Pickleball is an increasingly popular sport, and with its growth comes the discovery of many different playing styles. Whether you’re a novice or seasoned pro, understanding the various strategies can help improve your game, so let’s take a look at some of the most common and effective playing styles in pickleball and things you can do to improve your game!
Aggressive Playing Styles
An aggressive playing style typically involves taking risks and using power to hit winners or cause forced errors. These power players usually have a hard and fast swing, and their shots often land deep in the court. By being more assertive on the court, it allows the player to put pressure on their opponents as they have less time to react.Some aggressive players are baseliners. This means they like to stay near the baseline and use their powerful groundstrokes to control the game and dictate the pace of play. Other aggressive hitters like to get to the net when they can to put pressure on their opponents and ideally close out points.
Defensive Playing Styles
On the other end of the spectrum, a player with a defensive playing style, or counter puncher, waits for their opponent to make a mistake. A good defensive player is patient, consistent and able to move around the court well. They rely more on placement than power and often use quick reflexes and anticipation. Players who are good at retrieving are known for their ability to chase down difficult shots and keep the ball in play. Footwork and quick reflexes is often key with this playing style.
Finesse Playing Styles
Pickleball players who focus on control and accuracy over power have a finesse playing style. They often utilize drop shots, lobs, and other finesse shots. They use these shots to keep their opponents off balance and often win points by forcing errors.There are sub categories within this playing style. The dinker is a player who specifically uses soft, short shots. This is to keep their opponent close to the net, and these types of players really rely on having quick reflexes and placement over power. A lobber is a player who likes to use high, arching shots to keep their opponent away from the net. Lobs are often used as a defensive tactic or to set up more powerful shots.
All-Around Playing Styles
For those who have more of a mix of an aggressive and defensive playing style, they are more all-around or well-rounded players. With this type of strategy, players mix up the types of shots they use, such as drop shots, slices, lobs, and volleys, making their opponent guess how they will respond with every strike of the ball.
Doubles Playing Styles
In doubles, poaching, the act of stepping in to volley a ball you’d normally leave to your partner, is a popular and effective playing style. This is usually done on higher balls as it’s more difficult to poach off a low ball. Effectively poaching puts pressure on the opposing team and gives them a reduced reaction time.Additionally, teams that enjoy getting to the net together may try to get to move forward as soon as possible either off a return or after the third shot when serving. This is another way to put pressure on opponents.
How to Improve Your Game
You don’t have to fit within just one playing style. You can combine elements depending on what works best for you and what you prefer and enjoy the most while out on the court.There are also things you can practice to help you improve other areas of your game and widen your playing style. By mixing up different approaches throughout game play you can add an element of unpredictability, which could give you an edge over opponents.No matter what kind of playing style you prefer, there are things you can do to improve your game! Working on a mix of consistency, power, and hand speed is a great place to start.There’s always something we can improve on, and here are some of our top tips to get you started taking your pickleball game to the next level:
- Focus on your technique to improve your consistency.
- Work on your footwork to allow yourself to move around the court better.
- Improve your finesse to allow yourself to utilize a wider range of shots.
- Do volley drills to improve your hand-eye coordination and hand speed.
Get Out on the Court
Now that you know about some of the different playing styles when it comes to pickleball, you should get out to practice and play some matches! See what style and strategy works best for you and build on it. And you may make changes depending on your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.If you’re ready to get started playing pickleball or improving your game, find coaches, hitting partners, and courts in your local area over on Bounce. We can even help you find the right coach to help you improve your pickleball game!
