I'm going to use the above video that Jack Olmsted recorded to compare different types of Pickleball serves. I'll start with a typical beginner serve. The typical beginner prepares for the serve by facing the net -- this is called an "open" stance -- the hips and the shoulders are roughly parallel with the net (and the baseline), as shown in the first picture:
This stance has two major shortcomings. It reduces the amount of power you can hit the ball with, and if you want horizontal directional accuracy you have to avoid the natural across-the-body follow-through.You can put more power into the ball by using a "square" stance (also called a "neutral" stance). It's called a square stance because the hips and shoulders are at right angles to the net (a square is made up of lines that meet at right angles), rather than parallel to the baseline (for an open stance). The square stance has a back foot (the foot farthest from the net) that you push off of at the start of the serve, and that push gets transmitted to the ball, and a front foot (closest to the net) that you balance on at ball contact. After ball contact the back foot is brought up even with the front foot to put you into a neutral stance, which is the stance required for being in the "ready" position.
The square stance also enables horizontal directional accuracy by allowing you to have the natural across-the-body follow-through without disturbing the desired pendulum motion of the arm in the vicinity of ball contact. If you have an open stance instead, your follow-through has to continue in the direction that you want the ball to travel, because an across-the-body follow-through will tend to cause the ball to be pulled in the direction of the follow-through (because ball contact is typically out in front of the body, at which point the arm has started swinging across the body). The next picture shows the server at the end of the backswing:
Notice that this server has stepped forward while taking the paddle back. This results in an advanced version of a beginner's serve, because it produces a front foot and a back foot, which allows the server to produce more power. It's not a fully advanced serve though, because the open stance requires avoiding an across-the-body follow-through so that horizontal directional accuracy can be maintained. Another advanced aspect of this serve is the large backswing, which results in generating more power than when using a short backswing because the paddle head accelerates over a longer distance, yielding a greater paddle head speed at ball contact for the same swing force.The next picture shows the server just before contact. She is still moving forward, which is good, because that forward movement is added to the ball speed. She is looking down at the ball, which is also essential, as she can then see the paddle hit the ball, and adjust the swing to make sure that the ball hits the center of the paddle:
Notice that the arm holding the paddle is bent significantly at the elbow (it's hard to see because of the blur, but you can see that her shirt sleeve of her hitting arm is roughly pointing down, which means that her arm must be significantly bent just before ball contact, which hasn't quite happened yet, as indicated by the ball not being a blur), resulting in a smaller arc for the paddle head travel, which results in less power.
The last picture shows the end of the follow-through. Notice that the follow-through is NOT across-the-body. This maintains horizontal directional accuracy, and is another indicator that this is an advanced beginner serve:
Two other advanced aspects of this serve are that the server isn't bending the wrist up during the serve (notice the wrist is straight at the end of the follow-through), which yields good vertical directional accuracy; and that the follow-through is long, which, along with the long backswing, provides a more uniform paddle head speed in the ball contact zone than a short swing. One other thing to notice is that the arm that tossed the ball has swung backwards, which twisted the shoulders horizontally. Since this moves the shoulder of the hitting arm forward during the swing, it adds a bit of racket head speed, giving the server a bit more power. Since this server has an open stance, the shoulder twist doesn't pull the shoulder out of the intended path of the ball much, so it's relatively harmless.
Here is another advanced kind of beginner serve. This one starts with a better stance, because there is a back foot to step off of, and a front foot; and Doug has a square stance (his hips and shoulders are roughly at right angles to the net):
Doug also steps forward as he starts to serve, but his backswing isn't as big as the previous server's, so it requires swinging the paddle harder to get the same power because the shorter distance to ball contact needs a higher paddle head acceleration to get the same paddle head speed at ball contact.
At ball contact, Doug has rotated his shoulders about 90 degrees from the starting stance, which adds to the paddle head speed. This can cause problems, as it can pull the shoulder in a direction that is different than the intended path of the ball, in which case the server has to compensate for this complication by adjusting the paddle swing in a way that keeps the motion a simple pendulum (it's hard to see from this angle if it's happening here):
Another possible disadvantage of twisting the shoulders horizontally before ball contact is that it tends to twist the head along with the shoulders, encouraging the server to look up before ball contact, as appears to be happening in the above picture (Doug could still be looking at the ball by turning his eyes toward it, even though the head is pointed away from the ball, but that's unlikely). This violates the fundamental "watch the ball" advice that everybody's heard (if you golf, the equivalent advice is "keep your head down"). Notice also that the hitting arm is bent significantly just after ball contact, resulting in less power (just like the first server).
At the end of the follow-through, Doug's paddle has finished its swing in the intended direction of the flight of the ball, which helps keep the shoulder of the hitting arm moving in that same direction, keeping the arm swing a simple pendulum, in spite of the horizontal shoulder rotation:
This server, Mary, also has an advanced, square stance:
Mary has a relatively big backswing (another advanced element of the serve), and in addition she has stepped parallel to the baseline with her forward foot, resulting in a stance that is identical to the starting stance of a tennis serve. Having her front foot offset from her back foot causes her hips to rotate toward the net, adding a bit more paddle head speed, and assisting in producing the desired open stance at the end of the serve:
Just after ball contact you can see that the paddle is in line with the Mary's forearm, which means that Mary isn't using her wrist to try to get more power. Instead, to get more power she is hitting with a straighter arm than both of the first two servers:
Notice that Mary is pushing off her back foot, which is causing her hips to rotate toward the net in order to end up in an open stance at the end of the serve (this is what tennis pros do during their serve). Notice also that her shoulders have twisted horizontally to the point that they are almost parallel to the net (which is about double the rotation tennis pros do). And she is looking at the ball, which is essential for a good serve.
As she follows through, her paddle starts its swing over the shoulder of her tossing arm (another advanced technique). Notice that her tossing arm stays in approximately the same place, rather than being swung backwards as some beginners do. This causes the shoulders to rotate slower, allowing the hitting shoulder to keep relatively still, which makes for a simple pendulum motion:
Notice also that she hasn't looked up toward her opponent yet, even though the ball is long gone (this is the same as what Roger Federer does on every groundstroke).
At the end of the long follow-through, Mary's paddle is quite high up -- the long follow-through (along with her significant backswing) is good for generating power; and finishing up high is a good indication that the swing was a relatively vertical pendulum, rather that a "merry-go-round" style swing, which tends to trade forward power for ball sidespin:
The last server, Chris (me) starts with a back foot and front foot:
At the end of the backswing the hitting arm is straight, in order to achieve the longest arc up to ball contact, generating the maximum power possible from swinging the paddle.
Notice that I am stepping off of my back foot, I'm looking at the ball, and my shoulders and hips haven't turned toward the net yet.
At ball contact my back foot is off the ground, an indication of how hard I've stepped off my back foot (this is similar to a pro server leaving the ground during their serve). Also, my hips and shoulders have turned only about halfway toward the net (again, that's similar to what pro servers do). Notice that I'm still looking at the ball. Notice also that my hitting arm isn't bent much (it's probably bent about the same as the previous server), although it would have been better if my arm had been straight:
Finally, my tossing arm hasn't moved much -- it moved just enough to get out of the way of the paddle.
At the end of the follow-through, my hitting arm is up fairly high (although not as high as Mary's -- I need to work on that). My back foot has come up even with my front foot, so I'm ready in an open stance for the return of serve. And I've pulled in my tossing arm as a counter-rotation measure (pulling my tossing arm toward my front partially counters the rotation caused by pulling my hitting arm toward my front -- the same thing that tennis pros do during their serve):
Note that Doug and I were both serving at the end of the court that has the baseline only 3 1/2 feet from the wall, so serving feels a little cramped there, which might have affected our serves (which is why you see us both stepping over the black baseline during the serve, which is allowed at this end of the court because of the cramped space; similar to the original Pickleball rule of allowing one foot to be in front of the baseline during the serve because the original court had a tree close to one of the baselines).
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