The serve is the only shot in pickleball where you’re in complete control: nobody’s rushing you, nobody’s hitting it at your ankles. It’s also the shot people lose most points on at club level, almost always by trying to do too much with it. Get it legal, then get it reliable, and only then start getting creative.
Where to stand
At the moment you hit the ball, at least one foot must be on the ground behind the baseline, and neither foot may touch the baseline or the court in front of it. You also have to stand between the imaginary extensions of the centre line and the sideline on your side. Stand a pace behind the line and you’ll never have to think about it.
You serve diagonally, into the service court opposite, and the ball must clear the kitchen entirely. Everything else about direction is up to you.
Volley serve or drop serve?
There are two legal serves, and you can choose freely between them every point.
- The volley serve is hit out of the air. Three conditions apply at contact: your arm must be moving upward in an arc, contact must be below your waist, and the paddle head must be below your wrist. That last one catches converted tennis players most.
- The drop serve lets you drop the ball from any height and hit it after it bounces. The motion restrictions above don’t apply, so you can swing however you like. You can’t throw the ball down or add force to the drop.
Beginners should start with the drop serve. It removes the timing problem and makes the legality question disappear. Plenty of strong players never switch.
Where to aim
Deep, deep, deep. A deep serve keeps the returning player pinned back, which buys you time after the double-bounce rule forces you to let their return bounce. A short serve gives them an easy return and a stroll up to the kitchen line.
Once deep is automatic, add direction: to the backhand of most right-handers (the left side of the service court from their view), or straight at the body to cramp them. Pace comes last. A fast serve into the net loses the point; a medium-pace serve that lands deep wins you a better rally every time.
The faults that actually get called
- Serving short: touching the kitchen or the kitchen line.
- Foot faults: stepping on or over the baseline before contact.
- Above the waist: on the volley serve, the most common call at club nights.
- Wrong server or wrong side: usually a scoring mix-up; our scoring guide sorts it.
- Taking too long: once the score is called, the server has ten seconds to serve.
And one non-fault: a serve that clicks the net cord and drops into the right court is live. Play on and try not to look smug.
A ten-minute serving routine
Take a bucket of balls to an empty court before your session. Serve ten to each side aiming only for the back third of the service court. Count how many land there. When you can land eight in ten, move your target to the backhand corner and repeat. It’s dull, which is why almost nobody does it, which is why it works.
Ready to try it in a real game? Find a session near you, and if your serve keeps floating long, the paddle guide explains why a control-oriented paddle helps.