Stop Sabotaging Your Serve

Two bad habits that are killing your consistency...

Author

Shea Underwood
March 30, 2025

Week 45

Welcome back to the Road to Pro Newsletter! Just by opening this issue, you are now automatically eligible for this week’s paddle giveaway. Last week’s winner was Anni from Iowa!

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

  • Two bad serving habits you need to fix

  • A competitive drill to help you break these habits

If you’re reading this, you now have a chance to win this week’s paddle giveaway!

At the bottom of this newsletter, find out how you can earn free access to my book, “Literally Everything I Know About Pickleball.”

Now, let's get to it!

Big shoutout to Selkirk for sponsoring this newsletter and making all the paddle giveaways I do possible! I personally have been using a Selkirk paddle for over five years now, and every paddle I’ve used has been better than the last one. I recently started using their newest paddle - the Project 008, and it’s giving me more power and spin than I’ve ever had before. You can pick yours up on their website here and use code INF-Shea for a gift card on a future purchase.

Before You Even Hit The Ball

One of the most common bad habits I see is not establishing a pre-serve routine. That might sound a bit trivial, but trust me - it’s essential. If you create a personalized, pre-serve routine to go through every single time, you’ll reduce any unnecessary variability on your serve. It’s all about being methodical to keep your serve consistent. Players who change up their routine or rush into their serve often make mistakes that could have been avoided otherwise.

To break this habit, develop your own pre-serve routine and stick to it before every single serve. For example, before I serve, I call the score first, bounce the ball a couple times, plant my feet, get my body into position, then take a slow, intentional backswing before swinging forward to make contact with the ball. And I don’t ever change this. Until you have a consistent pre-serve routine, it will be difficult to pinpoint any mistakes you are making on your serve in order to improve them. Once you become fully aware of every small detail in your serve (including the set-up process), you’ll find it easier to make specific changes and improvements and see the results they bring.

The second bad habit I see also happens before you ever make contact with the ball. Don’t change the way you release the ball from your hand. Too often, I see players toss the ball carelessly or release it from too low of a height, both of which lead to inconsistencies in their serve. Instead, hold the ball out in front of you with a straight arm and a downward-facing wrist, then simply drop it from that position. Keeping this exact same positioning every time ensures you consistently hit the ball with the sweet spot of your paddle, inevitably leading to a great serve that you can rely on.

You can go check out my most recent video on YouTube called “5 Years of Pickleball Serve Lessons In 20 Minutes” where I teach you everything I know about serving!

Breaking Bad Habits

Now it’s time to grab your drilling partner and go practice everything you just read! You can use this drill to help break bad serving habits. The three main goals of this drill are:

  1. Develop consistency in your pre-serve routine

  2. Improve your accuracy by aiming for a specific target

  3. Solidify the habit of calling the correct score before you serve

Here’s how you play: Before starting the game, think about what you want your pre-serve routine to be - whatever you want to do, as long as you do it exactly the same way every time. Place some kind of immovable target a couple of feet in front of the baseline, centered between the middle line and sideline. Do this on the other side of the court diagonal from the first. With your partner, take turns serving to each other, always aiming for the target in the opposite service box. Before every single serve, call the score, complete your pre-serve routine, then serve, making sure you drop the ball from your hand the same way every time.

How you get points: If your serve lands within one foot of the target, you earn one point, and the first player to reach 10 points wins.

How you lose points: If you call the score incorrectly, forget to call it at all, skip any part of your pre-serve routine, or change the way you drop the ball, you lose a point.

By focusing on a specific pre-serve routine, setting yourself up right, and consistently dropping the ball, you’ll build better muscle memory and reduce mistakes. Plus, making it into a competitive game will help you keep your focus as you practice.

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