Guides · Strategy
Beginner pickleball games are not decided by good shots. They are decided by who gives away fewer points, who is standing in the right place, and who hits to the right spot on the court when they have no idea what else to do. That is good news, because all of those are decisions, not skills, and you can make better decisions in your second week. Here are the twelve that matter, in roughly the order they come up in a point.
You get one serve. A missed serve is a point given away with no rally. A serve that lands in the back third of the box, at any pace, forces a return from behind the baseline and starts the point even. A serve that lands short invites the receiver to step in, hit an aggressive return, and reach the line early. Pace is irrelevant at this level; depth is everything. The serving rules are worth knowing cold, mostly so you never lose a point to a foot fault or a serve on the kitchen line.
The two-bounce rule gives the returning team the net for free. Take it. Hit the return deep, ideally to the middle or to the weaker opponent, and walk straight to the kitchen line while it is in the air. Do not try to hit a winner on the return; a deep, slow ball is better than a fast one, because a slow ball gives you more time to get to the line. The most common beginner error on the return is hitting it and then standing still at the baseline to watch.
If this page had one line, it would be this one. The team at the line wins most rallies at every level. The team at the baseline is hitting up, and the team in between, in the transition zone, is hitting balls at their feet. Beginners lose because they either never come in, or come in halfway and stop. Either be at the line, or be on your way there behind a soft ball.
After the return, you and your partner are at the baseline and the opponents are at the net. A hard third shot at two ready players comes back at your feet. A soft third shot that lands in their kitchen cannot be volleyed and gives you time to move up. At beginner level your drops will be ugly, and that is fine; a bad drop that still lands in the kitchen is better than a good drive at someone’s paddle. The third-shot drop guide covers the technique.
In doubles, the ball between two players is the best shot in the game. The net is lowest there, so it is the safest ball. It makes the opponents decide who takes it, and beginners decide slowly or both at once. And a miss to either side of the middle is still in. Sidelines are for people whose control is good enough to miss by an inch; until then, the middle wins more points with less risk. “Down the middle solves the riddle” is a cliché because it is true.
Once everyone is at the line, height is the whole game. A ball that crosses the net below its height has to be hit up by the other side, which means they cannot attack it. A ball that sits up above net height gets attacked. So the goal of every shot at the line is not to win the point; it is to keep the ball low and wait for the other side to send one up. That is dinking, and you do not need beautiful technique to do it, just patience and a soft grip.
The opposite of rule 6, and the most common way beginners lose a dink rally: getting bored and driving a low ball. To hit a ball that is below the net over the net, you have to lift it, which means it arrives on the other side rising, at chest height, which is the easiest ball in pickleball to counter-attack. If the ball is below the net, dink it. If it is above the net, hit it. That single rule will win you more points than any shot you learn this year.
At the line, the paddle should be in front of your chest, face slightly open, at all times between shots. Beginners let it drop to their knees, and the speed-up arrives while it is down there. This is not a shot; it is a habit, and you can start it today.
A hard ball at shoulder height at the kitchen line is almost always going out. Beginners hit it because it is coming at them. Duck, or turn, and watch it land a foot behind the baseline. The reverse also applies: if your opponents are hitting hard from the baseline, keep your paddle up and let anything above your shoulder go. A useful rule of thumb: a ball at the line that is above your chest and still rising is out unless it has a lot of topspin.
“Mine.” “Yours.” “Bounce it.” “Out.” “Switch.” Doubles is a two-person sport and the most common beginner point loss is the ball going between two silent players who each thought the other had it. Agree before the game who takes the middle (usually the forehand in the middle: the left-side player for two right-handers). Say something on every ball that is remotely ambiguous. Loud teams beat quiet teams.
Imagine a rope 8 feet long between you and your partner. If one of you moves left, the other moves left. If one of you is pulled wide, the other shifts toward the middle to cover it. If one of you is stuck at the baseline, the other should not be alone at the line, because the gap between you is where the ball will go. Two players side by side at the line, moving as a pair, are very hard to beat at this level.
Every recreational doubles team has a weaker player, and most players have a weaker side, usually the backhand. When you have a choice and no better idea, hit there. It is not rude; it is the sport. In singles the equivalent is the open court: hit away from where they are, and make them run.
The free online pickleball game here is a decent place to practise decisions rather than technique, because the technique is handled for you. Play Normal difficulty and follow the list: serve with the aim keys toward the deep corner, let the return bounce, tap (not hold) the swing for a soft third, walk to the line with W, and then only hold the swing for a speed-up when the ball is high. Then play a game doing the opposite, driving everything, and compare scores. The how-to-play page has the controls; the AI on Hard will give you a realistic lesson on rule 7.
Keep going: the two shots that turn these habits into a 3.5 rating, the third-shot drop and the dink, and what the rating levels actually mean.