Pickleball Rules to Know - The Basic Rules of the Serve
There are many nuances to the serve in the sport of Pickleball. These nuances include technique, strategy, and the rules of pickleball.
Rule 4.A of the 2020 Official Rulebook for USA Pickleball provides some of the basic rules of the serve in pickleball.
Pickleball uses an underhand serve (unlike tennis, which has an overhand serve). The rules of pickleball require the serve to be hit below your belly button with, at the point of contact, (1) your paddle moving in an upward direction (whether you are hitting a forehand or backhand motion); (2) your paddle head in a downward position; and (3) your paddle head below your wrist. After contact, you are free to do whatever you want with your paddle. Also, to note, at least one foot must remain in contact with the ground, and behind the baseline, at the point of contact. You may not step on the baseline or into the court until after you make contact with the pickleball on your serve.
Be wary of violating these rules and committing an illegal serve! For instance, striking the pickleball above your belly button, or with the head of your pickleball paddle above your wrist, will result in an illegal serve. Also, if you step on the baseline, or cross the center line or sideline prior to striking the pickleball on your serve, then you would have also hit an illegal serve.
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2 Responses
DAVID RICKETTS
1. The rule book says the arm must be moving in an upward arc…not “paddle moving in an upward direction”. Placing focus on the paddle rather than the arm can lead to unnecessary disagreements on the court.
2. Nowhere in he rule book does it say “paddle head in a downward position”. Paddle head below the wrist at contact tells us everything we need to know about that subject. Stating a nonexistent rule can erroneously make some people believe that the paddle must be in a downward position during the backward motion or during the forward motion.
Linda
I would love to tweek my rec game a bit more. Thanks
Linda DeCurzio
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