As an avid pickleball player I can assure you that I have made every beginner pickleball mistake in the book – more than once. It used to be frustrating for me to keep making the same mistakes over and over again on the court. But I had to play some games and get the playing experience before I learned the correct way to play and started to see some improvement in my game. Using my experience as a guide, I wanted to share with you some of the biggest mistakes I see beginning pickleball players make along with some solutions on how to improve upon those mistakes.
What is the # 1 Mistake Beginner Pickleball Players Make?
1. Moving forward after the serve
When you serve, make sure to stay back to receive the return of serve because it is likely that your opponent will return the serve deep and it will land at your feet if you’ve moved up. The rule in play here is the double bounce rule which says that the ball must bounce twice, once on each side of the court before any player can hit it out of the air.
Advanced players know to return the serve deep both to keep their opponents back at the baseline and to get a free opportunity to win a point if they catch a player moving up too soon. New players often start moving up to the kitchen line after serving but instead what they should be doing is staying back at the baseline to prepare to hit a return, and then move up to the kitchen after returning the second shot of the rally.
More Common Beginner Pickleball Mistakes Made by New Players
2. Playing a Power Game Exclusively
This is common for tennis players coming over to pickleball for the first few times playing. You want to jump on the pickleball court and hit the ball just as hard as you do on the tennis court. I was guilty of this and learned over time that the power game doesn’t necessarily work as a consistent strategy in pickleball. This is true especially when playing against advanced players.
If you want to improve your pickleball game and you often play against more experienced players you will find that they have seen every shot in the book and they can defend most shots very well. Advanced players play their game up at the kitchen line after the return of serve and trying to stand at the baseline and “crush” the ball by them will create an opportunity for them to tap your drive shot back as a drop right in to the kitchen, or they will angle the return to a spot on the court where you will be unable to return it. Believe me, I learned this from experience when matched up with advanced players.
Instead, mix in some finesse shots such as a third shot drop and learn more about shot placement so you can hit the ball to areas of the court where your opponent has a hard time reaching the ball and hitting a solid return. Learning both of these skills has improved my game tremendously.
3. Playing the Game from the Middle of the Court, aka No Man’s Land
During a pickleball point, there are two places where most players should be, either at the baseline or the kitchen line. For effective play, you should be standing in either one of these areas, and if you’re not then you are standing in what is called the transition zone, or “no man’s land”.
The area of the court known as “no mans land” is the area a few steps behind the non-volley zone (kitchen), and a few steps in front of the baseline.
The reason for this is that area of the court gives your opponent an easy target for hard smashes at your feet especially to the backhand side that are hard to return.
You are also vulnerable to short dinks which when well placed will be nearly impossible for you to return if you are standing back in the court in the transition zone. Remember I spoke about mastering shot placement earlier? This is one of those times to put that skill to use when you see beginning players standing in the transition zone later in a rally when they should be up at the kitchen line.
4. Trouble with the Serve
The pickleball serve is a unique skill to learn and sometimes can be troublesome for beginners. The biggest area of frustration I see for beginners is the rule requiring the server to serve underhand. This is hard to master for the beginning pickleball player and I struggled with this in the beginning as well.
For me, being used to serving overhand in tennis, I needed a way to serve and practice the underhand motion at the same time.
One of the better pickleball tips for beginners that I can share is to serve your first couple of months playing using the drop serve which almost always requires the serve to start from an underhand position because a pickleball doesn’t bounce too high from a normal drop.
Within a short period of time I had perfected the underhand motion and I switched effortlessly to a volley serve which is what I use exclusively today.
5. Not taking middle court shots as the forehand player
Most racket and paddle sports players at the beginning and intermediate levels are forehand dominant players. So when balls are hit down the middle (lets assume both players are right handed), the forehand player should take most shots hit down the middle because they can hit a better shot return using their forehand.
One of my goals in the new year has been to communicate with my doubles partner before a game and have a plan for who will take the down the middle shots so we have a plan and are clear before play starts. Try this little strategy tip when you play and you will see just a little communication goes a long way.
6. Not Getting to the Kitchen
Pickleball is played on the pickleball court, but games are won at the kitchen. That took me more than a few games to figure out but as you play against better players and you see how they play you learn that you need to get to the kitchen line as a rally progresses.
The ideal time to move up to the kitchen line is after the return of serve. You want to get to the kitchen line and get set with feet stable on the ground and not shifting so you are ready for the next return. You don’t want to be moving forward while hitting a return shot because the degree of difficulty goes way up when trying to hit an accurate shot while moving forward.
Unless you are lucky or very skilled, those return shots hit while moving forward often sail long because your forward momentum causes a player to put a bit more pace on the return shot. Or the shot will go directly in to the net because the paddle face is facing down.
7. Kitchen Foot Faults
This is something I am still guilty of and a skill I am actively working to correct. Players need to have “court awareness” when they are up at the kitchen line so your feet are behind the kitchen line, you are balanced with your feet set and you are ready for the next shot.
I still have a tendency to have “shifty feet” in this area and I move my feet when returning shots because that’s what tennis players do when returning volleys at the net. Tennis players have a wider court area to cover and need to be able to move left or right very quickly when up at the net.
Pickleball is different than tennis, obviously. Players need to set their feet at the kitchen line and have the agility to move their hands and paddle appropriately to return a volley shot without moving their feet, and to avoid a foot fault. Try to get to the kitchen early and get set so you avoid having your momentum carry you in to the kitchen when returning your opponents shot.
8. Attempting smashes on low balls
This one is pretty common for beginner and intermediate players. This happens when your opponent hits a shot that comes over the net and appears to be high enough to take it out of the air, but in reality is probably not high enough as you watch it start to drop right in to the kitchen. But you still move your paddle forward and try to smash volley it back over the net, resulting in the shot going right in to the net.
This is one of the pickleball techniques that requires the patience to recognize early when a ball is too low to volley. The player should let it bounce, and hit a return dink or shot that may set up your next shot for the winning return.
Players should learn to be patient in a rally and learn to play the low balls off the bounce, hit well placed returns, and be prepared and ready to hit a solid return when your opponent hits the ball high enough over the net creating an opportunity to hit a winner to win the point.
9. Learning to know when to let shots go out
How many times have you been at the baseline or near the baseline and a shot comes at your waist or higher, and you return the shot? From the transition zone stretching back to the baseline, a good rule of thumb is if the ball is at your waist line or higher you need to let it go because it most likely will land out.
Now lobs are a different story. Anything can happen with a lightweight pickleball, especially when playing in windy conditions where the ball can sail all over the place. Just be aware of where you are on the court so you get good at gauging in or out based on where you anticipate a ball will land.
Final Thoughts
Learning pickleball for beginners I find depends on where you are starting from and whether you have experience playing racket or paddle sports in the past. Players that have previous experience playing some sort of racket or paddle sport seem to pick up the game quicker and have some level of familiarity with rules on the court.
But I do enjoy playing with players that are getting in to pickleball without having played a racket or paddle sport in the past. Some of those that I have played with have picked up the game pretty quickly because they have skills from a different sport that transitioned well to the pickleball court.
Hopefully you found this article helpful for your game and you can implement some of the pickleball tips for beginners that we shared. We would love to hear about your experience as a beginning pickleball player since I think we can all learn from each other’s court time and playing experience.
I hope to see you out on the courts!