Tip of the day

5 Pickleball Tips That Give You the Biggest Bang for Your Buck

You hit your return, sprint for the kitchen, and the next ball arrives while you're still at full speed. You swing on the run and it goes too high or too far out.

Coach Jess, a pro and coach, sees this all the time from beginner to intermediate level. Players run past or through the ball, and all that momentum goes straight into the shot.

The fix is to be stable when you make contact. Watch your opponent and stop just before they hit the ball, so you can assess what's coming and decide what to do with it.

You don't necessarily have to split step for this. You just need to be stopped as they make contact.

Then move in again, and stop again before their next contact. She calls it red light, green light: you earn your way up to the kitchen with control instead of rushing through transition.

It works because you're no longer shoving your body into the ball and adding extra momentum. She says this one thing alone makes a huge difference in transition, and being stable with every shot matters at the kitchen line too.

The video shows the run-through version and then the stop and go version, so you can see the rhythm of each stop as she works her way up to the kitchen.

Key points

Running through the ball adds momentum that sends it too high or too far out.
Stop just before your opponent makes contact so you can assess the incoming ball.
You don't necessarily have to split step, you just need to be stopped as they make contact.
Move in, then stop again before each contact, red light, green light, all the way to the kitchen.
Being stable with every shot matters at the kitchen line too.

Watch the full tutorial here.