Transcription
If you have been playing pickleball for some time now, you know the importance of getting to the kitchen line and being able to dink. But the reality is, dinking isn't going to be enough to win you pickleball games.
In this video, we're going to show you six offensive shots that you need to have in your bag to win in today's game of pickleball. So, let's get into it.
So, the first shot we're going to go over is an aggressive roll volley, also known as a zero forward speed up. And I'm going to explain that kind of as we go. So, what this shot is, is if a ball kind of sits up, but it's not quite at the height to be able to smack it down with an overhead, but you really want to apply topspin to the ball, getting it to dip down at the opponent's feet. It's going to be a great shot to have in your bag if you're dinking crosscourt or maybe even straight ahead and a ball kind of floats into this area.
So, what you're going to do with this shot is, first off, you want to close the paddle face. So, you can't hit this shot with an open paddle face because you're not going to be able to get topspin and you're going to pop it up. So, in order to close the face, we want to take the paddle and we want to rotate our thumb slightly inward to close the face. So, this would be kind of an open face. This would be a neutral face. And we want to rotate the paddle slightly inward to close the face. You could think of rotating that thumb towards the ground a little bit. Okay. What I'm going to do here is, I'm going to rotate and close the face. That's step one.
Step two is what I like to call zero forward. Okay? So, zero forward basically means if I pull the paddle back, that would be negative space. If I push the paddle forward, that would be into positive space. So, I want to find zero, meaning I'm just holding the paddle in a neutral position and going straight forward. Okay? So, you really don't want a big backswing, and you don't even want too big of a follow-through. It's a very short and compact swing.
So, it's also important to know which balls you can do this with. And this really isn't a shot you can do when the ball's below the height of the net. When the ball's below the height of the net, you're hitting more of kind of a defensive roll, meaning you're hitting more low to high. This is a shot that's more flat and forward. So, you really need to pick a ball that sits up or just over the net height.
So, what this might look like is, if you're dinking, you're kind of waiting for a ball that's going to sit up to the forehand. And you really want to get that to hold the paddle. And you can see how I didn't even swing very hard. That ball had some topspin and it landed just in the middle back of the court. So, let's look at it again. If I'm dinking, I'm kind of waiting for that middle ball. I'm going to hold and I'm going to accelerate forward. So, you see I didn't have much of a swing and I can work on placement over power because this shot is going to be really effective with topspin down at the feet.
The next offensive shot that I think any pickleball player who wants to get to a high level should know is a shot called the backhand flick. The backhand flick is essentially a shot that you can kind of hit from your backhand. And what's special about this attack is you can actually do it with balls that are coming below the net height. It's super deceptive and that's why it's such a good shot because you can pick a good array of balls to be able to use this on.
So, I want to quickly go over how to do this. So, the biggest thing when you're hitting a backhand flick is one, changing your paddle based on the height of the ball that you get. So, like I said, you can take a ball from above net height and use this, and you can take it from below net height. The biggest thing is your paddle tip has to be below the level of the ball where it's coming to you.
The other thing that I like to think about with this is, it is a little bit of a wristy kind of windshield wiper shot. So, you really do want to create a little bit of topspin. So, I like to have that paddle tip down at that 5:00 mark and kind of come up like a windshield wiper and kind of let that follow-through go. This shot is not necessarily about power. It's a lot more about finesse, getting spin on it, and really kind of using this to kind of poke and prod the ball in different directions.
I'm going to show you guys what this could look like with some different ball heights. So, first I'm going to try to get one that's below the net. So, you guys see that was kind of coming below the net. I got my paddle tip under it and just pulled that windshield wiper through. You can see that there wasn't a lot of pace on it, but it can be pretty surprising for an opponent to deal with that. It's really important if you do this shot. It's not necessarily the flick that's the winner. It is the next one. So, it's really important to reload right after you hit it.
So, now I'm going to show you a little bit of a higher ball that you can use this on. So, as you could see, that one's coming a little bit higher, but I can still get my paddle tip under that ball and through it. I don't have to be quite as low when it comes a little bit higher.
A bonus tip here that I think is really tricky that actually one of the top pickleball players in the world uses, Ben Johns, is he kind of sets up his backhand dink so that he's constantly looking for this flick. So, what he does here is when he's kind of in this crosscourt dink battle, he'll kind of set up like he's going to do this flick every time and then he'll switch last minute to a slice dink if he doesn't feel like he can do it. But when he can, he'll kind of go ahead and already be set up for that backhand flick. So, that's a really tricky thing to do and it kind of forces your mind to constantly be thinking offensive because you're already just set up in that spot and it's such an easy adjustment to just pull your wrist back and then go into the slicing. So, that's a little bonus tip for you to try out next time you're playing this left side.
The next offensive shot we want to teach you that's becoming a lot more popular in today's game is the two-handed speed up off the bounce with the backhand. So, the reason this is becoming a dangerous shot for people is because it can be very easily disguised with your two-handed backhand dink. So, what this could look like is, if I'm getting a ball to this side, I'm dinking and then all of a sudden I'm going to pull the ball either down the line or I'm going to pull the ball across my opponent's body.
The way that you hit this shot is, you're going to take your opposite hand and you want to place it on the paddle like this. And this is really the hand that does the work. The other one's just kind of there as a guide. So, in order to hit the shot, it's really important that you get low. Like when you watch people do this, they're almost in a full squat and they're pushing the ball forward. If you're going down the line, you want to keep the paddle face open more. And if you're going across the body, you're going to pull across almost to this opposite shoulder.
But when you hit this shot, it's important to know that you're setting up the next ball. So, the reason I like to hit this shot often is, I like to pull the ball across my opponent's body and then my hands already in a good combo to counter the next one. So, you could think of it almost like that triangle theory that we've taught in other videos where you can expect the ball to come back in a triangle. So, I'll take, I'll hold, I'll pull cross, and then I'll recover and I'll hit that putaway.
So, lastly, I would just say when doing this, it's important to pick the right ball. If you try to speed the ball up off of the short hop, often times you're going to hit it out or it's not going to be controlled or you're going to hit it right into that zone where the other team can hit down on the ball. Remember, a lot of speedups are about location and place to set up the next shot. So, when hitting this, I'm in that crosscourt battle and I'm looking for something that sits up a little higher that I can contact at the apex. If I can pick that nice ball that's apexed, then I can pull and be ready for the next shot.
The next shot that I think every pickleball player genuinely needs to have is the forehand speed up off the bounce. What I love about this specific shot is it often looks and should look the same as your dink. It's just kind of pulling it a little bit faster. So, it's a great deceptive shot to use.
I'm going to go through what ball to look for when you're hitting this shot. What I look for is a ball that bounces and it doesn't have a lot of action on it. We often call that a dead dink. Meaning when the ball bounces, it doesn't have a lot of spin that's kind of jumping it in different directions. The other thing that I kind of look for when choosing whether to pull the trigger on this forehand speed up off the bounce is making sure that I'm balanced. Often times the biggest mistake I see people make when they're hitting this shot is they're stepping and at the same time trying to speed it up. What that does is it often puts you kind of on your back foot and that ball is either going to be flying out or popping up right into the strike zone of your opponents. So, it's really important that when you're choosing this shot that you are getting completely balanced, holding the ball, and then pulling that trigger. That right there is going to be the ball that you want because again, you're on balance. That ball's not going to go out and it gets you in position for the next ball that's coming back at you.
The next shot we're going to talk about can really frustrate your opponents, and we're going to talk about the advantage to an offensive lob. When you're doing this, it's important to look for a couple things. You want to look for a dink that again doesn't have much spin or action on it. And a dink that just kind of sits up that you can replicate your dinking form and turn it into a lob last minute.
When I'm hitting this shot, I'm looking to get low. Okay? If you stand up tall, you're going to mishit the ball. And the biggest thing you need for the lob is solid contact. How many times have you been playing and you kind of mishit the lob and it goes right into the strike zone of your opponents. So, we want to get low. We want to look for a ball that doesn't have much action on it. So, kind of a dead dink. And we want to make it look a lot like our dink. So, if I'm dinking here, what I'm going to be doing is, I'm going to be kind of in this dink battle here. And then I'm looking for a ball. And then all of the sudden, you see, I added topspin to that ball. I held it. And now that ball is going to be floating up over my opponent.
If you can apply topspin to this ball, it's going to be one that you can hit a lot lower. And the lower you hit your lob with topspin, if you can get it over your opponent, the harder it's going to be to get back. The higher you hit your lob, the more time they have to retrieve it. So, again, what I'm doing here is, I'm kind of trying to make it look so I have like a topspin dink there. And then all of a sudden, I'm going to hit this topspin lob. And when I hit it on that lower trajectory, it's going to be much harder to retrieve. Okay? So, you want to kind of roll the ball topspin. If I go crosscourt with this, I have more real estate to work with, and I'm avoiding my opponent's forehand in the middle.
The last offensive shot that I want to talk about is actually more of a concept and a strategy, and you can actually use it with other types of shots that you've seen in this video. And it's basically using off-speed speedups. So, what I like about the off-speed speedup is often times you want to aim it around the shoulder height of the person that you're going against because a lot of people are told, "If it's shoulder high, let it fly." And so, that's what's really tricky and deceptive about these off-speed speedups is people will often let them go if you're aiming in this area. And the other important aspect here is you have to typically apply some topspin unless it's a high ball and you're poking them.
So, I'm going to show you guys what this could look like. Again, I'm going to be looking for a ball that's traveling a little bit higher above the net. And I'm kind of just poking that ball so that it's going around that shoulder height. But see how I'm not using a lot of pace at all. So, that ball is hitting that back fourth of the court. Using off-speed speedups can be super tricky and deceptive because, like I said, a lot of times people think that they're going out. The one thing I will say, it is important to apply topspin if you're taking a ball that's a little bit lower. So, you want to make sure you keep that paddle tip down and kind of windshield wiper up through the shot. That way, you're applying that spin.
The last thing I'll say about the off-speed speedup is you do have to be really aware of where you're aiming it. For example, you probably want to avoid the strike zone of the forehand, but coming at that paddle-side shoulder is a good one, or even the opposite shoulder is pretty tricky to kind of defend. So, just be really aware of where you're placing the ball. It can be a little bit high risk, high reward.
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