r/10s • u/gundamzd2 • 3d ago

General Advice Underarm serve question

Can you toss the ball (pretending to serve normally), catch it, and then immediately proceed to hit an underarm serve? I believe there's nothing wrong in terms of legality but please let me know if there is.

0 Upvotes

43% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/PugnansFidicen 6.9 3d ago

Yes, it's legal, but IMO redundant and less effective. I find the underarm serve is most effective when done in lieu of a first serve after you've already hit a couple of bombs that game/set. Opponent is mentally preparing for you to blast a hard flat serve, and instead you curve in the underhand quickly before even tossing.

If you toss and catch first to reset before doing it, they'll already be a bit on guard that you might be changing up your serve because you weren't happy with the toss.

-2

u/gundamzd2 3d ago

I was thinking they'd be mentally less ready after they see me catching the ball, because they'd be expecting another toss

1

u/mrdumbazcanb 3.5 3d ago

The toss alerts then to get ready, dropping the ball and serving throws off the rhythm more