I haven’t had a chance to really try this out but I was curious what players thought.
Obviously when returning a serve you have to let it bounce first. So what about a mini-lob-serve, that doesn’t bounce so high that it becomes attackable as an overhead. Serving on the ad side, ball bounces close to the glass, rising to the high backhand, falling back down and dying off the back-glass.
Your opponent is either forced to take it early, which is not an easy backhand shot to take on a rising ball, or they’re forced to wait and deal with it in the air somewhere in that corner, also with their backhand, which isn’t an easy lob either.
How would you deal with this kind of ball? Is it just that good players would know how to take it early and convert it into an effective flat shot? Get it close enough to the glass and that seems very difficult. Do you think it’s a legit shot, or a little bit controversial like a drop-shot serve? A good one to throw in when your opponent doesn’t expect it?
Can work outdoors with wind as it can bounce out. At the end of the day, trying stuff on serves long term is pointless. Serve at 60% speed deep into the corner and get to the net, split step.
Im talking about head-height max, after the first bounce. Any higher and it’s too attackable. (And for all the downvoters - that’s headheight deep into the backhand corner of the court. It’s harder than it sounds if you actually use your brain)
Love the confidence! Being a beginner, not even having tried something that no one is doing - yet absolutely sure it would work and everyone else isn’t using their brain. Ok buddy
What’s probably gonna happen is that your opponent plays either an over the net volley, allowing him to pressure your feet and you losing the net because your stuck at the back or the best case scenario your opponent doesn’t attack however you just handed him an extremely easy ball to lob again in the parallel and that way your partner needs to fall back.
In both scenarios you’re losing the net in 2 hits time.
Imo
Sorry should have explained better, when I said volley I mean an over the net stroke where your oponente stacks your feet. A volley like shot let’s say
You’ve just served and given yourself plenty of time to get to the net, where your partner (me) is already waiting. Their shot to the net is going to have to be really good for us not to attack it, right? I don’t see the moment where we’ve lost the net and we’re stuck at the back
Not really, because the problem is the height of the contact point of the opponent's shot. If I'm your opponent and you give a shoulder height ball after the first bounce, I'm gonna be aiming at your feet. Even if I misplace my ball and it's not at your feet, you'll do a half-volley or a block, both of which won't allow you much control, and you are playing from the ground level upwards, giving me one more opportunity to attack you and force you back.
Drop shots aren't minimally controversial unless you're playing against septuagenarians, they're hard to pull off and worth a round of applause. A gimmick shot like a lob serve will work once or twice but be seen as rude/offputting. Generally playing in a way that doesn't help everyone improve (ie using tactics/shots that only work at a very basic level or are too unorthodox) is seen as poor sportsmanship. I'd keep it amongst friends. Still, it's good that you're thinking laterally, it will serve you well even inside the orthodoxy.
(Unless you can place it extremely accurately which is very hard I'd take that shot as a floaty hard backhand to your fence/corner for a winner 8 times out of 10)
I think people should stop trying to get cheap wins with a serve and learn to play properly.
Send a difficult serve to the corner or the T, move to the net and attack the opponent. Stop giving the opponent the advantage on your serve by trying cheap tricks like por tres or drop shots.
I think it is bad. It is slow enough for opponent to react/prepare and not high enough for the trick to matter.
If it hits back glass, it is an easy lob back and this means you throw away the advantage of serve. If you are not accurate enough and the ball did not bounce near the glass, you will be attacked with fast attacking flat/slice from shoulder high to passing shot or below waist. It even opens up opportunity for opponent to do the overhead side glass trick shot that actually still works on pro-level
Edit: and yes, fast attacking shot from above shoulder is still possible from backhand. Play with higher skilled people and this serve will be considered bad and I will rage at my partner if he does it.
Edit 2: think of it this way, even when you are at the net and opponent at the back, the advice for volleying is always attempt to make it bounce low. Think of why it is that way. Or you can try to give your opponent the same slow, high bounce, before baseline volley and see what punishment he can dish out.
I'm sure it can work once in a while, but I'd say it is pretty damn easy to counter lob a "lob serve". Much easier than it is to play a good lob off a proper serve.
I occasionally throw in a serve like this and its surprising how often it causes problems (even around the 4 level uk). Typically I'd suggest returning it before it rises too high or if it's placed perfectly close to the glass then step back and taken it after it's hit single glass (if it's slow then you shouldn't be too far back to do this)
I generally treat that as a last resort type shot. High serves can't go that quick so it should be easier to return facing forward than turning and hitting it off the glass
If I were the returner, I would just lob it back to you and would have given me the net most of the time. I don’t see how this service would work on any decent player
A lob serve works in pickleball sometimes - I see a lot of great lob serves(look up Anna Leigh waters lob serve as an example) - it supposedly prevents the other team from returning the ball deep with pace so it can give you a better third shot and a better net approach since you also want to control the net in PB, like in padel. Unfortunately, it is so easy to get lobbed back in padel , so I don’t think it would work as well.
Try it out in your games and see what happens. I honestly think there is just a better advantage to a fast serve against the glass that sets you or your partner up for a strong third shot volley (which is not allowed in PB) that a lob serve is just not a good strategic choice.
