Choosing The Appropriate Racquetball Serve

In racquetball the most important and advantageous position you can be in, is in the serving position. There are three main types of serves you can use, some are higher risk than others, but I will outline them below.

The Drive Serve

A drive serve is a high risk serve that is intended to be extremely difficult to return. Drive serves are hit hard  and usually land just over the fault line and bounce again before getting to the back or side wall. Drive shots are  hit extremely hard and are best suited if you are trying to land an ace. You will most likely have to spend a lot of  time practicing exactly how low and hard to hit the ball on the front wall in order to have the ball land just over  the fault line.
Drive Serve Video

The Z And Jam Serves

Z serves are less risky than your drive serve but are still quite effective. Z and Jam serves consist of shots that  bounce off the front wall then off the side wall and land passed the fault line. The good thing about these serves is  that they force the receiver to move to get the ball. This is especially effective if they are tired. You have to be  careful though, as often times the ball will go directly to the receiver which will create a great offensive  opportunity for them.
Z Serve Video

The Lob Serve

The Lob serve is considered the most conservative serving method since it yields the least risk. The lob serve is  typically a serve you would perform after faulting on your first attempt at a more difficult serve. With the lob  serve you are going to try bounce the ball of the front wall and have the ball come back, bounce, and be waste level  or higher on the receiver. There isn’t much point at trying to trick your opponent with a lob serve as the ball is  moving slow enough that they can easily figure out what is going on.
Lob Serve Video

Other Things to Think About

Not all divisions allow a second serve if you fault on your first. This is why many pro racquetball players will play  more lob serves than drives. The Kiss principal (Keep It Simple Stupid) comes into play when you only have a single  serve as you don’t want to lose your opportunity to score a point.