Pickleball Strategy
at Rincon Country
West Pickleball Club
Playing to Lose
Many people play pickleball to lose. By this I do not mean that they are
consciously trying to lose, but that the things that they are doing make losing
almost a certainty.
What follows are 9 sure fire ways to reduce your
score and give your opponents an advantage, whether that is what you wish to do
or not. In that this is not an article
about golf, reducing your score is not a good thing.
It is true that winning is not everything, but
beating yourself at a game that all pickleball players love does not strike me
as anything to aspire to.
So, here are 9 ways to shoot yourself in the foot,
figuratively, and give bragging rights to your opponents. If by chance, you are doing these 9 things
and your partner is not, then you may find yourself looking for a new partner.
The things are courtesy of Coach “Mo” from
PickleballCoach.com.
1 1.
Frequently Miss Your
Serve
If you watch the advanced pickleball players,
particularly in 5.0 level games live or those that are available on the internet, you will
notice that 5.0 players rarely hit a serve that is anything but putting the
ball in play. So, if Yoda Friedenberg,
one of the top senior players in the world doesn’t seem to think that trying to
beat his opponent with his powerful, slicing serve matters, why do so many
players at levels 3.0 and below try to beat their opponent with their serve?
The answer is simple but counterproductive. When I started playing the game I developed a
hard serve because other new players I played against did. It is fun to beat your opponent with a hard
serve. What is not so fun is when your
serve goes in the net or out of the court.
Over time, your new friends get used to your serve, and the net result
is that you do not get many service aces, while you hit 10-30% of your serves
out.
So, what at one time worked to your advantage is
costing you points.
Here is where you can take a tip from the best in
the game. Practice serving your ball
into the correct court all the time. Hit
them until you can make them with certainty.
If you hit a ball out on your serve try to understand why and correct
it.
But, here is a clue.
If you get your serves in almost all the time, because you have
practiced it, and you miss the odd one, you probably lost concentration on the
lost ones.
2
2 2.
Frequently Miss Your
Return of Serve
As important as it is to not miss your own serve, it
is even more important to not miss your opponent’s serve when you are supposed
to return it to him or her.
Missing a return of serve gives your opponent a
point. I cannot figure out how missing a
return of serve would be a winning strategy.
Again observing the best players, return of serve is
very important, and they tend to return serves deep to their opponents.
How do they achieve that? They practice returning serves as much as
they practice making serves. If two of
you are on the court, and one of you is practicing serving, then it would seem
to be pretty easy for the other one of you to be practicing returning serves.
3
3.
Keeping Out Balls in
Play
When your opponent hits a hard ball that is coming
for your head, it is so easy to hit that ball back. It feels like a badge of courage to stand
there and take it like a man/woman and then beat him/her with your amazing
return.
But, stop to ponder for a moment. If a hard ball is coming at your head, it is
probably rising. It may even have a
stewardess on board. In all likelihood
it was on its way to the next county, and you just kept it in play. If in your exuberance you slammed your ball
out of the court, and your opponent was not the great gentleman/woman that you
are, he/she probably let it go out, and counted the point.
In effect most rallies where a player does not let
an obvious out of play ball go become two point rallies. By this I mean, that your opponent went from
losing the point if his ball is allowed to go out, to winning the point. A loss of serve for your opponents becomes a
point, or a point you would have had becomes a loss of serve.
4
4.
Low Percentage Shots
Situation – Your opponent hits a very difficult
FAST, hard shot at you. Because you are
all that and a bag of chips, or because the adrenaline is flowing at hyper
speed, you decide to hit a low percentage sharp angled shot back for a winner,
rather than hitting a defensive shot.
When someone drives a ball at me, I want to show him
how smart I am and beat him with the return of his own shot. More often than not, I will attempt to make
myself look good by hitting a tricky shot to get him. The problem with this idea is that it works
often enough to reinforce it, but is really far less effective than other less
sexy alternatives.
For most pickleballers shot accuracy is one of the
most significant challenges we face. We
can hit balls against a wall all day, and even hit almost all of them where we
want them to go. When we are just doing
drills with a partner who is helping us practice shots, almost all of them go
where we want them to. But, in a game,
our opponent is not as accommodating as a wall or a practice partner, and what
happens is often unexpected.
In a game, unforced errors are a significant cause
of lost points and lost games, and low percentage
shots are a major contributor
to unforced errors.
Down the middle is almost always a safer shot, from
a percentage standpoint than nibbling at the edges.
It is beneficial to remember in a game against stiff
competition, and particularly in a tournament, that the adrenaline rush we are
getting makes most shots harder and longer.
When preparing think about percentages.
5 5.
Taking away Your
Partner’s Forehand with Your Backhand
Situation – You and your partner have gotten up to
the net. Your opponents put a ball to
the center line. You are on your
backhand at the center line, and your partner is on his/her forehand. You take
the shot.
What is wrong with this situation? If you trust your partner, then a forehand is
almost always a better controlled shot than a backhand. If you step in and take the backhand shot,
two things are possible, three actually.
First, both of you go for the ball, because your partner expects to take
a forehand, and one or both of you miss hits the return. Two, you take the backhand shot, but have now
put yourself out of position because your shot lacks the strength of your
partner’s forehand, and the opposition puts one away on your forehand on the
outside of the court. Third, because
your backhand is weaker than your partner’s forehand, the ball goes in the net
or out of play.
The proper strategy to play this is to have
communicated with your partner beforehand about who is to take what shots. If you know that your partner is to take
center shots on his forehand, and you are to take center shots on your
forehand, then neither of you surrenders positioning, trying to take a backhand
shot that leaves you out of position for the next return.
6 6.
Get Upset with Your
Partner Poaching
Some people get upset when their partner poaches a
ball that is obviously coming to them, even if they put the shot away.
Poaching a ball in front of your partner can be a
very effective strategy, but it needs to be understood and used
effectively. In fact, it can be very
beneficial to work the play so as to set up your partner to do a poached shot
for a point winner.
Here is an example.
You serve from the right hand court, intentionally to the (your) left
side of the opposition player you are serving to. He returns the ball to you on the right side
but somewhat deep.
You hit a loopy slow shot back to him, again on the left
side of the court, and you and your partner move to the net. You have somewhat baited him to return that
ball to you. When he hits the ball to
you, both he and his partner have their eyes on you, since you are on the line
of trajectory. You, as part of the bait
have your paddle in a ready position, as though you are going to take the shot,
which you need to do anyway. Your
partner steps in front of the ball and slams down an easy point winner.
That is a textbook poach shot, because you have the
eyes of your opponents on you, and your partner has supported what was a
misdirection by stepping in.
7 7.
Balls not at Your
Opponents Feet
Anyone who has played the game for a reasonable
amount of time knows how difficult it is to hit balls that are at your
feet. So, if we know that, how come we
hit so many balls that are higher, like waist high, and expect to win points
and games?
Balls played at your opponents’ feet are not
guaranteed point winners, but they do make a return more difficult, and put the
opponents on the defensive, often setting up a point winner a few shots further
down the line.
Part of winning pickleball is shot placement, and
there are few better places than at your opponents’ feet.
8 8.
Staying Back from the
No Volley Zone Line
The game is won and lost at the No Volley Zone
line. Period.
If you are serving you cannot get there until after
the second shot. If you are receiving
serve you can get there right after you return the serve. Smart players drop balls into the No Volley
Zone, and make you get them. If you are
back from the Zone, you cannot get there in time, or are forced to make a weak
shot in defense. If you are there, you
are in the play for all intents and purposes.
If your opponents have not advanced to the No Volley
Line a very effective play is to hit the ball to where they are but at their
feet. The effectiveness of this type of
shot is also an indicator of how important getting to the No Volley Line is.
9 9.
Hit the Ball Too Fast
for Good Placement
There is an immediate satisfaction of hitting a
hard, fast ball back at your opponents.
The problem with that is that there is little margin for error, and hard
and fast increases the error rate, a not beneficial combination.
Pickleball, played well, is largely a touch
game. The best players sacrifice power
often for accuracy. In fact, they would
like to see you try hard, fast shots, particularly from the touch shot that
they have moved you out of position with.
That makes your hard, fast shot a desperation shot, and often results in
an unforced error, or sets them up for a point winner.
Too often, players will remember the hard, fast shot
they beat their opponents with, and forget the 4 that went into the net or out
of the court. If your opponents are
particularly wily, they might even compliment you on your winner, while keeping
quiet when you drill one into the net, or out of the county, to help reinforce
your Superman powers, and lull you into a false sense of security.
Pickleball is a very fun game at whatever level you
play it at. But, there comes a time when
you want to do better at it. Avoiding
the 9 errors above is part of the process of getting good at the game.