Fix Your Return

Put yourself on offense early in the rally...

Author

Shea Underwood
July 01, 2025

Week 53

Welcome back to the Road to Pro Newsletter! Just by opening this issue, you are now automatically eligible for this week’s paddle giveaway. Last week’s winner was Daylan from Washington!

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

  • Return strategies that will enhance consistency

  • A competitive drill to practice the best returns

If you’re reading this, you now have a chance to win this week’s paddle giveaway!

Now, let's get to it!

Big shoutout to Selkirk for sponsoring this newsletter and making all the paddle giveaways I do possible! I personally have been using a Selkirk paddle for over five years now, and every paddle I’ve used has been better than the last one. I recently started using their newest paddle — the Project 008, and it’s giving me more power and spin than I’ve ever had before. You can pick yours up on their website here and use code INF-Shea for a gift card on a future purchase.

Consistent Returns

In pickleball, starting off each rally on the right foot is huge. When you’re the returning team, your return can either make or break the start of a rally. A great return can put you in an offensive position right off the bat, and a bad return can force you onto defense immediately. I’m giving you two things this week that’ll help you boost your consistency and strategy on your returns.

  1. Aim for the middle.

    There are a couple ways to interpret this. The first is to aim for the very center of the court. This is for those of you who, in general, struggle with your returns, specifically if you often hit them out of bounds. You have the highest margin for error if you aim for the center since there’s plenty of court on all sides to ensure the ball stays in bounds.

    The other way it can be interpreted is to aim for the middle of the court, but as deep as possible. You should really be aiming for the ‘T’ at the backline. When you aim for this spot, you force your opponents to communicate about who is hitting that third shot, which can quickly lead to a mistake on their part. Also, aiming for the 'T' cuts off your opponents’ attacking angles, limiting their third shot options and making your next shot much easier to handle.

  2. Control your pace.

    If you need more time to get to the kitchen line after you return the serve, feel free to take some pace off your return. You can hit a soft, lofty return, which will give you more time to make it all the way to the kitchen, and if you successfully hit the ball deep in the court, a drive from your opponent from that far back in the court is very manageable. However, if you happen to hit a shallow, lofty return, it’ll set your opponent up for a great attacking third shot. So, if you choose to hit soft, try to also hit deep.

The Return Challenge

You can easily practice the tips we learned this week by making it a fun competition on the court. Here’s what you can do:

You and your drilling partner are on different teams. One player serves and one returns for ten rounds (the rounds will be explained in a minute), then you’ll switch roles and play ten more rounds.

One round is a three-return sequence, meaning:

  • Off your drilling partner’s serve, hit the very center of the court, or no more than a couple feet from it (put a piece of tape or a cone on the court to mark the center).

  • Your partner will serve again, then you’ll hit a hard and fast return to the “T,” which is the intersection of centerline and baseline (see image below). Again, it counts if you hit the “T” or hit within only a couple feet from it.

  • Your partner serves a third time, and then you’ll hit a deep lob return.

How you score points:

  • One round = all three returns in a sequence.

  • If you complete the full sequence successfully, you get +1 point.

  • If you miss any return in the sequence, no points for you that round.

Do this 10 times, then switch roles with your partner. You will then be the server while they go through 10 rounds of the return sequence. Whoever has the most points by the end of all 20 rounds, wins!

If you want this drill to be more of a challenge, have whoever is serving the ball to have no mercy with their serves, so that the returns are tougher to hit. If you want to keep it more on the easy side, the server can feed soft, non-aggressive serves to the returner. It’s up to you how you want to play it!

However you do it, turning a drill into a game with a point system can make it a whole lot more fun, and the competition helps keep the focus and determination that you need in a real game.

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