Pickleball Stregy: Pickleball shot selection

• If you don’t have a chance at a strong offensive shot, the chances are good that your best choice is a drop shot or a dink.
  
• If one or both of your opponents is in the backcourt, keep them there by hitting deep shots with pace. Don’t bring them to the net with a drop shot or dink unless you are sure that they can not get to the ball.
• If one of your opponents is up while the other is back, try to return a deep shot to the player that is back; keep that player on defense.
• Many players overuse the lob. When used at the wrong time, it lets the opponents take the offense and puts you on the defense. When overused, the element of surprise is gone. There are many times when players use the lob when it would be much more effective to use a drop shot.
  
• Avoid the temptation to try to do too much with a ball that is too far below the level of the net. A hard drive hit from well below the net will be on a trajectory to go out of bounds (if hit clears the net). If your opponent is anticipating that drive, he will just step aside and watch it sail out of bounds. The exception to this is when you have enough skill to come over the top of the ball with enough top spin to keep the ball in bounds.
• Increase your percentages on the return of serve by using a soft floating return to the back court.
• Shots hit cross court at a sharp angle can be highly effective, but they are also subject to a high error rate. If angle shots are not working well for you, direct most of your shots down the middle (down the doubt line). Your error rate will decrease significantly. It is amazing how often those down-the-middle shots cause confusion in your opponents. Quite often, both players will attempt to play the shot or it will be untouched by both players.

Watch your opponents throughout the match for breakdowns in communication, unnecessary movements or forced errors they will commit, allowing you to use your arsenal of shot selection.