Common Mistakes Tennis Players Make When Transitioning to Pickleball

If you’re a tennis player who’s recently picked up a pickleball paddle, congratulations on joining what might be the fastest-growing sport in America. But all those years of tennis experience? They might be working against you more than you’d expect. The fact that you’re a good tennis player doesn’t automatically make you a good pickleball player. But it does give you a head start, as long as you’re willing to put in the work to adapt.

PlayPickleball.com’s video breaks down the uncomfortable truth that tennis players face when transitioning to pickleball. The sport looks similar enough on the surface, but the mechanics, strategy, and mindset required are fundamentally different. And if you’re not willing to unlearn some deeply ingrained habits, you’re going to struggle. What seems like a natural transition often turns into a frustrating process of relearning basic movements and strategies that contradict everything your tennis brain tells you to do.

Understanding the Fundamental Differences: A Guide for Newcomers

Before diving into specific mistakes, it’s worth stepping back to understand why this transition is so challenging in the first place. Both sports involve hitting a ball over a net with a paddle-like instrument, but that’s largely where the similarities end. Tennis is played on a court that’s more than twice the size of a pickleball court. Tennis uses a bouncy felt-covered ball and stringed rackets that can generate tremendous spin and power. Pickleball uses a plastic wiffle-style ball and solid paddles without strings, which fundamentally changes how the ball behaves when you hit it.

The scoring systems differ, the serving rules are entirely different, and perhaps most importantly, the strategic objectives of each sport diverge significantly. Tennis rewards powerful baseline play and the ability to hit winners from the back of the court. Pickleball, by contrast, is a game of positioning and patience, where the goal is usually to get to the net as quickly as possible and engage in controlled, strategic exchanges rather than attempting to blast winners past your opponent.

For someone new to both sports, pickleball is generally considered easier to learn because you’re starting with a blank slate. For tennis players, however, the challenge is that you have years of muscle memory telling you to do things that will actively hurt your pickleball game. It’s like learning to drive on the opposite side of the road after years of driving on the right side. Your instincts are constantly pulling you in the wrong direction, and it takes conscious effort and repetition to rewire those neural pathways.

The Serve: Low to High, Not High to Low

Let’s start with the most obvious difference between the two sports, and one that immediately announces itself the moment you step onto a pickleball court. In tennis, you’re throwing the ball up into the air and hitting down on it with power, spin, and often a good deal of aggression. The tennis serve is frequently the most powerful shot in the game, a weapon that can produce aces and set up easy put-aways. In pickleball, you’re doing the exact opposite. The serve has to be underhand by rule, and you’re hitting the ball low to high instead of high to low.

This seems simple enough on paper, but it’s actually one of the biggest mental hurdles for tennis players to overcome. Your muscle memory is screaming at you to load up, toss the ball high, and crush it into your opponent’s service box. Every fiber of your tennis-trained body wants to generate power and put your opponent on the defensive right from the start. Instead, you need to stay calm, keep your motion controlled, and focus on placement rather than velocity. The pickleball court is smaller, measuring just 20 feet wide by 44 feet long, compared to tennis’s 27 feet by 78 feet for singles. This means accuracy matters exponentially more than raw power.

The underhand serve requirement in pickleball isn’t just a quirky rule. It’s designed to level the playing field and ensure that serves aren’t so dominant that they make returns nearly impossible. In pickleball, the serve is meant to start the point, not end it. This represents a fundamental shift in mindset that tennis players must embrace. You’re not trying to overwhelm your opponent with speed or spin on the serve. Instead, you’re trying to place the ball strategically, often deep to keep your opponent back, and then prepare for the real battle that happens over the next few shots.

Many tennis players who transition to pickleball initially feel frustrated by this limitation. They feel like they’re leaving their biggest weapon in the arsenal unused. But as players develop their pickleball game, they come to understand that the more democratic nature of the serve actually makes the sport more strategic and engaging. Points are decided by shot selection, positioning, and consistency rather than by who has the biggest serve. This creates longer, more interesting rallies and rewards players who think tactically rather than just athletically.

The Return: Moving Forward, Not Staying Back

Here’s another habit that’ll trip you up if you come from a tennis background. In tennis, after you return serve, you often stay back on the baseline, ready for a long exchange of groundstrokes. You’re prepared to engage in extended rallies from the back of the court, hitting forehands and backhands with topspin, waiting for an opportunity to either approach the net or hit a winner. In pickleball, the return has to bounce before the serving team can hit it, which means you’ve got a brief moment to think and act. And what should you be thinking about? Getting to the net as quickly as possible.

High-level pickleball players understand intuitively that the kitchen, that seven-foot no-volley zone on each side of the net, is where the real action happens. The team that establishes position at the kitchen line first typically has a significant advantage in the point. So when you’re returning serve in pickleball, your momentum should be carrying you forward toward the net, not keeping you planted at the baseline like you would in tennis. It’s a subtle shift in mentality, but it changes everything about how you approach the point and what you’re trying to accomplish with each shot.

This forward movement after the return is one of those aspects of pickleball that seems counterintuitive to tennis players. In tennis, rushing the net immediately after returning serve is generally considered risky unless you’ve hit an exceptional return that puts your opponent in trouble. In pickleball, staying back after your return is what’s risky, because it cedes the most valuable real estate on the court to your opponents. The team at the net controls the point. They can hit down on balls, they have better angles, and they can put pressure on their opponents who are still back near the baseline.

The key is understanding that pickleball is essentially a net game masquerading as a court game. Yes, there are groundstrokes and baseline exchanges, but these are really just transitional moments in the point. The ultimate goal is always to establish position at the kitchen line, ideally with your partner beside you, both of you ready to engage in the dinking battle that will ultimately determine who wins the point. Tennis players who fail to grasp this fundamental truth will forever struggle with pickleball strategy, no matter how good their hand-eye coordination might be.

Four Technical Differences That Actually Matter

Beyond the serve and the return strategy, there are several technical differences in how you actually strike the ball that tennis players need to understand and incorporate into their game. These aren’t minor adjustments. They’re fundamental shifts in mechanics that reflect the different physics of the sports and the different equipment involved.

First, there’s the serve, which we’ve already covered in detail. But it’s worth reiterating that the underhand, low-to-high motion is completely different from tennis and requires dedicated practice to master. Second, there’s the return, where you need to think about moving forward instead of staying back, essentially treating it as an approach shot in tennis terms. Third, there’s the drive, where your contact point needs to be significantly closer to your body compared to tennis. This is because pickleball paddles are much shorter than tennis rackets, typically measuring around 16 inches in length compared to 27 inches for a tennis racket. If you extend your arm the way you would for a tennis forehand, you’ll find yourself reaching and losing control of your shots.

Finally, there’s the groundstroke, where you’ll want to adopt a slightly more open stance than you might typically use in tennis. This adjustment makes sense when you consider that the pickleball court is smaller and your opponent is physically closer to you. You have less time to set up for shots, so you need to be in a position where you can react quickly and change direction if needed. An open stance allows for quicker recovery and better balance when you’re dealing with fast exchanges in close quarters.

These technical adjustments might seem minor when you read about them, but they require significant practice to internalize. Your tennis muscle memory will constantly pull you toward longer swings, more extended contact points, and more closed stances. Fighting against years of ingrained habits takes conscious effort and lots of repetition. Many tennis players find it helpful to take a few lessons specifically focused on pickleball mechanics, even if they’ve been playing tennis at a high level for decades. The investment in proper technique early on will pay dividends as you develop your pickleball game.

Four Common Mistakes Tennis Players Make

Now we get to the real problem areas, the specific mistakes that tennis players make over and over again when they transition to pickleball. These errors are so common that experienced pickleball players can often spot a tennis background within the first few points of watching someone play. If you’re guilty of even one of these mistakes, you’re probably losing more points than you realize and frustrating yourself unnecessarily.

Sprinting to the Net After Your Serve

In tennis, particularly in doubles, it’s common for the server to follow their serve into the net, looking to put away a weak return with a volley. This serve-and-volley approach was dominant in professional tennis for decades and is still taught as a viable tactic. In pickleball, however, this strategy will get you in trouble immediately. The return has to bounce before you can hit it, due to the two-bounce rule that’s fundamental to pickleball. This means you need to stay back after your serve and hit your third shot before you can begin approaching the net.

This is a hard habit to break because it goes against everything your tennis instincts are telling you. Your brain is wired to think that following your serve to the net is aggressive, smart play. In pickleball, it’s actually a fault if you volley the return before it bounces. Even if you avoid committing the fault, rushing forward after your serve leaves you caught in no-man’s land, that dreaded transition zone between the baseline and the kitchen line, where you’re vulnerable to shots hit at your feet and you can’t effectively control the point.

The correct approach in pickleball is to serve, stay back, wait for the return to bounce, and then hit a controlled third shot, ideally a drop shot into the opponent’s kitchen. Only after executing this third shot should you begin moving forward toward the kitchen line. This sequence of serve, stay back, hit third shot, then move forward represents the fundamental pattern of pickleball, and tennis players who try to shortcut this process by rushing forward immediately after serving will struggle indefinitely.

Taking a Huge Backswing

Tennis rewards big backswings. The larger your swing arc, the more power you can generate, and power is valuable in tennis given the size of the court and the pace of the game. Watch any professional tennis match and you’ll see players taking full, looping backswings on their groundstrokes, loading up to generate maximum racket head speed through the contact zone. This works in tennis because you typically have enough time to prepare, and the court is large enough that even powerful shots will land in if you execute properly.

Pickleball is a different animal entirely. A big backswing in pickleball telegraphs your intentions to your opponent, giving them extra time to read your shot and position themselves accordingly. You want short, compact swings that keep your opponent guessing about what you’re going to do and where you’re going to hit the ball. Plus, you simply don’t have as much time to prepare for shots because the court is smaller and the action unfolds faster. By the time you complete a big, looping backswing like you would in tennis, the ball is already past you or you’re hitting it late and off-balance.

The compact swing required in pickleball feels uncomfortable and limiting to tennis players at first. It seems like you’re not really hitting the ball, like you’re just pushing it or blocking it. But as you develop your pickleball game, you come to appreciate the control and consistency that compact swings provide. You can still generate adequate pace when needed, but you do it through efficient weight transfer and proper paddle face angle rather than through big, sweeping motions. The players who master this compact swing style are the ones who advance to higher levels of play.

Using a Western Grip

Tennis players, particularly those who play with a lot of topspin, often favor a western or semi-western grip. This grip positions the hand more underneath the racket handle, which naturally closes the racket face and helps generate the brushing motion needed to create heavy topspin. In modern tennis, topspin is essential for keeping powerful shots in the court, and the western grip has become increasingly popular at all levels of the game.

Here’s the problem: pickleball paddles don’t have strings. The lack of strings means the ball doesn’t bite into the paddle face the way it does with a tennis racket. When you try to create topspin with a western grip in pickleball, you’re more likely to roll the ball into the net or hit it with inconsistent trajectory. The physics just don’t work the same way. A continental grip, where the hand is more on top of the handle, is generally recommended for pickleball. This grip keeps the paddle face more neutral, gives you better control over the ball’s direction, and allows you to hit a wider variety of shots without changing your grip.

The continental grip feels awkward to tennis players who have spent years developing their western grip topspin game. It feels like you’re sacrificing your biggest weapon. But in pickleball, that weapon doesn’t translate anyway. The spin you could generate in tennis simply isn’t as effective or necessary in pickleball. Control, placement, and touch are far more valuable than spin, and the continental grip provides better access to these skills. Many tennis players find that switching to a continental grip for pickleball is one of the most impactful changes they can make to accelerate their improvement.

Hitting the Ball Too Hard

This is probably the biggest and most persistent mistake tennis players make when transitioning to pickleball. Tennis players are conditioned to hit through their opponents, to use power to push them off the court and create openings. In tennis, the player who can generate more pace often has a significant advantage, particularly on faster surfaces. Power is respected in tennis, and players spend countless hours in the gym developing the strength and explosive ability to hit harder.

In pickleball, the court is smaller, which means hard shots often sail long unless you’re hitting them from well behind the baseline or you’re hitting with perfect technique and placement. More importantly, pickleball rewards players who can incorporate softer, more finesse-oriented shots into their game. The ability to slow down the pace, to take pace off the ball when your opponent is trying to speed it up, to place the ball precisely rather than blasting it, these are the skills that win pickleball points consistently.

Power is overrated in pickleball, particularly at the recreational levels where most people play. Strategy and placement are what win points. A well-placed soft shot is almost always more effective than a hard shot hit without purpose. Tennis players who try to overpower their pickleball opponents typically find themselves making lots of unforced errors, hitting balls long or into the net, and getting frustrated as their opponents simply keep the ball in play and wait for mistakes. The transition from a power-based tennis game to a finesse-based pickleball game requires not just technical adjustments but a complete mental shift in how you think about winning points.

The Four Shots You Actually Need to Practice

If you’re serious about transitioning from tennis to pickleball and want to accelerate your improvement, there are four specific shots that should dominate your practice sessions. These aren’t shots that exist in tennis in quite the same form, so you’re essentially starting from scratch and building new neural pathways. The good news is that your general racket skills from tennis give you a foundation. The challenge is applying those skills in entirely new ways.

The Third Shot Drop

After you serve and your opponent returns, you need to hit what’s called a third shot drop. This shot involves dropping the ball softly into your opponent’s kitchen, that no-volley zone extending seven feet