Chasing Down Lobs

The lob is a high, arching shot that will carry over the player's heads and out of reach of their paddles, landing in the back of the court.

The bounce off of an effective lob will carry the ball outside of the court. The reason a good lob is so effective is that when it catches a player off guard, they’re often rooted into the ground and unable to move to chase after the ball.

This blog post will dive into some of the best ways to chase down and retrieve lobs from your opponents...

Image Credit: Pickleball Tips

If you are able to keep track of the ball as it’s being lobbed over your head, and then run it down, you have a few options to counter with:

- Drive

- Lob

- Drop

Most players will try to drive the ball or lob it back, believing this to be the more effective option. Chasing down a good lob takes a quick reaction and a burst of speed to run down the ball, which isn’t always easy for players.

By the time a player gets to the ball, reason often goes out the head and oftentimes a player will open up their arm with a huge backswing, and sending back a powerful drive overrides logic.

A drive that dips with topspin is a great response to the lob, but a flat, strong drive will carry out the back of the court. Additionally, the team that executed the lob will be standing at the non-volley line ready for whatever ball comes back their way.

They will have plenty of time to see the drive and do what they want with it ie. drop, block, or let the ball fly past them (and out of bounds).

The risky aspect to lobbing the ball back to the other side is the amount of distance one has to cover with the counter-lob.

To make the counter-lob an effective one - that doesn’t set up the opponent for an overhead smash - the ball pretty much has to travel the full length of the court. Sending a high, arching ball 40+ feet while in motion is pretty challenging.

So why do people try this shot? Well, again I believe that, partially, a bit of reason goes out of the head when frantically chasing down the ball, also, to execute the drive or drop option requires a level of skill that some folks have not yet acquired.

Overall, the drive and counter-lob are high-risk, low-percentage options and while they may work out from time to time, it’s not the overall smartest option to go with.

The drop shot is an extremely effective option but the most difficult of the 3. To execute this shot, one must run around the ball to get behind it so that they can move forward and hit the ball forward, into the opponent’s non-volley zone.

Essentially, they are attempting a “third shot drop”. This shot doesn’t come easily or naturally for most players. As with everything else, practice makes good pickleball.

To work on this shot, it’s best to stay alert and prepared for a possible lob, stay up on the balls of the feet to be able to pivot and shift laterally (side to side) and/or vertically (forward and backward) across the court.

Do your best to keep your eye on the ball and move with the trajectory of the ball, shuffling sideways will allow you to maintain a sense of where this ball is heading. Get close to the body, open the paddle as you’re moving towards the ball and then set and plant your body as you hit through the shot.

Drilling this exact scenario will really help a player feel less intimidated by this shot and by drilling it with your partner, you can work out who should take the lob (oftentimes, a lob will travel cross-court so it’s usually the player who didn’t get lobbed who will chase down the ball).

Staying alert and ready for the lob is never a bad thing. There are plenty of players who like to lob, anticipating the move can be half of the task. Reading a player's body language will help you anticipate a lob.

Oftentimes, the person's head will be down, focused on the ball, and their paddle will be open-faced and likely pointing down to the ground - this is so the person can get underneath the ball to create that high arch.

Their footwork also might suggest a lob, they get their body close to the ball and are stepping in with their non-dominant foot to be able to elevate the ball even more.

Some extra food for thought: there is something to be said about “lobbing etiquette”, not sure if that’s an actual term or not, but it’s something that I consider when playing against various people.

If I’m playing against someone with less or a lack of mobility, rotator cuff issues, or is brand new to the game I’ll avoid lobbing them. If the court I am playing on does not have a lot of baseline space I won’t lob or expect to be lobbed either.

Others may not feel the same way, but winning off of lobs in the scenarios just mentioned isn’t really a win in my books. Lobbing in tournaments or a competitive scenario is a different thing though.

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