Pickleball 101 and Beyond: The Return

We covered the serve in our first Pickleball 101 and Beyond article: The Serve. Among a group of friends I play with, when someone misses their serve we tease them by saying "Serves aren't important." You can't score if you don't get your serve in. Serves are important. However, if you do not successfully get the return back to your opponents when you are receiving, they get a point. A strong case can be made that it missing the return of serve is more detrimental than missing a serve for that reason.

It is also interesting to me that there seems to be a mountain of information and videos available on the serve (the first shot in the rally) and the third shot in the rally, but comparatively little on the second shot.

To put yourself in the best position to win the rally and get the serve back, there are four components

1. Positioning before the serve
2. Set up to receive the ball
3. The hit
4. Get to the kitchen (ideally, before your opponents hit the ball back)

We will go over each of these components separately. First, let's talk about the rule requirements.

Rules of the return

The served ball must bounce before you hit it. The serve must bounce in the service box. If the serve bounces outside the service box, congratulations, you got a free pass and your opponents lost a serve. Assuming the serve was good, your return must clear the net and it must bounce before the serving team hits it. The return can bounce anywhere on the court on the serving team's side. To clear up some common misconceptions:

• The return does not have to clear the kitchen line.
• The return does not have to bounce on a particular side of the center line.

At minimum, your return needs to be over the net and somewhere in your opponents' court. The rules do not require you to go anywhere.  However, as we will discuss, the return of serve is where strategy really begins to take hold in a rally. The receiving team has a strategic advantage over the serving team. Not executing your return and the preparation for the fourth shot will give the serving team an advantage and possibly cost your team a point. From a scoring perspective, the receiving team is on defense because all they can do is try to prevent the serving team from scoring. But from a strategic perspective, the receiving team has an offensive advantage, if you set yourself up properly by executing a quality return!

For anyone who is interested, here is a link to the pro match I reference in images below. Watch the first few shots a few times. If you are watching on a computer, you can use the space bar to pause and the arrow key to go backward and forward a few seconds. You can also click on the cog wheel in the lower right hand corner and adjust the playback speed.

Positioning before the serve

Before the server hits the serve to you, you have to figure out where and how to stand. The rules do not specify where you must stand, but you know the serve has to bounce in service box that is in the diagonally opposite corner. Unlike the service box in tennis that is near the net, the service box in pickleball extends from the end of the kitchen line (note: the serve must clear the kitchen or it is a fault) all the way to the baseline.

Depth

It is always preferable to move forward when hitting than to be moving backward. This is a key point. *If you are back-peddling to receive the serve, you were standing too close to the baseline.* How far back may depend on your opponent. If your opponent does not know that it is to their advantage to hit a deep serve and their serves are routinely shallow, there is no reason to stand five feet off the baseline. But advanced players who are competing against other advanced players stay well back from the baseline. Take a look at this image from an APP pro match. Note how far back the receiver is standing off the baseline. He is backed up close enough that he could touch the wall behind him. My guess is as far as 6 feet behind the baseline. 

As Sun Tzu said, "Know your enemy". This is one thing to note when you are scouting opponents before a match. If you don't have the opportunity to scout them, you will have to figure it out in real time. In any case, set yourself up to move forward to receive the serve.

Take a look at where the serve bounced in that rally. That ball looks to have bounced about a foot inside the baseline. If the receiver was standing close to the baseline, the ball would be on him before he had time to swing.

Pros serve deep 9 times out of 10. This is why pro level receivers set themselves up well behind the baseline.

Lateral positioning

While it can be tempting to crowd one side to protect your weaker side (typically a backhand) doing this to the extreme can be a tell; "please don't hit it to my stinky backhand!" It also means that you are well away from one side of the service box and chasing a ball down the line could cause trouble for you if you have to lurch and stretch to put a paddle on it. If you are in the habit of favoring one side I would recommend...

1. Try to be a little subtle about it so it doesn't appear like you are trying to avoid any possibility at all for the server to hit your backhand (or forehand if you feel your backhand is the weaker side).
2. Work to improve your weakness. Don't neglect your backhand!

If you look back at the image from the pro match above, you might note that the receiver is standing toward the corner of the service area. At that level, he has to cover serves that cut to the outside lane. Standing further toward the middle of the court would leave too much real estate on that outside line. He is essentially squarely in the middle of where the serves could potentially go. Again, know your opponent. If they are not capable of cutting serves to those far outside lines in the service box, there is no need to set up to receive them there. If the server can serve to that area, you must position yourself to be able to cover that area.

Here is the same photo with lines indicating the potential angle range for the server. Notice that the receiver is positioned in the middle.

Set up to receive the ball

The next thing the receiver needs to do is move to the ball. As soon as the serve is hit, you can begin to anticipate the trajectory and move your feet to get behind the ball. Again, look at the image of the player receiving the serve.

The receiver has shifted slightly to his left so his contact point will be comfortably on his forehand side. He will make contact in front of his body. Here are the steps for setting up a quality return stroke.

1. Determine if you will receive the shot with a forehand or backhand.
2. Move your feet to position your body so you are behind the ball and ready to receive the ball behind the bounce.
3. Choose a target on the opposite court.
4. Make contact out front.
5. Follow through along the path where you are sending the ball.

I won't get into all the technical body mechanics of a hit on this article, but if you want to look up information on how to control your return, just search for pickleball ground strokes on YouTube. Tyson McGuffin recently produced a series of videos on groundstrokes.

I will briefly talk about the stance as you set up to receive the ball because this is fundamental and it involves your feet. You can't position yourself to hit the ball without some idea of how your feet need to be oriented. Let's get a couple of definitions.

• Open stance: shoulders are facing the net, toes are pointing toward the net
• Closed stance: shoulders and toes are perpendicular to the net.

The receiver in the pro match above has positioned himself in a mostly open stance. Having a closed stance allows you to hit a more powerful shot because you can turn through your stroke, which multiplies the speed of your swing. If that is true, why would a pro player opt for a more open stance when he is setting up for the return?

The hit

Sending a fast powerful ball to the receiving team is less important than sending the ball deep and giving yourself time to get to the kitchen. This is worth repeating. Sending a fast powerful ball to the receiving team is less important than sending the ball deep and giving yourself time to get to the kitchen. Your return does not necessarily need to be super slow, but the advantage of keeping your opponents back at the baseline and getting yourself established at the net outweighs the likelihood that you will hit a winner on your return.

Take a look at where the receiver in the pro match sends his ball.

The serving team is making contact on the third shot from behind the baseline. The receiver is a couple of steps off the kitchen line and he will reach it before the ball crosses the net.

A couple of things to note. Sending the ball deep does not guarantee you more time to get to the net. Sending a ball deep with loft will give you more time than a deep ball that is hit hard. The harder, faster, and lower your ball is, the less time you will have to gain the net and the sooner the ball will be back to you.

Many pros also hit their return with backspin. Backspin keeps the ball aloft for longer than a ball hit to the same depth in the court with topspin or hit flat with no spin. That doesn't mean you need to hit the same shot every time, but it is a common choice among players who have developed a backspin slice.

We have covered depth and speed. What about the lateral choice?

Nearly all coaches agree that a deep return that gives you time to get to the net is ideal. But there seems to be two schools of thought with regard to selecting a lateral target. Some coaches say hit to the center court and some say pick a side.

Arguments for hitting to the middle

• Biggest margin for error. You are less likely to hit a ball wide. You have 10 feet of forgiveness on either side.
• Down the middle can cause confusion between your opponents. They may both think the other partner is going to hit it. Sometimes that confusion can result in a weak shot, sometimes it can result in no one hitting the ball back at all.

Arguments for hitting to one of the sides

• Hitting to the middle makes it easy for the strongest player in the strongest hitting position to return the ball.
• Hitting to a specific player allows you to target the weaker player and possibly to the weaker player's weakness
• Advanced teams will have a clear heuristic for who takes balls in the middle. It is unlikely that a middle ball will cause confusion.

I say, don't commit yourself to either camp dogmatically. Experiment and figure out what works and what does not. Here are my responses to their arguments.

>>Biggest margin for error...

You should not need 10 feet of margin to hit the ball inside the court. Even a beginner should be capable of hitting to one side or the other of the middle line and hit well within the court on a relatively consistent basis.

>>Down the middle can cause confusion... /and ...no it doesn't

I have seen both scenarios play out in rec games, in tournament play, and in pro matches. It is true that more advanced players are more likely to communicate with each other, but it happens often enough that I would argue, hitting a ball to the middle can be a good tactic. 

Looking back at the pro match example, you will notice that the team on the near side is taking the ball in the middle. The player with the forehand ends up taking that ball, but the player on the right stays back too because it was probably not crystal clear who was going to end up taking it. As you play against higher level players, you will see the partner of the player who hits the third shot advance up the court through the transition zone so they are ready to pounce on any ball that floats a little high. Because there was a doubt about who was going to take the third, both players remained on the baseline. If you watch the progression of the point, the 4th shot is sent to the left side of the court and it is clear that the player on the left is going to have to take the 5th. That clarity (and the quality drop sent by the player on the left) allowed the player on the right to advance to the kitchen line into an offensive position that forces the receiving team to hit an unattackable ball. If they hit a high ball, even with that one player at the net, he's going to crush it. The longer you can keep your opponents back off the kitchen line, the longer you keep your advantage and the less offensive they can be.

>>Hit to the weaker player/weakness

While I don't disagree that this can be an effective strategy, once again, if you do the same thing constantly, smart opponents will figure out how to shake things up. The rules do not specify that one player has to hit the ball or stay on one side or the other after the serve and the return. Teams can decide to stack or switch or whatever they want after the return, and they have a decent amount of time to execute because your ball is likely traveling from your baseline to somewhere near their baseline.

My take on where to hit your deep return

Try different things and return to the things that work.

Do you have a dominant opponent who is poaching balls from his partner's side of the court? Figure out how far over they are willing to cross the center line to hit that ball. If the dominant player is willing to cross far over that center line, they have opened up a lot of court behind them. Guess where your next ball should go. If they grab that ball and turn to run back to their own side, you might hit behind them in the opposite direction of their momentum. If you have opponents who do get confused about the middle, hit there fore a while and see if they can figure it out.

I do not recommend hitting shallow returns if you can help it. If you do hit a shallow ball, keep it low. If you bring your opponents to the net with a slow high ball, they can't hit it until it bounces, but if they wait for it to rise and it bounces above the net, your opponents are in a better position to attack a ball and you have handed them a ball they can attack.

If you have opponents with limited mobility, hitting short returns can be effective, but DON'T take advantage of people with limited mobility in rec games. Tournaments and even in league (I would argue to a lesser degree than tournaments), that is competitive play. It's okay to be competitive in rec games, but don't take advantage of someone's physical limitations. That is not good sportsmanship, and if you make a habit of it, you will be establishing bad habits for playing against players with better mobility.

To summarize, different teams will have different strengths and weaknesses. Smart teams will adapt. You may need to try different strategies to win and you may need to change your strategies depending on how quickly your opponents adapt.

You hit your deep return nice and slow to give yourself time. Now what?

Get to the kitchen

The action you take after you hit the return really determines what will happen with your opponent's third shot. You want to be at the net and established, ideally by the time your opponents make contact with the ball to hit their third shot. Why?

• Being at the kitchen line allows you to hit down on high balls
• Being at the kitchen line gives you the widest margin for error left and right
• Being at the kitchen line allows you to get to short balls and spillovers
• Being at the kitchen line puts pressure on your opponents and makes their third more difficult
• Not being at the kitchen exposes your feet

Back to our pro game, you can seen that by the time the serving team is hitting the third, the receiver is setting up at the net. This is the ideal for the receiving team. Both players on the serving team are back behind the baseline. Both of the receiving team players are at the net. It is now for the serving team to fight their way into the point by neutralizing the receiving team's positional advantage (we will cover some highlights on 3rd shot strategies in the third installment of the Pickleball 101 and Beyond Series). 

Is there any time you should not get to the kitchen? The only exception I can think of is if you are playing against chronic lobbers who are causing trouble hitting balls to the baseline behind you consistently. See this article for information on safely chasing down lobs.

Even against lobbers, most of them are going to hit some shorter lobs that you would be better off taking out of the air closer to the kitchen line if you can. Hitting volleys at the kitchen line is always better than hitting groundstrokes (hitting a ball off the bounce) from the back court.

Having trouble getting there?

Practice this skill. Have a partner hit you a serve, hit your return deep and high and try to get to the net before they catch the ball. Your practice partner doesn't need to hit the third, at least not at first.

If you are still having trouble, see if you can hit the ball with more loft. The higher your return, the more time you will have to get to the net.

Are you hitting the ball and standing back to watch it and see if it lands in? Don't wait for your ball to bounce before you run. Hit the ball and run fast to the line and stop at the line.

I have tried those things and I'm just not quick enough. Now what?

Fair enough. Get as far as you can, as quickly as you can and then split step before the ball is heading back in your direction. Mind where your opponents are and send back a ball they can't attack so you can get yourself the rest of the way to the kitchen line. If you can't get all the way there on the 2nd shot, you should be able to get there by the 4th.

I hope this has been helpful. Comment, share, subscribe. If you have questions or ideas for future topics, let me know too! Thanks for stopping by the No Fun Zone.

No Fun David