A Beginner’s Guide to Pickleball Fundamentals

If you’re stepping onto a pickleball court for the first time and finding yourself buried under an avalanche of tips, tricks, and techniques, you’re experiencing something nearly every beginner faces. The sport has exploded in popularity, and with that growth comes no shortage of self-proclaimed experts ready to tell you exactly how you should be holding your paddle, where you should stand, and what shots you should be hitting. Between scrolling through endless YouTube tutorials, reading contradictory advice in Facebook groups, and listening to that overly confident player at your local courts who insists their way is the only way, it becomes nearly impossible to separate signal from noise.

Pro player and content creator John Cincola recently offered something refreshingly straightforward: a framework built on three core fundamentals that actually matter for beginners. His approach isn’t about perfecting thirty different shot types or memorizing complex positioning charts. Instead, it’s about understanding the underlying logic of the game, improving your court awareness, and keeping your mechanics simple enough to actually execute under pressure.

Understanding the Why Behind Every Shot

The first fundamental Cincola emphasizes is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of beginner pickleball instruction: understanding why you’re hitting certain shots rather than just how to hit them. Most players get caught up in the mechanics of their swing, their grip, their stance, and their follow-through without ever stopping to consider the strategic reasoning behind shot selection. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how pickleball actually works.

At the heart of Cincola’s philosophy is a simple dividing line: the height of the net strap. This becomes your mental reference point for categorizing every ball you encounter as either attackable or unattackable. When your opponent makes contact with the ball below the height of the net, that ball is unattackable. When they make contact above it, that ball becomes attackable. This distinction might seem overly simplistic at first glance, but it’s grounded in basic physics and has profound implications for how you should respond.

Consider what happens when you’re hitting a ball from above net height. You have the ability to hit down on the ball, which means you can generate significant power while maintaining control. You can create sharp angles that drive the ball toward your opponent’s feet, forcing them into awkward positions and defensive postures. The geometry of the shot is working in your favor. You’re playing offense.

Now consider the opposite scenario. When you’re making contact below net height, you’re forced to hit up on the ball just to clear the net. This immediately limits how much force you can apply because you’re fighting against gravity rather than working with it. Hit it too hard and you’ll send it sailing out of bounds. The margin for error shrinks considerably. You’re essentially playing defense whether you realize it or not.

This is the foundational reason why the soft game exists in pickleball and why it’s so effective. When you hit a soft shot that lands in the kitchen, you’re deliberately forcing your opponent to make contact with the ball below net height. They’re stuck hitting up, which means they’re limited in how aggressively they can respond. If they try to hit it too hard from that position, they risk sending it long. So they’re likely going to hit it soft back to you, and suddenly you’re engaged in what’s often called a dinking rally, a game of patience, placement, and waiting for your opponent to make a mistake.

Conversely, when you hit the ball too hard from a defensive position, you’re actually giving your opponent a gift. The ball travels on a flatter trajectory and doesn’t drop as quickly, which means it stays above net height longer. Your opponent now has an attackable ball and can punish you for your aggressive choice. You’ve handed them the advantage on a silver platter.

Cincola’s black-and-white rule strips away the complexity: if you’re hitting an unattackable ball, hit it soft into the kitchen. If you’re hitting an attackable ball, hit it hard and down into the court. This simple framework removes so much of the guesswork that plagues beginners. You’re not thinking about dozens of possible shot options. You’re making a binary decision based on a clear visual reference point.

Moving to Better Position While the Ball Travels

The second fundamental addresses one of the most common and costly mistakes that beginners make: the watch-and-react pattern. Here’s how it typically unfolds. You hit a shot, then you stop moving and watch what happens. Your opponent hits the ball back, and only then do you spring into action, reacting to where the ball is going. Then you hit your shot, stop again, and watch. The cycle repeats. On the surface, this seems logical. You want to see where the ball is going so you can respond appropriately. But in reality, you’re wasting precious time.

While your ball is traveling through the air toward your opponent, you have a golden window of opportunity to improve your position on the court. In most situations in pickleball, better position means moving forward toward the kitchen line. The player who controls the net generally controls the point. Being at the kitchen line allows you to cut off angles, apply pressure, and take balls earlier in their trajectory when you have more options available.

The return of serve provides the perfect illustration of this principle in action. After you strike your return, you should immediately be moving forward at a near sprint while your ball is in the air. You’re not waiting to see what happens. You’re not watching to admire your shot. You’re using that travel time to close the distance to the net. By the time your opponent makes contact with their third shot, you’re already up at the kitchen line where you have a massive positional advantage, especially if they’re still stuck back near the baseline.

This concept of moving while the ball travels integrates perfectly with the first fundamental about attackable and unattackable balls. Your positioning decisions should be informed by the quality of the shot you just hit. If you hit a good, unattackable shot that’s soft and drops into the kitchen, move forward aggressively. You’ve put your opponent in a defensive position and you want to press that advantage by getting closer to the net. If you hit a poor shot that popped up and became attackable, hold your position or even take a step back. You’ve given your opponent the upper hand and you need to prepare to defend.

The rhythm becomes almost musical once you internalize it: soft shot forward, hard shot hold or retreat. This framework transforms court movement from something chaotic and reactive into something strategic and proactive. You’re always thinking one step ahead, using the time the ball is in the air to set yourself up for success on the next shot.

What makes this such a powerful tip for beginners is that it doesn’t require you to have perfect technique or years of experience. It doesn’t matter if your shots aren’t always landing exactly where you want them. What matters is developing the habit of moving with purpose while the ball travels. Getting yourself to a better position on the court might be the single biggest adjustment a beginner can make, and it costs nothing except awareness and effort.

Keeping Your Paddle and Play in Front of Your Body

The third fundamental addresses the technical side of the game, but in a way that’s remarkably simple and easy to implement. Cincola identifies the biggest mechanical mistake he sees across all skill levels: taking the paddle too far back. When your paddle goes behind your body during your backswing, several things happen, and none of them are good. You lose control over the paddle face. Your timing becomes inconsistent because you’ve added unnecessary movement. You create more opportunities for error. Essentially, you’re playing a harder version of the game than you need to.

The solution is deceptively simple: keep everything in front of your body. Cincola offers two practical mental models to help you implement this. The first is what he calls “the V.” Imagine your arms forming a 90-degree angle in front of your chest, creating a V shape. Your goal is to play everything inside that V. The ball should be in the V. The paddle should be in the V. Your contact point should be in the V. Everything stays more or less in front of your chest, within your natural field of vision and within a range of motion that you can control consistently.

The second method provides an even simpler checkpoint that you can use during actual play. Look down at your paddle right now and note its color. When you’re in your ready position between shots, you should be able to see that paddle color in your peripheral vision. As you begin your backswing for a shot, keep that peripheral awareness active. Watch for that color. The moment the paddle disappears from your peripheral vision, you’ve taken it too far back. If you can still see it out of the corner of your eye, you’re keeping it in that V and maintaining good positioning.

This isn’t about achieving robotic perfection on every single shot. That’s neither realistic nor necessary. What this technique provides is a simple, reliable checkpoint you can reference during matches when things get hectic. When you’re focused on the ball and thinking about strategy, it’s easy to let your mechanics slip. But if you’ve trained yourself to maintain that peripheral awareness of your paddle, you have a built-in correction mechanism that requires almost no conscious thought.

The beauty of keeping everything in front is that it naturally leads to more consistent contact, better control over your shots, and improved reaction time. When your paddle is in front of your body, you can see both the paddle and the ball in your field of vision simultaneously. You can make micro-adjustments as the ball approaches. You can respond to unexpected bounces or spins more effectively. You’re working with your body’s natural mechanics rather than fighting against them.

How These Fundamentals Work Together

What elevates Cincola’s framework above the typical collection of disconnected tips is how these three fundamentals reinforce and build upon each other. They’re not isolated skills you practice separately. They’re interconnected layers of the same foundation.

Understanding shot selection based on attackable versus unattackable balls informs every positioning decision you make. When you know you’ve hit a good defensive shot, you know you can move forward aggressively. When you know you’ve given your opponent an attackable ball, you know you need to hold or retreat. The strategic understanding drives the tactical movement.

Your positioning decisions then directly impact your ability to execute sound mechanics. When you’re in good position on the court, you have more time to prepare for shots. You can keep your paddle in front of your body more easily because you’re not stretching or lunging desperately to reach balls. You’re balanced and ready. The tactical movement enables the technical execution.

And when your mechanics are simple and consistent, you can focus more mental energy on strategy and positioning rather than worrying about whether you’re holding your paddle correctly or taking the right kind of backswing. The technical execution frees up bandwidth for strategic thinking.

This interconnected approach is what separates effective instruction from the kind of random tips that clutter social media. Each element supports the others, creating a coherent system rather than a jumbled collection of things to remember.

For Someone New to Pickleball: Understanding the Basics

If you’re completely new to pickleball or still trying to wrap your head around why certain things matter, let’s break this down in the most accessible way possible. Think of pickleball as a game of three distinct zones and two basic questions.

The three zones are: below the net, at net height, and above the net. Every ball you encounter exists in one of these zones when you make contact with it. The two basic questions are: Can I attack this ball? And where should I be standing?

When you’re hitting a ball from below net height, you’re in the defensive zone. You can’t really attack from here because you’d have to hit up and over the net, which limits your power and increases your risk of hitting it out. So your goal is simple: hit it soft and make your opponent hit from below net height too. You’re essentially saying, “I can’t attack right now, so I’m going to make sure you can’t attack either.”

When you’re hitting a ball from above net height, you’re in the offensive zone. Now you can hit down on the ball, which gives you control and power. This is when you should be aggressive. You’re essentially saying, “I have the advantage right now and I’m going to press it.”

As for where you should be standing, the general rule is that the closer you are to the net, the better. The seven-foot no-volley zone right in front of the net, called the kitchen, is where you want to spend most of your time once the rally gets going. From there, you can reach more balls, cut off angles, and put pressure on your opponents. So whenever you hit a shot, your default instinct should be to move forward unless you’ve hit a weak shot that your opponent can attack.

The paddle positioning is just about keeping things simple. Imagine playing ping pong or table tennis. You don’t wind up like you’re hitting a baseball. You keep the paddle in front of you and make compact swings. The same principle applies to pickleball. The less your paddle moves around, the more consistent and controlled your shots will be.

Once you understand these basics, everything else starts to make more sense. You’re not memorizing hundreds of rules and techniques. You’re understanding a few core principles that explain why certain strategies work and others don’t.

Putting It Into Practice

The challenge with any instructional framework isn’t understanding it intellectually. Most people can read these concepts and nod along, thinking they make perfect sense. The challenge is actually implementing them under the pressure and chaos of a real game when balls are flying and you’re trying to remember ten different things at once.

This is where Cincola’s approach really shines. Each of these three fundamentals can be distilled into a simple question or checkpoint you can reference during play. Before each shot, ask yourself: Is this ball above or below the net? This tells you whether to hit soft or hard. After each shot, ask yourself: Did I hit a good shot or a bad shot? This tells you whether to move forward or hold position. During each shot, check: Can I see my paddle in my peripheral vision? This tells you whether your mechanics are sound.

Three questions. Three checkpoints. That’s manageable even when your heart rate is up and you’re focused on winning the point. You don’t need to think about grip pressure and weight transfer and paddle face angle and footwork and a dozen other variables. You just need to answer three simple questions.

Start by focusing on just one of these fundamentals for an entire session or even a full week of play. Get comfortable with distinguishing attackable from unattackable balls and making the appropriate shot selection. Once that becomes more automatic, layer in the positioning principle. Start moving while the ball travels instead of watching and reacting. Once you’ve got both of those working together, add the mechanical checkpoint of keeping your paddle visible in your peripheral vision.

This progressive approach prevents you from getting overwhelmed and allows each fundamental to become habitual before you add the next layer. Within a few weeks, you’ll find that these principles have become so ingrained that you’re no longer consciously thinking about them. They’ve become part of how you naturally play the game.

Why This Approach Works Better Than Most Advice

The pickleball instruction space is crowded and often contradictory. You’ll find detailed breakdowns of seventeen different dinking techniques, complex drilling routines, paddle reviews that promise instant improvement, and endless debates about grip styles and paddle materials. None of that is necessarily wrong, but most of it isn’t particularly useful for beginners.

What Cincola offers is different because it’s built on principles rather than techniques. A principle explains why something works. A technique shows you how to do something. Principles are transferable and adaptable. Techniques are specific and rigid. When you understand principles, you can figure out techniques on your own. When you only know techniques, you’re lost the moment you encounter a situation that doesn’t fit the exact scenario you practiced.

Understanding that attackable balls should be hit hard and unattackable balls should be hit soft is a principle. It explains the underlying logic of shot selection. Once you grasp this, you can apply it to serves, returns, dinks, drives, lobs, and every other shot in pickleball. You don’t need separate instructions for each situation because you understand the why.

The same applies to positioning and mechanics. Move forward after good shots and hold after bad shots is a principle that explains court movement. Keep your paddle in front of your body is a principle that explains efficient mechanics. These principles work whether you’re playing singles or doubles, whether you’re using a power paddle or a control paddle, whether you’re on an indoor court or an outdoor court. They’re universal.

This is why beginners who focus on principles tend to improve faster than those who collect techniques. They’re building a foundation that supports everything else rather