Serving to the Enemy

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Napoleon Bonaparte
French general & politician (1769 – 1821)

I cannot repeat myself enough about how important the serve is in racquetball. You get to decide the speed, angle, and direction of the serve to your opponent who is pretty much unprepared,  flat-footed, and positioned in the worst place on the court.

So why would you hit a lob serve instead of a blistering drive serve?

So you can watch your opponent skip the ball…and give you a free point.

This is certainly possible if you can master the high lob or the high z-lob serve— these high lob serves, when properly done, tempt your opponent to hit a low shot from 38 feet from the front wall.

The steeply dropping high lob will amplify any glitches or faults in your opponent’s swing. A mis-timed swing will result in them either hitting a skip shot or a too high off-the-back-wall setup shot.

The key is to hit your lob as high as possible on the front wall,  yet have the first bounce land about 2 feet in front of the five-foot line. Open up your racquet face, keep your wrist and arm locked together, and use your shoulder turn to guide the ball to your high front wall target.

So if you like to get free points from your opponents, practice your high lob serves.