Advancedstrategy

Pick the right ball to speed up

At 4.0+, the speed-up selection is the skill, not the swing. Briones breaks down exactly which balls beg to be attacked and which ones will burn you if you go for it.

Watch: PRO Attacking: Speed-Ups and Counter Attacks for Advanced Pickleball Players
13 min
Watch “PRO Attacking: Speed-Ups and Counter Attacks for Advanced Pickleball Players” Briones Pickleball · captions

Key takeaways

  • Attack balls floating above the net tape or rising past your hip; let anything lower go as a dink.
  • Target the opponent's body, the hip or the paddle-side shoulder (the 'chicken wing'), not straight at their paddle where they can absorb and redirect.
  • Use identical preparation for speed-ups and dinks so your opponent can't read the attack.
  • Mix pace deliberately: a slower roll attack sets up a harder speed-up on the next exchange.
  • If your speed-up gets blocked back, reset immediately; chasing with a second one is how you lose the point.

Drill to try

Have a partner feed a random mix of low and floating dinks. Call 'dink' or 'go' before contact, and speed up only the floaters. Track your decision accuracy over 20 balls before tracking shot quality.

Next lesson →