Best drills for a sharper Rugby Fives serve
Rugby Fives is a fast, hand-strike sport where the serve is the first weapon in any rally. A weak delivery hands the receiver an easy attack, while a well-placed serve can dictate the entire point. Australian players who cross over from tennis, squash, or even touch football often underestimate how much the serve shapes outcomes in this game, since there is no back wall to bail you out and the front and side walls punish loose placement.
Many clubs across Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane have started running dedicated serve clinics, especially in the lead-up to the Melbourne Cup carnival when winter training blocks wrap up and players look for that edge before summer competitions. The drills below work whether you are training solo at a wall in your local stadium or running a group session at a community club.
Because Rugby Fives is a charity-driven sport with volunteer coaches, most drills rely on minimal equipment. A ball, a wall, and a few markers are enough. The same exercises that the Rugby Fives Association promotes through its school programs can be adapted for adult players aiming to sharpen their opening shot.
Foundational stance and court awareness
Before any drill makes sense, the body has to know where it stands. The service box in Rugby Fives is small, and foot placement determines whether you can swing freely or whether you will clip the line. Stand with the lead foot pointing toward the opposite corner, weight on the back foot, and the ball held at waist height for a direct strike or just above the floor if you plan to bounce first.
Players who grew up watching cricket at Adelaide Oval or who follow the AFL on weekends often bring a more rotational stance to the serve. Rugby Fives rewards a sideways-on posture more than a square one, so the hips and shoulders should align along the side wall rather than facing the front wall.
Serve types at a glance
| Serve type | Trajectory | Best use | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat drive | Low, fast, straight | Setting up an attacking rally | Beginner |
| Cut serve | Sideways swing, sidewall first | Catching the receiver off-side | Intermediate |
| Lob serve | High arc to back | Slowing tempo, against tall opponents | Intermediate |
| Bounce serve | Ball drops before strike | Disguise and variation | Advanced |
| Reverse angle | Cross-court to far corner | Pulling opponent wide | Advanced |
Rotate through two or three types in a single practice block rather than trying to perfect all five at once. The table works as a planning tool for sessions across a week.
Wall-based solo drills
Solo wall work is the backbone of serve improvement, especially for players who only have an arvo free during the week. Find a flat wall outdoors, mark a target zone roughly the size of a service box at waist height, and serve fifty balls, counting how many land inside the target.
A common Australian training habit is to combine wall drills with a walk or bike ride in the park, treating the session as part of a broader fitness routine. This keeps the body warm and the mind fresh. Keep the rally going for as long as possible after each serve, even if it is just you tapping the ball back to yourself. The drill trains both accuracy and recovery footwork in one block.
For variation, set up three targets: one high on the wall, one low in the corner, and one midway on the sidewall. Alternate between them with ten balls each, then repeat. This builds the spatial awareness needed to change serve angles mid-match when the receiver starts reading your patterns.
Target accuracy with cones or tape
Visual targets speed up learning dramatically. Place a strip of tape or a small cone on the front wall roughly twenty centimetres above the floor and inside the service zone. Every serve should land below or directly on the line. Miss it, and the rep counts as a fault in your own training.
Players training at community courts from Fremantle to Hobart often borrow cones from their local Bunnings hardware store, the same way netball and cricket teams mark out zones for junior clinics. The cones are cheap, brightly coloured, and easy to pack into a training bag for a hit-out after work.
A progression is to add a second cone on the side wall, requiring the ball to kiss the sidewall before reaching the front wall. This is the cut serve in miniature. Hit ten consecutive serves into the sidewall cone before moving on, and you will start to feel the wrist action needed to generate sideways spin on the ball.
Building power through rotation
Power in Rugby Fives comes from the hips, not the arm. Stand sideways, coil the upper body away from the front wall, and uncoil through the shot as if throwing a cricket ball. A useful drill is to place a medicine ball or a heavy backpack on the ground beside your lead foot and reach across to pick it up as you simulate the serve motion. The rotational load builds the core strength required for a harder strike without straining the shoulder.
Players who play touch football or rugby league on the weekends often have the rotational strength already, but they need to channel it into a short, sharp movement rather than a long throw. The drill helps convert that natural rotation into a compact serving action that fits inside the service box.
Once the motion feels loaded, hit ten flat serves as hard as possible into a target on the front wall. Rest for a minute. Repeat for five sets. The point is not just speed but consistency of pace. A serve that bounces off the wall at the same height every time is harder to read than one that varies wildly.
Spin and cut variations
A flat serve alone will not carry a player through a season of championships. Variation is what keeps the receiver guessing. Practice three distinct serves in a single drill: a flat drive, a cut to the sidewall, and a lob that arcs high to the back. Hit five of each in rotation, focusing on the wrist position at the moment of strike.
The cut serve requires the hand to move from low to high on the back of the ball, brushing against it to create side spin. The lob needs an open palm and a softer touch, almost as if placing the ball rather than hitting it. Both require patience to master, which is why the drill works best in a calm, focused session rather than a rushed half-hour before training.
A good way to test variation is to play a practice match where the receiver must call out which serve they expect before the ball is struck. If they guess wrong three times in a row, the server wins the point. This adds a tactical layer and makes the drill feel like a game rather than a chore.
Pressure simulation and match conditions
Drills done at training speed mean little if the serve collapses under match pressure. Simulate the stress by setting up a forfeit for each missed target, whether it is running a lap of the court or shouting the post-training coffees. Australian club culture thrives on this kind of friendly stakes, and it sharpens concentration quickly.
Another approach is to set a score target, say twenty out of thirty serves landing in the chosen zone. If you fall short, start again. The drill teaches players to manage nerves and stick to a routine even when fatigued. This is the same mental skill that cricketers use when protecting a scoreboard in the final session of a match at the SCG or the Gabba.
Practising serves when tired is also valuable. After a full training session, hit another twenty serves. Fatigue is when technical flaws show up, and correcting them in this state builds muscle memory that holds up in tight matches.
Building a consistent pre-serve routine
The best servers in any sport share one habit: a repeatable routine. In Rugby Fives, this might be bouncing the ball twice, taking a breath, looking at the target, and then striking. The routine should take no more than five seconds and should look identical every time, no matter the score.
Write down the routine, place it in your training bag, and run through it at the start of every session. Over a season, the routine becomes a mental anchor that steadies the hand when the legs feel shaky. It also signals to the opponent that the server is settled and ready, which can be a psychological edge in itself.
Players who travel to tournaments often struggle with unfamiliar courts, so a strong routine helps override the new surroundings. Whether you are playing in Adelaide, Perth, or a smaller regional centre, the routine travels with you and keeps the serve consistent across venues.
If you want to keep growing the sport and your own game at the same time, look into how community backing shapes the calendar. Sponsorship and volunteer hours are what keep clubs running, fixtures published, and tournaments affordable, so supporting local events is a quiet way to give back to the game that sharpens your serve. Grab a ball, pick a drill from the list, and book in a session this week.
