The centerline on the pickleball court is a way of tracking whether the ball is being served on the correct side of the court or not but oftentimes people also think it’s meant to help divide a team on correct sides of the court.
Playing with this mindset (that one side of the court is yours and the other side is your partner’s) is going to limit you and will most likely cause confusion when the ball travels through the middle of the court.
I reflect back to when I attempted doubles tennis for a few seasons; one person tends to stay back and play the baseline while the other teammate stays closer to the net searching for the poach opportunity.
In pickleball, the poach opportunity can occur from the baseline, transition zone, or NVL.
Anyway, let's dive in, in this article, I discuss whether to poach, or not to poach!
Image credit: SportsEd TV
What is Poaching?
Poaching refers to one player crossing the centerline to hit the ball - usually as a volley - instead of their teammate, which is where the ball is headed.
To poach the ball is an aggressive and offensive play and when done successfully often results in that team winning the point.
A team would implement the poaching strategy for a number of various reasons, but the main ones being that they are looking to apply pressure on the opposing team, it will keep the opponent on their toes and alert, you want their strong player (on the forehand side) asserting their presence with an offensive play.
Quick Rewind
For the most part, players will play a side - right or left, in fact, I’ve written about being a left or right-sided player, and the center line is a great reference point of the court when players deploy this strategy.
Usually, the player on the left side is the stronger of the two teammates and will utilize their forehand (in the middle) as often as they can. This means they must cross that center line in order to assert themselves.
The better the opponent is at isolating the right-sided player, the further the left-side player will have to travel to get to the ball.
Usually, we want to allow the ball to move in its natural trajectory, so if you decide to intercept your partner and move the ball in another direction, then the interception should be a strategic choice rather than a choice done out of impulse (or possibly boredom?).
What I mean is, if you are being cut out of a rally or your partner is feeling all of the pressure from the other team, oftentimes, the need to overcompensate kicks in and impulsive shots are being taken, rather than strategic.
Most of the time we’re referring to cross court ball confusion being at the non-volley line, and this is because the majority of pickleball is played at the NVL, however, the confusion of who takes the middle ball can also occur at the baseline - who takes the third shot - and in the transition zone.
I especially find that teams get confused as to who takes the middle ball in the transition zone because the players are moving straightforwardly up to the NVL and likely have to stop that original momentum in order to shift to a lateral movement in order to reach that cross-court ball.
Image credit: Sarah Ansboury
In the image below we can see there are four players - and player “A” is hitting the ball to player “D”.
There are a few reasons why player “C” would cross the centerline to intercept the ball, some of which was already mentioned above.
- Remove some of the pressure off of player “D” by redirecting the ball over to player “B”
- A higher ball was struck by player “A” which player “C” could intercept as a volley attack
- Player “C” has not touched the ball in a while and is looking to stay engaged in the rally
- Player “C” wants to break the pattern of cross-court dinking between player “A” and “C”
Poaching as the Serving Team
The serving team will have the third shot opportunity, it’s usually on the third shot drive that the non-hitter will seek out the poach opportunity from the baseline.
That player will start to creep into the court as their partner is in motion to hit a drive, and wait to accelerate towards the NVL.
They are aiming to be at the NVL when the fourth shot is struck (by the opposing team) searching for a pop-up, which will give them an easy poach overhead smash.
Scenarios When This is Successful:
- A low, strong drive that the other team cannot control
- A very successful drop shot that forces the opponent to hit upwards on their fourth shot
- The poacher doesn’t move up too quickly to give away their positioning
On the opposite hand though, a weaker, low drive will be easier for the opponent to control, and will likely be able to place the ball away from the poacher.
A less effective drop shot will result in a volley by the opponent or at the very least, a low ball that cannot be poached; when the poacher is committed to the strategy, it’s quite hard to control their body and mind to switch from poach to low dinks.
When it’s Just Necessary
If you’ve ever experienced playing injured or playing with an injured partner (not that I condone this, but it does happen especially in tournament play), then one person covering the middle to support a fatigued or injured partner is just part of the game.
This means a lot of poaching. A very recent and high level pickleball example is Ben Johns and Collin Johns in the semifinals of the Cincinnati Open.
Collin Johns is not at 100% health in this tournament, yet they’ve made it to the semis and are playing a very strong team. Ben Johns has to cover more than 65% of the court; okay, so sometimes he chooses to play that way but in this match, he was playing about 85% of the court.
He was cutting off cross court balls from the baseline all the way to the non-volley line the entire match.
Their team was down one game in the match so in order for John’s brothers to come away with a win with this aggressive strategy, Ben had to increase his energy level by a significant amount in games two and three.
There are also times when it’s not necessary to poach the ball - I would say most of the situations occur during recreational games - but I personally would not poach the ball against a team that was at a much lower skill level or if I’m beating a team by a significant score.
In a tournament situation, I may be more cautious about poaching the ball if the score is locked in at 9-10-2 in the third game. I also do not look to poach the ball on the backhand, as my overhead backhand is far weaker than the forehand.
Finally, be sure that your partner is aware that poaching is “a thing” in pickleball, so they’re not caught off guard by your movement and interception. Poaching is such an effective play when done strategically and properly.
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Image credit: Racket Sports World
Protip: Keep the swing very compact and short, try not to accelerate through the ball, only on contact, and don’t be afraid to elevate your body off the ground to make this shot happen!
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