🥒 Learn Pickleball
Pickleball skills
19 skills, beginner to advanced. 17 of them can be checked from a phone video with honest form analysis — no fake scores.
Beginner
5Ready Position & Grip
Everything in pickleball starts from a balanced ready position and a relaxed grip — and be…
Analysis
The Serve
The pickleball serve is UNDERHAND and, unlike tennis, is mostly about consistency and DEPT…
Analysis
Return of Serve
The return is your first aggressive opportunity and a key positional move: you can swing m…
Analysis
The Dink
The dink is the most-hit and most-defining shot in pickleball — a soft, arcing shot from a…
Analysis
Kitchen Rules & Positioning
The 'kitchen' (the non-volley zone, or NVZ — the 7-foot area on each side of the net) is t…
Intermediate
5The Third-Shot Drop
The third-shot drop is widely considered the most important — and most touch-demanding — s…
Analysis
Forehand Drive
The forehand drive is your aggressive groundstroke — a firmer, faster shot (often with top…
Analysis
Backhand Drive
The backhand drive is the other-side groundstroke, hit either one- or two-handed. Many pic…
Analysis
The Volley
A volley is any ball you hit out of the air (before it bounces), mostly at the kitchen lin…
Analysis
Baseline-to-Kitchen Transition
Getting from the baseline to the kitchen line — the 'transition zone' — is one of pickleba…
Analysis
Advanced
5Cross-Court Dinking
Cross-court dinking is the staple of high-level kitchen play — dinking DIAGONALLY across t…
Analysis
The Reset
A reset is a defensive soft block that takes pace OFF a hard-driven ball and drops it gent…
Analysis
Overhead Smash
When opponents float a ball high (a pop-up or weak lob), the overhead smash is your put-aw…
Analysis
Speed-Ups & Hand Battles
A 'speed-up' is suddenly attacking a dink or low ball with pace to catch opponents off gua…
Analysis
Footwork & Court Movement
Good footwork ties the whole game together — and in pickleball it has a distinctive flavor…
Analysis
Insane
4The Erne
The Erne (named after Erne Perry) is a spectacular, advanced shot: you jump or step to a p…
Analysis
Around-the-Post
The Around-the-Post (ATP) is one of pickleball's most spectacular legal shots: when a ball…
Analysis
Soft-Game Strategy & Patience
At the highest level, pickleball is won in the soft game through PATIENCE and intelligent …
Fall Prevention & Safe Movement
This is the most important SAFETY lesson in pickleball, and it's distinctive: pickleball s…
Analysis