Underhand serve towards a court target

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Organisation:

  • 1 ball for 2: serve to a partner standing at a distance of 4 to 8 metres
  • 1 ball for 2 or 3: serve to a floor target (4 sq.m.) at a distance of 4 to 8 meters
  • 1 ball for 2 ou 3: serve to a floor target over the net.

The first two conditions for a serve rely on mind activity:

  • Concentrate on what you're doing.
  • Aim at a precise target with the ball (and not only aiming the hand at the ball, which produces very random trajectories).

This enables a regulation of ability based on knowledge of the result:
"Where did I want to send the ball?" <=> "Where did it fall?" <=> "How did I do it?"

For the underhand serve we focus our attention on two points:

  • Range and orientation of the arm swing which gives it the power without needing muscle strength and gives the of the trajectory.
  • Stability and position of the ball held in the left hand (for a right handed player).
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See the video

The first problem is one of segment isolation: the left hand (for a right handed player) must keep the ball still while the right arm must swing to give speed.

To achieve this you need:

  • Concentration
  • Landmarks

At the very beginning, there is no point in giving instructions through a detailed description of the movement. A large part of the technical elements will appear naturally. But from observed results, we can detail some execution pointers.

The pointers:

  • Feet slightly apart make you more stable.
  • The ball must be kept still at thigh level in front of the hitting arm's shoulder (where the arm passes naturally and not in front of your belly button) in order to facilitate the hit and have a forward trajectory.
  • The further back we swing the arm the farther we will send without straining (it's the weight of the arm that acts)
  • Letting the swing run vertically (instead of giving a diagonal boxing punch) enables to control the direction (my hand finishes the move in direction of the target).
  • If I follow my ball by moving forward I will send further and be more balanced after my hit.
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