep your weight centered. Engage your core and maintain a straight but relaxed posture, ensuring that your shoulders remain square to the net. Regularly practicing this stance will help you build muscle memory and ensure proper footwork and body positioning during your serves.
#2 Mistake: An Inconsistent Ball Toss
If your serve is too low and goes into the net, or your serve consistently goes deep past the baseline, or you are off to one side out-of-bounds, there is an issue with clean contact and execution of an accurate serve.
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How to Fix It
To improve your ball toss, focus on a smooth and consistent motion. The ball should be held with the fingertips and the arm should be extend in front. Releasing the ball gently, aiming for a height just above the paddle’s reach can make contact consistent and develop a reliable serve. Practice making contact with the ball in the same spot, or dropping it with consistency.
Mistake #3: Hitting the Ball Too Hard or Too Soft
The right balance of power and control in your pickleball serve can be challenging at times. When a player hits the ball too hard can lead to missed serves and lost points, also when a player hits the ball too soft, this may cause a short ball which brings opponents to the NVZ line and making an easily returned serve with power.
How to Fix It
To find the right balance, practice varying your serve’s power and aim for a mix of deep and short serves. Focus on using your whole body to generate power, not just your arm. This includes engaging your core, transferring weight from your back foot to your front foot, and following through with your paddle. As you experiment with different levels of power, you’ll discover the optimal amount of force to use in various game situations.
Mistake #4: Poor Paddle and Grip Technique
Paddle and grip technique play a significant role in the effectiveness of a pickleball serve. An improper grip can lead to a lack of control, while poor paddle positioning can result in off-target serves.
How to Fix It
To improve grip, hold the paddle with a “shake hands” grip, keeping your fingers wrapped around the handle and your thumb resting along the back. Avoid gripping the paddle too tightly, as this can limit your wrist movement and reduce control.
For optimal paddle positioning, ensure that your paddle face is slightly open (tilted upwards) during the serve, enabling you to generate lift and clear the net. Practice maintaining this paddle position throughout your serving motion for a more consistent and accurate serve.
Predictability is easy to defend. Opponents will quickly adapt to patterns, making it difficult for you to win points.
How to Fix It
To keep your opponents guessing, incorporate a variety of serves into your repertoire. Practice different types of serves, such as the high, deep serve; the short, low serve; or the slice serve, which adds spin to the ball. By mixing up your serves, you’ll keep your opponents off-balance and create more opportunities to score points.
For the last several months, the team at Successful Pickleball has been busy in the laboratory preparing for several product launches that we believe will be extremely beneficial for the pickleball addict. With each launch, our goal is to, simply, create a product/services that will, ultimately, help pickleball players enhance and maximize their pickle-ability – tips, strategies and other news about all things Pickleball!
It’s quite apparent that skills are made up of movements and to better understand it, we should consider this definition, “skills are the ability to bring about some end result with maximum certainty with the goal of a player to exert minimum energy, or time, and energy”, Motor Learning and Performance (2014).
The serve can be frustrating especially when the ball seems to veer off in unexplained directions or the power just isn’t there. Often times when you’ve lost your serve, it could be an easy fix.
Because serving is a compound skill, it can produce technical issues:
Lack of power – Probably caused by inadequate body rotation. Practice the serve motion without a ball and exaggerate hip and shoulder rotation. Another deficient power problem may be too much bend in the elbow or a very short backswing.
Easy Fix Solution: Practice keeping your arm straight and exaggerate arm extension.
[…] Serving, every point in a pickleball game starts with a serve. The serve provides many opportunities to set up your strategies to win points in […]
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[…] Serving, every point in a pickleball game starts with a serve. The serve provides many opportunities to set up your strategies to win points in […]
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