If you’ve been playing pickleball for some time and find yourself plateauing on your improvement, it can be smart to go back to the basics and work on some key pickleball fundamentals. 

The pros recently shared their quick, easy tip for amateur players who are looking to level up in their pickleball gameplay. 

Anna Bright

“I think the biggest thing for amateurs is to watch themselves back more often. That’s a big cornerstone of my boot camp, is just to sit down and watch yourself play, count the errors, and calculate your kitchen arrival percentage. Calculate how many bad decisions you make. It’ll be painful – you can even watch it at 1.5 speed if that makes it less painful – but watch yourself play,” said Bright. 

Mari Humberg

“Make more balls than you miss. A lot of players like to work on things that look super flashy, but what you need to get the fundamentals down. So make sure you have your dinks, resets, and thirds in good shape, before you ask me how to learn a back hand flick,” said Humberg. 

Hunter Jonnson

“For singles, it’s all about efficient movement. You want to be able to anticipate shots and if you’re in trouble, you want to hit your shot that you know you can make. You don’t want to be giving away too many points. That’s the biggest thing. Even if someone is coming to the net against you, you either drop it or hit it at them in the middle of the court. You don’t want to give away too many free points. You want to make them beat you. That’s my mindset. Make them beat you, don’t beat yourself,” said Johnson. 

Lacy Schneemann

“My tip is to move your feet in a way where you try to always keep the ball in front of you when you’re making contact. At least within reason. Imagine that there’s a V coming out from the middle of your body, and move your feet to always contact the ball, especially in the kitchen, to contact the ball in that zone,” said Schneemann. 

Allyce Jones

“Focus on spinning the ball because that’s what the pros are doing. Amateurs need to start spinning the ball because that’s how you level up. Also, work on finishing your stroke versus just stopping and making the ball. Fully swing through your shots. That’s a common mistake I see all the time,” said Jones. 

Tammy Emmrich

“A common mistake for people I see who want to take their game to the next level is that they play too many games. I believe that you have to go drill, get the reps in, develop your kitchen game, and once you feel confident enough to have at least a 10-shot rally without making mistakes, then go play in rec games. Put your hours in on the court and drill until you’re good enough to compete well. Otherwise you can hurt your technique and build bad habits if you’re playing too much too early,” said Emmrich. 

Parris Todd

“A lot of amateurs who are in that 3.5 to 4.5 level, they’re bangers. They like to hit the ball really hard and they don’t like to dink or hit a third shot drop. So I would recommend for those players who want to level up to work on their third shot drop. That third ball is really important because you’re able to move forward to get to the kitchen and establish yourself at the line,” said Todd.

“I see so many points where two people are back and two people are at the net. So hit a drop to get into those kitchen rallies. When I first came into pickleball, I spent hours working on those specifically to help me level up. I think when players are able to do that, they’re going to level up,” she continued. 

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