Pickleball Strategy: Punching

Obviously, we are not saying that we want to add a new element to the pickleball game through punching; but instead we are talking about striking the ball in such a way that it resembles a punch shot.
There are always those opponents that we all face that want to drill the ball at our heads, or other soft tissue areas, and we need to react quickly with how to return the ball, or jump out of the way to allow the ball to sail out. Most times the opponent is winding up their power death shot from the baseline, where he is on the defensive and just trying to return the ball. We should be at the net on the offensive in the ready position (knees bent, shoulders set, and paddle up by our chest.)  As the ball comes our way we literally have our fist in a punch mode (knuckles up - thumb down) with our paddle parallel to our body, and we give a solid punch at the ball. If we over swing the punch, we will fall forward on our face, if we are mamby-pamby about our grip the ball will bounce off our paddle, and give our face a right cross. If we are solid in our hits, the ball can easily be hit to either side slightly, or straight down the middle line.