If you walk up to any public pickleball court in the country and watch a few games, there’s a good chance you will see several players trying to fool their opponents by adding a lot of spin to their serves.

If you pay close attention, you’ll notice these outcomes from those serves, in order of which is most common:

1. The serve is in, but their opponents don’t have any trouble handling it.
2. The serve is out (very bad outcome for the serving team).
3. The serve is in and forces an error from the opponent.

The third option is the one the server is going for, but it is by far the least likely outcome.

In this article we’re going to dive into why so many players spend so much time and effort on something that rarely works, and what they should be focused on instead.

What does spin accomplish in pickleball?

Spin is as simple as it sounds: the ball rotates along an axis as it travels forward (translates) through space.

Topspin is when the ball spins top over top away from you if you hit the shot, or toward you if your opponent hit it. Underspin (or slice) is the opposite: The underside of the ball keeps spinning “away” from you if you hit the shot and toward you if your opponent hit it.

You can also add sidespin to the ball, though this is more rare. Sidespin means the ball is rotating left or right.

Spin affects the trajectory of the shot in flight and also influences what the ball will do when it bounces on the court. A topspin shot will tend to dip sooner in flight than a flat shot (one with no spin) and will also bounce off the court with more energy, sending the ball deeper off the bounce.

An underspin shot will tend to float as it travels through the air. When it bounces, the underspin shot will hitch (or brake) and not travel as deep as you might expect otherwise.

A sidespin shot will travel in the direction of its rotation: Left will go left and right will go right. When the ball bounces, it will keep going in that same direction.

If you take a moment to think about how the ball is spinning in each of these spins, the in-air and after-bounce effects will make sense.

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How is spin imparted?

I would venture to guess that when the majority of players think of imparting topspin to the ball, they are picturing the paddle “brushing” up on the ball. The image is of a paddle being quickly brought up along the back side of the ball, forcing it to spin top over top for topspin.

While that image is not wrong, it is not the only way the paddle imparts topspin to the ball. Whenever you bring your paddle under the ball and then swing up through the ball, you impart topspin to the ball. This is NOT a brush-up. This is the paddle moving forward through contact with the ball.

Take it in parts:

1. The paddle contacts the ball along its bottom-back quarter.
2. The paddle then pushes through the ball, from the bottom-back quarter through the top-front quarter.
3. As the paddle pushes through the ball, the bottom-back quarter is forced up and over toward the top-front quarter, effectively imparting topspin as the ball is sent on its way.

Does your serve have natural topspin?

The swing mechanic I described above – paddle coming under the ball and swinging up and through it – is the exact same mechanic used for the serve. In fact, the rules of the game require this sort of swing on your serve: Making contact below your waist with an upward paddle arc.

So the answer to the question “Does my serve already have topspin?” is yes. The only caveat here is that this applies to forehand serves. A backhand serve can be under- or sidespun and still comply with the rules.

This is because even though the paddle is moving on an upward arc the paddle is also brushing along the bottom of the ball, causing it to spin the opposite direction.

To be clear, there is a certain amount of brushing of the ball when you use a forehand serve swing. But that takes a back seat to the simple act of pushing the back bottom part of the ball up, making it tumble over itself in a topspin rotation.

If you are not sure about your serve already having spin on it, ask yourself this question: “When you serve, are the ball’s holes static (motionless) or do they show ball rotation?”

In my years of coaching, I have yet to see a regularly hit serve travel in a way that I could clearly see the ball’s holes, because the ball was traveling forward without rotation.

So if your serve already has natural topspin, why do you hear that you need to add topspin to your serve? There are three possibilities:

1. The content creator is looking for clicks, and anything about topspin gets views.
2. The creator does not understand that the regular serve already has topspin.
3. The creator believes that you need even more spin.

The first two do not require a response. The third, what we refer to as “extra” spin, merits discussion.

Note: If you pay attention to the pro game, you may have seen that Anna Leigh Waters added a super spinny high serve to her serve repertoire. Why should you not do the same?

1. It is easy for her to do that – she already has the tools to hit it.
2. Even though she added it, she only uses it sporadically – it is not her go-to serve.

Coaching Tip: Resist the temptation to follow every shot or strategy you see the pros use. Studying strategies that the pros are adding to the game as it continues to evolve is one thing. Trying to do something just because the pros are doing it is a whole different thing.

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What’s wrong with adding extra spin?

There is technically nothing wrong with learning how to spin the ball a lot. But at what cost?

First, there is the distraction from working on other parts of the game that likely give you greater bang for your buck. When was the last time you practiced your volleys – block and punch? Or your footwork?

Second, brushing up on the ball is likely to result in increased errors. Shot reliability is determined at the moment when your paddle intersects the ball. When you swing your paddle along the same line as the ball – and ultimate shot trajectory you are trying to achieve – you increase the chance that your paddle will intersect the ball correctly. When you swing your paddle across the shot trajectory – which is what you do when you brush up on the ball – you decrease the chance that your paddle will intersect the ball correctly.

Third, you can lose some power in your shot. We do not coach our students to hit a really hard serve. But we do coach our students to use their serve offensively by pushing the returner back. Brushing up on the ball sends your paddle’s energy upward. The forward energy you put into the ball is indirect: It is from the ball bouncing off the paddle, plus indirect angular energy into the ball from the swing. Compare that to a swing that “drives” the paddle through the ball. In this swing, your paddle’s energy is going directly into the ball along its intended trajectory.

Conclusion

While there is nothing technically wrong with adding “extra” topspin to your serve, there is likely no reason to chase this shot modification. Keep relying on the topspin you are already generating and focus your efforts on more productive areas of the game.

If you’re looking for more insights into high-level pickleball, the Better Pickleball Academy has you covered. You’ll also gain access to their easy to use “BP Play Guides” including middle dinking patterns and more. Use code “KITCHEN26” at checkout for a special offer just for Kitchen community members (3 months for the price of 2).

Tony Roig is a nationally-recognized coach, Sr. Pro Player, developer of “Respect the X” on the In2Pickle YouTube channel, and the voice behind the Pickleball Therapy podcast. Visit BetterPickleball.com for information on coaching from Tony and the BP team through their Camps, Academy, and No. 1 online training program: The Pickleball System.