Fill The Holes

Pickleball can be such a fast sport that it is hard to come up with good strategies while you’re playing. One that’s easy to remember and implement quickly is to fill in the holes. This means to look at your opponents, and find out what part of the court they’re leaving open. Often, it is the middle, right between the two players. Other times, it is one side or the other that you can fill with an extreme diagonal dink, or a powerful passing shot deep and close to the side line. Sometimes, the hole is behind the players. You may be in an intense dinking rally at the kitchen, and notice that both players are so forward, and possibly hypnotized by the play, that they will not expect a lob to the back of their court. The most successful lob in this situation is not particularly high. Instead, it will be just high enough that the players cannot reach it, but not so high that they have time to run to the back of the court and respond.

Here’s a video from Pickleball Channel starring Alex Hamner and Jennifer Lucore that talks about filling the holes, among other things: