Master the Middle: Pickleball Strategy for Attack & Defence

A crucial strategic element in pickleball involves dominating the middle of the court. This area is increasingly being utilised for both defensive neutralisation and offensive creation, giving players a significant advantage. This piece was originally published in the July issue of World Pickleball Magazine - free to download.

Here's how to master the middle of the court:

Why the Middle is Crucial

The middle of the court is gaining prominence in pickleball strategies. While wide balls can cause trouble due to newer paddles creating more spin and allowing for short angles or deep curling balls, hitting wide from the middle is much harder. This is because the angle is shorter, and you have to go over a higher part of the net.

Defensive Use of the Middle: Neutralising the Play

The middle of the court is primarily used defensively to neutralise your opponents' attacks and regain control of the point. This helps you transition from a defensive position back to a neutral one, rather than trying to jump directly from defence to offence, which is rarely successful.

• On Wide Dinks When in Trouble: If an opponent hits a ball wide, putting you in a difficult position, instead of trying to go wide back and giving them an opportunity to create, hit the ball to the middle. Your opponents are typically not in the middle, so they will have to move to hit that ball, giving you valuable time to get back into position and plan your next move.

• On Resets or Defensive Balls: If you pop a ball up, or need to reset the point, use the middle of the court to slow down the game. Avoid resetting forward where the kitchen is short or wide where you give opponents a big angle. Pros, such as Jdub and Dylan, have effectively used the middle to neutralise teams at the pro level.

• Forcing Opponent Creation: When you are pulled wide or pop a ball up, push it into the middle of the court. This forces your opponent to try and create offence from an area where they have less space and fewer angles, making it harder for them to be effective. Even tricky speed-ups become difficult to create from the middle when you've hit a neutral ball there.

  
  

Offensive Use of the Middle: Creating Pressure

The middle of the court is no longer a "dead area"; players are figuring out how to create offence from it. This relies on using combos—setting up an attack and then following it up.

To create pressure and offence from the middle when dinking, focus on four key concepts: deception, spin, location, and speed.

1. Deception: This is extremely important from the middle because it allows you to go anywhere. From the middle, you have less space to go crosscourt, but you gain two crosscourt options (left and right), allowing you to really stretch the court.

2. Aggressive Roll Dink as Key: The aggressive roll dink is the primary shot to create offence out of the middle. You can use this shot to dink to four different spots: wide to your opponent, to their inside foot, to the other opponent's inside foot, or to their outside. This forces two opponents to cover four spots, setting up "dead balls" that allow you to speed up.

3. Speed-Up Locations: Once you get those "dead balls" from your deceptive dinks, you can speed up the ball.

   • Through the Person in Front: Aim your speed-up directly at the opponent in front of you, particularly at their belly, especially if they are a lefty covering the middle. This is a great setup ball because it puts them off balance and often leads to an easy follow-up shot for you or your partner.

   • Middle to Middle (Most Dangerous Shot): This is considered the most dangerous shot out of the middle. Since most people tend to sit backhand, hitting a speed-up directly down the middle after using your deceptive dinks can catch them off guard.

     • After the Middle-to-Middle Speed-Up: After hitting this shot, immediately position yourself to sit backhand. Because the angle is so short from the middle, it's very difficult for either opponent to hit the ball behind you. They will typically hit it right back at you, allowing you to counter the next ball effectively. This is one of the most effective pulls from the middle.

4. Combos, Not Clean Winners: The goal of offence from the middle is not always to hit clean winners. Instead, it's about using aggressive dinks to set up balls that you can speed up, creating a one-two punch that results in an easy second ball for you to finish the point.

   
   

Important Considerations for Offensive Middle Play:

• While topspin works well for speed-ups, your dinks can use topspin, slice, or other techniques.

• Be cautious: Normal, sharp-angle speed-ups from the middle will likely go out, as the court angles do not support them. You need to be "sneaky" and rely on the middle-to-middle pull for maximum effectiveness.

So next time you are on court, remember this when you look to find that clever little angle - the middle solves the riddle!