Your brain wants to help you. It really does.

The difficulty is that your brain lacks clear instructions on what you want it to do.

Vague ideas aren’t enough. For example, “I want to serve hard.” Or when you get a high, juicy ball that you want to kill: “I want to put that shot away hard!!!”

Another perhaps common one: “Don’t miss the next shot.”

All of the above are vague. More of a concept than a set of instructions that your brain – very powerful brain, I should add – can execute.

The Rules of FOUR are actual instructions. They apply to two of the most important shots you hit: your serve and your return of serve. The Rules of FOUR help your brain consistently deliver more effective shots through clear directions.

Here’s how they work.

Rule of FOUR – Part 1

Aim your serve to clear the net by FOUR feet. This instruction becomes your intended target over the net for your serve.

Pretty clear, right? Your brain can latch onto this target. And work to achieve it.

Might not be today. Or tomorrow. But over time, if you keep this instruction front of mind when you serve, your brain will repeat it until it becomes automatic. The result? An awesome serve.

What makes it an awesome serve?

1. You will almost never miss your serve into the net.
2. Your serve will travel deeper with less energy (power). Depth of serve is this shot’s most important characteristic (other than being in play, of course ☺).
3. After it bounces, this serve travels deeper than a serve hit lower. Draw it out with your hand in the air. A serve that’s 2 inches over the net versus one that’s 4 feet over. The shot’s curvature will be clear.

Different philosophies exist about how to serve. Take it from a 57-year-old professional coach: the serve you get from applying part 1 of the rule of FOUR is awesome.

Rule of FOUR – Part 2

Aim your serve to land FOUR feet from the baseline. There are some other details here that are covered inside our free ONE Serve Coaching Playbook (you can get your copy – for free – here).

The key is that FOUR feet from the baseline gives you a nice margin for error for your serve. Longer term, you can push the serve target a bit deeper if you want to, but FOUR feet is a good margin to start this project with.

Mental Clarity

Like the net target, a service-box target gives your brain clear instructions on what you want. If you keep feeding these instructions to your brain each time you serve, your brain’s automatic feedback loop will repeatedly check the results and adjust what it’s doing to get the job done.

Extra Coaching Tip: Your brain is powerful. I already mentioned that. But note your brain’s ability to get stuff done by itself, without the need for micro-management or your oversight. Part of this is training. Your brain can drive around town without much direct oversight. Part of this is instructions. Your brain can follow a video on how to best chop an onion.

The takeaway here is this.  Instead of telling your body, “turn legs to a 32-degree angle to the ball, pull paddle back to the second quadrant behind the body, accelerate at 15 kph,” tell your brain what you want and let it fill in the blanks on how to get the job done. 

The Rules of FOUR give your brain clarity on where you want your serve to go – both over the net and on the court. Let your brain work through the best way to get this done. The result will be an awesome serve that will serve you well (that was a decent one imo).

Return of Serve

Oh yeah – there’s a bonus here for you. The same Rules of FOUR apply to your return of serve. So while you were training your brain on the serve, you also got an awesome return of serve.

It’s the best 2-for-1 deal in pickleball.

Why will your return of serve be awesome? See above for the serve. Your serve and return of serve are, essentially, the same shot. This is one example of how a deeper understanding of pickleball's framework lets you go deeper in the game you love. If you want to keep going, join us inside YourPickleball.Coach. It’s the best training available anywhere in the world – guaranteed.

Applying the Rules of FOUR

The next time it’s your turn to serve, take a moment (we’re talking about a second here, literally).

To acquire the net target, look FOUR feet over the net. Find something in the distance that intersects that line of sight. It might be a banner, window, or wall feature if you play indoors. Outside, it could be a tree or fence line.

Once you have that visual cue, you can use it every time you serve.

Next, look over to the service box. Pick the spot FOUR feet from the baseline, center of the box.

Line your shot up. You – net target – service box target. Serve.

Your brain will run the calculations from there. How well did you do? What can you do next time to do better?

The next time it’s your turn to serve, repeat the above. Give your brain the repetitions it needs to give you the results you want, and that your brain so desperately wants to give you.

After a while, you’ll be able to “sit back” and enjoy your awesome serve.

I hope we get the opportunity to coach you inside YourPickleball.Coach or at an upcoming camp.

Until then, be well.

Coach Tony

Tony Roig is a nationally recognized coach, senior pro player, and developer of "Respect the X," among other widely used doubles strategies. He is the voice behind the weekly Pickleball Therapy podcast. To learn more about Tony and his coaching, visit TonyRoigPickleball.com, where you can access four free mini-courses. For on-demand lessons and structured training, visit YourPickleball.coach.

Written by human hands for human minds. No AI used (unless you count Spell Check ☺).