One of the best tips you can remember in pickleball is the concept that straight lines give straight lines and angles give angles. I know this sounds like a riddle but it is sage advice to remember in order to determine your next shot selection.
When you give an angle, meaning you hit a diagonal shot, that gives angles for them to come back at you. In other words, if you hit the ball to the right side of the court, your opponent than has an angle from their right side to go up the line of hit cross court.
In choosing a shot, determine if your opponents are better dinkers than you and your partner. If they are, then it is a better shot selection to hit the ball down the middle and go for your opponent’s inside foot. The less of an angle that you give your opponent, the less of an angle that they’ll be able to hit back to you.
If you find yourself losing points at the kitchen line because your opponent is dinking really aggressive angles to you, start dinking more straight lines back at them so that you get fewer angles in return.
This is also true when it comes to speeding up the ball. This is why you will hear people say don’t speed up crosscourt because when you speed up crosscourt you’ll get your partner in trouble. Typically that ball is not coming back at you, it’s going to come back at your partner.
When you’re speeding up the ball, try your best to actually speed up straight in front of you, meaning at the person right in front of you. That ball is typically going to be coming back for you and you’re going to be ready for it, because you were the one that initiated the speed-up in the first place.
Remember that you should go cross court with people who are not as good as you. If you go for the angle with someone who is better than you, you have to expect that they will return it with angle that you and your partner may not be able to get. If however, you hit it down the middle against a better person, you will have a better opportunity to return the next shot.
Just remember that always hitting hero shots (including those with great angles) can come back and bite you.