A couple of weeks ago, I posted a video called the best serve in pickleball.
Not long afterward, a few of you asked,
CJ are those serves legal? Were they?
You be the judge.
Hey everybody it's CJ Johnson. Welcome!
If you're already subscribed to this channel,
chances are that you know about the 1 million views holiday giveaway.
It's your chance to win some great pickleball prizes.
If you didn't know about it,
make sure that you hit the subscribe button and then the bell notification.
That way you'll never miss a future video and stick around to the end of this
one and I'll give you a link so that you can enter the contest too.
It's great to get input from other pickleball players about the rules,
but even the most knowledgeable players can be confused by them.
As a golf pro for 25 years,
I knew that the answers I needed were inside the rule book as long as I knew how
to read it correctly, I'd find what I was looking for.
The same is true for pickleball.
Most of your questions will be answered if you go directly to the book.
Do you have a rule book? Put a yes or no in the comments below.
If you don't have one, don't fear.
I'll put a link down in the show notes description so that you can get a free
copy of the USAPA pickleball rule book.
If you look in the table of contents, section four talks all about the serve.
Most of your questions on the video were about the paddle or body position at
impact. For those of you following along in the rule book,
we'll be focusing on rules 4.A.5, 4.A.6, 4.A.7.
First rule 4.A.5 states that the servers arm must be moving in an upward arc at
the time the ball is struck and maybe made with either a forehand or a backhand
motion. See figure 4-3. Here's
a picture of 4-3 from the rule book.
Take a look at each of these serves first in real time and then in slow motion.
Are they legal according to rule 4.A.5? What do you think?
If you said that these serves were all legal,
that the arm is moving in an upward motion, you are correct.
Next, let's take a look at rule 4.A.6.
That says that the paddle head must be below the server's wrist when it strikes
the ball.
The highest point of the paddle head cannot be above the highest part of the
wrist. That's where the wrist joint bends. See figures 4-4 and 4-2.
Here's the picture from the rule book showing both a legal and an illegal serve.
To make this a little easier,
I've added a still photo at the end of each sequence so that you can see the
paddle and the wrist position at impact. First,
let's take a look at the power serve with respect to rule 4.A.5
is this a legal serve? If you said yes, you were correct.
Pretty easy to see that the paddle head is below my wrist at impact.
The next one is the lob serve. Is it legal or illegal?
If you said this, serve is legal, you are correct.
Some may think that the line is drawn incorrectly.
Remember the trajectory of a lob serve looks like an upside down U.
In order to create that,
the paddle face needs to be facing straight up in the air.
Next is the topspin serve. Legal or illegal?
This one's pretty easy. It's very clearly legal.
The next one is the short angle serve. Legal or illegal?
This is perhaps the closest one of all, but if you look at the photos zoomed in,
you can clearly see that the paddle head is still below the wrist.
The last serve in the series is the backhand servef. What do you think?
If you said it was legal, you're correct. We'll zoom in just a little closer,
but you can certainly see that the paddle head is below the angle of the wrist.
The last rule that we need to look at is rule 4.A.7,
and that says that the contact with the ball is made below waist level.
In this case, waist is defined as the navel level. See figures 4-1 and 4-3. Four
of the serves clearly fall into that category,
but one viewer thought the release of the lob serve might be too high.
Let's look at a still photo. What do you think? If you said it was legal,
you're correct. Just a little side note,
it's easy to make contact past the navel on the lob serve.
Make sure that if you're using this serve that you keep the impact point below
your belly button.
It's always okay to ask a question, but if you want to get better at the rules,
make sure you pull out your rule book first and see if you can answer the
question yourself. By the way, here's the link that I mentioned earlier.
Click here and you'll get all the information on the giveaway.
If you got value from this video,
give it a thumbs up and share it with your pickleball playing friends,
because together we can. Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well.