1. Should I drive or drop the third shot?
Let the return decide for you. If the return is deep and low and you are hitting from around your ankles, drop it — you cannot hit a good drive off your shoelaces. If the return floats short or sits up above your waist, drive it.
The mistake is treating this as a personality choice. It is a reaction to the ball you were given. And remember the third shot is not there to win the point — it is there to buy you time to get to the kitchen line.
- Low and deep return → drop.
- High or short return → drive.
- Opponents slow to the line → drive is more effective.
2. Why do my drop shots keep going high like lobs?
Almost always because the paddle face is too open and the swing is too steeply low-to-high, or because contact is happening beside or behind your body instead of out in front.
Lift with your shoulder rather than flicking with the wrist, keep the face closer to neutral, and make contact in front of your lead knee. A drop is a lift, not a scoop.
3. How high should my drop shot go over the net?
Stop thinking in inches over the net and think about where the arc peaks. The apex should happen on your side of the net, so the ball is already falling as it crosses. In practice that is usually two to four feet above the net at its highest point.
If the ball is still rising as it crosses, it will land deep in the kitchen or past it — and you have just handed over a free attack.
4. Should I rush to the kitchen after hitting a third-shot drop?
Move in, but never be moving while your opponent is hitting. Take a few steps forward and split step as they make contact.
If your drop was good, you will often get all the way in. If it was high, stop in transition, get balanced, and reset the next ball. Getting caught mid-stride is worse than being a metre short.
5. Why do my dinks keep popping up?
Three usual causes: your paddle face is too open, you are letting the ball get behind you, and you are standing too upright so your arm has to do the lifting.
Bend your knees so your body is at the height of the ball, contact it in front, and push through it with a quiet wrist instead of scooping. If you only fix one thing, fix the contact point. This is the single most common fault I see in beginner pickleball lessons in San Diego.
6. How do I make my opponents dink?
Give them nothing to attack. A dink that lands short in the kitchen and stays below net height forces them to hit up — and a player hitting up cannot attack.
Aim cross-court to the backhand and at the feet. If your dinks land deep in the kitchen or rise above the net, you are not making them dink, you are inviting the speed-up. Patience wins this exchange; we drill these patterns live in our weekly pickleball clinics in San Diego.
7. Should I take the ball out of the air or let it bounce?
At the kitchen line, take it out of the air whenever you can reach it comfortably. It steals time from your opponent and keeps you forward.
- Let it bounce when the ball is dropping into the kitchen — you cannot volley in there.
- Let it bounce in the transition zone when you need the extra time to reset.
- Take it in the air at the line when it is at or above net height.
8. Why do my volleys go high?
You are swinging at them. A volley is a punch, not a swing. Keep the paddle face close to vertical, make contact in front of you, and stop the paddle through the ball.
If the face is open and the path is low-to-high, the ball goes up every time — that is just physics doing what you told it to.
9. Why do I lose to bangers?
Because you play their game. The two things that beat you are backing up and speeding the ball up when you should absorb it.
Hold your ground at the line, soften your grip, block the ball back low into the kitchen, and make them hit up. Bangers beat impatience, not good defence. Once you can absorb pace, a banger becomes the easiest player on the court to beat.
10. What do I do against heavy drives? How do I handle them?
Grip pressure is the whole answer. Hold the paddle around three or four out of ten, get it out in front, and let the ball come to you. Do not swing.
Absorb the pace and deaden the ball into the kitchen. A tight grip sends a hard drive straight back over the baseline — the ball rebounds off a firm paddle like a wall.
11. Should I stop before the kitchen after my return?
No. If your return was deep, you should be getting all the way to the kitchen line. Move in and split step as they contact the third shot.
The transition zone is the worst place on the court to stand still. Only stop there when a short or weak return forces you to — and if that keeps happening, your return depth is the thing to fix.
12. Who should take the middle ball?
The default is the forehand in the middle. After that, the player who is further forward, or the one the ball is travelling toward, should take it.
But the real answer is to talk. Middles are lost to silence far more often than to bad positioning. Call it early — “mine” or “yours” — before the ball arrives. Partner communication and movement patterns are exactly what we build in our structured pickleball camps in San Diego.
13. What is the fastest way to improve from low intermediate to high intermediate?
Stop adding shots and start removing errors. At 3.0 to 3.5, most points are lost, not won.
- Get your third shot and your reset reliable under pressure.
- Out-dink people — patience is a skill, not a personality trait.
- Hold your kitchen position instead of retreating.
- Pick better targets: feet, backhands, and the middle seam.
Consistency and shot selection move you up, not a new put-away. The fastest route is honest feedback on what you actually do under pressure, which is the whole point of 1:1 pickleball coaching in San Diego.
Final thoughts
If you reread these answers, almost every one is a version of the same idea: take time away from your opponent, give them nothing above net height, and stay balanced. Do those three things more often than your opponent and your rating takes care of itself.
Want these answers on court, not just on a screen?
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Book a Pickleball Lesson in San DiegoNot sure which format fits you? Start with beginner pickleball lessons in San Diego if you are new to the game, drop into our skill-based pickleball clinics in San Diego to drill these patterns in live play, or go deep over a weekend with structured pickleball camps in San Diego. Parents can book kids pickleball lessons in San Diego for juniors who want the same fundamentals taught at their pace.