Playing doubles by extending the point versus putting the ball away asap.

Pickleball is a lifetime sport and you will play against players of different abilities, ages, and abilities to cover the court. You should play some games by hitting controlled shots to weaker players just to give them a realistic opportunity to keep the ball in play. You should play all social recreational games by including all who are on the court.

My words of wisdom when playing recreational games with varying skill sets:

To the better players, reset the point and work on placement versus hitting winners. Really good players can extend the point to have longer rallies. Hit the ball to challenge your opponents without hitting it so hard that it doesn't give your opponent a realistic chance of returning the ball. On the other hand, don’t be condescending by hitting balls that are too easy. Your goal is to get your opponent to make an unforced error.

Develop your game to play like a teaching professional. When a top pro is giving a lesson, they have the ball control to place shots so you just won’t be able to attack and hit a winner. They have developed ball placement in order to achieve this. They will place their shots to challenge you without hitting the ball for a winner. Players who haven’t taken the time and developed their game with focused practice drills will simply hit every ball with the intent to win the point with power. The two styles of game that I’m discussing are “bangers” versus “all court players”, who are mastering placement. The banger wins with power. The all court player is nicknamed a “puppet master” who wins by extending the point knowing that a wall never misses and they want to beat you while giving you a good workout, longer points, and challenge you with well placed shots.

Pickleball often involves players of different skill levels on the court at the same time. It seems that the prevalent style is to try to end the point asap. Does the player who has an easy high ball always have to smash it to end the point? Does the urge to win the point asap ever get satisfied? I’m simply trying to get more players to give weaker players a legitimate chance to return a shot rather than hitting an overpowering winner. Of course, there are times that weaker players with an attitude need to be put in their place.

The developers of pickleball wrote rules and modified rules to get a game that resulted in longer rallies. They made a two bounce rule so you couldn’t serve and volley. They made a NVZ so you couldn’t get close to the net and volley the ball off the court for a winner. Today, paddles and balls have regulations.

Is there such a term as “non competitive recreational games”? I strongly believe that there should be. I think that there should be competitive recreational games and non competitive recreational games. If you are truly playing with your peers, meaning that the players are close in ability, then play games competitively. Play to win. But when there are mixed levels of players on the court, slow down your shots, hit the ball with the intent of extending the rally and not ending the point, hit the ball to all players on the court and don’t bang shots to the weaker player at every opportunity. In other words, play to extend the point and teach others to do so as well.

Play points or an entire game where you and your partner only go halfway to the NVZ line. You are now giving your opponents a 12 foot kitchen and you are in a position to work on resetting the ball into your opponent’s kitchen.

To the weaker players, hit the ball to the better players so you get longer rallies. It is a lot of fun to have extended points with longer rallies. You will get more exercise, different angles, and more fun all the while you are developing your placement and finesse.

For club play, be inclusive to all players on the court because they came to play.

Play a game like you are warming up and in warm up, the idea is not to win the warm up but keep the ball in play. You obviously should increase the pace and placement of your shots to challenge the level of your opponents.

When playing tournaments or matches that really matter to you, then hit all balls to the weaker player so you can win.

• Play a game where you reset the ball versus hit a winner.

• Challenge your opponents trying to get them to make an unforced error.

• Give your opponents a realistic chance of returning the ball.

• Hit the ball to everyone on the court.

• Control your pace to weaker players.

• Play points from the middle of the court to work on resetting the ball.