Pickleball Magazine 3-3 Courtesy of Pickleball Tournaments | Page 28

PICKLEBALL INSTRUCTION
The
W s of
Successful Lobbing
BY STEVE PARANTO
When I think of a player who uses the lob most effectively, my good
friend Enrique Ruiz comes to mind. I’ve had the good fortune of playing
many games with Enrique, both recreationally and competitively, and
have observed and learned many of his secrets to successful lobbing. In
this article, I’d like to share seven Ws of effective lobbing.
1 Why I would want to use the lob?
A good player will use the lob as an offensive
weapon that’s difficult to run down or will only
allow for a weak smash or return.
2 Who are you playing?
One of the most important things about
successful lobbing is knowing what skills your
opponents have and how athletic they are. I
keep a mental list of players I’ll rarely, if ever,
lob. For example, if I were playing against a
team comprised of Wes Gabrielsen and Kurtis
Campbell, a top 5.0 team like this has too much
athleticism and the odds of being successful
with a lob would be very low. Even if I put up a
perfect lob against these players, they’d more
than likely jump and I would be in big trouble
with an attacking smash, or they’d run and
retrieve the lob from the baseline and get back
so quick I wouldn’t have gained any advantage.
On the other hand, if I’m playing against a
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