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This Strategy Beats Hard Hitters EVERY Time in PIckleball

Every rec game has the same cast: the guy who only hits hard, the one who only lobs, the one who dinks forever, the spinner, and the wall who resets everything. Cracked Pickleball breaks down how to take apart each one.

Start with the banger. The instinct is to hit back just as hard, which is exactly what they want.

A ball arriving with pace already has all the speed you need, so shorten your swing, keep the paddle out in front, and block or punch it back. A big swing on a fast ball is bad contact plus extra pace, which is how you spray it out.

Then aim at their feet. Punch their drive back down low rather than up, and dink at their shoes instead of trying to speed up past them.

The lobber beats people through one mistake: backpedaling. Running backwards with your weight behind you makes clean contact almost impossible.

Instead, turn your body so your shoulder faces the opposite side of the court, then shuffle back. That turn keeps you stable, lets you track the ball with your head, and turns most lobs from unreachable into a normal overhead or a forehand drive off the bounce.

When you do get the overhead, hit it around 70 to 80 percent so it goes in. If you are stretching, let it bounce, and in doubles let the partner on the other side cut across for a lob over your head.

The patient dinker is waiting for you to get impatient. Two rules keep you out of their trap: never attack a ball below your knee, and never speed up off your back foot.

Only attack when the ball bounces above your knee and your feet are planted and balanced. To create those balls, move them by dinking middle and then wide, and feed them balls they have to take out of the air around the shin or knee, which is much harder than letting one bounce.

Against the spinner, read the paddle at contact. A big chop means slice, an exaggerated low to high means topspin, and you know what the bounce will do before it happens.

Get low, split step, and shuffle toward the direction of the spin. Slice arrives as topspin on your side, so aim a little higher over the net and roll it back deep at their feet.

Last is the wall who resets everything. Hitting harder plays into their hands, because good resetters are also good at letting out balls go.

Target the awkward spots instead: their paddle-side hip and their same-side shoulder. Feed them a tempting high ball at shoulder height, since players who reset well usually attack badly, and move them a step or two with a topspin push dink so they never get comfortable.

Key points

Block a banger's pace back at their feet with a short swing and the paddle out in front instead of matching their power.
Turn your shoulder toward the opposite side of the court and shuffle back on lobs instead of backpedaling with your weight behind you.
Against a patient dinker, only speed up a ball that bounces above your knee while your feet are planted.
Read the spinner's paddle at contact and treat their slice as topspin by aiming higher over the net.
Beat the wall with placement at the paddle-side hip and same-side shoulder rather than extra power.

Watch the full tutorial here.