Pickleball 201

 So you've played a bit and can hit the ball forehand and backhand and your serves are in 90% of the time, what's the next step to being a better player? 

In my opinion, the next step is to be where you need to be.  Let's call this looking ahead one shot.  Let me lay out a framework of a point played at the reasonable level.  I'll sprinkle in notes about defense and offense along the way.

And like most PB discussions we need to talk of server versus receiver sides as their roles are very different at the start of all points and until both sides make it to the net.  The servers are, by design, behind in any point and are playing defense.  

OK, let's look at a typical point played at a skilled level:

1) The Serve: The best practice for a server is to get the ball in.  Deeper is better than shorter and backhand is usually better than forehand, but being in is the most important point.

2) Second Shot, service return:  A good serve will be deep on your backhand side.  So be prepared to return that shot.  However most shots will on average bounce in the middle of your service box.  If the serve is not too challenging then you have options as to where to hit the return.

A service return ought to go up the middle and towards the guy who served.  The non-server is looking for something to do, best to keep him idle.  The server is recovering from hitting the serve and he might not be fully ready to return the second shot, or may have stepped into the court due to an inferior serving style.

In any case, hit the serve back and move to the kitchen line - this is vital and there is no case where you don't do this.  The ball has to bounce, you want to be ready to defend the third shot and that means not running and at the net.

3) Third Shot (fifth, seventh, all odd points when not yet at the net):

We expect the Second shot to be up the middle and towards the server.  The best return will be deep, so we want to be behind the service line in order to hit a good third.  If we get a shorter ball, we can easily move up and hit it.  Pro tip: the sound of the second shot will give some indication of how hard it was hit and how short it might be.  

Hit the third shot to the person who returned the serve.  That person might still be moving towards the net, or moving, or, heaven forbid, is hanging back by the baseline.  That person is more likely to not be ready to return a ball.  

If the player who hits the second shot does not come to the kitchen line, always, always hit it deep to the backhand and immediately rush the net.  You now have split the opponents and you control the net.  This is a perfect situation to win the point on the fourth or sixth shot.  This is the situation most favorable to your side.

If both opponents are at the net, as they should be, then drive the third ball hard or drop it.  I prefer the drop, but either is workable.  (It's best if your partner knows what you like to do as he should/can be moving up if it's a drop shot and not moving if it's a drive.)

Driving the ball is fine, but you are still at a disadvantage if your side is not at the net.  So you have to stop driving the ball and start dropping it at some point.  The sooner the better in my view.  Players who keep driving the ball do a couple of things.  They never move up, they usually hit a lot of shots long, and it's not too difficult to defend.  Note that if they hit with a lot of top spin, they can be effective if they can get the ball to dip below the net, but anyone who hits these shots with some cut and or side spin are in trouble.  

For all shots after the second, you want to volley the ball if you can.  One of the advantages to moving aggressively into the transition area, or to the kitchen, is to volley the next shot.  Sure, some shots are harder to return from the transition area, but any volley gains a lot of time and advantage.

4) Fourth, sixth, all even shots - assumes the opps are not at the net: this shot should be deep in the middle of the court.  This is the best chance to keep the servers from the net.  If they are moving into the transition area, a ball to their feet is the best choice.  Putting it in the middle is the best chance for an unforced error.  With middle shots, it might not be clear who is to return it and there may be a coverage gap or folks not willing to sacrifice a paddle to return a shot.   If the third shot was a good drop, then better to make a good dink than a bad harder shot.  

If everyone is at the net, then we are dinking.  Speed up if you can hit a good one.  Otherwise, work on hitting a good dink.

A defensive exchange is not discussed much in the literature, but in a pro match where either third or fifth shot drops are de require, about 10% of the drops will be volleyed and a defensive battle from baseline towards the net will ensue.  This battle of drives from the net and blocks and lobb-ish things from the baseline.  The point resolves when either the baseliners make a low/soft enough shot to get to the net (i.e., a ball that can't be volleyed), or the net holders manage to get an angle and put the ball away.  

I think rec players see this kind of point as a basic mistake, but it's actually a large component of play from the servers' point of view at the pro level and probably is about 80% of points in some rec game.  That varies with skill level.  In a game where the unforced errors are minimal, it's usually very difficult to score.

5) The Rest of the Shots: The net/dink play continues until something happens.  An error, speed up, boredom, or lob come to mind.  But the main thing is to cover the middle.  In doing so, you are leaving your sideline open a bit.  This is ok.  It is harder to hit than you might think.  If a player is going to try to go down the line, they usually will telegraph it with a bigger windup or a sneaky gleam in the eyes.  So while you are covering the middle like a nice smear of mayonnaise, be ready to shift quickly to cover the line.  

---

Let's summarize a bit about the shots mentioned above.  The careful reader will note that the recommended shots are up the middle.  So as a defender of those shots, you need to defend the middle.  One or both players have to have a paddle ready to return those shots.  Defending the court where each player has his side of the court to defend is not the best.  It's better to overlap the middle and leave room on the far side to the opponents.  What I mean by the far side, is the side away from where the ball will be hit.  This changes as the ball moves around, so this coverage of middle and side must shift from side to side as the ball moves around.  

In dink contests, we still want to cover the middle well.  I've found it possible for one of the players to be very close to straddling the center line.  It looks like this opens a lot of the court, but it's difficult to hit that shot.  It's usually predictable as demeanor and paddle positions will change to hit that shot.  A watchful defender is rarely surprised.  From this middle position, quick backhand shots and poaches are possible.  If the opponents try for a middle shot, you are well positioned to defend.  Paddle up and be eager!

Speaking of middle coverage, I played a couple of games with Angel this past week, it was surprising how close we were to each other during play.  Our paddles when stretched out would more than overlap the middle.

Back to our main theme of being at the right place is to use the above structure to expect the location of the next shot.  If the ball should come up the middle, then be there.  If your side hits a good short shot, then advance and look for a popup.  

The earlier you move, the more time you have to get there and more slowly you have to move.  If you watch pro matches you'll see the service returner sprints to the kitchen line.  They hit the ball hard, so there is less time before the third shot comes back - less time, then move faster.

Can this all be summed up as, "Block the middle, face and crowd your opponents?"  Perhaps and as a summary, I wouldn't argue with that.  Of course if everyone follows that, then the variations become more important, but the basics are vital.  If you play with random partners, then these basics should be common ground.

One of the goals in any sport is to get to the level where most of the unforced errors don't happen.  At that level you enter into a bit of cat and mouse, where out maneuvering your opponent is a vital element.  Pickleball with its steep learning curve allows you to get close to this level fairly quickly.  If everyone plays the above structure well, you'll be in a dinking game a lot of the time and then you try to out dink / out think your opponent.  Physical movement, psychology, and a puzzle to solve; it's a great game!

---

Editor's note:  This has gone through a bunch of iterations.  It's getting terse and with terseness comes heavy, laden prose.  Which is fine, but you can't read it quickly.  This may be a problem with all instructional writing.  You need a flow that's not too light, not too heavy.  So best to stop here.  

I can see an instruction manual coming out of this.  All the shots are there, no instructions about how to hit the shots, but that's too much for this.  

In re hitting shots, Scott has talked about it.  I've not covered it much in other posts.  I think it's somewhat easy to pickup since the paddles are light and so is the ball.  You can get away with some bad technique, where, for example, you might not be able to do that with tennis.  So stay tuned.