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Choosing Your Shots in Pickleball and the Value of the Soft Game

4/30/2015

4 Comments

 
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Jeff Shank, who has a fantastic blog full of great tips for pickleball, wrote a sentence that crystallized for me how all of us can learn to play better:

“A really good rule of thumb is that if you have to hit up on the ball, hit it soft into the kitchen. If you are able to hit down on the ball, it is ok to try and hit it hard.”

This advice is so simple that it’s easy to disregard its value.

Most players begin pickleball thinking they must master long drives, hard overhead smashes, and the like. They start warm-ups from the baselines, serving and hitting long shots back and forth. They almost never practice drop shots into the kitchen and they only practice dinking for a short while.

If you watch pickleball videos of high-level games (and I recommend you do – in fact, check out Jeff’s video channel on YouTube), you won’t see a lot of long shots. After the serve, the receivers generally return the ball long because of the double-bounce rule, but after that, the servers have made it to the non-volley zone line and the soft, short game begins.

So how do you improve your short, soft dinking game?

The goal is to become good at returning the dink low and soft over the net, at an angle to your opponent’s backhand, if possible, until that moment when your opponent’s shot comes at you high enough that you can volley it downward. Then you break out of the dink with a hard, fast, downward hit they don’t expect and hopefully can’t return.

You’ll only learn to do this with practice. Get out to the courts with a group of people who want to work on improving their short game. Dink over and over until you are good at it and until you’re also good at breaking out of it. Don’t underestimate the power of the soft game. You’ll also want to practice drop shots from all over the court, since you’re not always going to be at either the baseline or the NVZ line —sometimes you’ll get caught in mid-court and a drop shot or drop volley will be just the thing to get you up to the net.

Jeff goes on to say that “choosing a shot is 50% of pickleball.” I agree, and I would add that the other 50% is not making mistakes. Here’s my list of the most common mistakes made by novice and/or intermediate players:
  • Avoiding the soft game.
  • Thinking you can smash a winner past your opponent.
  • Hitting the ball hard from low to high.
  • Hitting a soft shot too high over the net.
  • Hitting where your opponent is standing, especially to the forehand.
  • Going for a fancy shot when their success rate with that shot is less than 75%.

Again, get out there and practice hitting the ball low over the net. Try to hit away from your opponent and to the backhand side whenever possible, as most players’ backhands are weaker than their forehand strokes. Don’t get fancy. Avoid errors. Sounds easy, and it will be — with practice.

4 Comments
Deb
9/8/2015 08:20:42 pm

I have been playing for about a year..I had no tennis background but most of my friends that play ..do..I try to get them to play third shot drop and then all go to net but because they love the base shots and hard play..I can't get them to change to the soft game..what can I do as I don't like the hard shots constantly. Thanks.

Reply
Arun s
6/26/2016 07:13:26 pm

Deb, I'm sorry you didn't get a response. Yes, tennis players like the backcourt game in PB and only occasionally go to net for a volley.
You must talk to your partner to get into the third shot drop and the soft dinks. If you persist perhaps the other friends will get into it.
If all else fails, express your feelings of frustration in words to them. Not everyone gets the non verbal or suggestive message. I agree, the soft drops/dink rallies are such a big part of the well rounded game
Good Luck and keep playing!😀

Reply
Arun s
6/26/2016 07:05:21 pm

Pickleball is an exhilarating sport if you develop and use variety. Top players sometimes overdo the soft dink shot and consequently two of the four players are engaged in that exchange. The other two are waiting to get into it or initiate the attack as suggested here. A slightly higher ball becomes susceptible for the attack. If the dink rallies get unduly long with low balls just clearing the net, you can do a couple of things. One, is to break out of that pattern, once you've tried all the angles, by hitting up at the shoulder/chest on the players dominant side. As in the case of a right hander to the right shoulder chest. It must be done quick and crisp and will usually make contact w/ target or cause them to err while reacting.
Two, is to flick or curl a lob over their head into the back court. They may try to run it down if it's too high but not if done well and just out of their reach.
In concluding, I always try to play the dimensions of the whole court and put them on the defensive. The ball in PB generally is slow in comparison, with the exception of rapid fire volleys at the NV Zone ensuing from a series of soft touch dinks. Now, that being the case it isn't advisable to try to power everything. What is preferable is more emphasis on placement, directing the ball in such a way as to gain control of the rally. Get them running laterally or backwards in the back court. This will yield results and give you a good deal of confidence.
Remember, as stated here, you aspire conservatively by making as few errors as possible. Who is forced to make errors now? Yes, you guessed it, the opponent.
You can force your will or intent on the opponent causing them to err and crumble along the way. While they are falling apart, you move in for the kill. That'll only become necessary if they keep fighting back from a defensive losing position. Just focus on making them hit just one more shot every time especially if they have you on the run (defensive) and before long they'll end up hitting it out or into the net.

Reply
Korey Tollefson
2/19/2020 09:41:30 am

what is the best shot when your opponent hits a dink shot wide? (not wide enough to ATP). also, how should my partner prepare for the return?

Reply



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    Gale Leach lives in Arizona with her husband, two dogs, and a cat. When she's not writing pickleball tips, she's working on the second in a new series of novels for young adults and updating The Art of Pickleball.

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