By Mark Renneson

We should abandon teaching the bowling serve. There, I said it. Suggesting people serve in pickleball as though they are bowling is an inefficient technique that unnecessarily limits the server’s ability to start the point in a variety of effective ways. It deserves to go the way of the dodo and I’m going to make the best case I can for why.

Why this technique, anyway? We should think about why people teach this way in the first place. I’d argue there are two primary reasons and the first is related to the rules of pickleball. Serving as though a person is bowling virtually guarantees their serve will use legal technique. The bowling serve (with the paddle and the arm forming a virtual straight line from the shoulder down to the ground) all but guarantees the paddle head won’t be above the wrist at contact. The bowling technique also ensures that the swing will be going from low-to-high (i.e. the arm moving in an upward arc for you purists in the crowd). And making contact with the ball above belly-button height is really hard to do with a bowling action, so the whole contact-below-the-waist rule is satisfied. If following the rules were the only priority, the bowling serve would be just fine.

The second reason instructors sometimes advise new players to use the bowling technique is that they think they are connecting the player’s past experience with what they are doing now: “Just serve like you’re bowling. See, it’s familiar!”. The trouble is, when was the last time you went bowling? Most of the people I know are not regular bowlers. In many cases, people haven’t done it for decades, if ever. So while the idea of connecting past experience to current circumstances is admirable, if the person doesn’t have that experience embedded in their current memory, it falls flat. But let’s assume the person is a seasoned bowler, I’d still argue that the bowling serve is still a poor choice. Let’s look at some of the reasons why.

Too many segments. The arm has a whole bunch of parts: the hand and wrist; the forearm; the elbow and the shoulder. And when servers rely only on their arm to hit the ball, they need to use these various segments in their delivery. The trouble is, if one of these segments misfires and does the wrong thing, this can cause problems for the serve as a whole. And since power isn’t coming from any other parts of the body, all of these little segments need to be engaged pretty actively if the serve will be delivered with sufficient power to travel the length of the court. And the more parts that are engaged, the more risk of a breakdown.

Power is good. As pickleball continues to move forward and evolve as an increasingly dynamic sport, we are seeing the game speed up — and this includes with the serve. Generally speaking, players prefer it when they are give more time rather than less to prepare to hit the ball. When a person serves with the bowling action, they rely almost exclusively on their arm to get the job done — their puny little arm. 

Think about other sports where players need to send a ball and like to do so with speed. Baseball batters don’t swing with just their arms. Neither do the pitchers throwing the ball at them. Hockey players use their whole body to rotate through the shot and even soccer players know that they can get more power if they use core rotation. Tennis players turn as they hit and golfers do the same. In most ball-striking sports, rotation is key to effortless power.

Controlling Height. Can slow serves that go high into the air be effective? Absolutely. But since the high arc and high rebound take a long time to occur, many people will be quite happy to have been sent this ball that gives them ample time to get ready. More often, a lower serve that bounces sooner and rebounds lower will be tougher, since it forces the receiver to hustle more to get to it before the second bounce. 

When a person uses the bowling action to serve, they nearly guarantee a high and slow delivery. The extreme low-to-high swing path of the paddle makes this so. While it is possible to angle one’s paddle face so the ball stays a bit lower, the wrist manipulation required is uncomfortable for most people, so high serves are usually most common.

Looking at alternatives. In my opinion, it makes far more sense to serve as though you are hitting a regular forehand — something that you and even most starting players will have some experience with. This technique is useful for a few reasons worth considering. First, it is much easier to rotate through the shot as the serve is struck. This means relying less on the multiple segments of the arm which, as discussed, can go haywire. Second, body rotation also makes generating power easier, since it is the bigger, stronger parts of the body doing the work. Finally, now that the swing is on a less pronounced low-to-high path (it still must move on an upward arc, remember), keeping the ball lower to the net is much simpler. While a lob serve can be thrown in when needed, it isn’t a virtual requirement as it is with the bowling serve. Finally, since this serve models quite similarly a regular forehand groundstroke — something players hit quite often — it becomes much easier to connect this technique with past experience.

What to do? Does this mean that everyone has to stop using a bowling serve? Of course not. If you love your bowling serve, good for you. But I would recommend to anyone offering instruction to really think about why they might advocate for one technique over the other. While the forehand serve isn’t as obviously legal as the bowling serve, with a little care and attention, it can be hit while consistently following the rules. And given the significant advantages, it’s probably worth moving in this direction. Bye-bye bowling serve!