I was in a game the other day. The opponents were bangers and were pretty good at it. One was a tennis player and had very nice ground strokes and liked to use them. The other had a push shot that worked quite well on high shots at the net.
One of the nice things about a backhand push shot is that you don't have to move the paddle much to hit the next shot. So even if the initial push shot is returned, it can be pushed back again efficiently.
My partner and I didn't have enough bang in our game to beat the opponents by banging. Indeed, almost every time we sped up the ball, it was countered.
It seemed to me that if you can't out bang a team, then you have to try to lob them or dink them. For esthetic values, one should always try to dink, of course.
As the game was getting into the final stages and my side was behind, I talked to my partner about playing some soft ball. We were not able to do that and got beat maybe 11 to 6 or so.
Let me make a couple of points about this game. If your default style is not winning the game for you, you have to switch to something else. The soft game is not something a lot of folks use and it can be a bit scary as when it's not good, the point can be over quickly, for example a drop shot that goes too deep into the court.
Changing styles carries over to shot selection. If you dink and get a ball that you normally would attack, you have to realize that the opponents might be very happy to block the shot back and get the point back to a banging one. And this was the case in this game. Every time we sped up, it just didn't work. So in this case we needed to be very selective about attacking. We were not able to make that transition and were soundly beaten. Nightmares ensued...
Let's jump ahead to today. I was in a game with two guys who hit the ball hard. One on each team. A couple of rallies were just these two guys trading baseline to baseline cross court shots until some one made a mistake. And I'm talking about five or six exchanges back and fourth. The other opponent and I were just watching this play out.
I'm not going to say that this is bad pickleball, but maybe more suited to tournament singles then rec doubles.
There was some discussion about the play after the game. And one of the hitters mentioned that the hard shot is quite effective. I would agree with that, but as soon as the skill levels move towards 4.0, then the hard shots don't work anymore. I realized that early in PB when hitting a fast shot to a player with a racquet background was not going to work. They are used to fast shots and love them. And the skills to return hard shots are acquired as you get better. So even if you find the shots effective, they, one day, will no longer work.
I push the short game when teaching and try to play it as much as I can, as it is effective against all skill levels, whereas just hitting hard does not work in any upper level games.
So there is the dilemma, what do you want to do with PB? Is it just a social athletic thing with friends, or are you interested in playing as well as you can, or is there tournament interest? If you just play low level games forever, then the soft game is not really needed. Most beginner and intermediates don't dink, so hit it hard and you'll probably win most of your games. If you want to become an all around player, then the soft game is a big part of higher level play. It requires little strength, just some foot movement and paddle control, and the willingness to do it. Also, it's much more funner than hitting hard shots.