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Created 12/31/01

Serve Strategy by Carl Moody

When you have the serve, you are in the front court, your opponent is as far away from the front wall as it is possible to be, you have the ball in your hand, and you can drop and hit a wide variety of shots. The server has every advantage. Try not to waste this opportunity.

Your goal as the server is to (1) ace your opponent for a point, (2) generate a weak return, (3) generate a defensive (ceiling ball) return. Obviously an ace is preferable, but aces are very low percentage shots. The second best outcome is a weak return that you, since you are in front of your opponent (who is in deep court), have a good chance to kill. This is the three shot rally. It is almost as good as an ace. If your opponent hits a ceiling ball, then you have to rally. What you do not want to do is give the receiver an offensive opportunity.

First Serve

I recommend hitting a drive serve as the first serve. If you hit the first serve short, you get a second serve. On the other hand if you hit the drive serve long; it is very likely to rebound off the back wall giving your opponent an offensive shot. You have given up all the advantages of having the serve. Therefore, your goal is to hit the first (drive) serve short. That way you have little chance of hitting the ball long off the back wall and you have a decent chance of getting the ace or a weak return. The most likely thing is that you actually do hit the first serve short.

There are essentially three positions in the service box. These positions are determined by your opponent’s location. In the first location, on the right hand side, you place your back foot in line with your opponent’s right foot. This gives you the best chance to momentarily obscure your opponent’s view of the ball on the down the line serve. In the middle position, you put your back foot in line with your opponents left foot. This places you right in front of the receiver. Finally, in the third position, you put your front foot in line with the receiver’s left foot. The cross-court serve to the backhand is momentarily obscured if you are in this position.

A digression on screen serves. A screen serve is defined as a serve that passes so close to your body that it unfairly screens the ball from the receiver. Three conditions are necessary for a serve to be a screen. (1) The ball has to be "close" to your body. The usual interpretation is that "close" is defined as about 18 inches or within a racquet length (22 inches). (2) The ball must be obscured. That is, if the ball passes close to your body but the receiver can see it anyway, it is not a screen. (3) The receiver must be in good position to see the serve. This means that, if the receiver takes a step in the wrong direction, he loses any right to a screen call. A rule of thumb is that no matter how close the ball comes to the server’s body, if the serve hits the side wall or the back wall within a foot or so of the side wall; it is not a screen serve. The receiver does not have the right to see the ball the whole way or to see the ball hit the front wall.

Digression, continued. There should be two lines drawn parallel to the side wall at each end of the service zone, although some courts have only one. The first, 18 inches from the side wall is the "doubles box" where the server’s partner stands in doubles. The second line, not present in all courts, drawn 36 inches from the side wall is the drive serve line. Suppose you hit a drive serve down the line from the right hand (first) position. Neither your body no your racquet is allowed to go into the drive serve zone. If you violate this rule, it is a fault serve (you get a second serve if it is a first serve, you lose the serve if it is your second serve). If you succeed in hitting a down the line serve with no part of your body or your racquet, crossing the drive serve line and the ball passes through the service box (within 18 inches of the side wall), it is not a screen serve. (If the drive serve lines are not present, you should act as if they were.)

You should hit drive serves to both sides from all three positions. If the serve hits the side wall or goes into the corner, it can’t be a screen. That means that your goal is to get the serve to bounce twice before hitting the side wall near the corner. If it is short, you get a second serve, so plan to ace your opponent on the first serve, or hit a short serve trying. The drive serve does not have to be hit at maximum speed all the time. Hitting a change-up can be very effective.

You should also mix in Z-serves and jam serves to keep the receiver from locking on to your drives. Some players just have trouble with these serves. The Z and jam are also good choices if your opponent is tired because tired players don’t want to move. Both these serves make your opponent move his feet. Obviously, if your opponent is getting good returns off your attempted aces, use more jams and Z’s.

So, vary your position (hit from all three positions), vary your serves (hit down the line drives, cross-court drives, and jam serves from all three positions; hit Z serves from positions 1 and 3), vary the speed, and vary the height of your serves. If your opponent has an obvious weakness with respect to any of these serves, exploit it until he corrects it.
 
 

Second Serve

This is your last chance to put the ball in play. Your goal is now to generate a weak return while insuring that you do not hit a fault serve. Your best choice is a lob. (I am treating the half-lob as a lob.). The best location for hitting the lob is to the left of center, so that you strike the ball exactly in the center of the court. This makes it relatively easy to hit the lob to either side by angling the face of the racquet. The idea behind the lob is to make the receiver hit the ball at waist level or higher. There is no point to trying to deceive your opponent. The lob is slow enough that the receiver has plenty of time to react.

You should choose among lob serves depending in part on the receiver’s actions. If he is aggressively attacking your lobs (cutting them off and hitting offensive shots on the short hop or mid-hop), you should hit the nick lob or the nick half-lob (junk serve) so that the ball deflects off the side wall into the receiver at least waist high. The idea is to give the receiver a ball that is traveling slowly, that looks like a setup, but is really too high to shoot properly.

If the receiver is not attacking the serve, you should hit the standard lob or half-lob. The point of these serves is to get the ball deep in the back corner so that the receiver has to return the ball to the front wall from 39 feet while simultaneously dealing with two walls. The lob Z is also a good choice. It slides along the back wall and jams the receiver.

What you do not want to do on the lob serve is to hit the back wall so that the ball rebounds toward the front wall. This gives your opponent too good a chance at an offensive shot.

Additional considerations

Take your time in the service box. Choose your serve. Visualize hitting the serve perfectly. Check your receiver. (Don’t you hate it when you hit an ace only to find the receiver has his racquet up?) Receivers are often very anxious. It sometimes throws them off when you are very deliberate in the box. Remember, you have 10 seconds from the time the referee calls the score. Use them.

Be as deceptive as possible. Try to have the same service motion no matter which serve you hit. The only difference should be where you drop the ball: a few inches to the right for a down the line serve, a few inches to the left for a cross-court. Be sure to drop the ball so that you strike it around the foot fault line. This gives you the most power and makes it difficult for the receiver to see the ball drop or racquet angle. Point the butt of the racquet where you want the ball to go.

Use the whole service box. Start your service motion with both feet on the short line and finish with your front foot on (but not completely over) the foot fault line.

If you are playing in the Open division, you have only one serve. The strategy of trying to hit a short serve that might ace you opponent is not appropriate here. Open and pro players tend to hit more lobs and half-lobs for obvious reasons. They do hit drive serves but they hit their drives so hard, fast, and low that they are hard to return even if they do come off the back wall.

After you hit the serve, you should hustle and try to relocate to good center court position around the dotted line. Do not dawdle in the service box. Remember, if you are in the service box, you are in front of the dotted line and extremely vulnerable to a passing shot. Get back as quickly as possible. Because the drive serve goes so fast, you will probably not be able to get past the dotted line before the serve is returned, but you should try. On a lob serve, you should be easily able to get to good center court position before your opponent returns the ball.