Hitting a Consistent and Powerful Serve

Your serve is the one shot you have 100% control over during a pickleball game. You can visualize ball placement, take a breath and send the ball exactly where you want it. But it can be surprisingly difficult to develop a reliable serve even when you have all these factors in your favor.

The following are a few tips that will help players improve the consistency of their serve and increase the power behind it. To start, we have a number of guidelines from pickleball instructor CJ Johnson. She lays out four points that all players should keep in mind. They are:

1. Keep the ball in front of your body. Regardless of whether you're performing a backhand or forehand serve, it's easier to keep both the ball and your target in sight like this instead of keeping it at your side or getting fancy.

2. Don't use a big drop when releasing the ball from your hand. Keep the ball relatively close to your paddle and don't use any large motions which could make it more difficult to determine the ball's trajectory.

3. Follow through in the direction of the target with your paddle and arm. The 'target' should be your opponent in the court box diagonally opposite you.

4. Develop a pre-shot routine. You'll want to aim for your opponent's weak point (normally their backhand), make note of any potential interference from the elements (such as sun glare and wind) and breathe. Some players include a bounce or two before their serve and this is fine as well.

To hear about these steps in depth, check out CJ's video:

If you'd like to add more strength to your serve, Barrett of Pickleball Kitchen will show you the proper technique. Some players believe that you have to have a lot of power in your arms to develop a powerful serve, but this isn't entirely true. While being fit and strong certainly helps, a powerful serve actually comes more from the motion in your hips than the arm or wrist.

You'll need to develop a smooth hip rotation and also work on when you 'break' your wrist. This isn't as painful as it sounds! More specifically, when you swing there's a certain point near the end of your follow-through where you'll want to flip your wrist upwards to put more spin and punch behind the ball. Watch the video to see this demonstrated:

These tricks should help any player feel more confident when performing one of the most important shots in the game. What are some of your favorite methods to ensure your serves always go where intended?