“Where you start is not as important as where you finish.” — Zig Ziglar
“Each time you avoid saying no to something you really don’t want, you give away your power.” — Amy Morin
“A person doesn’t have to be perfect to be exactly what you need.” — Dr. Elliot Reid
“Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents’ shortcomings.” — Laurence J. Peter
“If the light is great in front of you, you should turn around and see what it is doing behind you.”
– Jay Maisel
An action committed in anger, is an action doomed to failure.” — Genghis Khan
“When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We may not be able to get certainty, but we can get probability, and half a loaf is better than no bread.” — Clive Staples Lewis
Sign on a restaurant tip jar: “If you fear change, leave it here.”
“An action committed in anger, is an action doomed to failure.” — Genghis Khan
“When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We may not be able to get certainty, but we can get probability, and half a loaf is better than no bread.” — Clive Staples Lewis
Sign on a restaurant tip jar: “If you fear change, leave it here.”
An almost unbelievable story of a blue-eyed, shepherd-type dog, Luna, who was lost at sea for five weeks and given up for dead. And then…
Read the Washington Post article about this remarkable story to get more details!
“Don’t be eye candy, be soul food.” — Unknown
“Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle.” — Michelangelo
“Making one person smile can change the world; maybe not the whole world, but their world.” — Pravinee Hurbungs
“Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.” — H.L. Mencken
When I first started playing pickleball, the rule of the serve back then was to “just put the ball in play” and “don’t miss a serve.” The mantra was hit the ball high and deep; or some variation on that theme. Indeed this does work at the beginning levels of play. The emphasis on keeping the ball in play is a solid one because your team can only win points on the serve.
Since that time, I have seen a shift in attitude regarding the serve. New players entering the pickleball court are bringing skills from other sports like racquetball, ping pong, tennis, etc. There seems to be a bit more openness to trying something different on the serve and taking risks.
I too have adopted the more open philosophy in that I will take some chances during a game such as trying to serve the ball close to the line if it is to the backhand of the receiving player. I will also try to spin the ball once in a while just to keep the opposing team off balance a bit.
Here is my rationale. I don’t have a killer serve and most 3.5 and better players can get my serve back without a problem so the point needs to be won during a rally or volley.
There are times, however, if I take a risk and try one of the trickier shots mentioned above, I can often win one or two points a game on my serve by hitting an outright winner or forcing a weak return shot.
Because of this, I figure I can take a chance with my serve until I miss one or two and then I scale back a bit. This makes the game more fun for me and I hope more challenging for my opponents.
Mark Renneson of Third Shot Sports, who has been featured on JBRish many times, has a video addressing the serve. Interestingly enough, I recently had a pickleball coach watch me serve and he made the same points as Mark does. One key element I wasn’t getting quite right, was that I was not hitting the ball low enough on my serve. I was told it should be just above the height of my knee. Keeping this in mind has helped my serve.
Watch the video below and pay attention to the key points Mark makes about hitting the serve.
In Summary, I think these are the take-aways:
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Thanks to Mark and Third Shot Sports for allowing this to be presented on JBRish.com
“Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.” — Plutarch
“If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested, they’re not values, they’re hobbies.” — Jon Stewart
“It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you.” — John Updike
“A married couple that plays cards together is just a fight that hasn’t started yet.” — George Burns
“An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.” — Albert Camus
“Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” — Book of Proverbs
“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.” — William Arthur Ward
“Thinking here goes nothing could be the start of everything.” — Drew Wagner
