146 non-obvious advantages that separate elite practitioners from everyone else.
Navratil: most players treat the backhand attack as ONE shot — "the roll." It's actually THREE distinct techniques for different situations: POKE = full reach, minimal wrist, takes time/space away (used when stretched). ROLL = drop body and paddle, brush up with full swing, more pace and spin (used when opponents are back). FLICK = wrist snap, fastest execution, used for speedups at kitchen (requires strong wrist). Using the wrong one for the situation causes errors.
Navratil: most players treat the backhand attack as ONE shot — "the roll." It's actually THREE distinct techniques for different situations: POKE = full reach, minimal wrist, takes time/space away (used when stretched). ROLL = drop body and paddle, brush up with full swing, more pace and spin (used when opponents are back). FLICK = wrist snap, fastest execution, used for speedups at kitchen (requires strong wrist). Using the wrong one for the situation causes errors.
Cincola: if opponents discover you can't handle hard balls, every other skill becomes irrelevant. They'll just speed up every ball. Handling pace isn't one skill among many — it's the GATEKEEPER that determines whether your other skills ever get used. A beautiful dink game means nothing if opponents bypass it with drives.
Cincola: conventional banger strategy is "slow them down" — reset everything into the kitchen. WRONG. Resetting gives bangers a free pass on bad decisions. It feeds the beast by signaling you're passive. Three real tools: (1) PUNISH — counterattack, send it back with authority. (2) LEAVE — read the situation and let out balls go. (3) DON'T GIVE — avoid dead dinks and above-knee balls that fuel their power.
Morgan Evans: attacking crosscourt gives the opponent far more reaction time because of the longer distance. Worse: their counter-punch hits your PARTNER, not you. You took the risk, but your partner absorbs the consequences. "Attack the person in front of you or split the middle." The crosscourt attack is a selfish shot that feels aggressive but is strategically harmful to your team.
Using backspin to counter backspin forces the ball to completely change not only its direction but also its rotation — an extremely difficult contact. A ball coming toward you with backspin rotates the opposite way as a ball traveling away from you with backspin. Most players don't realize they're fighting physics when they slice against a slice return.
Cincola: the half volley (taking the ball right off the bounce) CAN'T be offensive — it's predictable, limits options to a safe dink to the middle, and tells the opponent you're not a threat. Pros avoid it aggressively: either take the ball out of the air (offensive) or step back and let it rise to peak height for a topspin groundstroke (offensive from a different position). The half volley is always the WORST option.
"Go," "mine," "stay" — single words that prevent confusion costing 2-4 points per game. Yet the vast majority of recreational players are completely silent on court. Morgan Evans: "Communication costs nothing and it's a great habit." The absence of communication isn't neutral — it actively loses points through middle ball confusion, partner blindsides, and transition zone miscommunication.
A single down-the-line dink changes nothing — your opponent simply dinks back cross-court and you're right where you started. The power of the down-the-line dink only activates when done continuously — not once, not twice, but repeatedly until the opponent either redirects to your partner (getting you off the hot seat) or attacks you (which you're now positioned to counter with an Ernie threat).
Playing a game of pickleball is a terribly inefficient way to get better at pickleball. In a game, you might get a handful of cross-court forehand dinks. In 15 minutes of drilling, you get hundreds. The factors in a game are too random and uncontrolled to produce the repetitions needed for skill change.
Conventional advice for volleys is "meet the ball out in front." For the fourth ball drop volley, this is exactly wrong. When the ball arrives at high speed, meeting it out front means your paddle is still traveling forward at contact — adding energy to a ball that already has too much. Instead, let it come INTO your body where the wrist is strongest and the paddle has stopped moving.
Cincola: popping the ball up is NOT a height problem — it's a POWER problem. Analogy: tossing a ball into a basket, if it overshoots, the diagnosis is "too much power" not "too high." In pickleball, the same overshoot gets mislabeled as "too high" when the real issue is too much energy. This reframe changes the fix: instead of "aim lower" (which causes net errors), the fix is "use less power" (which naturally brings the ball down while maintaining clearance).
Most players think of lobs as defensive desperation shots — "I'm in trouble so I'll lob." Morgan Evans says a lob IS an attack. And the #1 rule of attacking is "always expect the ball to come back." If you lob and then stand there watching, you've violated the attacking principle. The lob demands immediate recovery, just like a drive or a speed-up.
Common advice says "play to your strengths." Morgan Evans says when you can't do both — play your strengths AND their weakness — choose their weakness. Your comfort doesn't matter if you're giving them a comfortable game. Strategy comes first; your comfort is a distant second.
Colin Johns: most players treat "the better player" as a single entity — avoid them for everything. But defensive ability and offensive ability may be split across the team differently. The player with the nastiest speed-up might have the weakest reset. The consistent dinker might be hopeless on counter-punches. You need TWO targeting plans, not one.
Colin Johns / Ben Johns: return to the MORE aggressive player, not the consistent one. Most players think "return to the safe player so they can't hurt me." But the aggressive player makes MORE mistakes AND keeping them at the baseline neutralizes their primary weapon (power from close range). The consistent player gets to the kitchen safely either way — returning to them accomplishes nothing. You're choosing which player you'd rather face at the kitchen line, and the answer is: the one who can't resist overplaying from the baseline.
Morgan Evans: "It's safer to expect and prepare for the lob than be surprised by it." Most players maintain a neutral stance and react when the lob appears — by then they're a half-step behind. Maintaining an athletic position (knees bent, wide base) at ALL times means the lob response is a continuation of your stance, not a scramble from rest.
Cincola: most overhead misses go LONG because players swing FORWARD through the ball — this keeps the paddle face open and the ball launches out. The fix is counterintuitive: think about swinging UP, as if you're going to throw your paddle straight into the sky. When the arm extends fully upward, the paddle naturally snaps over the top of the ball, generating power while getting on top of it. Swinging forward = open face = long. Swinging up = natural snap = down into the court.
Ben Johns: just because a ball is attackable doesn't mean you should attack it. With advancing paddle technology and improving counter-attacks, attacking any slightly high ball usually results in loss of positional control — you're off-balance, obvious, and out of position. The counter-attack era means the ball comes back harder and more accurately than ever.
Cincola: the old rule "keep your paddle tip up" comes from tennis, where the racket head is up for volleys. Increasingly, top pros (especially those without tennis backgrounds) use a flat wrist / straight arm-through-paddle-tip line. The flat wrist position is more dynamic, gives access to more shot types (roll volleys, flicks, tip-down dinks), and provides better maneuverability than the locked-up-tip-up position.
Cincola: "forehand takes the middle" is only valid for high floaty balls where the forehand generates more putaway power. In dinking, third shots, and most other situations: whichever partner has the BETTER shot should take the middle, regardless of which hand it's on. The rule should be context-dependent (who has the better shot from this position?), not automatic (forehand always).
Ben Johns: "Stop trying to hit winners. Every single shot is a setup shot except an overhead." This isn't a preference — it's a fundamental reframe. A "good" dink isn't one that's hard to return; it's one that positions the opponent for the NEXT shot to be harder. A "good" drive isn't one that wins the point; it's one that creates the NEXT opportunity. When you stop trying to win each shot and start trying to BUILD each point, the wins happen as byproducts.
If you have serve power but use a weak/safe serve, you're "renting a Ferrari to practice your parking." A deep penetrating serve pressures BOTH the returner's court position AND their shot quality. The serving team is already at a structural disadvantage — the serve is the ONE moment you can apply offensive pressure without risking a point. Playing safe wastes that moment.
Returning to the aggressive player accomplishes three things simultaneously: (1) generates more baseline errors (they can't help swinging big), (2) keeps their power weapon behind the baseline where it's less effective, (3) reveals their third shot tendencies immediately. The "safe" return to the consistent player accomplishes none of these — you learn nothing and they execute comfortably.
Cincola: if you have to step BACKWARD for a return of serve, you started too close to the baseline. The fix isn't better footwork — it's better starting position. Start far enough back that you can move FORWARD into every return. Use body momentum (not arm swing) to generate depth. Forward momentum → natural depth without a big backswing. Stepping back → weight shifts backward → ball goes short or into the net.
Cincola: if you have to step BACKWARD for a return of serve, you started too close to the baseline. The fix isn't better footwork — it's better starting position. Start far enough back that you can move FORWARD into every return. Use body momentum (not arm swing) to generate depth. Forward momentum → natural depth without a big backswing. Stepping back → weight shifts backward → ball goes short or into the net.
Cincola: common teaching says lock wrist, swing from shoulder, use legs to drive up through the shot. This creates a large, inefficient swing with a big finish that leaves you exposed. Real power source = forearm rotation (like turning a doorknob). Shorter lever closer to the paddle = more paddle speed, less overall movement, compact finish back to ready position instantly.
The serve is the serving team's ONLY moment of pure offense — no one can score against you on the serve. Every other shot carries defensive risk. Treating the serve casually ("just get it in") wastes the one guaranteed offensive opportunity. A deep, purposeful serve directly reduces return quality → directly improves third shot opportunity → directly increases the chance of reaching the kitchen. The serve isn't "starting the point." It's the first offensive move in a planned sequence.
Against a hard deep serve, every instinct says back up to buy time. This is exactly wrong. Backing up shifts weight to the back foot, which angles the paddle face downward into the net. The correct response is counterintuitive: stand your ground, bend your knees, drop the paddle to the contact point, and step TOWARD the shot. The ball has more than enough energy — you're just redirecting.
Morgan Evans lists the slice dink down the line as one of "5 shots hurting your game." To generate meaningful spin on a slice, you need paddle acceleration. But the down-the-line window is only 7-10 feet — not enough distance for the spin to do anything useful. You accelerate for spin, the ball travels too fast for the short distance, and it pops up or sails. Better options: drop the paddle head and take it early as a volley or half-volley, eliminating the need for spin altogether.
Ben Johns: "This line is pretty much imaginary. Feel free to cross over it." Most players treat the center line as a hard boundary — my side, your side. Elite teams ignore it entirely. The correct position is wherever produces the best court coverage, regardless of which "side" of the line it's on. Covering everything left of your partner's left shoulder is a concrete rule that works regardless of center line.
A bad third shot drop can still be effective and a good one can still end in disaster. The quality of any shot is ultimately determined by the person receiving it, not the person hitting it. Most players evaluate their drop by how it felt at contact — but what matters is the total picture: opponent's position, reach, speed, and partner proximity.
Most players use wrist and elbow to control their drops — flicking, guiding, steering. Ben Johns says lock BOTH. Swing from the shoulder only — the elbow doesn't even move. The shoulder has the most control and consistency of any joint in the body. Wrist flicking is the #1 cause of popped-up drops.
Cincola: when a ball is short and you're running in through the transition zone, the momentum tempts you to DRIVE it. Don't. It's high-risk, make-or-miss. You're giving up a nearly certain drop opportunity for a low-percentage winner attempt. The whole point of transition movement is to GET TO THE KITCHEN — drives from mid-court sacrifice that goal.
Amateur players watch pros hit beautiful high-arc resets that land shallow in the kitchen and try to copy it. Colin Johns says this is exactly wrong for non-pros. The precision required produces catastrophic miss rates. Reset LOWER and DEEPER — like a half-drive at 60% pace. It lands deeper in the court, but your opponents aren't pros — they don't have the deadly rolls to punish it.
Navratil: despite Morgan Evans' rule that you should never attack crosscourt (more reaction time, partner gets hit by counter), crosscourt attacks are increasingly common at the pro level. Why? If hit WELL, the opponent is late and the counter comes back to YOU, not your partner. The full crosscourt speedup and the heavy crosscourt roll are both becoming standard pro weapons. The key: hit it well or don't hit it. A bad crosscourt attack is devastating; a good one is devastating to the opponent.
Morgan Evans on the 2-shot combo: "Something hit too fast will not give you enough time to cover the likely placement of the counterattack." The first attack's PURPOSE isn't to win — it's to create a predictable counter that you're already positioned for. Hitting it too hard compresses YOUR time to get into position for shot 2. The optimal first attack is ACCURATE (right shoulder), not FAST. Speed serves the opponent by rushing the point past the setup phase.
Cincola: when backswing is too large on volleys, the problem isn't discipline — it's the wrong mental model. The player is thinking "hit the ball" which triggers a windup. Switch to "CATCH the ball" — you don't wind up to catch. This single mental reframe eliminates the backswing without requiring any mechanical thought. The paddle goes directly to the ball's location, like a fielder catching a baseball.
Cincola: "always step into the ball" is another tennis carryover that doesn't apply universally in pickleball. Open stance is often SUPERIOR — faster to the ball when moving laterally, faster recovery after the shot. Closed stance is only appropriate when the ball is directly in front of you and you have time. Most top tennis pros now hit predominantly open-stance forehands. The pickleball court is too small for the luxury of setting up closed stance on every ball.
Cincola: "always step into the ball" is another tennis carryover that doesn't apply universally in pickleball. Open stance is often SUPERIOR — faster to the ball when moving laterally, faster recovery after the shot. Closed stance is only appropriate when the ball is directly in front of you and you have time. Most top tennis pros now hit predominantly open-stance forehands. The pickleball court is too small for the luxury of setting up closed stance on every ball.
Most players treat attack decisions as a spectrum ("how much should I attack?"). The best treat it as binary: ALL six markers clear = attack. ANY single marker present = don't. No "mostly ready" or "close enough." The binary removes decision fatigue and eliminates the 40-60% confidence attacks that are the biggest point-losers in pickleball.
If the same attack placement gets countered 3 times in a match, that opponent OWNS that spot. Their muscle memory is calibrated. Continuing to attack there is not brave — it's stupid. The 3-strike rule forces conscious adaptation: after 3 counters, move to a different quadrant of the body or court. Most players never adjust — they keep hitting the same spot hoping for a different result.
Receiving backspin actually makes generating topspin EASIER because the spin direction reverses on contact. Most players see incoming backspin as a problem to overcome. Elite players see it as fuel — the more the opponent slices, the better the backhand roll works. The backspin ball is rotating in a direction that, when reversed by your paddle, becomes topspin automatically.
Ben Johns deliberately goes to MAXIMUM wrist flex on the shovel drop and roll shots — not because it's the ideal angle, but because maximums are biomechanical constants. "I create that maximum in order to be more consistent. Once I get to this point, it's maximized — it never changes. I can replicate it over and over." At any midpoint, there's variance in where "midpoint" actually is. At the extreme, there's only ONE position. This is a meta-principle that applies to any technique where you can find a biomechanical endpoint.
Ben Johns loads up with a big preparation as if he's about to speed up, then softly dinks instead. He watches WHERE the opponent shifts. If they go to their backhand side, their forehand is open for the real speed-up next time. If they favor forehand, go backhand. This is intelligence gathering disguised as a shot — you learn the opponent's defensive preferences without risking a point.
Ben Johns' biomechanical shortcut for blocking hard drives: push your elbow OUTWARD, away from your chest. This single adjustment lessens your stroke motion so you don't add power to the ball. "They're already creating all the power. I'm simply putting that power back on them." Most players try to absorb with soft hands (complex skill requiring precise touch) or counter-drive (high risk). The elbow-out is neither — it's a body position that mechanically limits how much you can add to the ball.
Cincola: when handling drives at the kitchen, keep the TIP of your paddle pointed at the incoming ball as long as possible. Most players rotate the paddle face toward the ball too early — showing the face prematurely. This premature opening creates an unpredictable rebound angle. Keeping the tip pointed AT the ball until the last moment maintains a controlled, predictable block. The tip acts as a tracking mechanism that naturally produces the correct face angle at contact.
Morgan Evans: "If they're tall, don't test their reach by attacking wide of them. What appears to be a gap may indeed be well within their reach. Attack their bodies where their reach is useless." Most players see a tall opponent and aim wide, thinking the gap is the vulnerability. It's not — their wingspan covers it. The body is the ONE target where height and reach become irrelevant.
Cincola: players subconsciously default to a backhand-ready position when anticipating attacks. This means the ball that most often beats them is a quick ball to the FOREHAND SHOULDER — they have to transition from backhand setup to forehand, which takes time they don't have. The forehand shoulder is the blind spot in the default defensive position.
Cincola: many players develop a "slide" habit — shifting laterally to create space for their preferred counter (usually the backhand). If you know which direction they slide, aim a few feet OUTSIDE their starting position so they slide directly INTO the ball instead of away from it. Their own defensive movement becomes your weapon. The slide that normally creates space for them now eliminates it.
When pulled off court, most players try to save themselves — lobbing, blasting winners, or attempting risky shots. Morgan Evans: "Your partner might have to play singles for at least one or two shots. So do them a favor." The recovery shot isn't about you — it's about your partner. Play a short, lofted dink back in front of THEM. The loft buys time for you to recover. The placement gives your partner a manageable ball.
When getting pulled wider and wider in cross-court exchanges, the instinct is to hit a better wide ball or go down the line. Both are wrong. The fix is one ball to the MIDDLE. A middle dink is geometrically harder to create angle from — it resets the entire spatial dynamic. After the middle reset, you can re-establish cross-court from a centered position instead of an extreme one.
Morgan Evans: the dreaded two-way dink miss (alternating too high and into the net) has one root cause: standing too tall forces wrist hinging to control the paddle face angle. The timing window for the correct wrist angle is tiny — early contact = too high, late contact = net. The fix isn't better timing. It's getting LOWER so you don't need to hinge the wrist at all. Set the wrist position, LOCK it, and use a linear paddle path toward the target.
Morgan Evans built a complete decision framework for when to attack from the kitchen based on TWO variables — height and depth: (1) High + Deep → normal volley attack (standard technique, target shoulder/middle). (2) Deep + Low → rolling volley (paddle below contact, brush up — the surprise attack most players don't know exists). (3) High + Short → attack off the bounce at apex (needs more power since ball lost energy). (4) Low + Short → just dink it. Most players only have ONE mode: "is it high? Attack." This matrix gives four modes that cover every ball.
Cincola's "Golden Rule": draw an imaginary line from your outside foot straight to the net. If the ball stays INSIDE that foot line → you can hit anywhere including crosscourt. If the ball crosses OUTSIDE that foot line → do NOT go back crosscourt. Hit middle or straight ahead. Three reasons: (1) Execution: reaching wide and hooking back crosscourt is mechanically awkward. (2) Window: the wider you move, the smaller the crosscourt angle — opponent cuts it off. (3) Coverage: when stretched wide, you can't recover to cover the middle for your partner.
Cincola: getting behind the ball (between the ball and the back fence) gives you FIVE options: crosscourt dink, middle dink, down the line, speedup forehand, speedup middle. Letting the ball get to your SIDE removes the speedup option AND the crosscourt option — leaving only 2-3 predictable responses. Options = threat. No options = readable. This means your dink FOOTWORK determines your dink quality more than your dink technique.
Cincola: imagine an invisible plane extending from the top of the net cord horizontally across the court. Never let your paddle break above that plane when dinking. Pro footage analysis: ~95% of elite dink rally paddle positions are at or below net height. Ready position sits around net cord height. Paddle goes below to contact, returns to net height — never chest or shoulder height. This one spatial constraint keeps swings small, increases control, and speeds recovery to ready position.
The correct dink changes based on how many balls have been hit in the rally. Balls 1-2: testing phase — cross-court, gather info, no risks. Balls 3-4: pressure phase — introduce offensive dinks (low+deep), start moving opponent. Balls 5+: change-of-pace phase — if you haven't created an opening by now, change the tempo (speed up, go soft, change direction). A dink that's correct on ball 1 (cross-court, safe) is WRONG on ball 5 (predictable, passive). Rally state awareness separates pattern players from passive dinkers.
Hitting straight at the net player looks pointless — they're right there. But one honest-man dink every 4-5 shots freezes them in position. Without it, the net player can cheat toward middle or crosscourt, intercepting your patterns. The straight-at-you dink PINS them. It's not an attack — it's a constraint that makes every OTHER pattern work. The threat of the honest man is worth more than the honest man itself.
Morgan Evans on Braverman's Ernie strategy: "The real power of the Ernie: how it alters an opponent's shot selection by removing an available area of the court." After 4 Ernies in 5 minutes, the opponent "would ideally like to go back to Braverman, but history has taught her it's too dangerous, so she needs to play an angled crosscourt shot from a tough position instead." The Ernie doesn't just win the points it's executed on — it DISTORTS the court geometry for ALL subsequent shots by making an entire zone unavailable.
Many returns have backspin that makes timing the perfect third shot drop extremely tricky. Instead of fighting the spin, pros drive the third ball to "bully the spin off" — the acceleration neutralizes the backspin. They're happy to deal with a volley to then drop, because the fifth ball drop off a flat volley is dramatically easier than a third ball drop off backspin.
Jill Braverman attempted 4 Ernies in the first 5 minutes of a match. The physical points won were maybe 2-3. But the psychological damage lasted the entire match — her opponent stopped dinking to the sideline entirely, creating pop-ups and net errors from awkward cross-court attempts. The Ernie's real value isn't the points it wins directly — it's the shots it prevents your opponent from hitting for the rest of the match.
Zayn Navratil via Morgan Evans: "How quickly you can move from A to one yard away is probably the most important thing in pickleball." The court is too small for straight-line sprint speed to matter. What matters is micro-explosiveness — the ability to move ONE STEP instantly in any direction. Jump rope and agility ladder train exactly this. And flexibility is "overlooked even more than foot speed" — if you can reach a ball without moving your feet, you've already won the footwork battle.
Cincola: "The most common failure mode: body speeds up, paddle speeds up to match." When you're chasing a ball, your entire body is moving fast — and your paddle accelerates with it. But when you're in trouble (chasing, stretched, off-balance), you need a SOFTER shot, not a harder one. The body and paddle must be DECOUPLED. Fast feet to get there, slow paddle to execute. This is one of the hardest habits to build.
Cincola: the hardest part of pickleball movement isn't GOING — it's stopping controlled. The lunging leg is the braking mechanism that converts full-speed movement into a controlled shot. Without it, you arrive at the ball but can't execute because your momentum is still carrying you. Every movement sequence ends with a lunge that absorbs the energy: run → lunge to stop → execute shot → split step for ready position → shuffle at the line.
Ben Johns: when the ball is contacted IN FRONT of your body, a horizontal paddle face works fine. When the contact is BEHIND your body, the entire geometry changes — the paddle face must tilt UPWARD to get around the outside of the ball. "If I do my wrist like that and it has to be that far behind me in order for it to be a good shot — it's a combination." Your contact point and paddle angle are COUPLED — you can't set one without the other. Most players use the same paddle angle regardless of where they contact the ball relative to their body.
The forehand wrist position is naturally stronger than the backhand by a factor of roughly 2x. This means grip pressure that's adequate for a forehand touch shot (3-4/10) will leave the paddle twisting on a backhand block (needs 7-8/10). Most players use the same grip pressure on both sides — resulting in either death-grip forehands or floppy backhands. The asymmetry is biomechanical, not a skill issue.
Cincola: imagine a laser beam extending off your paddle face, aimed at a point one foot over the net at ALL times. As your contact point lowers (ball gets lower), your wrist gradually opens the paddle face to keep that laser aimed at the same target. As contact rises, your wrist gradually closes. This isn't a discrete switch between "open face" and "closed face" — it's a CONTINUOUS adjustment that tracks one imaginary point. The laser metaphor replaces the confusing "open or closed?" question with a simple visual: "where is the laser pointing?"
Continental grip creates a dead zone between the right hip and right shoulder. Eastern forehand grip has no shoulder dead zone but struggles with low balls. You can read an opponent's grip from their knuckle position during warm-up and have a complete targeting plan before the first point is played.
Cincola: most players grip the paddle straight across the palm — the "club grip." The base knuckle is in the right spot but the rest of the hand is wrong. Correct: the paddle should cross the hand DIAGONALLY through the fingers and top of the hand, not straight across the palm. This diagonal crossing enables full wrist maneuverability for rolls, flicks, and grip pressure adjustments. The straight-across "club grip" locks the wrist and reduces shot variety.
Everyone assumes fast hands win volley exchanges. The actual variable is body height. Standing tall forces the elbow to extend just to reach low balls — using up a vital lever for contact alone. Dropping body height keeps the elbow loaded above the body, preserving the full kinetic chain (shoulder + tricep + wrist) for explosive reactions. It's like asking a pitcher to throw underarm — they lose the elbow.
Ben Johns on high backhand attacks: "If you turn the wrist down enough, it'll always go in. Now you have free license to completely unload — like loading a spring." The more you close the paddle face, the more speed you can generate without the ball sailing out. Most players think power = risk of going long. With sufficient face closure, power becomes FREE — the physics guarantees the ball stays in court. The constraint (closed face) creates the freedom (unlimited swing speed).
Cincola: when a hard ball comes at you, your body goes into protection mode — shoulders rise, grip tightens, legs straighten, body tenses. This REMOVES your athletic ability at the exact moment you need it most. The fix isn't "be brave" — it's specific: stay down in legs (don't straighten), keep shoulders relaxed (don't hunch), keep body still (don't flinch). ONLY the paddle moves to the ball. Everything else stays frozen in athletic position.
What you feel is happening on court and what's actually happening are rarely the same. Without film, you're diagnosing your game from corrupted data. Players consistently overestimate their body height, underestimate their swing length, and misremember positioning. The camera is the only honest coach.
Cincola: "Aim small, miss small." Every single shot requires three deliberate intentions BEFORE you hit: (1) spin type (topspin, slice, flat), (2) trajectory (high arc, flat, low), (3) pace (soft, medium, hard). Without these three intentions, there's no feedback loop — you can't diagnose what went wrong because you never defined what "right" looked like. With intention: "too high," "not enough topspin," "hit too hard" — now you can fix it. Without: "that didn't work" — no actionable information.
Colin Johns: "Letting one drive go changes their whole mentality — they can't hit as hard." Even if the first ball you let go lands IN, the psychological effect is worth the trade. The banger now faces an impossible choice: hit at 100% (might go out and they KNOW you'll let it) or dial back to 90% (losing their primary weapon). You've changed their entire game without hitting a single shot.
Ben Johns: "All it takes is one winning strategy that you stick to throughout the entire match in order to win that match." You don't need 10 tactics. Find ONE thing that works against THIS specific opponent and commit to it relentlessly. Most players change strategies every few points, never giving any strategy enough time to compound.
Cincola's three-phase attack framework: Phase 1 = hit offensive dinks (low trajectory, deep in kitchen) to get opponent into a DEFENSIVE position (reaching, half-volleying, ball outside foot lines). Phase 2 = take the NEXT ball out of the air — this removes recovery time and creates the threat of attack. Phase 3 = pull the trigger on the actual attack. Most players skip to Phase 3 from a NEUTRAL position — attacking a ball that's slightly high but with the opponent fully set and ready.
Cincola: bangers need exactly TWO ball types to dominate: (1) dead dinks — loopy arc that sits up nicely on the bounce, and (2) balls out of the air above knee height. If you eliminate both, you cut their offense in HALF. Force them to hit below-knee volleys (hard to generate power) or flat-trajectory balls that move through the court quickly (no time to let them sit up).
Cincola: six observable cues that tell you you're on defense — if ANY one exists, you should be resetting, not attacking: (1) Court position — opponents closer to kitchen. (2) Off balance. (3) Poor contact point — jammed, stretched, behind you. (4) Half volley. (5) Giving opponent a ball they can take out of the air. (6) Dead dink. If any ONE of these is true, you're defensive. The response is always: create space + make the next ball bounce.
Cincola: the entire game theory of pickleball reduces to ONE binary: is the ball above or below net strap height at contact? Below = unattackable (must hit UP, therefore hit SOFT, land in kitchen). Above = attackable (can hit DOWN, therefore hit HARD, attack). The soft game forces opponents below net strap = they must hit soft back. If you hit too hard, the ball stays on plane without dipping = opponents get a higher, attackable ball. This binary replaces all complex shot-selection thinking.
Morgan Evans: beginners stand 2-3 feet behind the kitchen line "to avoid foot faults." This creates a lethal habit: thousands of reps of stepping FORWARD to dink. The problem: when a ball requires going DEEPER into the kitchen area (a volley opportunity), there's no recovery time. Worse — all those forward-step reps will eventually CAUSE a foot fault on a reflex volley. Standing within a few INCHES of the line uses peripheral vision for awareness and creates volley opportunities that are invisible from 2 feet back.
Morgan Evans: "Pickleball is not a one-handed sport." Three shots where the off-hand is structurally critical: (1) Lean-in fourth ball volley — without the off-hand pushing BACK for counterbalance, you immediately fall forward. (2) Backhand slice return — the off-hand pushes BACKWARD as the paddle drives forward, squeezing shoulder blades together to keep the paddle on target line. "Swing faster = push back HARDER." (3) Forehand drive — both arms do a "unit turn," neither disconnects. Without it, you lose balance at full rotation. The off-hand isn't decorative — it's structural.
When poaching off your partner's third shot drop, the timing cue isn't the drop quality or your position — it's the opponent's HEAD. Wait until the opponent puts their head DOWN (looking at the ball to hit their response). That's the signal their decision is locked and they can't adjust. If they can still see you moving, they'll aim around you. Their head going down is the commitment point.
Cincola: doubles partners should be positioned close enough that they can TOUCH PADDLE TIPS when both reach toward each other. This eliminates the middle — the easiest, safest, lowest-risk target on the court. The tradeoff: yes, you leave the sidelines more open. But hitting the sideline is risky for opponents — if they miss by 6 inches, it's out. Force opponents to beat you to the risky outsides. Never give up the easiest spot (middle) to protect the hardest (sidelines).
Most amateur points are won or lost in the Establish or Finish phases — the return is bad (Establish failure) or the attack goes wrong (Finish failure). But pro points are won in the DEVELOP phase: the team that builds more pressure through dink exchanges, that systematically degrades the opponent's position through pattern play. The Develop phase is invisible to spectators but is where the actual skill gap lives. A player who can develop for 4-6 balls with purpose will beat a player with better finishing skills who skips development.
Most players have Plan A and improvisation. When Plan A fails, they scramble. Constructed point play requires Plan B to be PRE-LOADED: if crosscourt patterns get intercepted → failover to inside-out patterns. If body attacks get countered → failover to shoulder attacks. If they refuse to come to kitchen → failover to driving them up. The failover isn't improvisation — it's a predetermined branch in the decision tree that activates when the primary plan fails 3 times.
Ben Johns: "Plays are one of the most beautiful things in pickleball because they give you specific outcomes. If you hit the shot here, typically your opponents are going to hit the ball here and then you can be ready here for the putaway. When we do that, we get predictable outcomes." A play isn't a hope — it's an IF-THEN chain with known probabilities. Hit X → opponent returns to Y → you're already at Y ready for the putaway. The play's value isn't the winning shot — it's the PREDICTABILITY of where the ball will be.
The harder you serve, the more forward momentum pulls you INTO the court. Most players serve hard and hope they'll have time to retreat — then get caught hitting their third shot while still moving forward with narrow steps that can't control momentum. The fix isn't serving softer — it's building the retreat into the serve routine as a non-negotiable step. The recovery starts before the serve is even struck.
Cincola: the power-vs-control tradeoff on serves is a false dilemma. The bowling method: in bowling, shoulders ROTATE but the arm stays on a LINEAR path. Apply to serves: let the back shoulder drop and come forward (rotation = power), but feel the arm staying on a straight line toward the target (linear = control). Shoulder rotation drives power; the linear arm preserves accuracy and timing. You get BOTH instead of choosing one.
Morgan Evans: reaction time declines with age, but anticipation is a learnable skill that MORE than compensates. Three layers: (1) TACTICAL — opponent's court position + what ball they received predicts attack likelihood. High balls are universal green lights. (2) TECHNICAL — body cues: longer takeaway (shoulder turn or wrist hinge), stepping back (creating leverage), rapidly dropping body height (topspin attack loading). (3) VISUAL — speed and direction off the paddle face. Critical insight: watch your PARTNER'S ball off the paddle FIRST, not the opponent's — this gives you the earliest possible warning of what's coming.
Morgan Evans, analyzing a lost point: "History told me that when he makes this move — running around his backhand to play a forehand — there's often a bullet or a disguised attack coming." The extra step to go around the backhand IS the telegraph. It's not subtle — it's a full-body positional commitment to offense. The moment you see an opponent take that extra lateral step to get around their backhand: back up immediately and give yourself reaction space.
Morgan Evans: a rotational dink technique (body rotating through the shot) creates a paddle face angle that's only correct at ONE precise moment in the rotation. Early in the rotation = ball goes left. Late in the rotation = ball goes right. A linear technique (paddle traveling in straight lines toward the target) maintains the correct angle throughout the entire stroke. This is why some players are "streaky" dinkers — their rotational technique makes them timing-dependent. Switching to linear eliminates the timing dependency entirely.
Cincola: the ball tends to come back at the mirror angle it was hit. If you hit a forehand crosscourt, expect the return to come toward your backhand side — pre-lean that direction slightly. After hitting your shot, step TOWARD the nearest sideline. Now that sideline is protected by geometry (the ball can't go further that way), so you only need to cover ONE direction instead of two. This "triangle" reduces your defensive coverage from 180° to approximately 90°.
Cincola: when you see a dead dink (ball that sits up for your opponent), take ONE big step back from the kitchen line before they swing. This single step buys approximately 30% more reaction time. The difference between reading an attack and getting jammed. It's not retreat — it's tactical spacing that converts a possible winner into a manageable counter.
Most players evaluate returns by whether they're "deep" or "in." But the return's primary job is to determine what third shot the opponent hits, which determines what fourth ball you face. A deep slice return creates backspin that makes drops difficult — forcing either a pop-up drop or a third shot drive. Both are more attackable on the fourth ball than a clean drop. The return doesn't need to win the point; it needs to create a fourth ball you can exploit.
Morgan Evans on the chip and charge: "You don't have to be fast if you're early." Slice returns stay in the air LONGER than flat or topspin returns, giving you MORE time to advance to the kitchen. Most players hit hard returns thinking pace creates pressure — but pace leaves less time for THEM to reach the kitchen. The slice return is slower but creates more time for the returner. Slower-and-earlier beats faster-and-later.
Most players decide their third shot independently of their serve — they serve, watch the return, then improvise. But the serve type largely determines the return quality, which determines the correct third shot. Hard serve → likely short return → drive. Spin serve → likely awkward return → attack. Deep placement → likely deep return → drop. The third shot choice should be PLANNED at the serve, not decided after the return arrives. This converts a two-step improvisation into a one-step plan.
Colin Johns: "We go down the line [with the drive] because chances are if we go down the line, that next ball is going to come directly back to us. And if our drive is good and low, then that ball is going to be an easy ball for us to hit a fifth shot drop." The down-the-line drive creates a predictable return path: straight back to the driver. This converts the fifth shot from unknown to known — you know WHERE it's going before the opponent even hits it. Cross-court drives scatter the return unpredictably.
Most players execute one split step at the start of a volley exchange — then stay flat-footed for the remaining shots. The first block uses up the loaded leg position, and the player doesn't reload. Result: the first attack is absorbed but the second one catches them flat. The split step isn't a one-time preparation — it must be re-executed before EVERY opponent contact in a rapid exchange.
Ben Johns: "The wrist has a little more variance in terms of its range of motion. So when you use it a lot, it might not always end up exactly where you want it." Hip rotation has almost NO variance — it's a limited, consistent motion. Players using wrist for power get varying heights and directions; players using hip rotation get consistent low drives every time. Fully closed stance is REQUIRED to engage the hips properly — "open stance is a no-no."
Cincola: contact point INSIDE your outside-foot line = the natural kinetic chain (ground → legs → hips → torso → shoulder → arm → paddle) delivers full rotational power. Contact OUTSIDE that line = the paddle must redirect mid-swing, losing rotational power entirely. The fix isn't swing harder — it's move your FEET to place the ball on the power line. Footwork determines power, not arm speed.
Colin Johns: lob the third shot right down the middle. Whoever takes the overhead IS the alpha — they just told you the team hierarchy in one shot. You've identified who makes decisions, who defers, and who covers the middle. It costs you nothing (you're on serve, can't lose a point) and the intel is worth the entire match.
Ben Johns: instead of hitting behind the ball (flat) or inside the ball (slice/fade), hit the OUTSIDE third. This one adjustment naturally closes the paddle face AND creates topspin — they happen together automatically. "When you focus on outside of the ball, topspin just happens." Most players are told "close the paddle face" and "swing low to high" as separate cues — hitting the outside third accomplishes both in one thought.
Cincola: face angle means NOTHING in isolation. A paddle that looks "open" produces TOPSPIN if the swing path is vertical — because the face is CLOSED relative to that path. Three relationships: face square to path = flat (no spin). Face closed relative to path = topspin. Face open relative to path = backspin. Most players think about absolute face angle ("close the face for topspin") when they should think about the RELATIONSHIP between face and path.
Navratil: the pro vs amateur difference isn't technique — it's WHEN the wrist position is locked. Pros set their wrist position completely BEFORE starting forward motion. Amateurs have body and paddle motion right up until contact — the wrist isn't ready in time, producing rushed, inconsistent contact. The sequence: set wrist → lock → swing → finish with same wrist position you started.
Navratil: wrist lag — the mechanism that creates power and spin on drives and serves — should happen NATURALLY from good preparation, not from actively forcing the wrist back. Two prerequisites: (1) unit turn (entire upper body coils, non-dominant hand near paddle head), (2) correct grip pressure (2-3/10 — firm enough to hold, loose enough to allow lag). With these two things, the wrist naturally lags when you accelerate the arm forward. "You allow it, not force it."
Most players decide whether to advance after a third shot based on how the shot FELT at contact. But feel is unreliable — a bad-feeling drop against a slow-moving opponent might be effective, while a great-feeling drop against a quick player at the kitchen is dangerous. The correct input is the opponent's ability to respond, not your contact quality.
Colin Johns, observing amateur tournaments: "They are missing a ton of putaways — a TON." The math is devastating: if opponents miss 30% of their putaways, extending every rally by just ONE shot wins you 30% of points you were "supposed to" lose. And the emotional impact compounds — missing a putaway shifts momentum more than winning one. "Be proud not to give your opponent an outright winner. We may have lost the battle but we won't lose the war."
Ben Johns on fourth ball attacks: you don't change your swing path to hit different directions. You change WHERE you contact the ball relative to your body. Contact further BACK relative to your body = ball goes down the line. Contact further FORWARD = ball goes crosscourt. Same swing, different result. "If I'm contacting near here, I can clearly see with my left side generally where you're at." This reduces shot direction from a complex swing-path problem to a simple positioning/footwork problem.
Navratil maps out WHERE the counter will go for EVERY attack spot based on contact point and timing. Attack right shoulder → late contact → comes back to you. Attack body → timing determines direction (late = crosscourt, early = middle). Through the middle → diagonal player funnels back toward you. Nobody hits outright winners anymore — you choose your attack spot based on where you WANT the counter to go, then you're already there.
The desire to put maximum power on volleys leads to oversized swings — but the swings are too big not because of aggression, but because the player is too far from the ball. The real variable isn't swing length, it's shoulder proximity to the contact point. The further away, the slower. The closer, the faster.
When standing tall at the kitchen, balls that are actually above net height appear to be below it from your eye line. You literally cannot see volley dink opportunities because your perspective makes them invisible — by the time the ball drops to where it looks playable, it's already bounced past the kitchen line. Getting low changes what you can physically perceive, not just what you can reach.
Cincola: "The most common rec-level mistake is rushing — rushing movements, rushing shots, playing too fast." The fix isn't playing slower; it's getting PAUSED before contact. React quickly to get to the ball (fast feet), then decelerate and settle before hitting (slow hands). Like a baseball fielder who arrives early and catches cleanly vs. one who arrives late and fumbles. The pause creates the feeling of having more time — and having more time is always an advantage.
Ben Johns: "Every shot except an overhead is a setup." The corollary: an attackable ball you CHOOSE not to attack becomes a powerful setup. Your opponent saw the attackable ball, braced for the attack, shifted their weight defensively — and now they have to recover to handle a soft dink instead. The non-attack from an attackable position is MORE disorienting than a mediocre attack. It weaponizes restraint.
Ben Johns' #1 instruction for the backhand roll: cock your wrist forward like a motorcycle throttle. Never flick it. Most players think the roll is a wrist shot — all the YouTube compilations show the wrist snap. It's actually a SWING PATH shot. The wrist only SETS the paddle angle (closed). The SWING (low to high at 45 degrees) creates the topspin. Eliminating wrist movement increases consistency dramatically.
Ben Johns intentionally pops up dinks slightly — not enough for an easy putaway, but enough that the opponent FEELS they should attack. He's already stepped back and has his hands ready. This is the inverse of disguise: instead of hiding your intent, you're REVEALING false weakness. Most players can't resist attacking what looks like a mistake, even when the "mistake" was engineered.
Most players have exactly three responses when attacked: hit back hard, get hit, or dodge. The block volley is a fourth option that doesn't exist until explicitly trained. This isn't a refinement — it's an entirely new response category that transforms defense from "survive or lose" to "neutralize and reset."
Instead of just countering backspin, elite players ADD their topspin to the opponent's existing backspin, creating dramatically more dip than either spin type alone. The opponent's spin becomes fuel for your shot — the more they slice, the more your topspin dips.
Cincola: most players have 1-2 dink styles. Pros select from FIVE based on ball position and intent: (1) Topspin push — ball inside stance, wrist tip-down locked, shoulder-driven, low + deep in kitchen. (2) Slice — ball outside foot line, open face, level swing, natural underspin. (3) Half-volley — last resort at feet, match ball's upward movement softly. (4) Cup — wide AND behind you, wrist reversed forward, minimal swing, just get it over. (5) Volley — take out of air before bounce, offensive (removes recovery time) or defensive (intercepts before ball gets behind you).
Cincola: most players think an "offensive dink" means angled, wide, or cross-court. Wrong. An offensive dink is defined by trajectory: LOWER over the net (less arc) AND DEEPER in the kitchen (toward the kitchen line, not the net). This combination forces the opponent to (1) move backward to play it, (2) contact below net height, and (3) limits their options. A "deep" dink landing near the kitchen line is more offensive than a sharply angled dink that lands near the net.
The most devastating dink pattern in pro pickleball: dink middle 2x to pull cross-court opponent toward center → inside-out dink to far corner → opponent stretches wide → YOUR partner moves to Ernie position during the stretch → opponent's recovery dink goes right into the Ernie. The pattern requires 3-4 dinks to build, partner communication, and all four players in specific positions. It can't be rushed — but when it works, it's nearly unstoppable.
Colin Johns on poaching the fifth shot after partner's drop: "You're moving FORWARD first to make it look like you're staying on your side. As soon as they begin their motion forward to hit the ball, you cut in on an angle ACROSS the court." The key: move forward first (disguise), then diagonal (the actual poach). Never lateral — lateral telegraphs the poach. Forward-then-diagonal is invisible until it's too late. Combined with the head-down timing cue: commit only when opponent's head drops to track the ball.
Cincola: for hand speed development, most players just do open fast-hands drills (both players hitting anywhere). This builds reaction but not TECHNIQUE. The correct approach is two stages: Stage 1 = pattern drills (backhand-to-backhand, or forehand-to-forehand) where both players know the pattern — this builds correct movement patterns and technique without reaction pressure. Stage 2 = open drills (anywhere) — this adds reaction and decision-making ON TOP of the technique built in Stage 1. Skipping Stage 1 means you're building fast but WRONG reactions.
Cincola analyzing Hayden Patrick Quinn: his shuffle steps are smaller and quicker than Ben Johns' bigger lunging steps. The small shuffles enable aggressive middle-court positioning WITH the ability to recover — because each small step keeps him balanced. Big lunges commit you in one direction; small shuffles keep you balanced and ready to change. This footwork style may be the future of pickleball movement.
Cincola: standing at the kitchen line while your opponent is stuck in the transition zone is "The High Ground." From this position, you should take their drop out of the air as a roll volley — this prevents them from advancing. The step-back option (dropping outside foot, opening hips, letting ball rise to peak) gives you a compact topspin groundstroke that forces them into a hands battle from a LOWER position. Five steps: recognize → drop outside foot → paddle tip under ball → compact topspin swing → return to ready.
Colin Johns designed his entire doubles game to complement Ben: he slides laterally ("Michael Jackson moonwalk"), sits on his backhand covering the line, and funnels everything to Ben's forehand in the middle. "I'm going to be a backboard over here — you go for your shots, I got you." This isn't about being worse — it's about having a SYSTEM. The system makes the team greater than the sum of its parts. The key: neither player deviates, ever.
Colin Johns on the slide system: it isn't designed for Colin to WIN the exchange. It's designed so that the COUNTER to his counter goes directly to Ben's forehand kill zone. "A lot of times the guys with good hands will get the next one back, but then the reply will go directly into the jaws of Ben's forehand — which is where we want the ball to go." Colin survives one shot; the opponent's response feeds Ben's strongest position. The system architects WHERE the second ball in any exchange must travel — not by controlling the opponent, but by positioning so that the geometry forces the reply to a predetermined zone.
Cincola: traditional shake-and-bake = hard drive straight ahead + partner poaches the popup. But there's a hybrid that works from almost any position: hit a soft spinning shot CROSSCOURT while your partner squares up in the middle, taking away passing lanes. This works especially when opponents are scrambling to position (unstack-sliding), causing them to arrive late and low.
Cincola: "If you're not doing something, do something." When your partner hits, most players just watch. Smart players use that time to REPOSITION based on reading the situation: partner balanced → push forward. Partner struggling → hold or back up. Ball going left → slide left. This proactive positioning means every ball arrives "easier" because you're already in the right spot.
Morgan Evans analyzes exactly HOW he won or lost 5 specific points in his matches — not "we played well" or "they were better," but specific, shot-by-shot reconstruction. "I pulled wide with the serve which pulled me into the court, and then I had to short-hop the third..." This point-level analysis is how construction skill develops. You can't improve point construction without examining point construction. The post-mortem is as important as the play.
Colin Johns: "Think of yourself more as the setter and the other person can be the hitter." Here's the exact sequence: (1) Right-side player initiates a speed-up — typically attacking the cross-court opponent's body, backhand, or chicken wing from a dink exchange. (2) The opponent counters — usually back toward the right-side player (because the attack came from their right). (3) Right-side player gets the counter DOWN (below net height) and hits it STRAIGHT AHEAD — never crosscourt, because crosscourt "crosses up your partner" and sends the ball away from them. (4) Left-side player, who read the speed-up and pre-positioned toward the middle, CRASHES with a forehand putaway into the now-open court. The critical rule: the right-side player's redirect must go STRAIGHT (down the line or middle) so the left-side partner can crash from a predictable angle. Going crosscourt sends the ball to the wrong side of the court for the partner.
Navratil maps WHERE the counter will go for every attack placement: forehand down the line → counter comes through the middle (crash with backhand). Attack at body → timing determines direction (late = crosscourt back, early = middle). Through the middle → diagonal player funnels back toward you. The key: "Nobody is hitting attacks good enough for outright winners anymore. You need to set up the finishing shot." Choose your attack spot based on where you WANT the counter, then be there before it arrives.
While the return is in flight, the returner's partner at the kitchen should be reading return quality to predict the third shot type. Short return = expect drive (prepare to block). Deep return = expect drop (prepare to volley-dink or poach). This 0.5-second head start on reading the third shot is the difference between reactive defense and proactive fourth ball offense. The partner isn't watching passively — they're gathering tactical intelligence.
Colin Johns: the forehand roll attack's effectiveness comes from DISGUISE, not power. Reach in and make it look like you're going to hit a soft shovel dink — identical body position, identical reach. Then suddenly turn the arm over for the roll. The opponent has committed to the dink response before they can adjust. And critically: reload immediately. Be ready for the next shot, don't admire the roll.
Morgan Evans pro match analysis: elite players poach at the kitchen — but then play a simple DINK instead of attacking. This confuses everyone who thinks poaching = attacking. Three reasons the poached dink is correct: (1) you had to leave early to be in position for a high ball anyway, (2) you're already in front of your partner blocking their view, (3) leaving creates miscommunication. The hardest part: keeping cool and just dinking when every instinct says attack.
At the pro level, the server's partner advances without watching the third shot. This isn't recklessness — it's calibrated trust based on the server's drop reliability rate. The disconnect creates earlier kitchen arrival, which creates fourth ball pressure that amateurs never generate. The time cost of watching (0.5-1 second late to kitchen) = giving up the fourth ball advantage entirely.
Shorter players are naturally in the body position that taller players spend their careers trying to achieve. Lower center of gravity = better dinking height, easier slice execution (paddle slides under the ball naturally), more agility, and potentially better endurance. The "disadvantage" is actually a built-in toolkit.
Disguise without established expectation is just randomness. Elite players hit 3-4 repetitions of the same shot before deploying the variant. The disguise only works because the opponent has been conditioned to expect the pattern. "If the stick doesn't work, try the carrot — but dress the carrot up to look like a stick."
Colin Johns: "Pickleball is not designed to be played 50/50. It depends on where the ball is." The Johns brothers play a deliberate 70/30 split — Ben covers 70% of the court (including middle with his forehand), Colin covers 30% (his line with a backhand). This isn't about skill difference — it's about having a SYSTEM where each person covers a defined zone without guessing. Anything left of the partner's left shoulder is your ball — no deviation.
Amateur third shots "ask" the question — can you keep me back? Pros' third shots "state" unequivocally — you can't keep me back. This isn't just confidence; it's a qualitative difference in how the team operates. Partners disconnect early and move forward without even watching the third shot, switching their focus to applying pressure and intercepting the next ball.
Cincola: "The reset (making the ball bounce in the kitchen) is the only shot that is 100% effective when executed correctly." Lobs can be overheaded. Speedups can be countered. Drives can be blocked. But a correctly executed reset — a ball that lands softly in the kitchen — CANNOT be punished. There is no aggressive option against a ball bouncing in the kitchen. It forces a dink reply. This makes the reset the most powerful shot in pickleball, not the weakest.
Most players aim attacks at the opening in the middle of the court. Elites aim at the right shoulder of the player in front of them. The shoulder area forces a late transition from backhand to forehand — the opponent must open up the forehand face AND raise it high enough to hit down. This produces a late contact with an open face, giving you exactly what you want: a high backhand to put away.
Ben Johns: "Default is out of the air. Adjust if I can't." Most players default to letting balls bounce and only volley when it's obviously easy. Ben's default is REVERSED — he tries to take EVERYTHING out of the air and only lets it bounce when he physically can't reach it. "I want to see you reaching in and sometimes realizing you can't — that's a GREAT thing, because you're learning your envelope." This default-state reversal steals time from opponents on every single ball. It's not a technique — it's a decision architecture.
Navratil: the reason pros look like they have all the time in the world to dink is the DROP STEP. Volley-first mentality: you stand at the kitchen to take balls out of the air PRIMARILY. When you realize you can't reach it as a volley, push off the front leg and drop the back leg back. This keeps the ball in front of you (not reaching behind or half-volleying). Weight still loads forward even as the leg goes back — you push back toward the kitchen from this position.
Conventional wisdom: always transfer weight forward on drops. But Morgan Evans notes that some great pros deliberately hit third shot drops off their BACK FOOT. The back-foot position allows a steeper upward paddle angle and more paddle head speed — pulling UP on the ball — while knowing the weight transfer won't overpower the shot. It breaks every "always forward" rule but produces gorgeous drops.