As you move up the pickleball ladder, you learn that there are certain keys to success. The first step is working on your swing. Following that you learn the strategy of when to play the baseline and when to be at the kitchen. Hint: you should try to be at the kitchen more often than the baseline.Â
One of the more challenging strategies or techniques is how you work with your doubles partner. Most people divide the court in half. Typically, one player takes the forehand side and the other takes the backhand side. This is a good starting point. The first communication goal is to determine who will hand shots down the middle. You want to avoid both players going for the same shot and banging their paddles together. This is not a fun outcome.
A more advanced communication goal for the partners is learning how they coordinate their movements so that they work in unison. What I mean by that is if one partner moves to the sideline then the other partner should move to the middle.
Think of it as if you had a string connecting the partners. You should not be more than 4 or 5 feet away from each other at all times. The benefit of this coordinated movement is that you can cover more of the court and lower the probability of your opponents in hitting winning shots.
If you slide over when your opponent goes to the sideline to protect a shot up the line, you are taking away your opponent’s shot up the middle. All the opponent has left is to hit a shot cross court or a lob. The odds of these shots being a winner are much less that hitting one up the middle if you stayed in the center of your side.
The key on this coordination is communication between the partners. Both you and your partner need to know when to slide over so that you do not leave gaps. This is similar to the communication if you want to poach a shot from your partner.