From Tennis to Pickleball

Because tennis players know their way around the court, their skills in some ways give them a leg up in terms of gaining mastery of pickleball. Let’s look at the shots that cross over between the two sports.

• Groundstrokes: More or less the same.
• Return of serve: More or less the same.
• Serve: A pickleball serve is essentially a groundstroke from the hand or off the bounce. It’s like feeding the ball in tennis.
• Chip or slice volley: The motion is the same but is more often used as a drop shot for pickleball.
• Lob: Although it’s the same motion as in tennis, the lob is used less often in pickleball if it’s windy.
• Overhead: It’s same motion as tennis, but it is harder to put away an overhead with a pickleball because it flies more slowly through the air.

Although tennis players are familiar with most of the strokes used on the pickleball court, there are some unique shots to learn.

• Topspin volley: Rolling volleys, or applying topspin to volleys, has become the standard in pickleball, especially at the intermediate and higher levels. This is a more offensive tactic.

• Dink: A dink may be one of the easiest shots to hit, but some tennis players find impatience creeps in after only a few dinks. Experienced pickleball players have the patience and diligence to maintain composure until an attackable shot is produced. Too often tennis players become impatient after a couple of dink exchanges and end up attacking shots that are not attackable. Getting comfortable with hitting multiple dinks seems to be one of the biggest adjustments that tennis players have to make. We go more in-depth in our article on How to Improve Your Dink Shots.

The consensus is that the length of your swing should often relate to your proximity to the net. The closer you are to the kitchen, the shorter the swing, and the farther away from the kitchen, the longer the swing path can be. Although the thought process is similar both sports, tennis players are used to creating a longer swing due to the larger court, longer racquet and faster, heavier ball. In pickleball, using a shorter backswing and follow through can still produce lots of pace.

Traditionally, tennis players are taught to hit shots from a closed stance, and modern instruction advocates hitting from both an open and closed position.

In pickleball, especially near the NVZ, or non-volley zone also known as the kitchen, it’s ideal to maintain an open stance whenever possible. The main reason is that the hands are quicker than the feet in most circumstances. When hitting in closed stance near the kitchen, it requires either stepping back from the NVZ line giving away real estate or stepping forward into the kitchen, which gives away the point. As a result shuffling your feet and/or split stepping without having to cross one foot over the other is ideal in pickleball.

The rules of pickleball state that the serving team or player cannot hit an airborne shot until the second shot bounces (when the return lands on the service side of the court). This rule makes it easy to spot tennis players who are new to pickleball, and most of the challenge relates to the server or serving team. For tennis players, especially in doubles, the instinct is to serve and volley and/or for their partner to poach off the return. The serving team must learn to resist the temptation to hit the return out of the air otherwise points in pickleball are forfeited. Unlike tennis, in doubles pickleball, it’s typical for for the serving team to play two back rather than one on the baseline and the other up at net.

Experience in tennis gives you many tools that make it easier to get into the rhythm of playing pickleball. Adding these pickleball-specific skills and tactics to your repertoire of shots will boost your enjoyment of pickleball and your pickleball IQ. Here are some parting words of encouragement:

• Construct and end points via approaching the kitchen rather than grinding from the baseline.
• Increase your rally tolerance, especially when it comes to long dink rallies (patience and diligence).
• Wait for the attackable ball (don’t go on the offense too early).
• Get comfortable with rolling or applying topspin to your volleys instead of always relying on slice or backspin.
• Use an open stance near the NVZ and avoid moving laterally by crossing your feet except in rare circumstances.

Learn More

Winning Pickleball with the Third Shot Drop
The Most Important Shot in Pickleball
How to Defend Body Shots with the Backhand Volley