Pickleball Magazine 3-4 Courtesy of Pickleball Guru | Page 23

STACKING
REASON #2 – HIDE A WEAK BACKHAND
Another reason you often see stacking is to compen-
sate for a weakness such as a player’s backhand. In
this situation, you have the person with the strong
forehand on the left side of the court and the person
with the weak backhand on the right side of the court.
In this scenario, the person with the strong forehand
can take more shots, and the person with the back-
hand doesn’t have to cover the middle as much.
HOW TO STACK
Stacking can be tricky in terms of your positions on
the court. If you start in the wrong position in either
the serve or the return, you will lose the point. When
you’re serving on the right side of the court and want
to be on the left, have your partner stand to the right
of you. Once you’ve completed your serve, step to the
left side of the court and your partner will step into
the right side. The same thing applies to the left side
of the court. Your partner is to your left. You make the
serve, step to the right, and your partner stays on the
left side of the court.
REASON #3 – LEVERAGING PLAYER MOBILITY
Another scenario where you’ll see players use stacking
is to take advantage of a certain player’s mobility or lack
of mobility. An example would be if you have two right-
handed players, you would stack the quicker person on
the left. That way he or she can move to the back of the
court faster, allowing the person who’s not as mobile to
stay near the line.
So similarly, if you are returning on the left side of the
court and you want to get to the right side of the court,
you hit your return, hopefully deep, which gives you
enough time to come into the right side of the court while
your partner is sliding in from the left side up by the
kitchen line. And remember, you only stack when you’re
looking to move from a traditional position on the court. •
Rusty Howes is the Executive
Producer and creator of
Pickleball Channel. Rusty
worked for the likes of Warner
Bros. and Disney before
creating Pickleball Channel to
develop and provide fantastic, professional video
content for the pickleball community. He is deeply
involved in promoting the sport of pickleball at
home and across the country.
JULY/AUGUST 2018 |
MAGAZINE
21