Advancedstrategy

The control game: how position beats power

Ask anyone who's watched a 70-year-old dismantle a 25-year-old banger: pace loses to placement more often than pride admits. The control style (resets, dinks, and ruthless positioning) is how experienced players make power players beat themselves. This is the veteran's playbook, and it works at any age.

Watch: How to Beat BANGERS in Pickleball (Hard-Hitting Players)
14 min
Watch “How to Beat BANGERS in Pickleball (Hard-Hitting Players)” Enhance Pickleball · captions

Key takeaways

  • Bangers feed on balls at waist height or above. Keep everything low: a ball below net height shouldn't be attacked; it's a low-percentage attack that has to travel up before it can hurt you.
  • The reset is the anti-power shot: absorb pace with soft hands and drop the ball into the kitchen to restart the point on your terms.
  • Don't back up against power; holding the kitchen line takes time away from the swing behind the ball.
  • Patience is a weapon: every extra soft ball you make a banger hit raises the odds of the wild miss they were born to make.
  • Position over pace applies to you too: a medium dink to their weaker backhand outscores a flashy speed-up down the middle.

Drill to try

Reset gauntlet: partner drives at you from mid-court, you reset every ball into the kitchen. 10 in a row before you swap. Your hands get quiet or your score stays low. Wear eye protection.