HIT THE MIDDLE ?
have had quite a few students ask me a lot about
I various strategies in doubles . Many of these questions concern where they should be hitting the ball . A lot of these players keep reading and hearing that a good strategy is to keep the ball in the middle of the court between their opposing players . Yes , this can be a good strategy against certain teams and it can also be the worst strategy against others . In this article I will explain when to use this strategy and when not to use the strategy of hitting to the middle .
Good Times to Hit to the Middle
1 . You are playing against two lower level players that have not quite gotten the hang of communicating to each other . Often a team like this will get confused about who should hit the ball that is right in between both of them .
2 . You are playing against two players that are of equal ability . This could even be a team with two very good players . It probably won ’ t happen very often but even the higher level teams can have communication skills and lose a point just because they were not sure which player was going to hit it . ( Don ’ t overuse hitting to the middle with a good team .) Keep a team like this moving around and don ’ t keep hitting in the same spot over and over .
3 . An occasional hard third shot down the middle rather than a dink can be effective .
4 . You have created a gap between your opponents and you see an opportunity to hit a little rolling shot between them . This probably happened because you were moving the ball around during a good dink rally .
5 . You are playing against a right-handed player and a left-handed player and they are positioned on the court so that both of their backhands are in the middle . Not always , but usually the backhand will be weaker with more errors .
6 . Nothing wrong with hitting third shot dinks to the middle with most teams .
When Not to Hit to the Middle
Now there won ’ t be as many reasons not to hit the middle , but these situations will occur more often . 1 . If you are playing against a team that has one player who is stronger than the other player . Most of the time in recreational pickleball and even tournament play there will be a player on the other side of the net who is the strongest player . When you are playing a team like this , hitting the middle can be the worst possible strategy . When you hit to the middle with a team like this , you are basically just hitting the ball to the best player every time .
2 . Playing mixed doubles . I don ’ t want to be sexist , but generally in mixed doubles the male player is the stronger player . Now don ’ t get mad at me ! I did say generally . There are many times where the female is the stronger player , but hitting to the middle usually means you are just hitting the ball to the male player .
3 . You are playing against a right-handed and lefthanded player who are stacking with both forehands in the middle ( even against two even-skilled players ). You are probably just hitting to the strength of this team .
4 . Be careful not to dink a ball a little deep in the kitchen area because the forehand player will have more options with this shot and possibly can even use deception when getting to hit this ball . If you let a dink go too far down the middle , the forehand player will just swoop in and pop the ball at you .
Where Should I Hit the Ball ?
Against these teams where middle is not your best choice you should be dinking to both edges of the kitchen . If you have good control of your dinks the best places to hit the dink will be a foot or more inside the kitchen line and also within four feet of each sideline . Don ’ t play it too close to the sideline because you don ’ t want to hit wide . Playing these edges will make it difficult for the stronger player on the other side of the net to take control of the court . With this strategy and placement you will be hitting to the weaker player and sometimes hitting behind the stronger player . At least you will be making the stronger player move to get to the ball . If you ever get a chance to watch strong mixed doubles male players like Scott Moore or Glen Peterson , pay attention ! These guys are trying to hit every third , fourth and fifth shot of the rally . Usually for these guys the point has already been won by this time or they are dictating the play of the game . They are the best example of when , playing mixed doubles , the middle would be a bad strategy . If you hit the middle when playing mixed against them , you just hit the ball to the best player and he didn ’ t even need to move much to get to the ball . •
DECEMBER 2016 | MAGAZINE 31