The Pickleball Show

Pickleball Serve: Is Variety the Advantage You Need to Win?

Jeff

Many of the essays, articles, books addressing the Pickleball serve will advise players to hit the ball high and deep and sometimes the word SLOW is used in conjunction with the advisory. The idea is twofold:

  • 1) Keep the opposing team away from the net and
  • 2) Make them supply the pace (power) behind any return shot

The two elements above may help the serving team get to the net as quickly as possible and it is true that the idea is to gain control of the net. All else being equal, the team “controlling” the net should win most of the points.

The popularity of Pickleball is soaring and more and more young people are finding their way to the Pickleball courts. This is great for the game. With their athleticism and speed, the serve is taking on more importance as a factor in the game.

Tennis and Pickleball Coach Mark Rennseson, with more than eighteen years experience, agrees with The Pickleball Show host Chris Allen that, once again, all things being equal, the team serving the ball only has a forty percent chance of winning the point. The receiving team has a 60-40 chance of winning the serve so why not try to change those odds?

Mark also suggests that since the serve is the only time you have complete control of the ball and where it is going to go, you should take advantage of it by doing more with the ball than “just getting it in play.” He doesn’t believe serving high and deep is the way to go for everyone.

Coach Rennseson encourages the more adventurous and perhaps intermediate to advanced players, to take more of a chance to gain the advantage. By varying the type of serve, the receiver’s potential for hitting a weaker return increases thus enabling the serving team to gain the upper hand. The issue of missing the serve a couple of times a game might not be that bad if the server(s) can cause the receiving team to make enough errors.

You can listen to this discussion via the podcast of The Pickleball Show, episode 7, starting at 13:19 into the show.

As a matter of fact, the Pickleball video (below), Pickleball 411: Three Serves and Why You Need Them, provides an explanation of what the three types of serves are and reasons for using them. NOTE: This is not an instructional video of “HOW” to execute these shots, but an explanation why you might want to use them.



“In this episode (above) of Pickleball 411, our host, Rusty Howes, is joined by Jennifer Lucore, Alex Hamner and Bob Youngren who demonstrate the different serves they use and explain when and why they use them. We hope this detailed episode will help all of you take your pickleball game to the next level!”

Deb Harrison also agrees that having “the ball in your hand” on the serve warrants doing more than just getting it in. You can listen to her explanation of what to do with the serve at 13:02 minutes in to The Pickleball Show podcast 11.

To summarize:

  • If you are just starting out playing Pickleball and you are playing with beginning to average players, keep the serve high and deep.
  • If you are playing among intermediate to more advanced players, i.e. 3.5-5.0, you might want to try to do more with the serve. Varying the serve keeps the opponents guessing and may cause an instant of hesitation in a very fast game. In Pickleball, fractions of seconds can make the difference.
  • High and Deep Serve can be used at any level and is used for a change of pace.
  • The Power Serve – This serve is low, deep and hard. This serve is varied by changing location. Right, left or in the middle of the appropriate service court. Of course, one needs to practice to be able to get this serve in consistently.
  • Soft Angle Serve – Once again, keeps the opponents guessing and, when done right, can force them to the outside of the court leaving a lane down which one can hit the ball.

What is your philosophy about the Pickleball serve? Have the above points changed your approach to the Pickleball serve?

Show Time for Pickleball

Jeff

The Pickleball Show

It was news to me when I discovered that there was a podcast called “The Pickleball Show.” One of the steps any game or sport needs to take before it becomes more mainstream is to find a way to get into the public eye. Having a podcast about Pickleball is one move to help accomplish that. Chris Allen is the congenial host who has good interviewing skills as well as the gift of gab. His sense of humor also adds to the enjoyment of the podcasts.

I have listened to three plus shows thus far and they have been quite interesting for me. The show with Gail Leach, author of The Art of Pickleball, was quite informative.

I actually started listening to the podcasts out of order because the first one I found out about was show #9 which is described as:

009:Smart Pickleball with Prem Carnot, 25:36, 3/23/15 – Prem Carnot, author of Smart Pickleball, tells Chris about a serve technique that’ll drive your opponent even further back from the baseline, plus a great rule-of-thumb as to when to cover the line and when to cover the middle.

There were three good tips/hints mentioned in the above podcast. Two are what I would call good strategy tips, but I won’t steal the show’s thunder. The third tip was basically advice not to back up if a hard shot comes your way, but to either stand your ground and hope for a “blocked” shot return or, if you need to back up, only take a couple of steps back.

Prem Carnot pointed out that if a player is backing up all the way to the baseline, they will have a great deal of difficulty executing any kind of an offensive shot when the ball is hit their way because they most likely will not have time to get set.

He also points to those who turn their back to “protect” themselves when the ball is going to be hit hard. If you are fearful, then go ahead, but that won’t return the ball. If you want to try to turn the situation around, stand your ground and try to just connect the paddle to the ball to block it back.

I encourage you to listen to the remainder of podcast episode #9 to hear the other two tips hinted at in the synopsis of episode #9.

If you go to the show’s website The Pickleball Show [ http://pickleballshow.com/ ], you can subscribe to the podcast. I used iTunes since it was so easy to read a synopsis of the show(s), download all of the episodes, etc. and have them synched to my devices.

ALTERNATIVELY...If you visit the Podcast page of the website, you can scroll through the individual podcasts listed (scroll down to see the earlier shows) and listen to the podcasts by clicking on the green READ MORE buttons.

I am supporting this show by posting this blurb here and by subscribing because it can only help the sport I have grown to really enjoy AND I can use all the advice I can get about how to improve my game.

Good luck and Thank You to Chris Allen and The Pickleball Show. Good luck as well to all those who listen to increase their skills and their enjoyment of our sport.

Happy Playing!