Start your contact just below the ball and come up through it on contact. Don’ t break your wrist— this is a stable, consistent shot driven by pushing through the ball with the whole unit: shoulder, arm, paddle all moving together. Your elbow tucks close to your left hip as you rotate, and the paddle sweeps forward and slightly up.
After contact, let the arm rotate naturally back to ready.
This works one-handed or two-handed. I hit it with both depending on the ball.
HOW MUCH SWING? MATCH THE BALL.
Here’ s the part that separates people who understand this shot from people who just know the mechanics.
• Fast, low ball: Compact swing, use their pace. Just brush up and redirect. Lift slightly to clear the net.
• Harder and faster: Even less swing, more contactonly. The pace is already there. Your job is just to put topspin on it and aim.
• Higher and slower: Bigger swing, more body rotation. Wrap through it. You have to generate your own pace, and you can afford to do it.
Timing matters as much as technique. When the ball is fast, shorten everything. When it’ s slow, let it come and drive through it.
Use their pace when they give it to you. Create your own when they don’ t. The swing adjusts to the ball.
OFF THE BOUNCE
Sometimes the fourth shot isn’ t a volley— the third shot drops shallow, lands in the kitchen, and you can’ t take it out of the air comfortably. Let it drop. The same principles apply, with two adjustments: footwork and timing.
First, your footwork. It’ s a drop step. Step back to roughly a 45-degree angle. On the forehand, drop your right foot back; if you need to go farther, drop the right foot back and shuffle or slide the left foot with you. The whole point is to keep the ball in front of you and load on your back foot so you can transfer energy into the shot.
If you’ re late, you end up flat-footed or on your heels and you’ ll lift the ball. Get behind the ball before it bounces, not as it’ s bouncing— beat the ball to its spot so you can stay athletic and drive through it.
Clear a little space as the ball comes. Keep your elbow off your ribs— if the ball gets too close to your body, your elbow and arm jam in and the swing collapses. You want a little distance from your body so the arm can swing freely into the shot.
Second, timing off the bounce. Let the ball rise. Hit it at its peak, or ever so slightly on the way down. Don’ t hit it on the way up— you’ ll have no control. Balls are almost always easier to hit at the peak of the bounce.
Then swing up through it, similarly to how you would out of the air, with one big addition: more of your legs. The ball has bounced and slowed down, so you have to generate some pace with your whole body— driving up from the ground through the shot. Out of the air, the ball is coming faster, and you can redirect that energy with a more compact swing. Off the bounce, that energy is gone, and your legs and body have to put it back.
Beat the bounce, hit at the peak.
YOUR ADVANTAGE, YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
Here’ s the thing I want you to walk away from this article knowing. The returning team has the advantage in pickleball. The rules of the game hand it to them. If you return deep, get to the kitchen, and hit a fourth shot that applies real pressure, you limit how many points the serving team can score against you. You put them in a position where they must be nearly perfect to win the point.
That is your defense. That is also, quietly, your offense— because every point they don’ t score is a point you get to play for on your own serve.
Most players at the 3.5 and 4.0 level don’ t use this advantage. They return short. They don’ t get all the way in. They hit a soft punch volley that the serving team eats up. Then they wonder why they keep losing close matches.
If you take one thing from this article, take this: The fourth shot is where you decide whether your advantage as the returner means anything.
The fourth shot matters. It matters in every game I play, every level I watch, and every camp and lesson I coach. Drill it. Film yourself doing it. Ask someone who coaches the shot to watch you do it.
Build it into a habit and it will quietly carry you through the matches that come down to one or two points— which, if you’ ve done your job as the returner, is exactly the kind of match you should be winning. See you on the court. •
Kyle McMakin, aka The Pickleball Cowboy, is a touring pickleball professional, former Division I tennis player( UC Davis) and head pro for LevelUp Pickleball Camps. He is a two-time Triple Crown winner and a 6.0 DUPR-rated player in doubles and singles.
MAY / JUNE 2026 | MAGAZINE 21