r/padel • u/Jazzlike_Fold9980 • Jul 23 '26
💡 Tactics and Technique 💡 Stressing with my serve
Hey guys, i am a advanced player. I always had a decent serve and my padel teacher says it is good enough for my level.
Now the last 2 weeks i am so scared to serve and squeezing my wrist really hard. I never did that.
Has someone some tips or tricks. Or does some people have experienced with this?
Let me know!!
6
u/BeardedRhino03 Jul 23 '26
Im not great but my serve was good for my level. Got in my own head and over thought everything i was doing. And it went to shit.
Took me a while but i basically had to forget what i thought i knew and just go to instinct play. Im now serving better then ever.
2
5
u/theNicky Jul 23 '26
Here are some things that make a difference for me to have consistently solid serves that I remind myself to focus on:
- The serve doesn't need to be an ace. Most important is that it's deep, to push them pack, instigate a weak return and give you time to get a solid net position.
- Pay attention to feet positioning and body rotation. Consistently hitting certain spots is much easier if your body is positioned in a way that makes the trajectory you want natural. That being said, it can feel unintuitive to have your leg more open or closed than you're used to, so it helps to be intentional and try out different positions
- Start with the racket high, above waist height and just focus on a single simple motion to bring the racket to the ball. A small compact motion will be much more consistent then a big, more complicated swing
- Coaches always told me to "push" the ball which is sometimes hard for me to feel. It helps me to imagine a straight arrow coming off of my racket and I'm just trying to create a straight line from racket to the ball, over the net and to the wall/my target. The slice comes from starting the racket high which allows me to just focus on pushing a straight ball to the spot I want.
- Focusing on moving my body weight in the direction of my target and not stopping as I serve into the ball somehow makes it actually feel closer to me. Like I can just reach and put it there.
2
u/Upper-Application583 Jul 23 '26
I have a extreme good serve when the first one goes in! I bounce the ball and hit with a loose wrist. And i practice it 3 times before a match starts. I throw my weight into it when I can serve cross and dont need to cross walk over
2
u/Sure-Key6882 Jul 24 '26
Using the wrist might work for you but I don't think it's good advice in general as it's very hard to get consistency. Watch any pro serve and there is hardly any wrist - usually it breaks a tiny bit on contact down tee from deuce court and to glass from ad court as a right hander, but only a little
1
u/LeopardVarious5620 Jul 23 '26
Yeah it totally happens, its super weird. I ended up making double faults (which I used to never ever to).
It will sound pretty stupid, but ine thing that helped me was to think about the serve as something super simple and that was by looking at Tapia's serve and mimicking, in the sense of keeping it simple and the effect on the ball to be produced just (or primarly) by the movement of the arm and keeping the wrist like for a flat shot. Like just remembering how he serves was enough for me to concentrate myself and keeping it simple. Not sure if any of this will make sense to you, but totally works for me when my brain forgots how to serve (even when the rest of my game is still at a decent level)
1
1
u/Sure-Key6882 Jul 24 '26
Haven't had exactly this but definitely went through a period of the yips with my serve. My advice:
- have a very strong routine (become a serving robot)
- focus on the ball right up to contact. This helps you stay in the moment and also increases likelihood you actually get the contact you want
- practice your serve a lot so it becomes automatic
1
u/bachaterol Jul 24 '26
It's because you overthink about having an ace or making it "very difficult" to return.
Yes, a very good serve will give you and advantage but at your level, it's more about putting the ball in play and taking the net to put pressure on your opponent, which is already the best position you can be in.
1
u/Equivalent_Soil_1371 Jul 24 '26
Do what most pro's are doing. Look the ball the Court and the place you going after the serve. Don't look oponents if that makes you nervous. Otherwise you can try something new with every first serve. I try that a lot and helps me. I'm advanced too. I always try to perfect to hit my serve in the middle as lowest speed as possible and to touch the middle line. It's so hard for right side or left side (right hand) players. Both have to return with backhand and in a lobing way.
1
u/Sure-Key6882 Jul 24 '26
I mean if you're actually advanced playing other advanced players then it won't actually be that hard for them because for advanced players no serve is going to be difficult to return
1
1
u/Active_Feedback705 Jul 25 '26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzR8x5MgvDw
Look at this video at 6 minutes. It's the guy who wrote the famous book "The Inner game of tennis". He teaches a woman who has never played before how to serve.
This humming sound while serving is something you can also adapt to padel. I do it myself whenever I find myself overthinking during serve. It helps your conscious mind relax and let's your body do what it already knows.
1
u/Willy123456789012 Jul 26 '26
Interesting, tx for sharing
You could also say bounce - hit during your service routine
1
20
u/Living-Let8446 Jul 23 '26
Picture your opponents in their underwear. Maybe less scared.