If you are looking for some simple (yet powerful) pickleball doubles strategies for beginner, intermediate, and advanced players, Barrett and Danea break down their doubles tips. Learn the best pickleball serve strategy, how to lob, which shot is most successful to get you to the pickleball net, pickleball court positioning, and more. No matter what level of pickleball player you are, these six simple pickleball tips will help you perfect your basics so you can work on other areas of your pickleball game.
Tip #1: Pickleball serving strategy
Too many beginning pickleball players are conservative with their serve — serving at a 4 out of 10 intensity just because they want to get the ball in. While this might help eliminate errors when you're struggling to score — for instance, if you have hit a plateau and haven't scored in a while — you don't just want pace, which is a low line drive serve. You will also want depth, which you can achieve through a combination of power, height, and space.
Many conservative pickleball players try to keep the line drive where the ball is barely over the net, but you will actually want some height. The more height that you put on your serve, especially with the increase of paddle technology and the spin that you can create in today's game, the more height and spin you get and the deeper that ball is going to go, making it harder for your opponents to return the ball.
If you find yourself down in a game or struggling to score, don't be afraid to hit the ball out. Add some height to your serve to create depth to help you win more points.
Tip #2: Pickleball lob strategy
Another goal you should have on the pickleball court is putting your opponents at a disadvantageous position. Most pickleball points are lost at the kitchen line and so one of the most underrated shots in pickleball is the lob.
There are three times when the lob is a great strategy:
- When you are the serving team.
- When all four players are at the kitchen line and dinking.
- When you disguise your lob as a dink.
The pickleball lob is an underrated shot, and if you use it more you will frustrate your opponents and win more points.
Tip #3: Drive/drop combo to get to the pickleball net
Around 90 percent of pro pickleball players are skilled at getting to the net. The drive/drop combo strategy will help you win more pickleball points because you're going to get to the net a lot more consistently.
On your third shot, you're should try to hit at a 60-70 percent drive — but hitting a winner is not the point of what you're trying to do. The goal of this drive should create topspin to help the ball dip over the net, which should force your opponent to have to hit up on the ball. This should make your third shot much easier because you're likely going to get a response that lands somewhere in transition that you're going to be able to easily drop and move forward.
This is what it might look like:
- You receive a return from your opponent, and you’re going to hit just a nice 60 to 70 percent drive.
- You should not take a big swing, but instead focus on putting topspin and the ball.
- The ball should start to dip over the net, so your opponent can't do much with it.
- You will get the response somewhere in transition, and that ball is going to be much easier to drop than having to hit a drop from the back line.
- This will allow you to move forward to the kitchen line more consistently and win more points.
Tip #4: Pickleball speed-up choice & location
When you start playing at a high level, your pickleball speed-up choice and location can get you more points.
Your speed-up choice is the opportune time to hit a speed-up, which include:
- When your opponents are off balance.
- When you see your opponents headed toward a certain direction.
- For instance: if they are hugging the middle.
- When you can speed up to the backside of their body.
- If you see your opponent’s pickleball paddle hanging down by the side of their body.
There are three locations that are opportune to target:
- The paddle side shoulder/chicken wing: This is a very hard spot to defend.
- The paddle side hip: This jams up your opponents, it's very hard for them to hit.
- Their body: A lot of times they don't have the ability to soften the ball in this location because they're jammed up.
Tip #5: Pickleball court positioning
Pickleball court positioning is another important pickleball topic to understand well, especially as it relates to your partner. If the ball goes wide, you are responsible for covering the sideline and your partner would then want to cover the middle.
When people start playing pickleball, many times they will think: “that's your side and this is my side.” However you really want to move with your partner based off of where the ball is.
Tip #6: Pickleball angles
One of the best tips you can remember in pickleball is the concept that straight lines give straight lines and angles give angles.
When you give an angle, meaning you hit a diagonal shot, that gives angles for them to come back at you. So if you're playing a team that has better dinkers than you and your team, it's a great strategy to hit the middle and go for your opponent's inside foot. The less of an angle that you give your opponent, the less of an angle that they'll be able to hit back to you.
If you find yourself losing points at the kitchen line because your opponent is dinking really aggressive angles to you, start dinking more straight lines back at them so that you get fewer angles in return.
This is also true when it comes to speeding up the ball. This is why you will hear people say “don't speed up crosscourt” because when you speed up crosscourt you'll get your partner in trouble (typically that ball is not coming back at you, it's going to come back at your partner).
When you're speeding up the ball, try your best to actually speed up straight in front of you, meaning at the person right in front of you. That ball is typically going to be coming back for you and you're going to be ready for it, because you were the one that initiated the speed-up in the first place.