Jason's Half Lob Serve

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Winning Racquetball : Skills, Drills and Strategies
Millions of Americans play racquetball, yet instructional material is scarce. This guide, written by a veteran instructor (Turner) and a ranked professional (Clouse) provides tips for both the seasoned recreational player and the novice. They examine everything from equipment to match strategy in straightforward, conversational language augmented by more than 140 photos and line drawings. Readers will learn how to select a racquet and a facility; how to condition themselves specifically for the sport; and how to avoid the most common types of injuries. There are also excellent tips for doubles play, mental conditioning, and gamesmanship. In addition, the authors break the game down into offensive and defensive skills, an approach often overlooked in racquet-sport instructionals. A key feature is the inclusion of drills to develop the recommended shots and strategies. Too often players just play, forgetting that even a minimal amount of time devoted to skill development can pay huge dividends. In areas where the sport is popular, this is the instructional of choice.

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Here's a new serve I learned from Jason Mannino when I took Fran Davis' racquetball camp. I may be off a few inches here and there because I didn't ask him for a detailed description. But you can see him serve it in the 2000 rball championship video.

Stand just left of center court facing square to the side wall.

Drop the ball on your right side (towards the right side of the court), arms length from your body, even with your lead foot, so that ball drops on the floor in the center, between the two side walls. The ball bounces somewhat higher than hip level where you contact it.

Hit the ball on your right side, so that the ball passes on your left side. The ball travels in the air past the dotted safety line towards back court where the first thing it contacts is the floor near the side wall. It doesn't hit the side wall first. The ball hits the floor beyond the dotted safety line, maybe 6 feet from the back wall or more.

The ball bounces up and hits the side wall at the early stage of the ball's ascent. Because it hits the floor near the side wall, then hits the side wall in the early stage of its ascent, deep in back court, its very hard to cut off. It's tricky getting the ball to hit the side wall on the way up, instead of hitting the wall on the way down.

After hitting the side wall, the ball hits the back wall at a height of about 1 foot and the second bounce ends up still pretty near the left back court corner.

Jason mixes this up with other serves, all from the same court position and service motion, regardless of whether he's playing a righty or lefty. The Z half lob to the the right side passes in front of him. Jason told me that the full, high lob is too easily killed by opponents, so most of his serves are half lobs.

Here's a video of Jason's serve on Cary Moody's web site: http://faculty.wm.edu/cemood/racquetball/videos/jason_junk_serve_1.mpg

Carl's racquetball site is here: http://faculty.wm.edu/cemood/racquetball/

Alex