To advance to the 3.5 level and beyond in Pickleball, you will need to have a good pickleball serve strategy. As you advance, you will target your serves more and occasionally add some spin.
Anything you can do to make the serve return more challenging may force a bad serve return and position you better for a strategic 3rd shot.
Once you have your serves under control and you’re hitting them consistently, you can start using more advanced techniques.
Remember, you’re not trying to win the point on your serve—using more advanced serves you’re just trying to make it tougher for your opponent.
Targeting your serves to hit specific spots or adding some spin can complicate your opponent’s return shot.
Make sure to practice these serves before using them in a game, so you can pull them off with confidence when it really matters.
Pickleball Serve Strategy – Targeting your Serves
The illustration below shows a pickleball serve targeting the backhand of the serve returner.
A pickleball serve strategy that targets your opponent’s backhand is effective, but it requires practice to master.
A backhand return is always a tougher shot to execute effectively, so if you can occasionally force one, you’ve hit a good serve.
Good players may quickly reposition for a forehand, but your placement can still disrupt their rhythm and complicate their return.
This serve does carry some risk of not landing in play, but with practice, you can aim for the backhand without sacrificing accuracy.
Pickleball Serve Strategy – Add Spin to your Serve
The illustration below shows a pickleball serve with left to right spin.
Another good pickleball serve strategy is to add spin to your serve.
Adding even a small amount of spin to your serve can complicate your opponent’s return.
Good players will almost always return it, but the goal is simply to make their return more challenging.
Using a volley serve, you may already have a serve that has some top spin because of the low to high paddle movement needed to apply top spin.
Top Spin
Use a powerful top spin serve to challenge your opponents.
The Top spin serve will dive over the net and jump at your opponent. To mix things up, try a deeper top spin serve with less pace and a higher trajectory.
With this more advanced pickleball serve, the ball moves slower and lands deeper in the court. When it lands it jumps up higher at your opponent complicating their return shot.Â
Back Spin
Use a cut shot to generate backspin on the ball.
The backspin serve is an advanced pickleball serve that takes a lot of practice to master. To generate the back spin you need to hit down on the ball from high to low.
A ball with back spin will bounce lower and naturally move a bit downward when struck. It is more likely to go low into the net if the person returning it doesn’t account for the spin and hits a normal shot.
Your best approach is to use a drop serve to execute this spin because of the high to low ball strike required.
Using a traditional(volley) serve, this is nearly impossible to execute because of the volley serve limitations.Â
Side Spin
Another advanced pickleball serve is a side spin serve.
You can create a left-to-right spin when executing a forehand serve or a right-to-left spin with a backhand serve. With this serve you are brushing the paddle against the ball from the side to generate the spin.Â
A spin serve will curve through the air and bounce more to the side when it lands complicating the return shot. With practice, because the ball is curving and moving at an angle, you can position these shots to the serve returners backhand, which is what you want to do.Â
Again, a drop serve may be your best approach to apply this type of spin to your serve because of the limits you face with a traditional, volley serve.
Hitting spin shot serves is challenging, especially a back spin or side spin serve. Make sure to practice these shots a lot before using them in a game.
Pickleball Serve Strategy – The Lob Serve
The illustration below shows a pickleball lob serve.
The Lob serve involves striking the ball high and deep and, of course, the returner has to let it bounce so it is more challenging for them to hit a powerful drive.
A drive serve can be countered with minimal effort due to its inherent speed. The ball is moving fast and will come off your paddle fast because of this.
However, with a lob serve, since the ball is not advancing forward as much as it is bouncing upward, the returner must exert more force to send it back, which complicates their return.
This serve takes a lot of practice to get it deep enough.
A short lob serve gives your opponent an easier return shot and allows them to advance quickly to the net.
The lob serve is a good serve to use occasionally to mix things up and to see how your opponent reacts.
Summary
Having a solid pickleball serve strategy is key to advancing your game.
Targeting your serves and using spin serves is an important aspect of advancing your game. These are just a few examples of advanced pickleball serves.
As you progress, experiment with different serves and mix them up during games to keep your opponents guessing and off balance.
However, remember that your serve is not meant to win the point outright. More advanced serves can complicate the return and occasionally elicit a backhand, which may lead to a short or missed return—both great outcomes. Just don’t count on it, especially against good players.
It’s best to use these more advanced pickleball serves when you’re ahead in the game or during the early points. As the game progresses, especially when victory is within reach, the risk may not be worth the reward.
In these situations, it’s better to focus on making sure your serve lands in play rather than attempting something risky.
Of course, it’s best to practice these advanced serves regularly to build confidence before using them in a game.
Pickleball Volley Serve with Topspin
Courtesy of Third Shot Sports
Watch this video on the Pickleball Volley serve on Youtube.
Pickleball Drop Serve with Backspin and Sidespin
Courtesy of Pickleball Nexus
Watch this video on the Pickleball Drop Serve on Youtube.