Pro player and coach John Cincola recently shared five fundamental tips to help pickleball players refocus on the basics and elevate their game. 

He begins with a personal insight, noting that when he steps away from pickleball for a few days, whether to take a vacation or spend time with family, he often returns to the court playing some of his best pickleball.

“When I’m drilling every single day, I can get caught up in the details of playing. I can get so lost in all of that info that I forget the bigger things,” he said. “Sometimes, what we need in pickleball is a hard reset. We need to clear the slate, go back to the basics and fundamentals, and get really good at those.”

These five rules are perfect for that hard reset.

1.     Win at the kitchen, not the baseline

“This is more of a mindset than anything. What we’re really trying to do is, every shot we hit at the baseline is with the intention of helping us get to the line. I’m never going into a drive or drop thinking this is the winner,” said Cincola.

“That mentality can get you off track because you get too aggressive from a position that’s not meant to be aggressive. Every shot you hit, your mindset should be, 'What shot can I hit that’s going to get me one step closer to getting to the kitchen line?' And once we get there, we can switch our mindset to, ‘How are we going to win this point now?’”

2.     Always reset out of trouble 

Cincola often notices this in his beginner and intermediate lessons. When players get into trouble, they start to rush and choose higher-risk shots because they feel pressured.

“A common one I see is when the ball gets behind us, we try to lob or speed up. The only reliable shot we have is that if executed, it will work 100% of the time, to reset the ball in front of you and make the ball bounce. That’s why the kitchen exists,” he mentioned. “So when you’re in trouble, the reliable shot is to have soft enough hands to try and get that ball to bounce, and if you put it in the right spot, there’s nothing your opponents can do about it.”

3.     Fast feet, slow hands

“Another common mistake I see is that once the body speeds up, the paddle speeds up. So once I have to take a few steps to get to a ball, or run to a ball, my body starts going faster, and the common reaction is that the paddle starts to match the tempo,” explained Cincola.

“So if we can get our feet moving fast, we still keep that paddle nice and calm. Almost anytime we’re moving fast, it’s because we’re in a difficult decision and we need a softer shot to get out of it.” 

4.     Pressure wins points

“When we’re playing a point, we need to find a way to apply pressure to our opponents,” insisted Cincola. “That’s difficult because we need to figure out our opponents and figure out what makes them feel pressure.” 

Sometimes, it’s high-quality shots that move them around, and sometimes it’s isolating their backhand. You want to find out pretty quickly in your matches what makes your opponent feel pressure and discomfort, whether it’s dinking, driving the ball hard, etc. As soon as you can discover it, keep leaning into that because you have a reliable pattern to win points.

5.     Protect the middle

“Open middles invite easy points,” stressed Cincola as he demonstrated standing in the middle of the left side of the court. “The problem is that the middle is the easiest and safest place to hit the ball. There’s no risk, and you have the difficulty of partners deciding whose ball it is, so we can’t leave so much space in the middle.”

While players may think that this strategy is overprotecting the middle and leaving too much space on the sides, Cincola sees that as a positive. 

“Now, you force your opponents to hit a shot down the line, and there’s more risk involved. You don’t want to give up the easiest spot on the court to protect the most difficult spot,” he said. “Stand closer to your partner, protect the middle, and force your opponent to beat you to the outsides of the court.”

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