Stacking Strategy: Part 1

For each rally in pickleball, there are two hits that must be hit by a specific player in a specific location on the court, the serve and return. After those balls are hit, players position themselves wherever they want on the court.

Stacking allows you to position yourself and your teammate on the court beyond the serve and return. What are some reasons teams might choose to stack?

1. To position strengths are where they want them (e.g. forehands in the middle or strong forehand in the middle)
2. To line up a preferred matchup across the net to put pressure on a particular opponent
3. To make it more difficult for opponents to target one player
4. One or both players feel more confident/consistent playing on one side

These choices can make marginal differences, but in close games, marginal advantages can make the difference between winning and losing.

Pancake stack

Marshall amp stacks

Reader: David, what was the point of those photos?

No Fun David: It's funny.

Reader:

How does stacking work?

If you are serving or receiving from your preferred side, you would play out the point the same way you normally would. You only need to do things differently when you are serving or receiving from the side of the court you don't prefer. I am a righthanded player. I have a strong forehand, so prefer to have my forehand in the middle. This allows me to cover more court because I can reach further with my forehand than with my backhand as well. If I have to serve or receive the ball from the right (even, deuce) side of the court, I hit my required shot from that position, but then I shift over to the left side of the court so my forehand is in the middle.

Like many strategies in pickleball, it is useful to break this concept into stacking when your team is serving and when your team is receiving. Let's start with stacking on the serve.

Service side stacking

Stacking on the serve is significantly easier than stacking when your team is receiving. The reason it is easier to stack when your team is that the player who is shifting from the serving position to their stacked position doesn't have as far to move (something like 4-10 feet) and they also have more time to get there. You have more time because your serve goes from baseline to baseline and the return will likely cover almost as much distance when it comes back. Diagram time! The green circle represents the person on each team who started the game as the even player (on the right side of the court). 

Diagram 1 shows the court positioning for teams when the even player is serving and receiving from the even side of the court. For the purpose of this article, the green players want to play on the even side and the purple players want to play on the odd side of the court. From the positioning in this diagram, you should also recognize that team 1, the team on the lower portion of the diagram, will be serving and team 2, the team at the top of the diagram, will be receiving. We will say this is the first serve of the game, so the score is 0-0-2 and all players are playing in their preferred positions.

Diagram 1: All players playing on preferred side

Let's say the teams play out that rally and Team 1 in the lower portion of the first diagram wins the point. The green player is required to serve from the odd side of the court now, but the green player wants to play on the even side. To accomplish this, they will stack both players on the odd side, then slide to their desired positions while the serve and return travel back and forth. There is a lot of time between the time the serve is hit and the return comes back because the ball generally travels virtually the whole length of the court twice. The distance the players have to move, is relatively short. That is why stacking on the serving side is relatively easy. See Diagram 2.

Diagram 2:
Players shift as shown after serve is hit to play out the point on their preferred sides

Any time the score is odd in this scenario, the players will be crowded on one side. In diagram 3, we see a stack when the score is odd, but the odd player (purple circle) is serving.

Diagram 3:
Odd player serving with odd score, both shift left into preferred positions

The non-serving partner can stand anywhere on the court. The positions depicted in the diagrams are standard stacked positions. It keeps the partner out of the way of the server, but close enough that s/he can quickly slide into their position after the serve is hit.

Stacking on the serve is low risk because you have so much time and short distance to cover in that time. I will often stack even with players who are not familiar with stacking because it doesn't take long to get the hang of it. If you have never tried stacking, start by stacking on the serve. You can stack on the serve, but still play normally when you team is receiving. This would be considered half stacking strategy because you are stacking when both players are not in their preferred position, but only for serves. We will talk about full stacking and 3/4 stacking in the next section.

One last note. You can start stacking at any time and you can stop stacking at any time. Whatever you choose to do, you must make sure you are serving and receiving from the correct position.

Receiving side stacking

Let's look at the stacked position for a receiving team. There are two way you can set up in a stacked position. Diagram 4 below shows what used to be the standard option for stacking on the receiving side. The arrows indicate the directions both players move to to get to their preferred positions to play out the point after the return is hit. Obviously this is a greater distance to cover than when the players are stacked on the serving side. The receiver's partner is positioned off the court on their preferred side in this scenario. The purple player is the odd side player, so their team must have an odd score. That player must hit the return from the even side of the court, but after that hit, the players will run to their preferred positions and play out the rest of the rally from their preferred positions.

Diagram 4: Receiving team stack option 1

There are a couple of drawbacks to this style of stacking.

1. It communicates your intention very clearly to the serving team that you are planning to stack and move. That information can be used against you.
2. If the serve causes trouble for the receiver, it can be particularly difficult for their partner to cover given their starting position, completely off the court on one side.

The only real advantage to this setup is that it's easier to remember you are stacking and need to run across the court to get to your stacked position after the serve return. Let's look at the other option for stacking on the receiving team.

Diagram 5 shows a stacking strategy has become more common. The difference here is where the receiver's partner sets up. The partner in this strategy sets up on the odd side of the court and then slides through the middle of the court to their preferred position rather than starting off the court on the opposite of their side.

Diagram 5: Receiving team stack option 2

The advantages of this option are that the players can opt to switch or to stay which leaves opponents less certain about where the players will be when they get the ball back. That makes it more difficult to target one player, and it also makes it more difficult to target one player's weakness. 

The positioning also allows the team to bail on their plan to switch if the serve does cause the receiver trouble, pulling them off the court or forcing them to hit a weak return.

Again, if one player on your team has more limited mobility, but you want to take advantage of a particular setup as often as you can, you might consider 3/4 stacking. To do that, you would stack no matter who is serving, but when your team is receiving, you would only stack when the mobile player is the receiver. The other player would most likely stack to the side as shown in stacking option 1 above. 

Communication

For this strategy to work, you need to be able to communicate with your partner. You can call out to your partner what you plan to do, but that also informs your opponents of your intention. The best way to communicate the play to your partner is if the person at the net makes the decision and communicates the choice with the server using hand signals behind their back.

The most common signals used to communicate a plan to stay or switch are a closed fist and an open palm, respectively (see illustrations below). After the net player throws a signal, the receiver should verbally indicated that s/he has seen the signal. I usually just call "Yup!" or "Got it!" to let my partner know I have seen the signal. The receiver might also say "No" if their partner made a choice they disagree with and then indicate yes when their partner signals one of the other options that they wanted. The stacking strategy is so common at the pro level, you can watch almost any pro-level game and see at least one team employing this strategy. Here are some screen shots from a couple of pro tour matches where players were using hand signals.

A closed fist is used in this womens doubles rally to indicate stay.

Close fist used to indicate stay

Partner joins her at the net from the side she hit the return

 

Open palm used to signal the switch in this mens doubles match.

Open palm signals switch.

Player at the net slides right and the server crosses behind to the odd side.

I know the hand signals being used are a little hard to see in the screen shots. But if you watch the videos, those are the signals the pros are using. Also notice that the receiver is still making it to the net before their opponents hit the third. This is important. You need to give yourself enough time. Hitting a deep return with some loft is important when you are not stacking, but it is critical if you are crossing the court to get to the NVZ.

Open palm indicates the switch. I remember by thinking we're letting go of the side we're on.

Closed palm indicates stay. Holding onto the side we're on.

Here's one more signal you can use. A fake switch, signaled by a bird mouth or puppet.

I really like the fake. To execute a fake, you begin to slide so your opponents think you are switching, but you stop and go back to your position. This can be a very effective trick play. It can lure opponents into trying to shoot for the outside lanes, which sometimes causes unforced errors as they try to hit hard fast drives into a narrow lane and sometimes, even if they don't hit the ball out or into the net, you can sometimes catch a nice volley at the net because you moved away from the side and then back. Faking is most effective if you have been switching. It can also be effective if one partner is being targeted. Eyes are drawn to movement. Lateral movement across the court draws your opponents' eyes to the person at the net, rather than the server running to the kitchen line. Give this a try even if you are not stacking. The ability to lure your opponents to hit to the player who is established at the net can be very effective.

Don't go too far when you fake. If you overcommit, you can get yourself in trouble. A quick hop in one direction and a hop back in the opposite direction will usually be sufficient to draw your opponents' attention, but not leave you over exposed. The receiving partner can also take a fake step or two toward the middle as if they are crossing to add to the illusion.

One more thing about signals. These signs are not written in stone. Some teams use different signals for a fake, and there is nothing from preventing you or your partner from making up your own if you don't like these for some reason. The important thing is that you and your partner are clear about the meaning of whatever signals you are using.

That's all for now, but we will delve deeper into stacking in part 2! What are some of the risks with stacking, things you need to be careful about for your team if you choose to stack, and things you might be able to exploit if your opponents are stacking. Stay tuned!

David