If you are familiar with tennis, you surely know how much serve is important. If properly executed, serve allows you to score a lot of points, and it may mark a difference during a match.
But… how do you serve in padel? And is the padel serve as much important?
Here below, you will find everything you need to know about the padel serve.
How to Serve in Padel
While in a tennis serve you have to throw the ball in the air and hit it before it bounces on the ground, hitting it from above and giving it great power and speed, padel serve works quite differently.
This is how you execute a padel serve: with both feet behind the baseline, you make the ball bounce on the ground, and then you hit it before it passes the waist.
The only thing shared with a tennis serve, is the fact that you must direct the ball in the opposite rectangle of your opponents’ field.
Therefore, in a padel serve, you don’t hit the ball from above, and this results in a less powerful hit. This means that it’s difficult to score a point while serving and that the padel serve is not as important as the tennis serve.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should neglect the padel serve because it may be of primary importance in setting the game.
Padel serve suggestions
As previously told, padel serve’s main aim doesn’t consist in hitting the ball with strength. It is rather important to put your opponent in a difficult position to gain ground.
A first suggestion consists in making the ball bounce with a backspin because this way it’s easier to keep the serve low.
At the same time, it’s better not to hit the ball when it’s too low, so to avoid lifting it too much. These two tricks are useful because if the serve raises the ball, it will be easy for your opponent to hit the ball from above, with much higher strength.
An interesting trick consists in hitting the lateral wall after the first bounce in your opponents’ field, so to leave little space for your opponents’ response, and to give a more unpredictable trajectory to the ball.
Regarding the position behind the baseline, you should vary it according to the trajectory you want to give to the ball. For example, if you want to hit the lateral wall, you should stay on the side of the baseline.
However, your position could reveal your intentions. Better not to be too explicit and try to vary your options during the match,
Well, now that you’ve understood how to serve in padel, are you ready to play?
