4 Fixes to Stop Popping the Ball Up in Pickleball

One of the most common and frustrating mistakes in pickleball is popping the ball up during a rally. Whether you’re engaged in a delicate dinking exchange at the kitchen line or attempting to reset a hard-driven ball from mid-court, a floaty, elevated shot is essentially handing your opponents an easy opportunity to attack. That high ball becomes an invitation for a put-away shot that ends the point decisively, and not in your favor. Understanding why balls pop up and how to prevent it can transform your game from reactive and defensive to controlled and strategic.

The good news is that fixing this problem doesn’t require overhauling your entire technique or spending months drilling obscure skills. There are four practical, straightforward adjustments you can make that address the most common causes of pop-ups across different court positions and shot types. These fixes work for players at various skill levels and can be implemented immediately in your next practice session or game. They focus on fundamentals like grip pressure, contact point timing, footwork preparation, and ball trajectory awareness. Master these concepts and you’ll notice an immediate improvement in keeping your shots low, controlled, and difficult for opponents to attack.

Understanding Why Pop-Ups Happen: A Primer for All Players

Before diving into the technical fixes, it’s worth understanding what causes a ball to pop up in the first place. This context helps players of all levels grasp why these corrections work and how to apply them in different situations. At its core, a pop-up occurs when the paddle face makes contact with the ball at an angle that sends it upward rather than forward with a controlled, low trajectory. This can happen for several reasons: the paddle face might be too open or angled upward at contact, the player might be moving or off-balance when hitting, there might be too much force applied without proper control, or the timing of contact might be off relative to the ball’s bounce trajectory.

Think of it this way: when you’re at the kitchen line engaged in a dinking rally, both players are trying to keep the ball just barely clearing the net and landing softly in the opponent’s kitchen. The margin for error is small. If your paddle face is even slightly too open, or if you add just a bit too much wrist action, the ball will sail upward instead of staying flat. Similarly, when you’re back in the court trying to reset a hard-driven ball, if you’re still moving forward when you make contact, all that forward momentum transfers into the ball, often sending it up rather than neutralizing its pace. Understanding these mechanical causes makes it easier to recognize what’s going wrong in real time and apply the appropriate fix.

For players new to pickleball or those still developing their touch and feel, pop-ups are especially common because the instinct is often to swing at the ball rather than absorb and redirect it. Tennis players transitioning to pickleball frequently struggle with this because the pickleball paddle has no strings to help absorb pace, and the ball itself is much lighter and more responsive to minor changes in paddle angle. The corrections outlined here help develop the soft hands, patience, and positioning that characterize advanced pickleball play. Even if you’re not yet competing in tournaments, these fixes will make your recreational games more enjoyable and competitive by reducing unforced errors and keeping rallies going longer.

Fix One: Master Soft Hands and Dwell Time at the Kitchen Line

The single biggest culprit behind pop-ups at the kitchen line is what players call “slapping” at the ball. When you slap, you’re using a quick, wristy motion that creates sudden acceleration. This reactive hitting style prioritizes speed over control, and in dinking situations where precision matters far more than pace, it’s a recipe for floating the ball up. Good, consistent dinkers approach the ball completely differently. They focus on two interconnected concepts that might sound technical but are actually quite intuitive once you experience them: soft grip strength and dwell time.

Grip strength is something most players never think about consciously, but it has an enormous impact on ball control. Imagine a scale from one to ten, where ten represents squeezing your paddle so hard that veins are popping out of your forearm and your hand is cramping, and one is so loose that the paddle would fall out of your hand if you weren’t actively holding it. Most beginners grip their paddle somewhere between a seven and nine, especially in tense rally situations. That death grip prevents feel and touch. For effective dinking with soft hands, you want to aim for a grip pressure around three or four on that scale. This might feel alarmingly loose at first, almost like you’re going to lose control of the paddle, but that gentle grip is exactly what allows you to feel the ball on your paddle and maintain control throughout the contact.

Dwell time is the concept of letting the ball stay on your paddle face for as long as possible during contact rather than just hitting through it quickly. When you achieve good dwell time, it feels almost like you’re catching the ball on your paddle and carrying it briefly before releasing it toward your target. Some players describe it as feeling like they’re hitting multiple balls in succession, guiding each one to the next spot. This extended contact time, which in reality lasts just milliseconds but feels much longer, gives you significantly more control over where the ball goes and at what speed. Instead of reacting to the ball with a quick slap, you’re absorbing its energy and redirecting it with intention.

To develop this skill, start by consciously loosening your grip during dinking drills. You might find that your first few shots feel uncertain or tentative, and that’s perfectly normal. As you adjust to the lighter grip, focus on the sensation of the ball making contact with your paddle. Try to extend that feeling, imagining that you’re cradling the ball for just a moment before sending it back. Practice dinking with a partner where you both commit to hitting as many consecutive dinks as possible without speeding up or attacking. This cooperative drill removes the competitive pressure and lets you focus purely on developing soft hands and dwell time. Over multiple practice sessions, this controlled, gentle contact will become second nature, and you’ll find that your dinks stay consistently low without requiring conscious effort to keep them down.

Fix Two: Catch and Stick for Perfect Resets

When you’re in transition, meaning you’re somewhere between the baseline and the kitchen line, and an opponent drives the ball at you with pace, your goal is usually to reset the point by taking the speed off the ball and dropping it softly into the kitchen. This reset shot is one of the most challenging in pickleball because you’re trying to neutralize an attacking shot while you’re potentially out of position and moving. Many players struggle with this situation and end up popping the ball up, giving opponents an easy follow-up attack. The solution lies in a technique that can be practiced with a simple drill that changes how you think about contact.

Start this drill without your paddle. Have a practice partner or coach feed you balls at moderate pace, and instead of hitting them, simply catch each ball with your hands using soft hands. Focus on absorbing the ball’s energy as you catch it, letting your hands give slightly backward with the ball’s momentum rather than rigidly stopping it. Once you’ve caught the ball, hold it in that position without moving your hands forward. This is the “stick” part. You’re catching out in front of your body and sticking the catch without any forward motion. Do this dozens of times until the movement pattern feels natural and you can consistently catch balls at different heights and speeds without moving your hands forward after the catch.

Now pick up your paddle and replicate exactly the same motion. When the ball comes to you, think “catch and stick” with your paddle face instead of your hands. Position your paddle out in front of your body, let the ball come to the paddle, and absorb its pace without pushing forward. The paddle face should be slightly open, angled just enough to lift the ball over the net, but your arm and shoulder should not drive forward through the shot. Let the ball do the work. If your opponent has hit it with significant pace, that pace alone will be enough to carry the ball back over the net and into the kitchen when you simply block it with a stable paddle face. If they’ve hit it softer, you can always add a bit of pace on the next shot, but if the ball is coming slowly, you’re likely in a good enough position to consider attacking instead of just resetting anyway.

The critical insight here is that forward motion during the reset is what causes most pop-ups. When you push your paddle forward while making contact, especially when combined with an open paddle face needed to lift the ball over the net, you’re adding both forward momentum and upward angle, which results in a high, floaty ball. By catching and sticking, you’re using only the ball’s existing momentum to carry it back, which naturally produces a lower, more controlled trajectory. This technique is particularly effective against hard-driven balls because the harder they hit it, the less you need to do. Your paddle becomes a soft wall that redirects rather than a racket that swings.

Related Strategy: Comparing Different Pickleball Characteristics

Understanding ball behavior can also help with shot control, which is why some players pay attention to ball performance characteristics in different conditions.

Fix Three: Get There Early and Plant Your Feet

A substantial number of pop-ups occur not because of poor paddle mechanics but because of inadequate preparation and footwork. When you’re late getting to the ball, still moving when you make contact, or hitting off your back foot while leaning backward, you’re introducing too many variables and too much extraneous motion into the shot. The result is inconsistent contact and frequently an unintended upward trajectory. In contrast, watch any advanced player during a dinking exchange and you’ll notice something striking: they look almost completely still at the moment of contact, like a freeze-frame in a video. They’ve already moved to the ball, positioned their body and paddle, and planted their feet before they execute the shot. This preparation and stability is what allows for consistent, controlled contact.

The key to achieving this stability starts with early decision-making. As soon as you see the ball coming over the net toward you, make an immediate decision about whether you’ll hit a forehand or backhand. This might seem obvious, but many developing players hesitate on this choice, waiting to see exactly where the ball will land before committing. That hesitation costs precious time. By the time they finally decide and start moving their paddle to the correct side, the ball is already on them, forcing a rushed shot. Instead, make your best judgment quickly based on the ball’s initial trajectory, then commit fully to that decision. Bring your paddle to the appropriate position, move your feet to get your body behind the ball, and get set before the ball arrives.

Proper positioning means keeping the ball in front of your body rather than letting it get beside you or behind you. Many players make the mistake of reaching across their body for balls that should be taken with their off hand, or letting balls drift to their hip or shoulder before making contact. When you hit the ball from beside or behind your body, you lose leverage and control over the paddle angle, which almost inevitably results in a pop-up. Instead, use quick footwork to position yourself so that the ball is comfortably in front of you, right in your “strike zone” where you have maximum control. Once you’re in position with the ball approaching your strike zone, plant your feet firmly and get your weight balanced between them.

That planted position, with feet set and weight balanced, is what gives you the stable platform needed for controlled contact. When you hit while moving, your body’s momentum transfers into the ball, adding variables you then have to compensate for with paddle angle and swing path. It’s possible to make good shots while moving, and advanced players do it regularly, but it’s significantly harder and less consistent. For most players, especially when dinking or resetting, taking that extra split-second to plant your feet before contact will dramatically improve your consistency and keep balls from popping up. Practice this in slow-motion drills where you and a partner dink back and forth, consciously exaggerating the preparation by getting to each ball extra early and setting your feet deliberately before each shot. This exaggeration helps ingrain the pattern, and soon it becomes your natural movement pattern.

Avoiding Common Mistakes That Lead to Pop-Ups

Many players unknowingly develop habits that consistently cause pop-ups. Learning to recognize and correct these amateur mistakes can accelerate improvement significantly.

Fix Four: Avoid the Short Hop Trap

The fourth fix addresses timing relative to the ball’s bounce trajectory. The “short hop” refers to hitting the ball immediately after it bounces, when it’s just starting to rise off the ground. This is one of the most difficult contact points in pickleball because the ball is moving upward rapidly and you have very little time to read its trajectory and angle your paddle appropriately. When you hit off the short hop, especially on defensive shots like drops and dinks, you’re essentially hitting the ball while it’s traveling upward, which means you have to angle your paddle face significantly downward to compensate and keep the ball from sailing high. This compensation requires precise timing and paddle control, and even small errors result in pop-ups.

The solution is patience. On defensive shots, rather than rushing forward to take the ball immediately after the bounce, give yourself space and time. Let the ball rise to its apex or even start descending slightly before you make contact. When you hit a falling ball or one at the top of its arc, gravity is working with you rather than against you. The ball’s upward momentum has stopped or reversed, so you don’t have to angle your paddle as severely downward to control the trajectory. This later contact point gives you a much larger margin for error and makes it far easier to keep the ball low consistently. It requires patience and the discipline to wait for the right moment rather than rushing the shot, but that patience pays consistent dividends.

There are situations where hitting off the short hop is acceptable or even necessary. If you’re in transition and badly out of position, just trying to get the ball back defensively, sometimes you have no choice but to take it off the short hop. Similarly, if you’re off balance or stretched wide, hitting the ball quickly off the short hop might be your only option. In these emergency situations, you’re not expecting to hit a perfect shot anyway, you’re just trying to extend the rally and survive the point. The key is recognizing that these are exceptions to the general rule, not the standard approach.

When you’re hitting offensive shots like drives, the timing principle is similar but applied differently. You do want to take the ball on the rise when driving because that contact point allows you to hit down on the ball and generate pace while keeping the trajectory relatively flat. However, you still don’t want to hit it right off the short hop. Let the ball rise a bit after the bounce, traveling up to somewhere between knee and waist height depending on the bounce height, before you drive it. This gives you time to read the ball, prepare your swing, and make solid contact at a height where you have good leverage and control. If you try to drive off the short hop, you’ll often either pop it up because you couldn’t get your paddle angled correctly, or you’ll hit it into the net because you overcompensated downward.

Developing the judgment to recognize optimal contact points comes with experience and conscious practice. During drills, pay attention to where in the ball’s trajectory you’re making contact. If you’re consistently hitting too early and struggling with control, consciously wait a fraction of a second longer before swinging. It might feel like you’re waiting too long at first, but you’ll likely find that your “too long” is actually just right. Video recording your practice sessions can be incredibly valuable here because it shows you objectively where in the bounce cycle you’re actually hitting the ball versus where you think you’re hitting it. Many players are surprised to discover they’re contacting the ball much earlier than they perceived.

Putting It All Together: A Systematic Approach to Eliminating Pop-Ups

These four fixes work together as a comprehensive system for keeping the ball down across all court positions and shot types. Soft grip strength and dwell time give you touch and control at the kitchen line during dinking exchanges. The catch-and-stick reset technique neutralizes hard-driven balls when you’re in transition without adding unnecessary height. Early preparation and planted feet provide the stable platform and optimal positioning needed for consistent contact. Avoiding the short hop trap gives you ideal timing relative to the ball’s trajectory, working with gravity rather than fighting against it.

The most effective way to implement these fixes is to focus on one at a time rather than trying to change everything simultaneously. Assess your game honestly and identify which type of pop-up causes you the most problems. If you struggle most during dinking rallies at the kitchen line, start with fix one and spend several practice sessions working exclusively on grip pressure and dwell time. If your resets from mid-court consistently float up and get attacked, dedicate your practice time to the catch-and