Unless you’re a nationally ranked player, (and even then!) I’m sure you can relate to having days (or… ahem… entire pickleball careers) when you can’t seem to get the darn ball over the net from the back of the court without giving your opponent a cream-puff of a put-away shot to slam back at your feet.

From the dink to the drop shot, the secret to moving yourself from a defensive position into an offensive position in pickleball is to get the ball to drop relatively close to the net, inside the no-volley/kitchen line so that your opponent is forced to let it bounce before hitting it.