Influencing your Opponent

Strategy is thinking about choice...

Daniel Joseph (DJ) Howard is an IPTPA instructor in Michigan. He is also a member of the Pickleball Forum where he offers a weekly tip. DJ has kindly agreed to allow me to include his Forum tips on this blog. This week's tip talks about influence.

That is really great term that correlates to what I have called "constructing the point". For example, in my post The Most Important Shot, I stated:

There are preferred next shots that should be used to gain advantages. These have been discussed extensively in many posts and are too numerous to mention here. General guidelines are to keep the opponents deep and exploit their weaknesses, such as a backhand. Hit the shot that would allow the ball to get to opponents' feet, i.e., use soft shots when hitting up and use hard shots when hitting down. Ensure that you know these preferred shots and targets and focus on hitting them on the next shot in order to improve your chance of winning.

Check out DJ's tip below to see how much we agree.

It's all about influence!

Pickleball is an exchange in which you are trying to gain an advantage over your opponent. You should not feel badly about doing so. It is what competition is all about.

But HOW do you gain an advantage over your opponent?


You cannot control your opponent, but you can influence them!

Your opponent is seeking to INFLUENCE you and you ought to be seeking to INFLUENCE your opponent in a way that puts them in difficult situations that you can take advantage of.

You can influence your opponent by moving them wide, spinning the ball in ways that are difficult to track accurately, hitting faster pace shots that give your opponent less time to respond, hitting short balls (drop shots) or lobs (when they are at net) to make them chase the ball, or keeping the ball low toward their feet.

Once you have influenced your opponent into a difficult situation, it is then that you ought to look to take further advantage by either making them even more uncomfortable so they make a mistake or possibly consider going for a winning shot. But you must be intentional about setting yourself up for a good opportunity first. Seek to influence your opponent before trying to hit a winner.

Two quick examples, (though there are plenty more):

1. Serving deep and fast and/or with some spin is a great way to influence your opponent into a weaker serve return making your third shot much easier to hit. Are you looking to ace your opponent? Not really. But if you can gain a slight advantage, why wouldn't you want to do so? This is far better than "just getting it in."
2. Dinking with purpose by moving the ball around in the kitchen is a great way to get your opponent to pop a ball up that you can hurt them with. You're not going to hit many winners by dinking. But that certainly does not mean you cannot make it difficult for your opponent to hit a quality return off your dinks. Look to move your opponent side to side or attempt to push them back off the line if you can. Your goal should be to influence your opponent into hitting a weaker reply.

While you cannot control your opponent, it must be your goal to gain an advantage by influencing them more than they influence you!

Keep reppin'!


-DJ