It's easy to focus on the big things in pickleball: the serve, returning a shot, dinking perfectly, and more. But sometimes it's the small things that will give you that extra edge over your opponents. 5.0+ players Barrett and Danea Bass will teach you 20 pickleball tips they have learned over the last six years of playing, including where to stand on the pickleball court, how to hit each pickleball shot, and how to hold your pickleball paddle.
Tip #1: Focus on footwork between shots
To take your pickleball game to the next level, you should put some focus on footwork in between shots. After you hit the ball, be active with your feet so that you’re ready to hit the next shot. If you get flatfooted, you’re likely to miss or overreach or overextend.
Tip #2: Lighten your pickleball paddle grip strength
To stop popping up your dinks, try lightening your grip strength. On finesse shots like dinks or drops, make sure you have a really loose grip strength — on a scale of 1 to 10, think 3 to 4. That will help you stop popping up your softer shots.
Tip #3: Communication to move up to the kitchen line
A simple hack for getting to the kitchen line more consistently is to communicate with your partner and look for the right opportunities to advance forward.
You always want to make your way forward to the kitchen line, but you can only really do that when your opponents are going to hit up on the ball or you hit a ball that is unattackable. So when you know you've hit a ball that's unattackable, you should talk to your partner and communicate that it's an appropriate time to gain real estate and make your way forward to the net.
To learn more about these tips, watch the video above.
Tip #4: Aiming your pickleball serve strategically
To give your serving team the offensive advantage in a point, you should be aiming your pickleball serve strategically. Some great places to aim are either to your opponent's backhand or their inside foot. This will give you a strategic advantage at the very beginning of the rally.
Tip #5: Footwork during your return of serve
Many players hit their return of serve flatfooted and planted, and this can cause you to mis-hit the ball or pop it up. Instead, when returning the ball you should use forward momentum with your legs — almost like you're running forward as you hit the ball. This will allow you to generate effortless power and put you in a much better position to make your way to the kitchen line.
Tip #6: Adjusting your backswing based on pickleball court positioning
One way to prevent you from hitting balls out is to adjust your backswing based on where you're at on the pickleball court. For instance, if you get a ball from midcourt and you wind up with a huge backswing, that ball will go out every time. If you have a bigger backswing at the baseline, the chances are you're going to be able to keep that ball in.
The closer you get to the kitchen line, the shorter your backswing should be so that your ball is not going out of bounds.
Tip #7: Topspin "Windshield Wiper" technique
If you want to master topspin in pickleball, you need to learn that topspin is created with a high to low brushing motion — there's almost a windshield wiper effect letting your wrist lag down and then up.
A great way to practice is to come up to the pickleball net, put your paddle flat on the net with the tip slightly angled down, and brush up. If you do this multiple times a day, or even as a warm-up, you're going to improve your topspin and be able to create more offense.
Tip #8: Faster & better anticipation: “Teeter-Totter”
A simple way to increase your chances of winning a pickleball point is having faster and better anticipation. The “teeter totter” concept is this: If your opponent's paddle is up then you’re going to be the teeter-totter, and you’re going to put your paddle down because they're going to be hitting high to low.
If your opponent's paddle goes down, then you should prepare and anticipate with your paddle up, because they're going to be hitting low to high.
This is a simple concept that you can use from pretty much anywhere on the pickleball court and it will help increase your anticipation.
Tip #9: Loosen your wrist
In pickleball, beginner players will drive the ball with a really tight grip and a firm wrist. But what actually creates power in topspin is a nice loose wrist with some lag. Loosen up your wrist and then get your feet in position and let the ball fly — that will create topspin and power.
To learn more about these tips, watch the video above.
Tip #10: Playing to your strengths & your partner's strengths
If you play in pickleball tournaments or any type of competition, you should learn to play to your strengths and your partner's strengths. For example, if you know your pickleball partner has a great forehand drive, even if that ball is coming on your side of the court, you might just give that to him if he has a really great drive. Conversely, if his drop is off or his drive is off for the day, and you have a strong backhand, then you should to play to your strengths and try to take the backhands.
This tip isn't a universal truth, but it is really important to know your strengths and your partner’s strengths and change your game plan accordingly.
Tip #11: Paddle grip at the pickleball net
Another mistake players make is: when they are countering a ball at the net they will chop at the ball with an open paddle face. If you want to win more points, a good technique is to take your knuckles and point them down towards the ground. This will close the paddle face and then all you really need is a small little tricep extension to counter the ball.
Tip #12: Split step in the transition zone
In the early days of pickleball, the term “no man's land” was commonly used for the transition zone. Players were taught to run through the area because they didn't want to hit a shot in there.
If you ever want to get to a high level of pickleball, you want to make sure that you can hit shots in the transition zone. One way to learn, and feel really comfortable, is to do what's called a split step, which is stopping your momentum to hit a shot when you're on balance.
Tip #13: Two-handed backhand
Learning the pickleball two-handed backhand will add another shot to your arsenal and take you to the next level in pickleball. When you're hitting a two-handed backhand drive or a two-handed backhand dink, it’s important to understand that the non-dominant hand does the majority of the work.
For instance, if you are right-handed, you’re going to use your left hand — that non-dominant hand is creating topspin. The next time you're doing a two-handed backhand, work on your non-dominant hand and you'll be more successful.
Tip #14: Reload quickly after the attack
If you want to transform your offense at the kitchen line, you should always reload quickly whenever you're attacking a ball. Instead of having a big follow-through, you should be quickly getting your pickleball paddle back to the ready position.
Tip #15: Triangle Theory
Examples of the Triangle Theory:
- When you get a ball that's out wide and you speed the ball up to the middle, often that ball is going to come back on the line making a triangle.
- If you get a ball that pulls you out wide and you pull it back to the middle, likely that ball's coming right back on the line.
Think about the Triangle Theory the next time you're speeding the ball up and you'll be in a much better position to respond to that next ball.
Tip #16: How to hit the topspin dink
To transform your topspin dinks, make sure you wait to the apex instead of hitting the ball off the short hop. When you are hitting the ball off the short hop, you really can't hit topspin. A simple tip is to wait until the ball completely rises off the bounce and then you can apply so much more topspin because you have more to work with.
To learn more about these tips, watch the video above.
Tip #17: Learn a neutral middle dink
If you want to beat players that are better than you in pickleball, you should be mastering the neutral middle dink. If you can keep the middle dink in a very unattackable spot, it's an easy way to neutralize players that are better than you because you will be able to take away angles from them.
If you go out wide, you are giving them a lot of options to attack you. But if you hit to the middle, they can really only attack you to the middle because anything going to the sides is probably going out. So take away angles of better players than you by neutralizing them with the middle dink.
Tip #18: Respect the pickleball net
To save yourself points, you should remove unforced errors. One of the best ways to do this is to simply respect the pickleball net. The worst shot in the whole game of pickleball is hitting a ball into the net.
When you're back, especially if you're hitting drops or drives, never try to just get the ball right over the net. Respect the net, don't flirt with it. Do your best to get everything over the net, even if it’s high, because at least that gives you a chance.
Tip #19: Hold the ball on your pickleball paddle
If you want to level up in pickleball, think about the concept of holding the ball on your paddle for a long time — both when dropping the ball and dinking the ball. If you can keep the ball on your paddle for a long time, you're going to have a lot more control and finesse and it's going to be much harder for your opponents to read.
Tip #20: Keep it simple
An important tip that is often overlooked: Keep It Simple. Many pickleball players will try to do a lot of fancy stuff, but the more variables that you add the more common it is to make errors. By keeping everything simple, you'll make fewer errors and be more consistent in your pickleball games.
To learn more about these tips, watch the video above.