If you've played much pickleball, you know it's important to move up to the non-volley zone (NVZ) line as soon as it's safe to do so--that is, when you believe you'll have enough time to get to the NVZ line and not be caught in midcourt with a ball aimed at your feet or a drive headed to the backcourt that you won't be able to reach.
 | If you don't know why you should move up (other than everyone says so), here's a quick explanation. (The rest of you may skip ahead.) In the picture on the left, the diagonal lines leading from John's paddle to the outer extremes of the backcourt show the maximum possible trajectory of a hard drive John might make. |
In the example above, John served to Mary, who returned a deep shot down the middle. John is about to return the ball. As shown by the lines with arrowheads, if John hits a hard drive to Mary at the baseline, she must guard all 10 feet on her side of the court. If John tries to send a long drive past Sue at the NVZ line, she must only guard 7-1/2 feet on the inside of her court. Why? Because John can't aim any wider on a drive shot and keep the ball in bounds. (We'll talk about what happens if John hits a soft shot later on.)
What this means is that you shouldn't necessarily stand in the center of your court at the non-volley zone line. Let's concentrate on Sue in the picture above. She's standing where she can reach the drive shots most easily: smack in the center of that 7-1/2 feet. (If Sue were right-handed instead of left and her backhand was weaker, she might move a little to the left.)
Now, what happens if John hits a drop shot — a softer shot that lands just over the net — to Sue and it lands way over on the right inside the NVZ? It's not a problem, because the shot is much slower and Sue will have plenty of time to get to it from her position.
What this means is that you shouldn't necessarily stand in the center of your court at the non-volley zone line. Let's concentrate on Sue in the picture above. She's standing where she can reach the drive shots most easily: smack in the center of that 7-1/2 feet. (If Sue were right-handed instead of left and her backhand was weaker, she might move a little to the left.)
Now, what happens if John hits a drop shot — a softer shot that lands just over the net — to Sue and it lands way over on the right inside the NVZ? It's not a problem, because the shot is much slower and Sue will have plenty of time to get to it from her position.
 | Now let's say Sue returns the ball to the far outside corner of John's court before he can move up. As shown on the left, the possible trajectory of a drive shot from John has changed. Consequently, both Mary and Sue move to the right, still covering about 7-1/2 feet each. If John returns a soft shot to Mary's left, she'll have time to move and get it. |
When you're playing a soft game — dinking back and forth across the net — the best position is shown by Sue, above. Because she's left-handed, she's standing slightly to the right of center. This allows her to move left to cover the center and also reach more easily with her backhand a diagonal dink toward the outside.
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