Pickleball Magazine 3-1 | Page 63

PICKLEBALL INSTRUCTION INTERMEDIATE QUICK TIP Hitting to Your Opponent’s Feet—Be Careful! By Steve Paranto Y ou commonly hear instructors telling students to use the strategy of hitting to their opponents’ feet. In most cases, this is sound advice, but there’s a time when this strategy can backfire. The situation I’m referring to is when all four players are at the kitchen line dinking. If you’re playing against a good team who understands the advantage of being as close to the kitchen line as possible, be very careful about landing a dink shot near their feet. A ball that’s dinked near the kitchen line is where a highly skilled player can reach out and pop a volley at you—a return that will be difficult for you to handle. I’d rather have my students dink the ball well short of the kitchen line so the opponent will either be challenged by hitting a very low volley or forced to hit the ball after it has bounced, with the net in the way of an attackable ball. • My opponent hit the ball well short of the kitchen line, so I’m forced to either hit a very low volley or a ball that has first bounced, with the net in the way of hitting an attackable ball. My opponent attempted to hit the ball near the kitchen line, but now I have an attackable ball to volley. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 | MAGAZINE 61