Most pickleball advice tells you how to attack or defend better. However, learning how to make yourself "unattackable" is just as important.
Here are a few ways.
Aim for the kitchen line
Beginning players are taught to drop or dink the ball inside their opponent's kitchen. While this isn't wrong, it is incomplete.
Aiming to get the ball to land inside the kitchen can lead to "dead dinks."
Dead dinks bounce high and soft, typically allowing your opponent to attack in any direction.
A better place to drop or dink the ball is on the kitchen line.
The trajectory of a ball that will land on (or pretty close to) the kitchen line forces your opponent to make a tough decision: should they take it out of the air or take a step back and let it bounce?
While they could still attack you, it becomes riskier.
Aim left or right
Another way you can focus on becoming unattackable is by aiming your shots to the left or right of your opponent – never straight on.
By forcing our opponents to move, we allow them to be lazy or showcase their shoddy footwork.
This can cause them to be off-balanced or reach to hit the ball.
Reaching is one of the top ways to pop the ball up, and gives you a ball to easily attack.
Jason Flamm
However, even if they don’t pop it up or actually move to hit it, most players can’t (or at least shouldn’t) attack while moving.
Of course, some will still try, but you’ll be there to make them pay for that attempt.
Find your opponent's weaker side
The final tip to becoming unattackable is finding your opponent's weaker side. Everyone has one, and for most, it's the backhand.
However, it's important to test that out early in a match.
If you notice that a player runs around to their forehand every chance they get, then it's very likely they can't attack from their backhand.
If that's the case, you should aim all your shots at that spot, especially when you're within close range.
When they're at the kitchen line, they have less time to react and cannot necessarily maneuver using their backhand.
Of course, if you notice they have a great backhand, then try their forehand instead.
While you still want to move the ball left and right, once you realize which side they prefer, hit more of your balls the other way.
How to practice
The best way to practice is by placing targets inside the kitchen (see image below) and drilling with a partner. Each of you should aim every dink aggressively toward one of the targets.
If you or your partner miss, they should attack it.
If you notice that your drilling partner favors their forehand or backhand, then focus your attacks on the opposite side and really expose that weakness. Encourage them to do the same to you.
Eventually, you'll both become great on both sides and find yourselves winning more pickleball matches than ever.
