Pickleball Return of Serve Footwork Patterns

The return of serve is arguably the most important shot in Pickleball. The return can set up how you play out the point from a return side perspective. A short return can put your team on the defense and allow the serving team to control the point. A high deep return can keep the returning team in an offensive position. Regardless of the outcome of the return, the returner needs to made a serious effort to transition to the NVZ. The return needs to be thought of as a transition ball and players will be ahead to consider proper footwork for the return to assist them in getting to the net quicker and more on balance to defend the NVZ.

There are a few return of serve footwork patterns that even intermediate players could improve. You have a couple basic goals in returning serve. #1 make every return. Deeper is better. #2 Transition to the non-volley line. Sounds easy right? With each scenario, there are certain footwork patterns that help facilitate the return more efficiently and more coordinated. Each scenario or pattern is predicated on the serve. In other words a serve into the middle of your side would require a different footwork pattern than an out side serve.

Regardless of the serve, there are a several foundational footwork patterns that every player needs to learn. Load pivot, hop step, transfer step and cross behind step are the most common patterns. These four represent common scenarios where you are moving forward but need to “move through” the shot while staying sideways (Hop/cross behind) or moving laterally and forward at the same time (transfer step) These demos will give you an idea of the coordinated move for each pattern. You will want to collect your balance and load on your outside foot, and “hit, step” to transition. You don’t want to run through the shot, just be in a position to move forward after the strike of the ball. The key to being successful in these patterns, is coordinating the swing and the step together. Examples of the four:

Now, go practice these on your own with a friend, or just drop feed to yourself. Video yourself to analyze how coordinate the motion is. The goal is to try to beat the third shot to the NVZ.