5 Pickleball Myths

As people start to get into pickleball they eventually branch out to various resources to collect information. For most, this is how they learn the game. Inform, adapt, plateau, repeat.

Pickleball is an extremely easy sport to get hooked on and the learning curve is quick and sharp, especially at the beginning. There is, of course, a lot of information out ‘there’, some of it useful and some not so much.

As far as pickleball myths go, most are by now debunked, and yet the majority continue to float around the entry-level community, despite how much more familiar the game is on a global scale.

One example that comes to mind is “pickleball is all about the soft game”. Well, having the soft game is useful and necessary but it’s not all about it, as anyone can see, the game is evolving and power is in.

Has been in for a while. The myths that made this list are more questions or scenarios that continue to be asked by students that require some debunking.

Rush to the Non-Volley Zone 

When people play staggered - meaning one person is at the NVL and the other remains on the baseline, the game looks reminiscent of doubles tennis. It’s just not the way the game was meant to be played.

Pickleball is about hitting the right shots to get yourselves to the NVL with control. Controlling this area typically means you’ve got decent control of the overall rally.

But some players have it in their head that one must crash the line, meaning, get to it as fast as possible. This popular, erratic myth is actually a reality for many newer players and it could just be because they’re constantly being told to “move up to the line”, but are they being told why?

The biggest reason - literally and figuratively - is that staggering creates a large gap in the middle of the court for the other team to place the ball in. By standing side-by-side at the NVL, your team is creating a wall and making it far more difficult for the other team to win the point.

Most players are anxious when playing so close to the net, likely out of fear of getting the ball smashed at them. They’ll need to become informed and then practice how to keep the ball low, to prevent those easy attack shots.

If you play with someone who hangs out on the baseline, you’ll probably spend the entire game thinking “I really want to tell them to move up” or you do actually ask them to but they still won’t budge. It can be frustrating, but they simply don’t yet know what to do. That game may or may not be the right time to inform them either.

It’s a Game for Seniors

This is probably becoming less and less of a myth each day. As anyone already involved in the sport can see, pickleball is becoming more offensive as more young professionals enter, and this style is translating onto other courts.

Rec players are playing faster and harder (or maybe they always were) and coaches are coaching the offensive game. Anyhow, maybe pickleball took off amongst older adults but it wasn’t intended to be a seniors sport per say.

Back in 1965, the game was invented by older men, yes, but for their children, who were bored on a rainy summer day. That said, pickleball is very much under a transformation.

Before PPA and APP and MLP there was Chicken ‘n Pickle, pickleball at breweries, and pop-up pickleball. For years there have been clear indicators that pickleball isn’t a senior's sport, it’s constantly attracting younger players.

Photo credit: Sara McInnes

Dinker vs Banger 

Not even 5 years ago, the softer, more controlled side of pickleball was being taught everywhere. Dink the ball until someone forces an error. Dink the ball so the opponent cannot attack the ball.

The third shot drop is the best way to advance to the NVL. If you couldn't or didn’t want to dink your way through a match then you were probably a banger, smacking at the ball with little control and trying to end the rally quickly and with brute strength. So, players would kinda fall into one category or the other.

It’s not so much that these strategies have suddenly disappeared, the reality is that good players can dink and hit hard but they hit hard with control, it’s less so “banging”. These players can also attack the ball from a very low height making it harder to effectively dink.

You Can NEVER Go Into the Kitchen

Okay, this one can really grind people’s gears because if this were the case, the game would be literally impossible to play! If this were the case, players would be trying to drop shallow balls into the non-volley zone all day long.

Unfortunately, this myth probably exists simply because of how some people are explaining the rule. It’s not that “you can’t go into the kitchen until the ball has bounced” it’s “you cannot contact the ball in the kitchen until it’s bounced”.

Meaning, go into the kitchen all you want, just don’t actually hit the ball until it has bounced on the ground. Simple as that. Many players really get caught up in “oh, I wasn’t allowed to hit the ball yet” and can get quite frustrated at not being able to keep track of the rule during a rally.

For many people, it can take time to wrap their minds around this way of playing, but one thing that might be helpful is to think of the kitchen as a neutralizing component of the sport.

Without this 7ft zone, a 6ft tall person could stand beside the net and block the ball all day long. The game would be quick and painful and there wouldn’t exactly be a game. This non-volley zone prevents anyone from attacking at the actual net. This has created the true beauty of pickleball - that anyone can play with anyone.

Photo credit: Sara McInnes

Pickleball is Easy on the Body

There are many ex-tennis players transitioning into pickleball who claim they’ve “moved over” to the sport because it’s easier on the body. The perception is probably: smaller court, plastic ball, and an oversized paddle - how could this be physically demanding?

However, pickleball is a repetitive sport that requires agility, strength and endurance, and the higher the levels of these skills the more competitive the match. Additionally, how many times have you walked onto the court and started playing? And proceeded to play for 2-3 hours.

And then walked away from the court with no cool down? Unless a player properly warms up, cools down/stretches, and uses proper technique, pickleball can actually take a toll on the body - far more than people realize. There have been too many unfortunate scenarios of players injuring themselves from pickleball - make sure to properly warm up, cool down, and recover to help prevent injury.

This article was taken from our 'Control the Kitchen' Newsletter, if you're interested in receiving more content like this, please feel free to sign up using the subscribe section located at the bottom left of this page (or underneath the article if you're on mobile), thanks!