The Underhand Serve

By: Joshua Mayer

Before a game you should do some stretches.(Check the pictures for examples)

Warm-Up

Learning to underhand serve

The underhand server is more than just hitting the ball over the net.You need correct foot placement, and the correct hand position.After this lesson, you should be able to hit the ball with the correct amount of power and near perfect accuracy.

Correct foot placement

If you are a right handed person, your left leg should step forward past your right leg.If you are a left handed person, then your right leg steps forward.

Example of a right handed serve.

Correct hand positionTo correctly serve the ball, you must know how to position the ball, and your hand.The player holds the ball in the hand opposite from the hitting hand, i.e. a right-handed player would hold the ball in the left hand.As a right handed player, the right hand should make a fist with the thumb on top of the folded-in fingers. Left handed players should make a fist with their left hand, but still have the thumb on top of the folded-in fingers.You should aim for the ball to hit between your wrist and knuckles.

Correct hand position for a right handed player.

Know where to hit the ball

When hitting the ball, you shouldn’t aim over everyone on the other teams head.That will just get your team behind, so try to aim for the direct area the opposite team is in, but not directly to a player, if you can help it.

Now try this with a partner

Grab a ball and try to serve the ball directly to your partner.This will train your foot placement, hand position, accuracy, and power.After this training, if you feel you still cant serve correctly, then just keep training from my steps and you will get the hang of it!