The ‘Traffic Light’ Trick for Conquering the Transition Zone

There’s a spot on the pickleball court that haunts even experienced players. It’s not the baseline, where you have time to set up your shots. It’s not the kitchen line, where you can control the pace of play. It’s that awkward stretch of real estate in between, a no-man’s-land where points collapse and frustration builds. We call it the transition zone, and if you’ve ever felt completely lost while standing there, you’re not alone.

The transition zone is where the game gets messy. You’re vulnerable, caught between the safety of playing back and the control you’d have up front. Pro player Mari Humberg recently tackled this exact challenge, offering a framework that makes navigating this treacherous area far less mystifying. What she shared isn’t just tactical advice, it’s a mental shift that changes how you think about the middle of the court entirely.

Understanding the Struggle Zone

Let’s start by pinpointing exactly where this problem area exists. If you walk about three steps forward from the baseline, you’ve entered what Humberg calls the struggle zone. This is transition territory, the red zone where most recreational players find themselves stuck far too often. It’s the area where you’re most vulnerable because you’re caught between two worlds: the safety of the baseline and the dominance of the kitchen line.

The core issue here is positioning. When you’re in the transition zone and your opponents are already planted at the net, they have a massive advantage. They’re hitting down on the ball while you’re hitting up. They can be aggressive while you need to be careful. Trying to match their power from this disadvantaged position is a recipe for disaster, yet that’s exactly what many players attempt to do.

The natural instinct when a ball comes at you hard is to hit it back even harder. But in the transition zone, that instinct is your enemy. Every time you try to initiate a firefight from the middle of the court against opponents who are already at the net, you’re playing right into their hands. They want you to speed the ball up because they can handle pace better from their superior position. What you need instead is a clear decision-making system that tells you exactly when to play soft and when to strike.

The Traffic Light System Explained

Humberg’s solution is brilliantly simple: use the height of the incoming ball to dictate your response. Think of it as a traffic light, where the ball’s position relative to your body tells you whether to stop and reset, proceed with caution, or go ahead and attack.

The red light comes into play when the ball is below your knee. At this height, you have no choice but to reset. You’re hitting up on the ball, which means any attempt to drive it with pace will likely sail long or pop up high enough for your opponents to smash. When you see red, your only job is to soften your hands, absorb the pace of the incoming shot, and drop the ball gently into the kitchen. There’s no glory in this shot, but there’s survival, and sometimes survival is the smartest play available.

The yellow light appears when the ball arrives between your knee and your hip. This is the maybe zone, the gray area where your decision depends on more than just ball height. If you’re perfectly balanced, if your feet are set, if you’re not reaching or leaning, then yes, you can consider countering with some pace. But if any of those conditions aren’t met, if you’re even slightly off balance or stretching for the ball, stick with the reset. The yellow light is a warning that a mistake here will be costly. It’s better to extend the rally than to hand your opponents an easy put-away.

The green light is what every player waits for: a ball that comes in above your hip. When you get a high ball and you’re well-balanced, you have permission to counter with authority. This is your opportunity to shift from defensive to offensive, to put pressure back on your opponents rather than simply absorbing theirs. The green light doesn’t mean you should swing wildly, it means the situation is finally in your favor and you can be aggressive without taking an unreasonable risk.

What makes this system so effective is its simplicity. You don’t need to run complex calculations in the split second you have to react. You just need to recognize the height of the ball and respond accordingly. Red means reset. Yellow means maybe, but probably reset. Green means attack. That’s it.

The Journey to the Kitchen Line

One of the most important insights Humberg offers is about pacing. Too many players treat the transition to the net like a sprint, rushing forward as quickly as possible with the belief that reaching the kitchen line faster is always better. But speed without control is just chaos, and chaos in the transition zone usually means lost points.

The truth is that getting to the kitchen line is a journey, not a destination you need to reach in one shot. If it takes you three shots to work your way forward, that’s perfectly fine. If it takes four, that’s fine too. What matters isn’t how quickly you arrive but that you arrive in a position to actually compete once you get there.

This means staying in an athletic stance as you move forward. It means getting low so you can handle balls at different heights without losing your balance. It means making contact in front of your body rather than letting the ball get beside you or behind you. Each of these fundamentals becomes exponentially more important when you’re in transition because you don’t have the margin for error that you’d have at the baseline or at the net.

Every shot you hit while advancing should be a calculated move to improve your position. You’re not just trying to keep the ball in play, you’re trying to create a situation where your next shot will be even better. Maybe that means hitting a deep return that gives you time to take two steps forward. Maybe it means dropping a ball into the kitchen that forces your opponents to hit up, allowing you to take one more step before their response arrives. The key is intentionality, making each shot serve the larger goal of reaching the net in a strong position.

Why Balance Matters More Than Speed

When you rush, you sacrifice balance. And when you sacrifice balance in the transition zone, your shots go sideways fast. You’ll pop balls up, hit them wide, or send them long because your body isn’t in a position to execute with precision. This is why Humberg emphasizes the athletic stance and controlled movement so heavily.

An athletic stance means your knees are bent, your weight is on the balls of your feet, and your paddle is up in front of you. It means you’re ready to move in any direction without having to reset your entire body first. When you’re balanced, you can adjust to balls that come at different speeds, spins, and heights. When you’re off balance, even easy balls become problematic.

Getting low is particularly crucial because so many balls in the transition zone arrive below the net. If you’re standing upright, you’re reaching down for these balls, which compromises your control. But if you’re already low, you can meet the ball with your paddle in front of you, maintaining the compact, controlled contact that leads to accurate shots.

Making contact in front of your body gives you the best chance to direct the ball where you want it to go. When the ball gets beside you, your options narrow. When it gets behind you, you’re just trying to get it back over the net with no real control over placement. Keeping the ball in front means keeping your options open, which is essential when you’re trying to navigate the most dangerous part of the court.

Why This Changes Your Game

The transition zone is where pickleball gets decided at every level. Recreational players struggle here because they don’t have a clear plan. Intermediate players struggle here because they try to do too much. Even advanced players can get into trouble if they make poor decisions about when to reset and when to attack.

What Humberg’s traffic light system does is remove the guesswork. You’re no longer standing in the middle of the court wondering what to do. You have a framework that tells you exactly how to respond based on objective criteria: the height of the ball and your balance. This transforms a chaotic, reactive situation into a manageable, strategic one.

When you commit to this approach, several things start to happen. Your points last longer because you’re not giving away free errors by trying to hit winners from bad positions. You’re less frustrated because you understand why certain shots work and others don’t. Your opponents have a harder time putting you away because you’re consistently making the right decision about when to defend and when to attack. And perhaps most importantly, you actually make it to the kitchen line more often, arriving there in a position to win the rally rather than just hoping to survive it.

The transition zone deserves more practice time than most players give it. It’s tempting to drill from the baseline or work on dinking battles at the kitchen line, and both of those are valuable. But the hardest part of pickleball, the part where the most points slip away, is right there in the middle. If you can master the struggle zone, if you can navigate it with purpose and precision, the rest of the game becomes significantly easier.

Breaking It Down for Beginners

If you’re relatively new to pickleball, the concept of the transition zone might feel a bit abstract. After all, when you’re still learning the basic strokes and rules, thinking about court positioning in this level of detail can seem overwhelming. But understanding this area of the court is actually one of the fastest ways to improve your game, even if you’re just starting out.

Think of the pickleball court as having three main zones. There’s the back, near the baseline, where you typically return serves and wait for opportunities to move forward. There’s the front, right behind the kitchen line, where the best players want to be because they can control the point from there. And then there’s the middle, the transition zone we’ve been discussing.

The reason the middle is so tricky is that it’s neither here nor there. You don’t have the time and space you’d have at the baseline, but you also don’t have the advantageous positioning you’d have at the net. You’re in between, which means you need to be extra careful about the shots you choose to hit.

The traffic light system gives you an easy way to remember what to do. When a ball comes at you low (below your knee), imagine a red light telling you to stop trying to be aggressive. Just hit a soft shot that drops into the kitchen, the non-volley zone right near the net. When a ball comes at you medium height (between your knee and hip), imagine a yellow light warning you to be careful. You might be able to hit it hard, but only if you’re balanced and ready. If you’re off balance or reaching, just play it safe with another soft shot. When a ball comes at you high (above your hip), imagine a green light saying you’re good to go. This is your chance to hit with some pace and put pressure on your opponents.

What makes this challenging is that you’re also trying to move forward while all this is happening. You want to get to that front position at the kitchen line, but you can’t just run up there. You have to move forward gradually, hitting shots as you go, making sure you’re balanced and ready for whatever comes back at you. It might take several shots to get there, and that’s completely normal. The mistake beginners often make is rushing forward, getting out of position, and then hitting wild shots that sail out of bounds or pop up for easy winners.

The key is patience. Let the point develop. Focus on making solid contact with each shot, staying balanced, and moving forward in small steps rather than big lunges. If you can do that, if you can be patient and disciplined in the transition zone, you’ll find yourself winning more points and feeling more confident on the court.

Practical Application and Practice

Understanding the traffic light system intellectually is one thing. Applying it consistently during live play is another. The challenge is that pickleball happens fast, and in the heat of a rally, it’s easy to fall back on instinct rather than executing your plan. This is where dedicated practice becomes essential.

One effective drill is to have a partner feed you balls at different heights while you position yourself in the transition zone. Start about three steps in from the baseline and have them send you balls below your knee, between your knee and hip, and above your hip. Practice recognizing the height and executing the appropriate response: reset on red, evaluate on yellow, attack on green. Do this enough times and the pattern becomes automatic.

Another valuable exercise is to play points where you’re required to hit at least two shots from the transition zone before reaching the kitchen line. This forces you to slow down your forward movement and focus on quality shots rather than rushing to the net. You’ll quickly discover that controlled, purposeful advancement is far more effective than frantic sprinting.

You can also work on this solo by hitting balls against a wall from the transition zone, focusing on the height at which the ball returns and practicing your response. While this doesn’t replicate the pressure of live competition, it does help build muscle memory for the different types of contact you need: the soft, absorbing touch for resets and the more aggressive drive for counters.

The most important thing is to be honest with yourself about your balance and positioning. It’s tempting to try to counter a ball that’s only medium height because you want to be aggressive, but if you’re leaning or reaching when you do it, you’re likely to make an error. Better to recognize your limitations in that moment, hit a solid reset, and wait for a better opportunity.

The Mental Game of the Transition Zone

Beyond the technical and tactical elements, there’s a significant mental component to succeeding in the transition zone. This is the part of the court where fear and hesitation creep in. You know you’re vulnerable. You know your opponents have the advantage. That knowledge can lead to tentative play, which often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The traffic light system helps with this because it gives you confidence. Instead of standing there feeling helpless, you have a clear plan. You know what you’re looking for and you know how to respond. That clarity reduces anxiety and allows you to execute more freely. You’re not second-guessing yourself because you have objective criteria guiding your decisions.

There’s also value in reframing how you think about the transition zone. Instead of seeing it as a place to avoid or rush through, view it as a normal part of point development. Every point involves transition unless you hit an outright winner from the baseline. Accepting this reality and preparing for it mentally makes the experience less stressful.

Part of this mental preparation is understanding that you will sometimes need to hit several resets in a row. That’s not a failure, it’s smart pickleball. If your opponents keep sending you low balls while you’re in transition, you keep resetting until either you reach the kitchen line or they make a mistake. There’s no shame in being patient. In fact, patience is often what separates winning players from those who beat themselves.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even with a clear system like the traffic light approach, there are common pitfalls that players fall into when dealing with the transition zone. Being aware of these mistakes can help you avoid them.

The first mistake is overestimating your position. Just because you’ve taken a step or two forward from the baseline doesn’t mean you’re in a good spot to be aggressive. You’re still in the danger zone, and trying to hit winners from there usually backfires. Respect the transition zone for what it is: a vulnerable position that requires careful shot selection.

Another common error is poor paddle preparation. If your paddle is down by your side when a ball comes at you in transition, you won’t have time to get it up and make solid contact. Keep your paddle up in front of you, ready position, so you can react quickly to balls at any height.

Players also frequently make the mistake of moving and hitting at the same time. It’s hard to stay balanced when you’re stepping forward as you’re making contact. Try to establish your feet before you hit, even if it means taking one fewer step forward. The quality of your shot matters more than gaining an extra foot of court position.

Finally, there’s the mistake of not adjusting your grip pressure. When you need to reset a ball, you want soft hands, which means a looser grip that can absorb pace. When you want to counter, you need a firmer grip that can generate pace. Many players use the same grip pressure for every shot, which makes it much harder to execute the appropriate response.

Integration with Overall Strategy

The transition zone doesn’t exist in isolation. How you handle it connects directly to your overall game plan and point construction. Understanding this bigger picture helps you make even better decisions when you find yourself in the middle of the court.

Your third shot, for example, has a huge impact on how your transition plays out. If you hit a deep, well-placed third shot