Guides · Strategy
A banger is a player who drives nearly every ball as hard as possible, usually flat and usually at you. At 2.5 and 3.0 they win a lot, because most people at that level cannot handle pace and panic into swinging back. At 3.5 and above they win much less, because players there have learned the handful of habits below. None of them require hitting harder. The whole point is that you do not need to.
Pace creates errors in three ways. It gives you less time to prepare, so you hit late. It makes you tense, so your grip tightens and the ball flies. And it tempts you to swing back just as hard, which is the lowest-percentage shot available. A banger does not need to hit winners; they need you to make one of those three mistakes before they miss. Beating them is about removing those mistakes, not out-hitting them.
This is the single biggest fix. At the kitchen line, hold the paddle in front of your chest, face slightly open, elbow relaxed, before every ball. Against a hard drive you do not have time to bring the paddle up from your knees. With it already up, most drives at your body are simply blocked because the paddle is in the way. A lot of the “pace” problem is really a ready-position problem.
When a hard ball comes at you, the answer is a block: firm wrist, loose grip, no backswing, paddle face angled so the ball rebounds softly. You are using their pace, not adding your own. A good block takes the speed off the ball and lands it short, ideally in the kitchen, which forces the banger to hit up. Swinging at a hard ball returns it harder and higher, and the banger lives on high balls.
Grip pressure matters more than technique here. On a scale of 1 to 10, hold the paddle at about a 3 when blocking. Tight grips send the ball long; loose ones absorb it.
Bangers hit a lot of balls out. A flat drive at shoulder height or above, still rising as it reaches you at the kitchen line, is almost always going to land beyond the baseline. The instinct is to hit it because it is coming at you. Don’t. Move your paddle and your head out of the way, turn sideways if you must, and watch it land long. Every out ball you let go is a free point; every one you hit is a chance for you to make the error instead.
A workable rule: at the line, if a drive is above your chest and rising, let it go. If it is at your waist or below, block it. The exception is heavy topspin, which dips late; you learn to spot it after a few sessions against the same player.
Bangers are most dangerous when you are in the transition zone or at the baseline, because their drives land at your feet and you have to hit up. From the kitchen line, the same drive has to travel over the net and arrive at chest height, where you can block it. The first rule of beginner strategy applies twice over: get to the line and stay there.
A banger wants a short ball they can step into. Deep serves and deep returns make them hit from the baseline, where a drive has to be lifted over the net and is much easier to block. The serve and return guide covers depth in detail.
When you are serving, the banger will be at the kitchen line waiting for your third ball. If you drive it, you are playing their game at their range. A soft third-shot drop into the kitchen forces them to hit a low ball up. Bangers hate hitting up, because a low ball cannot be banged; they have to be patient or drive it into the net. Many do the latter.
This is how you actually win the rallies. A banger can only bang a ball that is above the net. Keep every shot low, dinks into the kitchen, drops at their feet, and they have nothing to hit hard. They will either try to drive a low ball, which usually goes into the net or rises to a blockable height, or they will dink, which is not their game. The dinking guide covers keeping the ball down.
Bangers generate pace with a big forehand. Low balls to the feet and balls to the backhand take that away. A banger reaching for a low backhand either pushes it softly, which you can attack, or swings anyway and misses.
Keep a mental count of how many points the banger wins with winners and how many they lose with errors. Against a disciplined blocker, most bangers lose more points than they win. Knowing that makes it much easier not to panic and start swinging back.
The free online pickleball game here lets you build a banger to play against: on the build screen, choose the “Banger” preset for your opponent so their Power stat is high, then play at the kitchen line tapping only. You will see drives above your chest fly long if you let them, and low taps into the kitchen force the AI to lift. Then switch roles and bang against a Touch opponent to feel how quickly soft blocks turn pace into errors. The how-to-play page has the controls.
Keep going: the reset is the defensive shot that turns a banger’s pace into a soft ball, and dinking is what keeps the ball out of their strike zone.
Or play against a Banger preset and practise letting the high ones go.