INTERMEDIATE by JEFF RAUSCH
Serve Up a Win!
You have one chance to make a first impression— make it a good one! Many improving players often discount the importance of the serve. The serve is the only shot where the player is 100 percent in control of all the technical and tactical aspects: stance, swing, contact point, etc. All the parts of the serve should be simple and repeatable. Don’ t forget the 10-second rule(“ Once the score has been called, the server is allowed 10 seconds to serve the ball.”). Use that time wisely and don’ t rush your serve. For a beginner the serve is about starting the point, and for beginners and improvers the serve is not intended as an offensive weapon. As a player improves, the serve becomes much more important.
Stance and Positioning
It is important that whatever stance you choose, it needs to be comfortable, simple and repeatable. For the serve mechanics I think most often about games such as horseshoes, cornhole or underhand tossing of a softball, and what is the most comfortable and efficient stance. You may like more of an open stance with shoulders and feet squared in the direction the ball will be traveling, or you may prefer a semi-closed stance with your feet set on a diagonal to your target, allowing your serving arm to pendulum forward through contact with the ball and ending in the direction of your intended target.
Position yourself more toward the middle of the court, reducing angles and simplifying your target. You will have greater visibility of your opponents’ baseline the closer you stand to the center of the court, making it easier to focus on depth. If you stand more toward the outside of the court you will be looking at more of a triangular shape instead of a box, making depth more complicated and possibly creating offensive angles for your opponent.
Type of Serve— Volley or Drop
The volley serve has a number of rules and many moving parts: should I step or not, do I take a long or short pendulum swing, should I toss or just drop the ball on the paddle … and all these are personal choices. My intent is not to belabor the rules; however, if you are contacting the ball closer to the side of your body rather than farther in front, more than likely the highest point of the paddle head will be above where the wrist joint bends at contact— making an illegal serve. The simplest solution is to be certain your paddle tip is below your wrist and you are moving your arm in an upward arc at time of ball contact.
If you are having an issue with depth and / or consistency, you may want to incorporate a step. The step encourages a greater follow-through, thus elongating the body, and easily incorporates weight transfer into the shot as well.
For the drop serve, it is important to have a balance of height and distance from the body when dropping the ball. With arm extended in front of the body, there should be a slight elbow bend, and it should be at about shoulder height when releasing the ball from one hand.
Swing and Contact Point
After the ball drop or placement, the swing follows. The swing should be smooth and fluid and will vary based on the type of serve. With the drop serve you have no rules regarding upward motion of the paddle, paddle angle and contact, so you have many options from a swing perspective. Optimal contact point should be in front of the body for agility in terms of power, accuracy and control. The key on all serves is to ensure that whatever motion you have is simple, smooth, consistent and duplicatable.
Different Types of Serves
There are a number of different types of serves and the drive and lob serve are the most common, with the goal in both being to hit with the intent to keep your opponent back. Once you become more comfortable with your serve, you may want to add some additional serve types to your arsenal such as short and / or angle serves as well as spin.
The key to all serves is to keep the initial swing and contact point the same if possible; however, change the acceleration speed and paddle angle as appropriate for each type of serve.
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