If you’re new to pickleball, it can take a while to learn exactly how to play the game and how to count the scores. But more importantly, it is important to know the right shots to take so you can continue playing. Here are three basic pickleball shots you must learn as a beginner so you can keep playing and improve your game.
3 Basic Pickleball Shots To Learn As A Beginner
The Serve
One of the most important basic pickleball shots to learn is how to serve. Because if your serves are out, you and your team will not even get a chance to win the point. That is why it is ESSENTIAL to learning how to serve in pickleball. The pickleball serve is done crosscourt where the ball is required to land in the rectangle diagonally opposite from the server.
You must stand behind the baseline when you’re serving and use an underhand serve. That means the paddle must contact the ball below your navel and the tip of your paddle must be under your wrist when the paddle contacts the ball. The easiest way to serve is to hold the ball in front of you and drop the ball as you swing the paddle to hit it. Don’t worry about doing anything fancy.
Aim and focus on the space where the ball must land. Remember, you cannot bounce a ball off the ground and hit it to serve. Dropping the ball, on the other hand, is allowing gravity as the only force for the ball to bounce back up. A serve is considered out if it falls in the kitchen or the kitchen line. If it lands on the centerline, baseline, or sidelines, it is considered in.
For more details on pickleball rules, check the next article.
Read Next: Pickleball 101: How To Play Pickleball
Basic Ground Strokes
Basic groundstrokes are hits that you take after the ball has bounced off the ground. While it may be the most basic shot, it is important that you’re angling your paddle correctly. You don’t want to hit the ball up with your paddle face facing up.
You want to avoid hitting most ground strokes high because that gives your opponents easy returns. Or worse, a chance to smash the ball. The only exception is if you want to lob, which is another shot to learn later as you add more shots to your pickleball skills.
Keep your basic groundstrokes low or as close to the top of the net as possible. You do this by keeping your grip soft on the paddle instead of holding it tightly. You also want your body to rotate with each swing.
There are many great YouTube videos showing the motion. While you certainly don’t have to master the perfect low groundstrokes, the goal is to be able to hit the ball without propping it up for your opponent.
Dinking
Dinking means hitting the ball just enough that it will go over the net. This means the ball will barely be able to bounce off the ground and your opponent will not be able to attack the ball. Why is that? Because a ball with a super low bounce will go into the net if someone attempts to attack it. That is why high to pro-level pickleball, dinking can go very long.
Learning how to dink is an absolute must in pickleball because dinking tests patience and eventually someone makes a mistake. Either the ball doesn’t make it over the net because the dink was too low or someone dinks it too high and it becomes an attackable (slam-able) ball.
Dinking is solely done at the net. If the shot is taken from further back in the court, it is called dropping. Like dinking, you hit the shot just enough that it will barely go over the net. The benefit is the same: to create an unattackable ball.
Last Tips
As a beginner, there are a lot of little tidbits to learn about pickleball. You don’t need to know all the fancy shots that people that have been players for years use. And you certainly do not need the fanciest pickleball paddle. You can find one under $50 here. The most important thing is you have fun playing and you will learn tips and tricks as you go.