The Best Shot in Pickleball
What is the most important shot in pickleball? Well... it’s the one that allows you to take your time, strategically place the shot, and take advantage of the opponent’s weakness. What shot is that? A lob shot? A pop-up? A return shot? No - it’s the serve.
The History of the Serve
The pickleball serve was originally meant to start a pickleball game. Unlike in tennis, where a serve often results in immediate points won, the serving team in pickleball was meant to get the ball into play - not smash an ace in the face of their opponents. This comes back to the origins of pickleball, and it being a family-friendly game for people of all skill levels.
The pickleball serving rules keep better pickleball players from taking advantage of less skilled players, but still provide an opportunity to pick up easy points when done correctly. The pickleball serve has evolved, and those who are skilled in serving the ball do have a competitive edge.
Serving with Intention
Taking the time to really premeditate the serve gives you an advantage, as it immediately places your opponents at a disadvantage from the start of play. Strategically placing the serve puts your competition out of balance and sets you up for an even better third shot.
Making the Serve Fundamental to the Game
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen different serves come and go; the chainsaw, spin-serve, and other manipulations. However, the way you make the serve meaningful is always about practice and placement. Going out on the court with some low-profile cones as targets helps you refine where your serve will land.
Where you choose to place the ball in play depends on whether you’re playing against a left or right-handed player. It matters where your opponent is standing and whether their weight is shifted in a certain direction. Take a glance at their feet and their pickleball paddle to determine where they are more likely to go. Hitting the ball into an unexpected area may have them off balance from the beginning of the point.
Practicing the Serve in Pickleball
Practicing the serve is an exercise you can do alone, working on placement in the corners, baseline, or even a soft-serve landing just past the kitchen line (or non-volley zone line). However, working with a partner may be best as it will help you during games and give you a better feel for how to strategize based on the opponent’s body language.
There are a number of legal serves you can use to keep your opponents guessing; the lob, side-line serves, back-line serves, and even spin serves. The spin serve is still a legal serve under the newest rules, but it can’t be done by using anything but the surface of the paddle. With many of the new pickleball paddles having surfaces capable of creating spin, it’s just a matter of learning new ways to hold the paddle to master this capability.
Practice hitting the ball with under-spin, over-spin, or slices. While these types of serves are difficult to master, it makes all the difference when you can control the flight, path, and landing. Experiment until you’re comfortable with different types of serves, and then try them out on opponents to see the results of all your hard work.
Keep Your Opponent Guessing
If you do get skilled with one particular serve, don’t lean too hard on it during a game, as it can become predictable and thus ineffective. Mix up your serves to keep your opponents guessing, including the speed of the serve. In other words, to have an effective serve, you don’t have to crush the ball - soft, off-speed serves are very effective as they appear easy, yet are tricky as they change up the cadence of the game and throw off many players.
What Pickleball Shots Should Be Practiced Other than a Serve?
A serve can be the most important shot in the game, but there are several basic shots that are important to master on the pickleball court. If you want to improve more than just your serve, work with a certified pickleball instructor and work on the following types of shots:
Backhand
Backhand punch
Backswing
Bangers
Dink shot
Forehand
Groundstroke
Keep in mind that you should always be considering your next shot. Keep an eye on your opponent’s feet when making your shot selection, as this can be an easy way to determine whether to try a hard shot or a soft shot, and hit it towards the sideline, transition zone, baseline, or drop it into the nvz.
Avoid hitting the same shots repeatedly, as your opponents will learn to anticipate it if you consistently hit a drive with topspin, cross-court dink, or a third shot drop whenever you’re in position on the court. Hitting shots in pickleball is about skill, of course, but also about strategy.
To practice some fundamental shots, check out 5 of the Best Pickleball Shots Every Player Needs to Know.
