Top Pickleball Strategies for Doubles

This pickleball strategy doubles guide will provide important information that will help elevate your game. Playing a game of pickleball doubles is incredibly fun. However, it’s also very challenging. In order to be effective, both players in a team need to have a clear vision of the strategy that will be used to, hopefully, overpower the opponents.

6. Get to the Net

Without a doubt, getting to the net as quickly as possible is a key pickleball strategy doubles. As a matter of fact, it has been calculated that around 70% of teams that get both players to the net first end up getting the point.

There are various ways in which you can get to the net first. However, one of the most efficient ways to do so is during the return of serve. By connecting a hit that is both high and deep, you will force the opposing team to let the ball bounce once before answering the shot.

Such a move will give you and your partner enough time to get to the net before the return. To the contrary, if the return of serve is short, the serving team will have an easier time beating you to the non-volley zone.

5. Third Hit Strategy

In pickleball, it is important to know what to do during the third hit. Most players that are knowledgeable in pickleball strategy doubles consider this hit to be the one that will set the tone for the rest of the point.

This is largely due to the fact that the third hit is the first one where the ball does not need to bounce before being answered. In other words, there are three ways in which you can effectively connect the third hit:

Lob the ball over your opponent’s head, aiming at the back of the court.
Hit a direct, powerful shot directly at your opponent.
Connect a soft shot that lands inside the opponent’s non-volley zone.

4. Mastering the Dinking Phase

If a point goes on for a long enough period of time, it is inevitable that both teams will get to the net. At this point, the ball will go back and forth until one team makes a mistake. This is known as the dinking phase.

The moment you find yourself in this position, planning an efficient pickleball strategy doubles can make the difference between winning and losing the point. Many expert players will simply wait until their opponent makes the mistake of returning a ball too high. When this happens, it is possible to perform a smash hit. This move will likely cause your opponent to lose the point.

3. Positioning and Coordination

Communicating with your partner before and during the game can help you coordinate your positioning better. This is important as acting as a single entity (rather than two separate people moving independently) will increase the efficiency of a team to an astounding amount.

As previously mentioned, it is desirable that both teammates get to the net as soon as possible. For that reason, both players should coordinate when it’s time to move forward. This will prevent the creation of unguarded space that their opponents are likely to use to their advantage.

2. Poaching

Without a doubt, one of the most popular pickleball strategies for doubles is poaching. Simply put, poaching is when you move over to your partner’s side of the court to intercept a ball.

This can be advantageous as it allows you to undermine your opponent’s intentions. As such, you’ll prevent your partner from making a mistake such as a soft return. Various factors are important to consider when attempting to poach, including the following:

Don’t Stretch. Move

Often, inexperienced players make the mistake of trying to poach by stretching. Invariably, the result of doing this will be a weak, poorly aimed and ineffective answer that may do more harm than good.

For that reason, it’s important to position yourself properly in order to poach the ball. Effective footwork is, without a doubt, the most important tool you can use in order to achieve a correct positioning before attempting to poach.

Communicate with Your Partner

Poaching is a somewhat controversial pickleball strategy doubles that some players do not like to use. For that reason, it’s important to be on the same page with your partner before attempting to poach. If poaching has been approved as a possibility, it is then necessary to establish a simple system of signals.

Anticipate

Anticipating the shots of your opponent is key to poach effectively. Due to it, you can begin moving to a poaching position before your opponent even hits the ball. As a result, you will get a couple of valuable extra seconds. This will allow you to get in the best position to comfortably take the shot.

Bonus Read: Best Portable Pickleball Net Systems

1. Stacking

Stacking is a term that refers to the strategy that sees players re-arranging their positioning on the court in order to get an edge over the opponent team. Sometimes, this strategy is also used to compensate for a weakness. Some specific situations that call for a stacking strategy are:

Users can stack right-left combination to maintain forehands in the middle of the court at all times, preventing a hole from existing.
Teams may stack to allow a player with a particularly strong forehand or backhand to take more shots.
Often, teams will stack to cover the backhand of a weaker player.
Advanced players will often stack in order to make poaching easier and more effective.

In Conclusion

Although they are mostly straightforward and simple, the strategies presented in this pickleball strategy doubles guide have been used extensively by professional players to gain an edge over their opponents. At any rate, the very act of communicating with your partner is sure to improve your chances of winning. Do you know any other important pickleball strategies for doubles? Let us know in the comments!