Another Reason Lobs Are Mostly Defensive Shots

As I’ve mentioned previously, I like to reserve lobs for defense. If you try lobbing over your opponents’ heads when they are at the kitchen line, it may work, and can certainly embarrass the opponents, but usually does not work out. If the lob is too low, it will be smashed back at you. If too high, they have time to run backward to return it. The biggest problem is controlling the lob so it doesn’t go too far back, but far back enough. Whereas it can be an offensive move to break up a long kitchen rally, it is mostly best to reserve it for defense.

That defense is oddly enough, a response to a lob. One of the best ways to respond to a lob is to lob it back, giving you time to return to the kitchen line.

There is one more reason that lobbing is not a good offensive move, and that is because unless your partner expects it, your partner may be at the kitchen line where s/he might get killed by a smashed return. Generally, pickleball follows the convention of a long deep serve, a long deep return, and then a dropshot into the kitchen. After that, the rally stays soft and in the kitchen until someone makes a mistake. Lobbing out of that scenario seems to make sense, but not if your partner isn’t ready for the return.

Have fun! – Jeff