5 Pickleball Tips
Always remember: “Return and Run!” After you hit your return you should run up to the kitchen line. Even if your opponents hit a really hard serve, you should do your best to get up to the line. If you find yourself getting caught back on hard serves, try to start an extra step or two back. That way you’ll be able to hit with forward momentum and get up to the line faster.
When in doubt, aim for the kitchen. If you’re ever in trouble, or don’t know whether to hit hard or soft, your “default setting” should be soft into the kitchen. Desperation winners and speed ups without a purpose usually aren’t successful in pickleball because there isn’t enough open court to hit to.
When making your third shot decision (i.e. whether to drop or drive), you should consider whether you're on the first or second server. Players will sometimes think of the third shot decision making as black and white using conditionals. For example: drive high balls and drop low balls or drive short balls and drop deep balls.
The score can also help you determine how much risk you want to take. When you're on the first server, you can give yourself some extra leeway to go for more aggressive thirds, like a drive or topspin drop. When you're on your second server, the priority should be getting the ball in and getting to the kitchen line, so maybe you'd consider dropping a ball that you might normally drive.
The most common response to “How do I beat a banger?” is to make them dink. This sounds good in theory, but it isn’t always the answer, because you can’t make a banger dink. A banger will probably continue to blast away speeding up low dinks and drops, so you’re going to have to do a bit more to defeat them. Here are some tips on how to really beat a banger, making them more uncomfortable than just dinking will:
1. Make them move. It’s much harder to attack off the run than it is if you’re in position. Plus, even if they do execute a speed up on the move, it probably won’t be as hard and they’ll likely leave an open spot that you can counter to.
2. Counter attack their speed ups and drives. If they’re attacking low balls, they’ll be coming to you at chest height or higher, so give them a taste of their own medicine! Resetting a bad attack is a get out of jail free card. Keep your paddle up and ready, swing compact, and anticipate the speed up. Once you start hitting counter attacks they’ll be more hesitant to speed up.
3. Let the out balls go. Easier said than done, but this WILL make a banger more hesitant to attack. Remember, speed ups that are still rising when they get to you or are shoulder height or above are probably going out.
Remember that you won't play your best every day. Some days you'll play really well and feel unstoppable, and others you'll feel like you can't win a game. It's important to remember that even if you have a streak of bad days, as long as you maintain a positive mindset you are still improving as a player overall. Always focus on the big picture. If you are practicing your shots and taking concrete steps to improve, your overall level will improve, even if you feel very up and down in the short term. When you take a minute to zoom out and think about your game over the course of months rather than days, it's easier to see your rate of steady improvement!