Is Your Pickleball Serve Illegal?
When it comes to playing pickleball in a social setting or competitive scene, hitting a legal serve is crucial to avoid sticklers and fouls. Executing an underarm pickleball serve may seem simple but for many it is surprisingly complex to consistently hit an effective pickleball serve that is in accordance to the official rules by the USA Pickleball Association.
Many social players find themselves hitting illegal serves after fellow players call them out on it. In this article I will be covering what makes a legal pickleball serve as well as tips on how we can execute them with maximum efficiency, or as we like to call it, picklefficiency.
Defining A Legal Serve
A serve that is legal in pickleball must be struck below the waist and wrist level. This means upon contact of the ball your paddle needs to be below your waist and wrist.
Common Errors
Many players at the recreation level make the mistake of striking the ball with their paddle either above their wrist or waist level, sometimes both! If you fall into this category don’t be disheartened, it’s all about enjoying the learning process. Even some pro players have been called out on hitting illegal serves. Whether playing socially or competitively, let’s do things the right way to avoid any on court confusion with other players.
Picklefficiency
Now let’s cover some tips that we can deploy in our next pickleball match to enhance our serve consistency and legality.
The Release
How we release the ball before we hit the serve is a crucial part of the stroke. By keeping our arm straight and close to our body, we will be releasing the ball at a lower point, thus eliminating the risk of striking the ball above our waist level. Alternatively, you can consider using a drop feed, where you let the ball bounce before hitting it, as this ensures a low contact point as well.
Keeping Loose
Maintaining a certain level of looseness in our body is key to ensuring that our paddle stays below the wrist level upon striking. If we are too tense or are gripping the paddle too tightly, our wrists tend to orientate themselves in a way that brings the paddle upwards. Try it for yourself now if you have a paddle on you!
Now it’s one thing knowing how to do it but to go and execute those thunderous pickleball serves with maximum picklefficiency is another beast to tackle. Remember that perseverance and enjoyment are key ingredients for progress. If you’re keen to have a professional coach assess your serves as well as your groundstrokes, do check out our lesson options here on Play! Pickle.
