Problem with Not Sticking Together

 There is a lot of post energy devoted to a team sticking together.   If you are new to pickleball, it might not be a given that you understand the problems with not sticking together.  Let me explore a bit of that.

There is nothing horrible about being split, AKA one up and one back, but it creates an unguarded slot through the middle of the court.  Here is an example.  Your partner is on your left and at the kitchen line.  You are back at the baseline.  Maybe you hit a bad service return, don't want to come up, and you expect to field the third shot better from the baseline.

If your opponents notice you are back, they should hit the third shot to you always.  Everything is still ok at this point.  The ball will come to you.  But before you hit it, you will notice that both opponents are at the net (or should be).  And there is that empty slot between you and your partner.  The entrance to that slot is in front of your right hand opponent.  That's the guy directly in front of you.

Here is the problem.  You are hitting the ball from a deeper location, and if you hit it to the opponent in front of you, he will hit it cross court into the open slot -- there is no one there.  You don't want that to happen, so your shot selection is limited to hitting the ball to the middle or to the left side of the court.  If you don't hit a good shot, your partner is the primary target since he is close and will not have a lot of time to react.  By being back you've closed off half of the court for your play.

The third shot may be the pivotal moment in a point, but that supposes that the service returner team has gotten to the net.  The "second shot must bounce" rule is critical in playing this game versus tennis and others.  You absolutely have to take advantage that the opponents must let the ball drop.   They wait for a bounce, while you are taking advantageous position and getting ready for the third shot.

If you watch the pros, frequently there is a lot of sprinting to follow that second shot in.  Now some of that is due to frequent stacking, but even when that's not in play, they want to be up, stopped, and ready for the third.

Post Script:

There is another solution to being split with opponents at the net and that is to, to, to, lob.  Ok, I said it.  But a good lob will work.  I've not spent a lot of time thinking about lob return defense, but the lobber's side has some time and should use it to organize their positions.  That may be at the baseline or at the net, or mid court.  The quality of the lob and quality of the opponents are important parameters in where to set up for the next shot.