PICKLEBALL INSTRUCTION
SENIOR
STRATEGIES
Against the Youth
BY STEVE PARANTO
I
have been playing this great game
of Pickleball for 42 years now. I
started playing competitive intramural
tournaments in college when I was 18
years old. So, now that I am a 60-yearold player, I have had the experience of
competing as a young player and now as
a senior. This experience has given me
a good insight on sound strategies for
senior players to use when playing with
and against today’s good young players.
In the Pacific Northwest we are very
fortunate to have many of the nation’s
top young male and female players. Most
of my playing time involves games with
and against these players. I have loved
mentoring many of them and it has been
a kick at my age to hang around and play
this sport with such great players.
These players have also taught me
shots that I never thought I would see on
a Pickleball court. I just love their energy
and optimism about life in general,
and I feel just by hanging around these
young players that I have gained a more
youthful perspective of life. I know for
sure that they definitely know how to
make me laugh and have a good time on
44
and off the court. If I only played with
fellow senior players, I would be missing
out on much of the enjoyment of this
sport. So, if you are a senior player and
you would like to mix it up a little more
on the pickleball court with today’s young
players, I highly recommend it. You will
probably find yourself being a mentor in
some way to a few of the young people
you play with too.
In this article I will share some of
the strategies that I recommend senior
players use when playing against, or even
with, those athletic young players. First
off, I want to make it clear that today’s
pickleball game is very athletic. Today’s
top young players have tremendous
speed, great jumping ability and
lightning-quick reflexes. This athletic
factor of today’s game is what clearly
gives the young players the advantage.
The strategies and tactics I am going to
give you in this article will help the senior
player take as much of the athleticism
out of the game as possible. In other
words, we don’t want the match to
mainly consist of which team can move
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the fastest, jump the highest or have the
quickest hands.
STRATEGY 1
Hit a 3rd shot dink on almost every
3rd shot. Most likely, if you hit a hard
3rd shot to young, fast players, the ball
will just come back faster and it may even
come back to a place on the court that
you are unable to get to. The teams that
are successful hitting hard 3rd shots are
almost always very quick players that
can get to the ball blocked onto the open
court.
STRATEGY 2
Now that you have hit a 3rd shot dink,
I want you to keep dinking!
STRATEGY 3
Not only do I want you to keep dinking,
but I want you to learn how to dink
shorter than you are used to dinking.
By dinking very short you have gained
a “blocker.” With this strategy you are
using the net to block the young players
from hitting the ball hard at you. If they
do hit hard at you, you only have to duck
because the ball will be going out.