2023 is here, and as documented by my colleague, Leland Orfield, with the calendar change, the promised approved pickleball rule changes follow. It is time to abide by these accepted rule modifications. We know how the rules continue to evolve, but how it impacts different players and the reasons behind the changes are worthy of a closer review.
Serving Gets Annual Checkup
If any, the rule that gets annual attention is undoubtedly the serve. Each of the last three years has seen updates on what is and is not allowable when it comes to serving.
- 2021 – The drop serve gets introduced as an alternative to striking the ball on the fly.
- 2022 – The “chainsaw” serve, or imparting spin on the ball using the paddle before serving, was outlawed.
- 2023 – Adding any spin with the non-paddle hand, sometimes referred to as the “snap” serve, has also gone the way of the 2022 chainsaw spin.
Three years and three meaningful serving rule changes seemingly reduce service sophistication. These changes will undoubtedly have an impact on both amateurs and professionals. For better or worse, players have strong opinions, but how and why the changes are worth further evaluation.
Professionals Spun in Knots
We all know the speed by which the game’s popularity has grown. In the last few years, the professional pickleball game has been a central area of growth and a contributor to the sport’s overall popularity.
Until now, the prize money for participation as a pro would best be described as modest, at best. That said, cash is flowing into the professional game, the players are getting better and better, and as all professional athletes, these players look for any allowable advantage against their opponent.
Given the need to optimize all aspects, it should not be surprising that the service, the very first play in any point, was the target of a collective pushing of the boundaries. The pros invented serves to put copious amounts of spin, to start the point, in a game where imparting spin is not the easiest to do.
When playing against the best of the best, spin paired with consistent placement, i.e., deep serves, provides an advantage for a player that can do both.
Amateurs Copy the Pros
Recently, in an article covered by us here at Pickleball Union, a new report says that 14% of American adults — or 36.5 million U.S. residents — played pickleball at least once from August 2021 to August 2022.
Let’s connect some dots. Professional pickleball is growing at the same time 30+ million Americans are giving the sport a try. Most of these players are totally new to the game, with nothing but basic skills. These same players are watching the pros spin the daylights out of the ball in the service process. What do many amateurs do? They copy the pros.
This means players that cannot even come close to consistently dinking are trying to figure out how to win a point on the serve. There are good reasons why this isn’t good for the game, but we can all agree that for most beginner and intermediate amateurs, trying to spin the serve is far less important than getting it in.
Why the Service Rules Evolution Gives Us Traditionalist Insight
The serve was never meant to be executed in a manner that was meant to dramatically change the course of the point and game overall. Yes, a deep serve is a good serve. Mixing up placement and pace is a good idea.
The changes in the service rules are not meant to make the action irrelevant. That being the case, it is intended to be something other than a significant differentiator in the game. It has been said numerous times that the serve is designed to get the point started. Pickleball is not tennis, where an ace is both a goal and a serious scoring advantage.
At the professional level, limiting the spin at the serve focuses the best of the best on the actual shot making consistent play of the expected action and strategy of the game when it was created. Some might call this a purist perspective.
As for amateurs, simply put, they should not be focused on the serve, other than getting it in – center box. They should be focused on all other aspects of regular play and not some fancy spin on a serve that might result in a 50/50 chance of the serve even landing in play.
For those who have never cracked the Official Pickleball Rulebook, it is much more extensive than one would initially think. The serve is only one part of the rules, but a part of the rule book that has garnered significant attention.
Maybe 2024 is when it’s decided that the intent and execution of the serve is fair and what was originally intended when the game was conceived. We shall see, but one thing is for sure. Like all sports, especially a quickly evolving sport such as pickleball, there will be consistent rule modifications. This is good for the game’s overall seriousness, integrity, and longevity.
Get ready for regular updates. We will help keep you on top of all the rule changes and subsequent impacts as they happen.
