6 Pickleball Cheat Codes the Pros Actually Use
When you watch professional pickleball players on the court, there’s something almost magical about how they move. They seem to anticipate every shot before it happens, their paddles find the perfect angle with minimal effort, and they control rallies with an ease that makes the game look effortless. But here’s the truth: that magic isn’t innate talent or some genetic gift. It’s the result of understanding specific strategies, positioning tricks, and technical adjustments that most recreational players simply don’t know about. These are the cheat codes of pickleball, and they’re not secret anymore.
Tanner Tomassi, whose insights on pickleball strategy have helped thousands of players elevate their game, has identified six specific techniques that professionals use consistently in competitive play. These aren’t complicated systems that require years to master or athletic abilities beyond the average person. They’re strategic adjustments to how you position yourself, how you grip your paddle, and how you think about court geometry. The best part? Once you understand the logic behind each one, they become second nature, transforming your game from reactive to proactive.
Understanding the Pro Mindset: Why Small Adjustments Create Big Results
Before diving into the specific cheat codes, it’s worth understanding why these techniques work so well. Professional pickleball isn’t about hitting harder or running faster than everyone else. It’s about being in the right place at the right time, making your opponent hit the shots you want them to hit, and eliminating unforced errors from your game. Every one of these cheat codes addresses a specific aspect of court control, shot selection, or positioning.
For players who might be relatively new to pickleball or who haven’t spent much time analyzing professional play, these concepts might seem counterintuitive at first. Why would stepping forward into a shot matter so much? How can the direction of your first dink determine who controls an entire rally? The answers lie in the physics of the game and the psychology of your opponents. When you understand both, you stop playing pickleball by instinct alone and start playing it with intention.
What makes these six cheat codes particularly valuable is that they compound on each other. Master one, and your game improves incrementally. Master three or four, and you’ll notice a qualitative shift in how you play. Opponents who used to dominate you will suddenly find their shots coming back with interest. Rallies you used to lose will start going your way. And perhaps most importantly, you’ll begin to see the court the way professionals do, as a chess board of angles, positioning, and strategic opportunities.
Cheat Code 1: Control the Rally Before You Even Dink
The first cheat code might sound deceptively simple, but it fundamentally changes how you approach every rally at the kitchen line. When you’re setting up at the non-volley zone, your first three dinks should go crosscourt, not straight ahead to the player directly in front of you. This isn’t just a stylistic preference or a random pattern. It’s a strategic principle that determines who controls the rally from the opening exchange.
The player who initiates crosscourt dinking first gains a significant tactical advantage. When you dink straight ahead, you’re essentially playing into your opponent’s hands, allowing them to dictate the pace and direction of the rally. Crosscourt dinks, by contrast, give you more court to work with. The diagonal distance across the court is longer than the straight-ahead distance, which means you have more margin for error. This additional space allows you to be more aggressive with your placement without risking the ball going out or popping up high enough for your opponent to attack.
There’s also a psychological component to this strategy. When you consistently hit crosscourt first, you’re forcing your opponent to respond to your pattern rather than establishing their own. They become reactive rather than proactive, which means you’re controlling the tempo of the rally. This might seem like a subtle distinction, but at higher levels of play, the difference between dictating and reacting often determines who wins the point.
For players new to competitive pickleball, this cheat code requires breaking a common habit. Many recreational players instinctively dink to whoever is directly in front of them because it feels natural and straightforward. But natural and strategic aren’t always the same thing. Start consciously directing your first three dinks crosscourt in practice games, and you’ll quickly notice how much more control you have over rallies. Your opponents will be reacting to your shots rather than attacking your weaknesses, and you’ll find yourself winning more points simply because you started them on your terms.
Cheat Code 2: Your Grip Pressure Is Probably Wrong
Grip pressure is one of the most underappreciated variables in pickleball, and according to professional players, roughly 95% of amateur players get it wrong. The mistake isn’t that they grip too tightly or too loosely in general, it’s that they use the same grip pressure for every single shot. This fundamental misunderstanding of paddle mechanics costs recreational players countless points, and the fix is surprisingly straightforward once you understand the physics involved.
For soft shots like dinks and drop shots, you need a loose grip, somewhere around a 3 out of 10 in terms of pressure. Think of your paddle as a sponge when you’re hitting these delicate shots. A loose grip allows the ball to absorb into the paddle face, which gives you maximum control over pace and placement. The paddle has time to compress slightly on contact, which naturally takes speed off the ball and helps you keep it low over the net. This is why some players can dink with incredible touch while others struggle to keep the ball from popping up, it’s often not about their swing technique but about how firmly they’re holding the paddle.
Hard shots, on the other hand, require a tighter grip. When you’re driving the ball or hitting a speed-up shot, you want minimal flex in your paddle. A firm grip ensures that all the energy from your swing transfers directly into the ball rather than being absorbed by paddle compression. The ball comes off the paddle face faster and with more authority. Same paddle, same swing path, but completely different results based solely on grip pressure.
This distinction between soft-grip and firm-grip shots is something professionals adjust instinctively throughout every point. They’re constantly modulating their grip pressure based on the shot they’re about to hit. For recreational players, this requires conscious practice at first. Before every dink, remind yourself to loosen your grip. Before every drive, tighten it. With enough repetition, this adjustment becomes automatic, and you’ll find that your soft shots stay lower and your hard shots have more pace, all without changing anything else about your technique.
Cheat Code 3: The Two-Step Zone Is Your Secret Weapon
Court positioning when your partner is hitting shots is an area where recreational players often make critical errors. The most common mistake is binary thinking: either staying back and watching or sprinting all the way to the kitchen line regardless of shot quality. This cheat code introduces a middle ground that professional players use constantly, and it’s based on a simple principle: take two steps forward when your partner is hitting a drop shot, then assess before committing further.
The two-step zone works because it gives you maximum flexibility while keeping you in an advantageous position. When you see the ball heading toward your partner and recognize they’re going to hit a drop shot, immediately take two steps forward toward the net. This movement should be instinctive and automatic. But here’s the crucial part: after those two steps, keep your eyes on how your partner actually executes the shot. If the drop is good, staying low and landing in the kitchen, you’ve already got a head start toward the net. You can complete your advance to the non-volley zone and apply immediate pressure on your opponents’ response.
If the drop is bad, floating high or landing short where it can be attacked, you’re only two steps in. This means you can quickly retreat or at minimum stop your forward momentum and prepare to defend against an aggressive return. The two-step zone keeps you in a position where you can respond effectively to either scenario. Compare this to players who immediately sprint all the way to the kitchen line before knowing whether the drop is good or bad. When that drop floats high and gets attacked, they’re caught out of position, too close to the net to defend effectively, and the point is often over before they can recover.
This strategy also applies to other situations where your partner is hitting and you need to decide how aggressively to advance. The principle is the same: move forward with intention, but build in a checkpoint where you assess shot quality before fully committing. This measured approach to court positioning is one of the clearest distinctions between advanced players and intermediate ones. Advanced players are constantly reading shot quality and adjusting their position accordingly, while intermediate players often commit to a position before they have enough information.
Cheat Code 4: Dead Dinks Aren’t a Mystery
Reading your opponent’s intentions is a skill that separates good players from great ones, and nowhere is this more apparent than when dealing with dead dinks. A dead dink is a ball that sits in front of your opponent with no pace, no spin, and no momentum, essentially a sitting target. When your opponent faces a dead dink, they’re going to speed it up. It’s not a question of if but where, and this cheat code gives you a positioning strategy that dramatically improves your odds of successfully defending the attack.
The key principle is simple but powerful: put the center of your chest directly in front of the ball before your opponent hits it. This positioning adjustment fundamentally changes the geometry of the point in your favor. Instead of having to defend the entire court, which is impossible from a single position, you only need to defend your body. By positioning yourself directly in line with the ball, you’ve cut off the most dangerous angle, the straight-ahead speed-up that would otherwise be hit directly at or through you.
This positioning strategy works because it forces your opponent to hit around you rather than through you, and it allows your partner to cover the middle and opposite side of the court more effectively. When you’re correctly positioned in front of the dead dink, any shot hit to your side is relatively easy to block because it’s coming straight at your paddle. Your partner, knowing you have that angle covered, can shade slightly toward the middle and be ready for anything hit to their side or through the center. Suddenly, what seemed like an overwhelming defensive challenge becomes manageable because you’ve split the court responsibilities logically based on ball position.
Many recreational players make the mistake of staying in a generic defensive position, somewhere in the middle of their half of the court, when they see a dead dink in front of their opponent. This leaves them vulnerable to being beaten in multiple directions because they’re not prioritizing the highest-percentage shot. By moving to position your chest directly in front of the ball, you’re making a read based on probability and geometry. You’re acknowledging that the most likely and most dangerous shot is straight ahead, and you’re taking it away before it happens. This is next-level strategic thinking that looks simple once you understand it but makes an enormous difference in your defensive success rate.
Cheat Code 5: Your Footwork Is Holding You Back
Footwork is the foundation of every sport involving a ball, and pickleball is no exception. One of the most common technical flaws among recreational players, particularly those without a tennis or racquet sports background, involves what they do with their feet when preparing to drive the ball. The mistake is stepping backward away from the incoming ball rather than stepping forward into it, and this single error cascades into multiple problems that limit both power and court positioning.
When you step backward to hit a drive, you’re killing your momentum before you even make contact with the ball. Your weight is moving away from the net, which means you have to generate all your power from your arm and shoulder rather than using your body weight and forward momentum. This results in drives that lack pace and depth, making them easier for opponents to handle. Additionally, stepping back means you’re starting from deeper in the court, which extends the distance you need to cover to get to the kitchen line for the next shot in the rally.
The correct technique is to step forward into the ball as you prepare to drive it. This forward step accomplishes multiple things simultaneously. First, it gets your weight moving in the direction you want the ball to go, which adds natural power to your shot without requiring additional effort. Your body weight transfers through the ball, creating effortless pace. Second, stepping forward means you’re already moving toward the net, which positions you closer to the kitchen line for your next shot. This seemingly small adjustment can save you several steps on your approach to the net, which translates to getting into offensive position faster than your opponents.
This footwork principle is related to a concept in tennis and other racquet sports called hitting off your front foot versus your back foot. When you hit off your front foot, your weight is transferring forward through the contact point, creating natural power and keeping you balanced and moving in the right direction. When you hit off your back foot, your weight is either stationary or moving backward, which robs you of power and leaves you out of position. For pickleball specifically, where court positioning is crucial and the kitchen line is the dominant strategic location, hitting off your front foot isn’t just about power, it’s about court positioning and being ready for the next shot.
Players who consistently step forward into their drives find that their entire game flows more smoothly. They hit harder with less effort, they get to the net faster, and they’re in better position throughout each point. This adjustment requires conscious attention at first, especially for players who have developed the habit of stepping back. But with deliberate practice, stepping forward becomes automatic, and the benefits compound across every aspect of your game.
Cheat Code 6: The Backhand Flick Positioning Trick
The final cheat code comes from Eric Oncins, a top 10 PPA player, and it addresses a common limitation that many players experience with their backhand flick shot. If you find yourself only able to hit your backhand flick crosscourt, the problem isn’t your swing mechanics or your paddle, it’s your court positioning. This insight reveals how professional players create shot options that seem impossible to recreational players simply by standing in smarter spots on the court.
When you’re planted in one position at the kitchen line and you hit a backhand flick, your natural swing path is constrained by your body position and the geometry of your stance. For most players, this means the backhand flick naturally goes crosscourt because that’s the direction your paddle face and swing path are oriented. There’s nothing wrong with the crosscourt backhand flick, it’s a valuable shot. The problem is when it’s your only option, because opponents can read it and position themselves accordingly.
The solution is elegantly simple: take one step to the side before you hit the backhand flick. This lateral step changes everything about the available angles. When you move slightly to your left or right, depending on the specific position of the ball and your target, you open up the entire court. Suddenly, you can flick down the line, through the middle, or crosscourt, all with the same basic swing. The shot doesn’t change, your positioning does, and that positional adjustment creates multiple options where before there was only one.
This principle applies broadly beyond just the backhand flick. Professional players are constantly making small positional adjustments to create better angles and more shot options. They’re not hitting fundamentally different shots than recreational players; they’re standing in places that make certain shots possible and effective. A ball that seems impossible to angle sharply becomes an easy put-away when you take one step to the side before hitting it. A shot that seems like it can only go in one direction suddenly has three different options when you adjust your position by a foot or two.
For recreational players trying to expand their offensive repertoire, this cheat code is particularly valuable because it doesn’t require learning new shots or developing new swing patterns. You don’t need to change your technique at all. You just need to become more aware of how your court position affects your available options and make small adjustments before you hit. Take one step, create three options instead of one, and watch as your opponents struggle to read your increasingly varied attack.
Implementing These Cheat Codes Into Your Game
Understanding these six cheat codes intellectually is one thing, but implementing them in actual play is where the real challenge lies. The good news is that none of these strategies require exceptional athletic ability or years of practice to begin seeing results. They’re conceptual adjustments and small technical changes that can be integrated into your game systematically, one at a time, until they become automatic.
The most effective approach is to focus on one cheat code at a time rather than trying to implement all six simultaneously. Pick the one that resonates most with your current game or addresses your biggest weakness. If you struggle with dinking exchanges, start with controlling the rally by hitting crosscourt first. If you find your soft shots keep popping up, focus on grip pressure. If you’re constantly out of position, work on the two-step zone concept. Give yourself several practice sessions and recreational games to focus on that one adjustment until it starts to feel natural.
Once you’ve internalized one cheat code to the
