The game of pickleball can be summed up by the three Ps – positioning, patience, power. All are crucial aspects of the game that are difficult to master without drills.

Power is becoming increasingly important as the game has evolved at the higher levels, for a number of reasons. Two reasons are the influx of high level tennis players at the top of the game and the increasing use of top spin. At the lower levels powershots will often win rallies, either directly or by producing errors and weak returns. This is OK as far as it goes but it encourages the neglect of the soft game that is essential for players as they rise through the higher intermediate level 3s and into the 4s. There, the ‘bangers’ will find their power shots are returned without too much difficulty, often with ‘interest’. And in any case they will find they are given very few opportunities to use their power as the better players defuse their power game with their soft game and positioning. Positioning is a key factor in playing defensively against power players and the ability to equalise a rally and gain an attacking position.

Which brings us onto positioning. If power won’t win then the other strategy is to move your opponents around until a hole in their defense appears that you can attack. This is the importance of the soft game. It can keep you in the rally if you are on the defensive, for instance a reset into the opponents” kitchen, or push them out of position leaving a space to attack or at least get an uncontrolled weak return. Strong players can reset into the kitchen from anywhere on court. Resets enable a team in defence to neutralise the rally by advancing to their own NVZ line. Once both pairs are at their kitchen lines it then becomes a battle of patience. The team that wins most points from this situation, the dinking battle, is usually the one with the best positioning, footwork and patience, in addition to reliable and consistent dinks of course. Very often teams that are out-dinked are the less mobile team and/or with the shortest attention span!

Which brings us to patience. If you watch some of the dinking rallies of professional teams, the necessity for patience and concentrated focus is obvious (for the players and the spectators). But patience isn’t just required for extended dinking rallies. Patience is often required throughout a rally. Going too hard at an overhead when the ball isn’t  in the right place or when you are on the move and not stable, or when you can’t resist showboating, is more likely to lose the point than win it. Better to go for medium pace targeted shot with accuracy rather than with 50/50 high risk pyrotechnics. If your opponents are at the back of the court in a good defensive position, solid shots to their feet are often best to keep them back there and wait for a better opportunity. Down the middle can cause some confusion and lead to the wide angles being exposed. When wider spaces are exposed reduced power accurate shots that keep the ball in the court will often win the point or get a scrabbled weak response that leave spaces elsewhere when the scrabbler’s partner hasn’t moved to cover. The high risk video highlight smash will win some points but will probably lose more. Patient pressure with accurate soft or half power shots will always win more points in the long run.

So, patience, positioning and power, all of which can be improved more rapidly with drills rather than just playing games. Patience needs drills for the soft game, working on focus and moving your opponents around. Positioning means knowing how to read a rally and automatically moving to the best position at any given moment. This has to be moving with your partner as a coordinated unit. It also it means good footwork. Power (and everything else) is all about good technique and judgement; when to turn it on and when to hold it back.

Drills are available to help develop all these crucial aspects of the game.

Ghosting is a training technique that is essentially playing rallies with an imaginary opponent. It is something I did regularly as a squash player and used extensively as a squash coach. The three main purposes of ghosting are fitness, movement (patterns of play), and technique (stroke mechanics and variety). This allows you to rehearse footwork and movement, typical patterns of play and shot production. You get to the imaginary ball in good position, racket fully prepped and can concentrate on the mechanics of your stroke, recovery and repositioning. This is a good way of exposing movements and footwork you find awkward and need to improve.You have to think about the placement of your shot and what is is you’re trying to achieve in the context of the rally, for instance where your opponent is and where you want to make them move to.The rallies can be as long and as strenuous as you wish. In the process you are grooving your movement and strokes and, importantly, training your mind to play shots with a purpose to impose a pattern of play. You are not just hitting an imaginary ball; you are manoeuvring an imaginary opponent around the court, conditioning their movement and creating and executing winning opportunities.

This technique proved extremely effective for me and many other squash players and produced significant improvements. However, squash is almost exclusively a singles game and I’m not sure how ghosting would translate into doubles pickleball rallies and games. If you are doing it alone alone you have three imaginary players on court with you; your partner and two opponents. I think it would work if you play the rallies as if your imaginary partner was always in the correct position, staying with you vertically and laterally so to speak. The ghosting would include (bearing in mind the whole thing is in your imagination) shots that you partner would play. Given the pattern of play you are ghosting, you would know what shot they would play and why and position yourself accordingly in the appropriate ready stance.

I’ve looked for coaching materials for ghosting in pickleball but there seems to be very few and those are relatively rudimentary. I would like to adapt what I learnt about ghosting in squash, both as a player and coach, to pickleball, but I think there would be some limitations. It looks like ghosting in pickleball would be best for individuals to improve and groove their strokes, footwork and movement round the court. Patterns of play with a partner are probably best worked on with drills and conditioned games.

If you have any thoughts on this or experience of using ghosting in pickleball please share in comments below. Thanks.

The standard of play has improved significantly at Heaton since we started playing 18 months ago. However, the question comes up occasionally, “but is it really pickleball”. The question is always prompted by the observation that we rarely, if ever, find ourselves playing dinking rallies. The answer to the question is, yes, we are playing pickleball. We know the pickleball rules, our serves are usually legal, we know the two bounce rule, we respect the non volley zone. We are playing pickleball.

However, an important part of the game is missing – dinking. The main problem is that we rarely have all 4 players at the kitchen line at the same time. The service receiving pair have the easiest job to get there. One of them is already at the kitchen and a good return of serve gets the service receiver up there to join their partner. The problem lies with the serving pair, pinned to their baseline by the second bounce rule. Assuming the receiving pair are reasonably good players, from their dominant position they can keep their opponents pinned at the back or hit the ball at their opponents feet. The pair at the net won’t win all the points but should win most of them.

The usual tactic for the serving team to get to the kitchen is to play a third shot drop. A good one cannot be attacked as it has to be played from below net height and it allows the serving pair to advance to the kitchen and thus neutralise the advantage of the receiving pair. That’s the idea anyway but it’s a hard shot to master, to be able to play a drop shot into the kitchen from deep in your court. It is not surprising that many players hit a drive for the 3rd shot. As it happens, it seems that the 3rd shot drive is gaining popularity with high level ex tennis pickleball players. They still get into dinking rallies but often with a 5th shot drop from further up the court.

The upshot of this is to underline the importance of drills to play drops shots from deep in the court and while moving into the the transition zone.