over the years I've been playing and coaching pickleball I've heard some strategic advice that comes up time and time again these strategies get repeated like Mantra many have considered this General strategic outline as the be-all and end-all for sound pickleball and therein lies the problem because at the outset none of this advice is wrong per se in fact in the early days of one's pickleball playing lifespan I generally agree that the structured advice is good to follow under the controlled parameters to which it applies and you should strive to master it quickly because it's foundational
to long-term success the thing is that at some point this advice will hold you back because you've outgrown it and because like I said it only applies under the right conditions and although those conditions are common when those conditions aren't present and you follow these rules that don't apply well things go downhill pretty fast this set of strategies are limited and too one-dimensional and in fact you should seek to outgrow them as quickly as possible because you need to in order to build on them and expand your skill set accordingly and go deeper beyond the
surface into multi-dimensional strategies if you hope to become a very good player that poses a real threat anytime you step on the court you need to learn and execute more advanced complex and nuanced strategies today we're going to break down what these core set of strategies are why they work to start and how and why you need to go beyond them over time I'm Nicole Havlicek this is primetime pickleball let's dive into today's topic missing one of our videos is like missing an easy put away don't let that be you subscribe now the first tip
we're going to break down is just get the serving when you're just starting out with pickleball this advice does have Merit because it promotes consistency and a reliable serve to at least get the point started one of the main objectives of pickleball when you're just starting to play is to get the ball over the net and in no doubt about that but at some point on your development Journey you'll start to realize that you are getting punished if your serves are short and worse if they're short and they bounce high which is generally what's happening
when you apply a just get it in strategy you'll notice you often get punished by those with an aggressive return that can put you at a disadvantage in the point very quickly you'll get pushed back in the court by a well-struck and deep return and that is going to be hard to recover from because both opponents are now up at the non-volley zone line they have great chord positioning at that point and can dictate the point from up there while you and your partner are back in the court getting pushed around not good so as
soon as you have control over your serve and can and get it in reliably you'll immediately want to shift your focus on the serve to hitting it deep with as much speed as you can reasonably control this will make it as difficult as you can for the returner to hit a strong return this will then give you the best chance of receiving a shot that isn't going to be as rough while making their trip to the net after their return tougher you'll immediately be in better shape for the rest of the point if you make
them work to hit a good return the second tip that you're going to want to try to get past quickly is just get your return in and Rush up to the net immediately after once again at least at first the part about getting the return in is good advice because we do want to promote being consistent and above all else first make the shot then once you get your control down and can rely on making your return do more with it so that you can get an edge in the point get it deep so that
you can comfortably move up to the non-volley zone line behind it now as far as the second part of rushing in after you return no matter what it depends ideally yes become come in behind a good return not just any old just get it in type of return if you hit your return poorly and the shot landed short and worse it's going to bounce high don't charge the net behind it you're going to get punished on that next shot you have to earn your right to follow it in and you'll do that by hitting a
good deep return and yes it's best if you earn that trip every time and it should be achievable most of the time it's best to try and get your return as deep as you can reliably hit it so that your opponent is as far back in the court as you can push them a deep return has the two-part advantage of making your opponent hit a shot from deep in the court and being in Flight longer thus allowing you extra time to close the gap between you and the non-volley zone line and you as a returning
team should do your best each and every time you return to be both up at the net after the return to capitalize on your opportunity of being the first team in the point that has the opportunity to do that so get those returns deep soon as you develop some control next up are a few phrases thrown around that all kind of mean the same thing they are pickleball is all about dinking the party is at the net dinking is real pickleball or something of the like claiming that dinking is the best way to play many
go as far as to say that players that routinely hit hard are ruining the game I respectfully disagree being able to hit with Pace as well as handle hard struck balls hit at you is an incredibly important part of the game and is getting more and more important all the time things were always going to head in that direction as the sport evolved even though for many many many years before pickleball exploded it wasn't so think of any sport in the world those who can play it at the fastest speeds all while maintaining control and
accuracy at those speeds always win it's true for practically every sport you can think of is touch and slowing things down also part of the repertoire of the best players in any sport yes it absolutely is for the times when that is the best strategy to execute while they build up towards the next fast-paced attack that's just how Sports typically go both fast and slow are needed if you want to be the best player you can be if you want to play mostly soft then by all means find or form a group that wants to
do that but please get on board with the fact that speed is here and it's here to stay and not only that things are probably only going to get faster and harder slow shots will always have their place but they are not the main show if you want to play at high levels you need to get on board with dishing out and dealing with speed there's no way around it if you're enjoying this video please go ahead and hit that like button and subscribe to this Channel and also hit that notification Bell icon so you
can be notified anytime we release a new video this next tip is one that makes sense in a lot of cases but should never be followed blindly because it can be off the mark at times many people throw around the phrase forehand takes the middle is the forehand usually someone stronger Wing yes that's often true so it stands to reason that when you have two typical players as partners that are about the same level and each has a forehand better than their backhand yes the player with their forehand in the middle should crowd the middle
and take more middle balls typically but it really depends one player might have a backhand that is stronger than both wings of their partner another player might have a pretty weak forehand and a dominant backhand better than most players forehands things don't always follow the status quo here's what Annalee Waters the best player in the women's game today has to say about the left side player always being the dominant player this left side equals better player notion needs to go away the best player can play both sides and can adapt by switching sides when necessary
Anna Lee is an incredible player and arguably one of her best if not her best shot is her two-handed backhand both off the ground and out of the air up until now she's played predominantly with her mother Lee Waters who is an incredible player in her own right most would agree probably including her mother that Anna Lee is the better player yet she can often be found on the right side and Lee on the left then they have two huge weapons in the middle which is exactly what you want Lee's forehand and Anna Lee's backhand
also some people just prefer the right side because they understand how to receive and play the angles better from that side so it's really a case-by-case basis in mixed doubles it's not always true that the woman should play the right side just as it isn't necessarily true that the forehand takes the middle will it often make sense yes but you have to put your thinking cap on and consider what's best for you and your partner as well as factor in who you're playing and decide accordingly up next is the common advice to drop and Rush
up to the net this is typically advice given to the serving team about what to do with the third shot so they can neutralize a net rushing returning team and they themselves also advance to the net is it strategically Sound Advice to use a drop to get up to the net if your team is not up at the non-volley zone line and their team is yes it is but it totally depends on the situation you have to hit a really good drop that won't bounce too high players are attacking those higher bouncing drops because skills
have improved and so has paddle technology they can hit more spin on their attack allowing them to attack from lower contact points the standards for a good drop have been raised dramatically that's challenge number one working against this tip Challenge number two is that returns are getting better as players ditch they just get the return in policy we discussed earlier and a good drop is a highly skilled shot under the best of conditions so when you're pressed and off balance from a good return deep in the court your chances of hitting a solid drop have
declined substantially and rushing in after a low quality drop is almost equal to conceding the point outright many times you're far better off to hit a strong and low drive until you earn a ball that you can more easily drop that's where this strategy is headed in modern pickleball and you should only come up after the drop if you're confident the best they can do with it is hit a weak attack or a medium paced ball at your feet I believe that we will see a lot more driving of the third shot in order to
earn a dropable shot on the fifth or a shot beyond that it may even become the norm next up is the catchphrase middle solves the riddle personally I have always disliked this one from the moment I heard it coming from a high level background in another sport I knew right away that one shot alone doesn't solve anything it's always about combinations about finding patterns that will work against the opponents you're currently playing and with the partner that you're currently playing with at lower levels players tend to go for the gaps early and frequently and clearly
the middle seems like the biggest Gap and yes against two opponents who don't cover the court well shots that you ram through the middle will work to a certain extent but as you progress you'll have to work to create a bigger opening in the middle by working to separate your opponents somewhat with your previous shots or work to pinch them together and create a gap on one side or the other that you can then hit through work combinations of different speeds spins and Targets on your shots to create chaos and gaps on the other side
that's how you solve the puzzle and ultimately win points and the game here comes the next tip never backing off the non-volley zone line is one of those tips that you may want to adhere to at the start because many players drift back off the line unknowingly and unintentionally when they shouldn't because they tend to swing too much at their dinks an overall lack a strong dinking gain they don't yet fully appreciate the value of holding the line as much as you can it is the most often offensive place on the pickleball court and the
team that controls the non-volley zone line best usually wins that said there are at least two instances where you want to back up number one is when there is an incoming drop and you can see that maybe it's a bit too high and if you let it bounce then it will sit up giving you a really nice opportunity to step back a bit and hit a rolling attack off the bounce or at least a rolling mid-pace shot that you can get down at their feet either of which will be more offensive than if you stayed
up at the line and hit a dink volume from a lower contact with the net right in your face number two is if you popped a shot too high when you're up at the non-volley zone line and now you need some time and space to deal with the incoming attack so recognizing that you're about to be attacked and backing off the line quickly is a really good idea under the right circumstances otherwise yes hold that line as best you can next up is the tip of never be in no man's land first things first it's
no longer refer referred to as no man's land it's the transition zone because it's perfectly acceptable to be there but still you don't want to be there for long because there is no offensive advantage to it it's usually the Zone from which you have to work your way to neutral we touched on this in the last Point particularly when it comes to backing up to give yourself more time and space to defend the best players routinely back up to Mid Court as needed and at times Retreat all the way to the Baseline if they've hit
a really weak shot they sometimes go all the way back there and have to throw up a defensive lob after a defensive lob until they create an opening and somewhat of a weaker shot from the opponent and get a break from the offensive Onslaught and can then find a path back to neutral with all four players up at the non-volley zone line but this also applies to working your way in after a drop there's no need to hit a drop and Sprint to the line as you may have heard you'll often get punished on that
next shot if you don't get your feet all the way set and get balance before they're striking the next shot you can and should take your time hit one or two drops from the transition zone or more if you have to stay calm and work your way in this has become the more stable and preferred way to advance to the line as players have gotten better at skills that are designed to keep you back in the court being comfortable in the transition zone is definitely a skill you need to develop if you hope to become
an advanced player and last but certainly not least is the tip of always reset when attacked this one still gives me nightmares because I was told this very early on in my pickleball career by a high level player and since I had no idea what I was doing I listened and did it every time I got attacked I reset and then I'd keep getting attacked and attacked and attacked the Nuance that they failed to inform me of was that if they attack me and I have an above net level contact I should counter-attack and make
them pay because what they did was a bad speed up they had attacked from a low ball giving me a high contact so as long as my hands were fast enough which they were I could counter attack right back well that changed everything because once I gave myself the green light to counter attack I was a whole different player and made them pay for their bad speed up every time all of this goes to show that you really have to think things through at a higher level and do what's best for the situation at hand
there's just not one best way to do things at all times there's much more Nuance to pickleball than that it's important that we don't blindly fall back on conventional wisdom learn to put your thinking cap on and assess what is best for you and your team when you step out there to play a competitive match build a combination of shots to execute a play and find patterns of these combinations that work this is not an exhaustive list but it's most of the big ones that I hear come up time and time again what do you
think about the tips we've covered here today can you think of any more and where do you think the game is headed as far as stretch strategy goes in the coming years let me know in the comments below I'd love to hear about it as helpful as we think the tips we're sharing in today's video are there's more to achieving success on the doubles Court want a complete A to Z step-by-step blueprint for playing winning doubles pickleball check out our dominating doubles system today go to doublesystem.com to learn all about it if you enjoyed this
video please like comment and share for more Pro Player pickleball tips techniques strategies and more on how to take your game to the next level please visit Primetime pickleball.com you'll find a clickable direct link in the video description below thanks for watching we'll see you in the next one and until then Happy pickling much of this footage was captured at the Oakland Hills tennis club in Oakland California a big thank you to them for the use of their amazing facility
