If you’ve been playing pickleball for some time, you will notice that you or others you play with tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. This can be frustrating when you’re trying to improve your game. Here are common pickleball mistakes that are often made among beginners to intermediate players so you can avoid them.
Common Pickleball Mistakes
1. Rushing Up To The Net
You may be surprised (or not!) by the number of pickleball players that rush up to the net too quickly. Yes, the goal is to eventually get up to the kitchen. But the mistake of rushing up to the net comes from players that serve a ball. And instead of waiting for a return, they immediately rush toward the net. They then have to backtrack if the serve return is deep to make their third shots.
Even if the ball did not get returned to your side, you want to make sure that your partner made the right third shot before rushing up to the net. Because if your partner drives a ball that is blocked by your opponents, the ball will bounce back fast behind you if you’re rushing up to the net. Or if your partner’s drop is too high(or your opponent has a long reach), the ball can be smashed away.
2. Smashing The Ball From Too Far Back
One of the worst pickleball mistakes to make and watch is seeing a smash go right into the net. Or smashed out of bounds. This can happen when you’re far back in the court that you don’t have the angles to smash in your opponent’s courts.
If you’re midcourt or further back toward the baseline, it is better to allow the ball to bounce first. This will allow you to orient where you and your partner are at the court and reset.
3. Overreaching
Overreaching is one of the most common pickleball mistakes that you or others you know make. During a game, you can get so focused on where the ball is that you may forget your footwork. Before you know it, you’re overextending yourself and stretching too far. This can cause a lot of unforced errors.
The solution to overreaching is to simply take a step closer to the ball. The closer to your body is to the ball, the better control you will have. This especially applies to the kitchen area where everyone is dinking at the net. You want to “shadow” the ball, meaning, you want to take sideway steps toward where the ball is placed.
That way, you’re closing the gaps between you and your partner as the ball is passed back and forth from one side of the court to the other.
4. Using Too Much Wrist
We have found many badminton and table tennis players that transition to pickleball use a lot of “wrist action” in their play. If you find yourself in the same position, be conscientious to hold the paddle with a firm wrist. When you’re constantly using your wrist instead of your arms (and the paddle an extension of your arms), it affects the angle of where your shots will go. Not to mention the wear that you’re placing on your wrist.
This is important in every single stroke that you make. When you’re swinging your groundstroke, keeping your wrist steady through the swing will allow your shots to be more accurate.
5. Not Going For High-Percentage Shots
As mentioned earlier, there are players that come from other racket sports, such as badminton that tend to go for down-the-sideline shots. While it is challenging for your opponents to return a drive that is down that line on either side, it is risky. If you’re specifically challenging yourself to hit those shots during a rec game and you don’t mind possibly losing the point, go for it.
But high-percentage shots are what keep the ball in play. It may not be the coolest but to be consistent, you must go for the shots that you know you can make. If you don’t have any high-percentage shots yet, the best way to improve in this area is to drill those shots.
More Tips
For more tips to improve your game, check out the next article below.
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