5 Pickleball Strategy Mistakes That Are Costing You Games

PPA pro Ashley Griffith can tell who will win a game within two minutes of watching. Fix these five pickleball strategy mistakes and the winner will be you.

Most players think better pickleball strategy means hitting harder, attacking sooner, and ending points faster.

The players who actually win do almost the opposite.

PPA Tour pro Ashley Griffith says she can usually tell within two minutes who is going to win a pickleball game, because the winners consistently do a few things differently.

Here are the five pickleball strategy mistakes she sees amateurs make every single day, and the fix for each one.

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Stop Speeding Up Balls You Have No Business Attacking

Griffith's first fix is simple: stop attacking balls below the net.

The pattern shows up constantly at the rec level.

After three or four dinks, players get impatient and rip a speedup at whatever ball arrives next, and a bad speedup is a gift. It feeds your opponent an easy counter.

1. You can make contact out in front of your body, not behind you or at your hip.
2. The ball is above net height, so you can hit down instead of up.
3. The dink sat up dead. Learning to attack dead dinks is the highest percentage offense in the game.

Tighten this filter and your unforced errors drop immediately. Impulse control is a skill, and the best players stay calm until they get the right ball.

This single adjustment is one of the four key strategies to winning that separates rec players from advancing competitors.

Why Do You Keep Losing Hands Battles?

According to Griffith, players who lose hands battles usually misdiagnose the problem: "Your hands are probably not slow. You're probably late at the kitchen."

A hands battle is the rapid volley exchange that breaks out at the kitchen line after a speedup, where both teams trade shots until someone misses or resets.

Winning them is less about reflexes and more about where your paddle starts.

Many rec players drop the paddle low after each shot, and by the time they react, the next ball is already on them.

The higher the level, the less reaction time you get, so a low paddle means you start every exchange behind.

Think of your paddle like a goalie's glove. It does you no good at your knees when the shot is coming at your shoulder.

One tiny adjustment, keeping the paddle in front of your chest instead of letting it drift, will make your hands feel instantly faster.

Then build on it with a hand speed drill, or the wall drills Yahoo Sports recommends for faster hands. No partner required.

Backing Off the Kitchen Line Kills Your Pickleball Strategy

"The kitchen line is where we win games," Griffith says, and stepping off it under pressure is one of the most common pickleball strategy leaks at every rec level.

When you retreat, three bad things happen at once. You give away angles, you open up the court, and you make your own resets harder to hit.

The usual trigger is panic. A speedup comes in, and players immediately start drifting backwards.

Griffith's advice: stay calm and hold your ground, because solid kitchen positioning gives you a far better chance of neutralizing the point than a slow retreat ever will.

There are moments when backing up is correct.

It just cannot be your default, and if you do get pushed off the line, you need a plan to recover after being pushed back from the kitchen.

This is where a player like Tyra Black separates herself.

Understanding how pro pickleball players manage pressure at the kitchen line gives rec players a clear blueprint to follow.

Is Attacking the Middle Really Better Pickleball Strategy?

Yes, and Griffith calls it the easiest way to force errors: "The middle causes so many errors."

Players love the down the line winner because it looks cooler.

The middle ball is the smarter pickleball strategy and the higher percentage play, because it attacks your opponents' communication instead of their athleticism.

Every middle ball forces a split second decision about who covers it, and even half a second of hesitation at the kitchen can swing the point.

The net is also two inches lower in the middle, so the same attack clears more often.

Pair this with mastering the essential pickleball shots in your arsenal and your offensive game becomes genuinely difficult to defend.

You do not need a clean winner.

Sometimes pressure alone creates the error, which is why pro pickleball players keep feeding opponents uncomfortable balls instead of hunting perfect shots.

Make Them Hit One More Ball

Griffith's last point is the biggest separator between advanced players and everyone else: "Most pickleball points are actually lost, not won."

Watch a pro point and you will see 10 or 20 dinks if that is what it takes.

This is exactly what Ben Johns does so well. His longtime partner Anna Leigh Waters told Yahoo Sports that his edge is pickleball IQ: "He knows when to speed it up, he knows when to dink it."

If you can reset one more ball, dink one more ball, or just stay in the point one more ball, you become dramatically harder to beat.

It also explains why top players look so calm. They are not forcing the point, they are trusting the process of building it.

Patience is the most underrated pickleball strategy, and you can build it deliberately with advanced dinking patterns and the other strategies that beat 99% of players.

Your 5-Point Pickleball Strategy Checklist

Here is Griffith's whole system, condensed into a pickleball strategy checklist you can run before your next game:

1. Attack the right balls. Above the net, out in front, or not at all.
2. Get your paddle up early. In front of your chest, compact swings, short backswing.
3. Hold the kitchen line. Absorb pressure instead of drifting backwards.
4. Attack the middle more. Lower net, forced decisions, free errors.
5. Make them hit one more ball. Consistency is pressure.

None of these require more athleticism. They require better decisions, which is why the same pickleball strategy works at 3.0 and at the pro level.

Want more structure? The 5 pickleball shots you must master pair perfectly with this checklist as a training roadmap.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Should You Speed Up the Ball in Pickleball?

Speed up when you can contact the ball above net height and out in front of your body, ideally off a dead dink that sat up. If the ball is below the net, you are attacking from a losing position and feeding your opponent an easy counter.

How Do I Get Faster Hands in Pickleball?

Start your paddle in front of your chest with relaxed elbows and cut your backswing down. Most players are not slow, they are late, because the paddle drops after every shot. Wall drills build the compact, repeatable motion that wins hands battles.

What Is the Best Pickleball Strategy for Doubles?

The highest percentage pickleball strategy in doubles is controlling the kitchen line, attacking the middle, and staying patient until you get a ball above the net. Points at the rec level are mostly lost on impatient errors, so the team that makes the opponent hit one more ball usually wins.

Why Do I Keep Getting Pushed Off the Kitchen Line?

Usually because you panic after a speedup and start drifting backwards, which gives away angles and makes your resets harder. Hold your ground, keep the paddle up, and only retreat when the ball genuinely forces you back.

Is Aiming for the Middle a Good Pickleball Strategy?

The middle is the higher percentage target in any doubles game. The net is two inches lower there, and the ball forces your opponents to decide who takes it, which creates hesitation and errors. Save the down the line attack for when you have a clearly dead ball.