The Best Pickleball Partners Know This (2024)

WEEK 18

Welcome back to the Road to Pro!

This week is all about poaching. When to do it, how to do it, and why it’s beneficial to you and your partner.

As always, I’ve answered a question that one of you submitted, and this week, Jeff gets a brand new paddle for his question! If you want the chance to win a paddle, click on the button below to submit your pickleball questions. Anyone whose question is featured in my newsletter will automatically win a new paddle!

Now let’s get to it!

Q&A Spotlight

This week’s question comes from Jeff. Time to win a paddle!

Answer: First, let’s define poaching. This is when you take a ball (usually out of the air) that was meant for your partner instead of you. There are two very common situations where this can happen:

Let’s break it down.

Off the fourth shot

Imagine that you or your partner serves the ball and plans to hit a third shot drop after the return. Whoever is not hitting the third shot can be looking for opportunities to poach, and here’s how:

If your partner is the one hitting the drop, start moving forward slightly into the court while keeping an eye on your partner. As soon as they make contact with the ball, move forward to the net or stay back depending on how good the drop shot is.

If your partner hits a high drop with no spin that your opponents can attack, you should back up and be ready for defense. If the drop is lower and has enough spin to make it unattackable, you should move forward to the kitchen and look to poach the shot your opponent responds with.

For the visual learners out there, watch this section of the video below (1:35-2:00).

This works best when your partner sends a drop to the opponent directly in front of you. If it’s a great drop, you’ll be able to poach nearly any shot your opponent makes. The only way for them to make it impossible for you to poach is if they concede the position and hit a very soft dink.

Important note: the position of your opponent’s paddle will tell you everything you need to know. If their paddle is low to the ground while taking their shot, they are either going to:

Both scenarios usually result in imperfect shots, giving you a ball you can poach. Keep in mind that if your opponent steps back and allows the ball to bounce for a better shot, they will most likely hit a good dink or speed the ball up at you. Be aware of what your opponent is doing so you decide whether to move up and poach or stay back.

In a dink rally

Poaching in dinking rallies happens often in doubles. It’s usually done by the player whose forehand is in the middle; however, there are times when a player on the right side of the court can poach a ball with their backhand.

Imagine the player on the right side of the court is caught in a cross-court dinking rally. The player on the left can wait for a dink to poach from the air (see image below). The same is true if the player on the left is caught in a cross-court dinking rally, and the player on the right can reach over with their backhand and poach the ball.

Another useful poaching opportunity is when the player on the right is engaged in a cross-court dinking rally with no end in sight. Their partner can slide over and dink the ball straight across the net. The goal of this is for the person on the left side to change the direction of the dink rally to relieve pressure from their partner.

Start looking for situations like the ones I just described. You’ll be surprised how many poaching opportunities you’ll find.

If you have a question you’d like for me to answer, please click the button below to fill out the question submission form.

If your question is chosen for next week’s newsletter, you’ll win a free paddle!

Drill Highlight

Practice your poach

For this drill, you’ll need three people. Player A and Player B will stand on one side of the court at the baseline while Player C is at the kitchen on the other side (on either the left or right side). Player C sends easy deep shots to one player at the baseline. The player that receives it hits a third shot back to Player C.

The player at the baseline who is not hitting the drop begins to creep into the court, watching their partner’s shot, and either moves up to the kitchen and poaches the shot or stays back at the baseline. In response to the drops, Player C should mix up their shots by sending them to different parts of the court. Their goal is to try to prevent any poaches.

By practicing this drill, you’ll be able to create opportunities for yourself and your partner to poach more shots.

Tip of the Week

Three steps to success

To start training yourself to look for poaching opportunities off your partner’s drops, follow the progression of these three steps:

When you’re first trying to poach off the fourth shot in a drill or in a game, start with step one. Once you feel more confident with the first step, move onto the second, then the third. Breaking it down like this will make it more simple for you when first starting out. You’ll notice that you will get better and better at recognizing the signs of a good drop.

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