The Do’s and Don’ts of Attacking in Pickleball: A Complete Guide

In pickleball, there’s a seductive quality to the speed-up shot. The satisfying crack of the paddle, the ball zipping past your opponent, the immediate gratification of an offensive strike. But here’s what separates players who consistently win from those who rack up unforced errors: knowing the difference between a ball you can attack and a ball you should attack.

Coach and professional player Mari Humberg offers a perspective that might surprise recreational players: every ball in pickleball is technically attackable. The question isn’t whether you can physically attempt an aggressive shot on any given ball. The question is whether the context surrounding that ball makes attacking the strategically sound choice. This distinction might seem subtle, but it’s the foundation of smart, winning pickleball.

Understanding the Attack in Pickleball Context

For players newer to the sport or those still developing their strategic understanding, let’s clarify what we mean by “attacking” in pickleball. An attack or speed-up refers to any shot where you’re intentionally accelerating the pace of the rally, typically driving the ball with pace toward your opponents rather than continuing the soft dinking exchange at the kitchen line.

The kitchen, or non-volley zone, is the seven-foot area on both sides of the net where players cannot volley the ball. Most intermediate and advanced rallies involve extended dinking exchanges where players hit soft shots that bounce in or near the kitchen, waiting for the right opportunity to attack. The challenge lies in recognizing which opportunities are genuine and which are traps disguised as openings.

Think of attacking in pickleball like overtaking another car on a two-lane highway. Yes, you have the physical capability to pull into the oncoming lane at almost any moment. But whether you should depends on visibility, oncoming traffic, road conditions, and your vehicle’s position. Attacking in pickleball operates on similar principles of timing, positioning, and environmental awareness.

The Four Critical Situations Where You Should Hold Back

Mari Humberg’s framework centers on four specific scenarios where attacking becomes a low-percentage play. These aren’t absolute prohibitions, but they represent situations where the risk dramatically outweighs the potential reward. Understanding these scenarios helps players develop the discipline to resist the temptation of going for a winner when the odds aren’t in their favor.

When You’re Out of Position

Position on the pickleball court isn’t just about where you’re standing in relation to the sidelines. It’s about your ability to cover the court after you hit your shot. If you’re pulled wide toward the sideline or find yourself too far back from the kitchen line, attacking creates vulnerabilities that skilled opponents will immediately exploit.

The geometry of the court works against you when you’re out of position. Attacking from wide opens up the middle of the court, which becomes a highway for your opponents’ counter-attack. If you’re too far back, you’re hitting upward on the ball, making it difficult to generate downward angle, and you’re giving your opponents more time to read and react to your shot. The extra milliseconds matter enormously at higher levels of play.

What many players fail to recognize is that being out of position isn’t necessarily a mistake in itself. Your opponents’ previous shot might have been excellent, forcing you wide or back. The mistake comes in compounding that disadvantage by attacking from a compromised position. The smarter play involves resetting, getting back into position, and waiting for a better opportunity.

When You’re Off Balance

Balance in pickleball extends beyond simply not falling over. It refers to your body’s readiness to move explosively in any direction. When you’re reaching, leaning, or caught in the middle of a weight transfer, you’re off balance even if you’re still on your feet. This is similar to habits that cost points through poor positioning and timing.

Attacking from an off-balance position creates two problems. First, you cannot generate the same power or control as you could from an athletic, balanced stance. Your shot will likely be weaker or less accurate than intended. Second, and more importantly, you cannot recover quickly for the next shot. In pickleball’s fast exchanges, the counter-attack often comes back before you’ve fully recovered from your initial shot.

Players who attack while off balance frequently find themselves unable to handle the very predictable counter that comes back. They’ve sacrificed their defensive readiness for an offensive attempt that wasn’t sufficiently advantageous to justify the trade-off. The result is a point that was lost not on the attack itself, but on the inability to defend the next ball.

When the Ball Bounces Short in the Kitchen

This scenario is largely about physics and geometry. When a ball bounces in the front portion of the kitchen, close to the net, the angle required to attack it successfully becomes extremely difficult. You’re hitting from below the height of the net, trying to generate pace while keeping the ball from sailing long or hitting the net tape.

The margin for error on these shots is razor-thin. The ball needs to travel upward to clear the net, but not so upward that it pops up and allows your opponents an easy put-away. Adding pace to this equation makes the shot exponentially more difficult. Even professional players will typically choose to lift these balls softly rather than attack them.

What makes this scenario particularly deceptive is that the ball looks attackable. It’s sitting right there in front of you, seemingly waiting to be hammered. But that’s an illusion created by the ball’s proximity to you. The actual angles involved make attacking a low-percentage choice. Players who consistently go for these attacks will find most of their attempts either going into the net or popping up for easy counters.

When Your Opponents Are Well Balanced and Ready

Perhaps the most important factor in the attack decision isn’t about you at all. It’s about your opponents’ readiness. When both opponents are in good position, balanced, with paddles up and weight forward, they’re prepared to handle your attack. The element of surprise is absent, and they have time and positioning on their side.

Attacking into ready opponents often results in a counter-attack that’s faster and better placed than your initial attack. You’ve essentially started a firefight where your opponents have the better defensive position. Unless you can hit a perfect, unreturnable shot—which is rare—you’re likely to lose the exchange.

This principle reveals why patience is such a crucial skill in pickleball. Sometimes the right move is to keep dinking, keep moving your opponents, and wait until their readiness drops. That might take three more shots or it might take fifteen. Players who lack this patience and attack into ready opponents will win some points through sheer luck or exceptional execution, but they’ll lose more points than they win over the course of a match.

The Green Light Scenarios: When Attacking Makes Sense

Understanding when not to attack is only half the equation. The flip side involves recognizing the situations where attacking becomes the high-percentage play. These scenarios mirror the “don’t attack” situations but with the conditions reversed in your favor.

When You’re in Position

Good court position transforms the risk-reward calculation of attacking. When you’re positioned toward the center of your side of the court, at or near the kitchen line, with good balance, you can attack and immediately be ready for whatever comes back. Your recovery time is minimal because you don’t have far to move.

Position also affects your angles. From a centered position, you have access to both sides of the court and can attack into the gaps between your opponents. You’re not trying to hit a miracle shot from a bad position; you’re hitting a smart, aggressive shot from an advantageous position. The difference in success rates is dramatic.

What constitutes “good position” will vary based on skill level and individual mobility. A professional player might consider themselves in position from places where a recreational player would be compromised. The key is honestly assessing your own capabilities and setting standards that make sense for your game, not someone else’s.

When You’re Well Balanced

Balance creates options. When you’re in an athletic, ready position with your weight distributed properly, you can generate power efficiently and recover quickly for the next shot. This readiness gives you the confidence to attack because you know you’ll be able to handle what comes back.

Balance is also personal and situational. Some players can maintain good balance while reaching wide for a ball; others cannot. Some players are comfortable attacking while moving forward; others prefer to be set. The important thing is knowing your own balance thresholds and respecting them. Don’t adopt someone else’s standards if they don’t match your capabilities.

Developing better balance isn’t just about drilling attacking shots. It’s about footwork, core strength, and court awareness. Players who work on these foundational elements find that their range of attackable balls expands naturally because they can maintain balance in more situations.

When the Ball Is Short and They’re Not Ready

A short ball after a heavy dinking exchange can be an opportunity, but only if your opponents aren’t prepared to handle an attack. This scenario combines the ball’s characteristics with your opponents’ readiness. The ball alone isn’t enough; you need the context to be right.

When a ball sits up short and your opponents are recovering from being pulled wide, or they’re straightening up from a low dink, or their paddles are dropped, that’s when the short ball becomes a genuine opportunity. You’re not just attacking a ball; you’re attacking a situation where your opponents’ defenses are compromised.

The target for these attacks doesn’t always need to be a winner. Sometimes attacking the body of an off-balance opponent or poking the ball into the space they just vacated is sufficient. The goal is to capitalize on their momentary vulnerability, not necessarily to end the point immediately.

When Your Opponents Are Out of Position

This is the golden scenario for attacking in pickleball. When your opponents are pulled wide, too far back, or caught in poor court positions, the entire court opens up for your attack. You have multiple targets, and they have limited ability to cover them all.

Out-of-position opponents might be the result of your previous shot, which pulled them wide or back. Or it might be their own positioning error. Regardless of how it happened, recognizing when your opponents are compromised and capitalizing on that window is a hallmark of smart, strategic play.

The beauty of attacking opponents who are out of position is that you don’t need to hit a perfect shot. The court geometry is working in your favor. A medium-paced attack to the open court is often sufficient. You’re playing percentages, not trying for a highlight-reel winner.

Translating Theory Into On-Court Execution

Understanding these principles intellectually is one thing. Implementing them in the heat of a rally is another challenge entirely. The speed of pickleball doesn’t afford you time to run through a mental checklist before every shot. The decision to attack or not must become intuitive, which means drilling these concepts until they become automatic.

Mari Humberg’s demonstrations show the stark contrast between attacks that follow these principles and attacks that violate them. When she attacks from good position while her opponents are scrambling, the ball often ends the point immediately or sets up an easy finish. When she deliberately attacks from bad positions or into ready opponents, the results are predictable: weak returns, balls in the net, or fast counters that she can’t handle.

The teaching point here isn’t that attacking is bad or that you should only dink. It’s that attacking is a tool that works brilliantly when applied in the right situations and fails spectacularly when applied in the wrong ones. The skill lies in situation recognition, not in hitting harder or with more spin.

Developing Your Personal Attack Standards

One of the most valuable aspects of this framework is that it’s adjustable to your skill level. What constitutes “in position” or “well balanced” for a 5.0 player differs from what it means for a 3.5 player. The principles remain the same, but the application is personal.

Your job is to set honest standards for yourself. If you know you’re not comfortable attacking while stretched wide, then don’t do it, even if you see advanced players successfully attacking from those positions. If you know you need to be completely set and stopped before you can attack effectively, then wait for those moments rather than trying to attack on the move.

As your skills develop, your standards will naturally evolve. You’ll find that balls you once considered unattackable become opportunities. Your balance threshold will expand, your recovery speed will improve, and your range of attackable situations will grow. But that evolution happens through honest self-assessment and practice, not through wishful thinking or imitating players whose capabilities exceed yours.

The Immediate Implementation Strategy

The practical application of these concepts doesn’t require a training program or formal lessons. You can implement them in your very next game. Before every potential attack shot, run through the quick mental checklist: Am I in position? Am I balanced? Are my opponents ready?

If the answer to the first two questions is yes and the answer to the third is no, attack. If any of these conditions aren’t met, keep dinking and wait for a better opportunity. This simple decision tree will immediately improve your shot selection and point-winning percentage.

The discipline to wait for the right opportunity is perhaps the hardest skill to develop. Pickleball rewards patience more than most players initially realize. The urge to attack, to try for the winner, to end the point quickly is powerful. Resisting that urge when the conditions aren’t right separates players who win from players who should win.

Over time, this approach becomes second nature. You’ll start recognizing these situations without conscious thought. You’ll feel when you’re balanced and when you’re not. You’ll see your opponents’ positioning without having to consciously look for it. The decision-making process that initially requires deliberate thought will become automatic, freeing your mind to focus on execution rather than strategy.

Why Timing and Positioning Trump Power

The overarching insight from this framework is that attacking in pickleball isn’t primarily about power or paddle speed. Those elements certainly matter, but they’re secondary to timing, positioning, and situation recognition. A medium-paced attack from the right position at the right time will be more effective than a maximum-effort drive from a compromised position.

This is somewhat counterintuitive for players coming from other racquet sports where power often dominates. In tennis or racquetball, you can sometimes overpower opponents even from suboptimal positions. Pickleball’s smaller court, slower ball, and kitchen rule change this dynamic. Position and timing become paramount.

The evidence appears in every high-level match. Watch professional players and you’ll notice they don’t attack every ball that comes to them. They probe, they dink, they move their opponents, and they wait. When they do attack, it’s usually from excellent positions against compromised opponents. That patience and selectivity is a feature of elite play, not a bug.

Common Mistakes Even Experienced Players Make

Even players who understand these principles in theory often violate them in practice. The most common error is attacking out of frustration rather than opportunity. After several long rallies that ended in losses, players feel pressure to “do something” and start forcing attacks from poor positions. This compounds losses rather than reversing them.

Another frequent mistake is attacking based on the ball’s characteristics alone, ignoring context. A ball that sits up above the net looks attackable, so players attack it without considering their position, balance, or opponents’ readiness. The ball itself might be attackable in isolation, but context makes it a poor choice.

Players also commonly underestimate their opponents’ readiness. They see a ball they want to attack and focus entirely on their own execution, ignoring the fact that both opponents are in perfect position with paddles up. The attack might be well-executed, but it gets returned easily because the opponents were prepared.

Building the Discipline to Execute

Knowing what to do is simpler than actually doing it consistently. Building the discipline to attack only when conditions are favorable requires conscious practice and often requires unlearning aggressive habits developed in other sports or earlier stages of pickleball development.

One effective practice method involves drilling with the specific goal of recognizing attack situations rather than successfully executing attacks. Have your practice partner create various scenarios—you out of position, them ready and waiting, short balls while you’re balanced—and practice making the correct decision more than practicing the