Hey there, it’s your coach Jordan Briones.
A lot of players think attacking is all about hitting the ball hard. And while pace matters, it’s actually one of the least important pieces of a truly effective attack.
What matters more is when you attack, where you’re targeting, and whether your body is in a position to handle whatever comes back. Get those three things right and your attacks start winning you easy points. Get them wrong and you’re just handing your opponents free counters.
Let me break it all down.
How to Win More Points by Reading Your Opponent, Hitting Down, and Attacking Only When You’re Balanced
Check Out Where Your Opponent’s Paddle Is Before You Swing
The first thing I want you to pay attention to is where your opponent holds their paddle when things get fast. Not where they stand. Where their paddle is sitting.
Some players settle into a neutral ready position. Others drift heavy to their backhand side, and some camp on their forehand waiting for something to attack. That tendency tells you exactly where to go.
If you’re playing someone who loves sitting backhand heavy and has quick counters from that side, stop feeding it to them. Go to their dominant side instead. Force that chicken wing or make them late on a forehand they weren’t ready for. On the flip side, if your opponent is sitting forehand heavy and snatching everything in front of them, go low and outside their left hip. Make them jam up on a ball they thought they were in position to handle.
Players with strong two-handed backhand counters are a little different. Their ready position usually has both hands on the paddle and their left side is extremely loaded. Against these players I actually like to go at the body, right at the chest or midsection, because it takes away their ability to set up that powerful two-handed counter cleanly.
The beginning of a match is the best time to test this. Hit a few speed ups to different spots early on and just watch. See how they sit, see what they’re comfortable with, and then start building your attack game around what you find.
Hit Down at Their Feet — Trajectory Beats Power Every Time
Here’s something I want you to really think about. The most effective attack in pickleball is one that goes downward at your opponent’s feet or knees.
Now you’re not going to be able to do that on every ball. A lot of the time the ball you’re getting is at net level or below and you physically can’t hit down from there. But here’s how the best players think about it: they use those first exchanges to put the ball in spots that are uncomfortable enough to force a higher reply. And the moment that higher ball shows up, they take it down at the feet.
That downward ball is so effective because it forces your opponent to hit up to get it back over the net. And when they hit up, you get another ball above net level to hit down again. Incorporating pickleball backhand dink targets into this loop helps you pick precise spots to attack, keeping you in control of the point and dictating the pace of the rally.
The mistake I see all the way up to the 5.0 level is players finally getting that perfect ball a little above the net and instead of simply redirecting it down at the feet, they try to end the point with sheer pace. They blast it at their opponent and the ball comes back just as hard because there’s nothing on it that’s hard to deal with. Hitting down is not about power. It’s about trajectory. Make them hit up. That’s the goal.
Only Pull the Trigger When You’re Balanced
This one might be the most important thing I can tell you about attacking, and it’s the piece most players never think about.
Only attack when you are balanced.
If your weight is falling backward, if your momentum is pulling you off the line, if you’re leaning sideways trying to reach a wide ball, that is not the time to attack. Even when considering pickleball backhand dink targets, I don’t care how good the ball looks — positioning comes first
When you attack off balance, two things happen. First, the quality of your attack drops because you’re not in a clean hitting position. Second, and more importantly, you have no chance to recover for the counter. You’re already moving the wrong direction and now a hard ball is coming back at you.
In those situations, whether you’re getting pushed back by a heavy dink or pulled wide off the court, the smartest play is to reset. Dink it back to the middle, get your feet under you, get back into a strong position, and then set up your next attack from a place where you can actually handle the response.
Resetting in those moments is not giving up the point. It’s protecting it. Players who understand pickleball backhand dink targets use them to attack efficiently instead of recklessly, and they win a lot more points because of it.
Targeting, trajectory, and balance. Those are the three things that separate attacks that win points from attacks that just create harder exchanges. Work on reading where your opponent is sitting, look for the downward opportunity, and only pull the trigger when your body is ready for what comes next.
Do those things and you’ll start winning a lot of points that used to feel like coin flips.
See you on the courts,
Coach Jordan Briones
