Pickleball Tutorials That Will Really Improve Your Game!

       We love Primetime Pickleball’s great pickleball tutorials! Here is our collection of the best fundamental tutorials to really improve your game. Check them out!

Top 9 Basic Pickleball Strategy Mistakes & How To Fix Them

Drifting onto the court after your serve sets you up miss a deep return. After your serve, step back a foot or two.

A deep shot will cause you to back up and have to hit a short volley and will keep you from being able to come to the net. Play at least a couple of feet behind the baseline. If you have to come up to hit the shot, then you are well on the way to the NVZ.

A dead dink is a dink without purpose; a dink that causes no movement from your opponent. Your dinks should force you opponent to have to move around and change his direction and depth.

Don’t be so easily pushed back off the net! When a shot forces you back, come back up! Volley deep dinks rather than backing up for the bounce.

Players who try to win with strong ground strokes from the baseline ( also known as “bangers”). Games are almost always won by the team that plays at the NVZ. Work instead on a 3rd shot drop to get up to the net.

This is when a player hits a strong 3rd shot and rushes the net without being aware of where the other team is set up. Be mindful of the position of your opponents and the consequence of your drive. Rather than drive and rush, drive and assess.

After hitting the ball, rather than watching what happens, focus on getting into the right position for the next shot. Close any wide gaps between you and your partner.

Even if you don’t have a great backhand, habitually cheating to the forehand side or “running around your backhand” in order to hit a forehand shot is going to hurt your play in the long run. You will be far better off taking your backhand shots and and improving your game by not always being out of position to favor your forehand.

In other words, trying to place shots too close to the line. Give yourself enough cushion on your shots, and you will win a lot more points.

The 3rd Shot (The Most Important & Most Difficult Shot In Pickleball!)

• Have a 3-4 (on a scale of 10) grip pressure on your paddle.
• Too stiff a grip will tend to make your return too fast, and thus attackable.

• You want a 3rd shot DROP, not a 3rd shot DRIVE!

• Make sure you are behind the baseline and set, ready for a deep return.
• If you DO hit an attackable (“garbage”) 3rd shot, “DON’T chase the garbage!” Don’t follow a bad 3rd shot into the net; stay back.

The #1 Beginner Dinking Mistake

• This means handle up, paddle head almost straight down towards the ground, with the face parallel to the net.
• This causes you to pop the ball up resulting in a smash.
• You also lose the ability to backspin the ball  and ball control is minimal.
• Instead the paddle should extend from your arm at almost a 90 degree angle, both on the forehand and backhand.

5 Keys To Successful Dinking

• Also known as the “handshake grip.” With the head of the paddle pointing away from you and the face straight up and down, shake hands with the grip. Your thumb and forefinger form a V over the top of the handle.

• You need to practice a consistent  stroke. Always contact the ball in front of your body with a short backswing, a smooth stoke from low to higher, with a compact follow through.

• Avoid keeping your legs straight and bending at the waist alone to strike a low ball.
• At the net, get low with your knees bent and use your feet to move into hitting position.

• Make sure your shots clear the net! Give yourself a good margin of error (a foot above is good). Don’t try to have your shot barely clear the net. It’s not about height; its about depth (which is key #5)!

• You want your dinks to fall short of your opponents feet in the kitchen. Dinks that go further than the kitchen can easily be volleyed back with pace.

Top 3 Tips For Strong Pickleball Volleys

• With your paddle in a continental grip, maintain a constant angle in your volley strokes.

• Your backstroke should never go behind your body and your followthrough should be more of a push than a swing with no more than a foot or two from backstroke to followthrough.

• Avoid contacting the ball too close to your body (jamming you) or too far in front of your body (causing the ball to pop up).
• The optimal range is from about a foot in front of you to perhaps two feet in from of you.

How To Beat Bangers

• Develop “soft hands” to slow the game down by taking the pace off a hard hit ball and dropping it in the opponent’s kitchen.
• Keep a stable and firm wrist with a relaxed grip to allow your paddle to absorb the pace of the ball.

How To Dominate The Net

• Hold your ground at the non-volley zone (NVZ). Stay right up at the NVZ line. (Being back even 6 inches or a foot off the line exposes significantly more court and angles to your opponents.)
• Being right at the NVZ gives you more opportunities to attack and to put constant pressure on your opponent.

Top 9 Doubles Pickleball Skills & Drills To Perfect Them

• Skill #1. Dinking and Dink Volleys.
• Skill #2. Attacking from the Non-Volley Zone (NVZ) line.
• Skill #3. Resetting and Blocking from the NVZ line.
• Skill #4. Baseline Skills (including flat drives, topspin dipping drives, slicing, and dropping).
• Skill #5. Transition Zone Skills (including drop volleys, drop half volleys, driving volleys, and driving, dropping, and rolling approach ground strokes).
• Skill #6. Serving.
• Skill #7. Returning.
• Skill #8. Lobs.
• Skill #9. Overheads.