The great Jonah Barrington once said that “the serve is the only time when you have complete control over your opponent.”
Despite Barrington’s words of wisdom, the serve is a shot that is at both the amateur, and indeed professional, level of the sport, often overlooked.
But a well executed serve sets the tone for what is to come, with a well weighted serve getting you onto the front foot from the start. While you might not win the point directly from the serve, you can certainly lose it with a poorly executed serve.
So we’ve broken down the elements of the serve so that next time you step on court, you can attack from the off.
Slow Down
Too many players, especially if they have won the previous rally, rush to the service box to get the ball into play without stopping to consider what they’re trying to achieve.
Taking time to really think about the shot and what you’re targeting will help you focus on the rally and what you’re trying to do with the serve - both with the ball and with your opponent.
Tip: A service routine, where you go through a prescribed motion (bouncing the ball a specific number of times etc) can help allow you focus on the serve, gather your thoughts and forget the last point.
Target & Dominate
A good serve should get the ball onto the sidewall, limiting your opponent’s volleying opportunities, and forcing them backwards into a defensive and retrieving position.
In order to improve your serve, you must look at where your opponent is standing, how their feet are positioned, where their body is angled - and how you can serve to take advantage of that.
Look to use your serve as a chance to take a strong, dominant T position early in the rally and look to attack the ball. Instead of stepping backwards from the service box, step across laterally so you are naturally positioned in a high T position.
Tip: A good basic target is to aim to hit the sidewall roughly in line with where your opponent is standing - ideally with the ball hitting the wall just above head height so the opponent is forced to try and volley the shot tight against the side wall.
Variation
Too often at the amateur level of the game, players serve at one pace and at one angle - meaning your opponent eventually finds a way to return your serve with interest.
The three main variations of serve are:
Lob Serve
A well played lob serve is hard to attack, especially on the backhand side, and is played with a weight of stroke that means the opponent risks the ball dying in the corner if they do not take the ball on the volley.
To play the lob serve, take up a position towards the front of the service box and align your feet towards the front wall in the direction of where you hope to strike the wall.
Coming from underneath the ball with the racket, aim to hit the front wall slightly off centre and approximately 50cm below the upper out line. Don’t overhit the ball, you want to play with just enough force to get the ball to land with little bounce and hopefully die in the back corner.
Punch Serve
The most common serve on the courts, the punch serve is played with more pace than a lob serve with the aim of forcing the opponent backwards.
Aiming around 1 to 1.5m below the upper out line on the front wall, and just slightly off centre, the punch serve still utilises the angles to hit the side wall roughly in line with the back of the service box and therefore limit your opponents opportunities to attack, but is played at a lower trajectory to allow for greater speed.
If played well, the punch serve will force your opponent to take a step backwards and hopefully play the ball off the bounce - giving you time to set up in an attacking T position and anticipate the next shot.
Body Serve
A good variation to have in your locker in order to keep the opponent guessing and prevent them from getting into a rhythm with your serve.
Unlike the lob and punch serve, the body serve is aimed directly at the body of the opponent - as such is has the greatest potential to go wrong, with a poorly executed body serve opening up the whole side of the court to the opponent.
Using a similar pace to the punch serve, the body serve is played just above the cut line on the front wall, but is played about one meter inside the middle of the court on the serving side - giving you the angle to send the ball in-between the service box and the mid line.
Using more power will heighten the chance of striking the opponent and winning the point.
Here SquashSkills dive deep into the serve and the return of serve fundamentals
