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Speed-ups

Pickleball / Popular

Recognise an attackable dink and speed the ball up with purpose.

What coaches agree on

  • Judge the dink by how high it bounces — a dead, neutral ball that peaks at or above net height is your cue to speed it up.
  • Make every dink and speed-up look the same: same paddle position, same stance, same pause, so your opponent can't read which one is coming.
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  • Aim speed-ups at the opponent's dominant-side shoulder or hip, the "chicken wing" zone, where a strong return is mechanically awkward for them.

Common mistakes

  • Speeding up while off-balance or backpedaling instead of set on both feet leaves no time to recover if the return comes back hard.
  • Winding up for a big, hard swing instead of a short brushing motion sends the ball into the net or long and telegraphs an easy, poppable return.