If you are having difficulties with your return of serve, focus on your preparation rather than your swing.
returning difficult serves
I often see players having difficulty returning certain serves. It could be a big power serve or it could be those high lob type serves. While the speed of the serves being returned is totally different, the key to returning them properly is the same. It all comes down to proper preparation.
Early preparation
Essentially, the rerun of serve motion is similar to a service motion. Only with the return you are taking the power of the service ball and redirecting it. To do this properly, you must focus on preparation:
- Position – First position yourself for your ideal shot. By this I mean, give yourself plenty of room to move forward into the shot. Too often I see players standing on or in front of the baseline. If their opponent hits a good, deep return they are forced to
move backward causing them to contact the ball late. Standing a little farther from the baseline will allow you to move forward into the return and will enable a point of contact in front of the body and good weight transfer through the ball. - Backswing – Next, be certain to prepare your paddle early. I want to start preparing my paddle when my opponent is making contact with their serve. Too often players don’t prepare until the ball clears the net or even bounces. This is too late. As soon as the ball strikes the paddle on the other side we can start preparing for the shot we want to hit on the return. If we prefer to hit a forehand, and we prepare our paddle early, we can move to the ball so that we hit the shot we want to hit.
- Shot selection- Before the opponent even serves the ball, we can identify our return of service target. We can not only decide what shot we want to hit (if I prefer my forehand I might stand more to one side of the court to favor my forehand)…but where we want to hit it. Early preparation clears our mind and gives us the confidence to hit the shot we intend to hit.
You have time to prepare
Too often we rush through our shots, rush through our points, rush through our game. We think pickleball is such a fast-paced game that we don’t have time to think…to prepare. But the fact is that before every serve and before every return of serve, we have time to think. Give yourself the time…as proper preparation is key.
