Doubles can be played with partners aligning themselves to play a specific side of the court by a strategy named stacking.

Each team decides at the start of a game on who will be the first server. That player will always be hitting the serve from the right side when the score is even and from the left side when the score is odd. Additionally, this player will always be hitting the return of serve from the right side when their team has an even number of points and from the left side when they have an odd number of points. In tournaments, the player starting to serve wears a colored band to identify that they are the first server.

As you start playing pickleball, it is normal for you to play from both sides of the court. The rules force each player to serve and receive from the right side of the court and the left side of the court depending on your team’s score.

From the traditional starting positions, teams can move and align themselves to better suit their skills and strategies.

Stacking is a strategy when players on a team move from the traditional positioning to place their strengths in the middle of the court where more balls are hit. Generally, this is done to position the team to have the player with a dominant forehand in the middle of the court for all points or to position a righty / lefty team to have both forehands in the middle. More balls will be hit down the middle of the court and having the player’s forehands play these shots is more effective.

There are no rules as to where the receiver’s partner must stand. This allows the receiving team to have the returner’s partner stand in a location near the side of the court that they strategically have planned. Generally, the stronger right handed player with a strong forehand will want to get to the left side of their court thus placing their forehand to cover the middle of the court.

The rules in pickleball define:

• Which player on a team must serve.

• Which player on a team must hit the return of serve.

• Which side of the court that the serve must be hit from.

The advantages of stacking are:

• To place a stronger player with their forehand to cover shots hit in the middle of the court. This can greatly assist in poaching as most players are stronger with their forehands.

• To position a righty / lefty team to have both forehands play balls hit to the middle of the court versus having both backhands covering middle.

• To position a team to have a particular alignment so dink rallies from the NVZ line are matched up the way you want them to be. Some players prefer straight ahead dinks while others prefer crosscourt dinking.

• To make it more difficult for your opponents to attack a particular weakness.

Positioning when Serving with a righty / lefty team

The positioning for your strategy of aligning with the forehands down the middle with a lefty, have the lefty serve first.

Or have the righty serve first and move over to the left side after the serve is hit.

When the lefty is serving from the left side, the partner stands to the left giving the player enough room and after the serve is hit, that player shifts over to the right side of the court.

When the righty is serving from the right side of the court, their partner stands to the right side of the server and the server moves over to the left side of the court after the serve is hit.

Positioning when Returning the Serve with a righty / lefty team

The positioning for your strategy of aligning both forehands down the middle with a lefty, when the lefty is returning on the even side of the court, play the traditional formation and both forehands will be to the middle of your court.

When the lefty is returning the serve from the odd side of the court, hit the return, preferably higher and deeper, and run across the court to the even side of the NVZ line.The partner stands off the court on the odd side or can stand at the NVZ line of the even side and move over to the left after the return is hit. Your strategy is to get both forehands down the middle of the court as the serving team is hitting the third shot.

When the right handed player is returning the serve from the even side, the lefty will want to get to the NVZ line on the even side of the court after the return is hit. The lefty can stand at the NVZ line on the odd side and move over or stand off the court on the even side of the court and move to the NVZ line after the return is hit. Standing on the court is preferred because it allows your team to give signals to stay or cross over which can distract the serving team as they hit the third shot of the point.

When the right handed player is returning the serve from the odd side, play the traditional formation and move straight up to the NVZ line after the return is hit.

When you are in the formation that requires the player hitting the return of serve and moving diagonally across the court to the NVZ line and it seems too far to go, then the team can do a “Half-Stack”. In this strategy, you are moving to stack only when you are the serving team. When you are returning the serve, hit the return and move straight up which will place both backhands down the middle of the court half of the time.

Positioning when the Serving team are both right handed players

If you want the stronger player to have their forehand down the middle, align yourselves as stated above. The stronger player moves to get to the left side of the court so their forehand is positioned to be in the middle of the court.

Positioning when the Receiving team are both right handed players

When the team wants Player A to have their forehand down the middle and that player is the first server, Player A must hit the return and move cross court and up to the NVZ line after hitting the return. Hitting the ball higher and deeper gives you more time.

• Place forehands down the middle when playing with lefty.

• Position stronger player’s forehand down the middle.

• Position to match up the dinking formations (Straight ahead or cross court)

• To change the match ups in the middle of a game.

• To help cover a player’s weakness.