Easy Techniques for Winning More Points as the Serving Team

JohnCincolaPickleball

Hey guys, it’s John from John Cincola Pickleball. There’s a play you can run as the serving team that can score you four to five easy points a game—and you don’t have to get up to the kitchen line and grind it out. Stick around and I’ll tell you how to do it.

I’m a big believer that to be dominant on the pickleball court, we need to be applying pressure as much as you possibly can. Historically, we’ve been taught that as the serving team, the receivers have the advantage. So we’ve got to play it safe, we’ve got to be defensive, we’ve got to be passive—until we can get to that kitchen line.

Now, that’s not bad advice. But if you have that mindset, you may be missing out on potential opportunities. So today, we’re going to flip the mindset. Let’s dive right in.

Introducing the “One-Two Punch” Play

I call this play the “one-two punch.” Obviously, there are two parts to it: first, we’ve got the setup; then, we’ve got the knockout. Let me break it down for you.

Step One: The Setup

For the setup of this play, we’re going to use our serve. The main idea is trying to get our serve to cause our opponents to be late to the kitchen line.

There are a couple ways to do that. Number one, and one of the easiest ways, is just power and depth. If you can hit a serve that’s deep in the court, with a heavy amount of spin and power, a lot of times your opponents are going to have to take a step back first—before they can get their forward momentum going to the kitchen line. That causes them to be maybe a step or two late.

The other scenario is if we know our opponents are unwinding the stack (Unwinding the stack on the return means the returning team starts on the same side, then quickly switches to traditional left/right positions after the return to cover the court effectively). In this case, we want to learn to serve wide (figure 1), because again, we want them going away from where they want to be. So if I know my opponent has to cross the court, I’m going to try to serve them wide and get them moving in the opposite direction—so then they’ve got to change momentum and try to get back to their spot quickly.

(figure 1)

Assessing the Setup Before the Knockout

Now that we’ve tried to set up the play, the next step is to assess and see if it actually worked. And we really need one thing to make this play run—but if we had two, that would be even better.

The one thing we absolutely need is for our opponent to be a step or two late to the kitchen line. If they’re still in that transition area, then it’s game on—we’re going to part two, the knockout.

Even better would be if they’re late and they gave us a little bit of a short return. That’s really green light territory.

But if they’re getting all the way to the kitchen line in time, you call it off. We’re not running this play. Just go with your normal drop or whatever strategy you use to get to the kitchen line.

Step Two: The Knockout

Okay, so you’ve got the setup you want—now it’s time to go for the knockout.

You’ve got to do two things to make this work.
Number one: attack the ball with your feet. By that, I mean when that return is coming over at you, don’t just let it come to you. Move at it and take it early. This is going to take away some of your opponent’s time and give you a better chance of catching them in that transition area.

Number two: what we call a drop-drive hybrid.
You can think of it two ways—it’s either a softer, spinnier drive, or a more aggressive drop. Either way, the goal is to get a lot of spin on it, keep it aggressive, keep it low over the net, and try to get it landing right at the feet of your opponents.

That’s the key. If you can land it at their feet, now they’ve got to hit up on the next ball—and we’re going to be crashing in to finish the point off.

If you drive it too hard, they’ll just hit it hard back at you and you’ve gained nothing.

How to Practice the One-Two Punch

Now we know what the play is and how to run it—but how do we practice it?

First, focus on the serve. It’s simple, and the great thing is you don’t need anyone else to do it. Just grab some cones and place them where you want your targets—either deep in the court or wide, depending on the scenario. Then go after it. Try to hit that target with power, depth, height, and spin. And then do it over and over and over again.

Next, tackle the drive-drop combo. There are a couple of ways to do this. One is using a ball machine. I have my Titan ball machine, which I absolutely love. The nice thing about it is that I can set it up to not only practice this shot, but a combo of shots. I’ll have it feed me a short ball so I can move in, hit the hybrid shot, and then follow it in with a second volley.

The other option? Grab your drill partner and work on it together.

Live Example: Breaking Down the One-Two Punch in Action

Thanks for reading!

For exclusive content and full-version tutorials, make sure to check out my YouTube channel, ➡️ John Cincola Pickleball.

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