Returning serve: the most neglected shot in pickleball
Ask any experienced pickleball coach what shot recreational players get wrong most often, and a lot of them will say the same thing: the return of serve. It gets almost no attention in beginner lessons, it looks simple, and it sits right at the start of the rally where nobody is paying attention yet. But a bad return hands the other team the Kitchen line for free, and a good one flips the whole point.
Why the return matters so much
Pickleball is a game of court position. The team at the Kitchen line wins the rally roughly two-thirds of the time at every level of play. The two-bounce rule guarantees the returning team gets to the Kitchen first — if they use their return of serve to buy the time to walk there. A bad return (short, fast, or aimed at the sideline) fails to buy that time, and the serving team ends up at the Kitchen line first. Now the receiving team has lost its free gift from the rules.
So the return isn’t a chance to hit a winner. It’s a tool to get your body from the baseline to the Kitchen line before your opponents do.
What a good return looks like
Three qualities, in order of importance:
- Deep. The ball should land within three or four feet of the serving team’s baseline. Deep returns push the opposing players backward and force them to hit their third shot from way off the Kitchen line — which is exactly where you want them to hit it from.
- High. Counterintuitive, but correct: a return that arcs high over the net takes longer to reach the opponent, and those extra fractions of a second are exactly what you need to jog to the Kitchen. A low line-drive return skips to the opponent fast and leaves you stranded mid-court.
- Slow. Same reason. Hit it with 40% of your normal swing. The return doesn’t need pace; it needs time.
Notice what’s not on the list: accuracy to the corners, topspin, slice, or anything fancy. The return is the one shot in pickleball where “just get it in play, deep” is genuinely the best answer.
The follow-in
This is the part beginners miss. After you hit your return, you walk — briskly — straight to your side’s Kitchen line. You don’t watch where your shot lands. You don’t admire it. You don’t wait to see what happens. The moment the ball leaves your paddle, your eyes go up, your feet start moving, and you aim to arrive at the Kitchen line before your opponents hit their third shot.
If you time this right, you’re standing at the Kitchen line, paddle up, when the third shot arrives. That puts you in the strongest position in pickleball.
Where to stand when you’re receiving
Start about a step behind the baseline. You want room to move forward into the ball — not backward. Most beginners stand too close to the baseline, get jammed by a deep serve, and have to backpedal to return it. Give yourself the runway.
Your non-paddle foot should be slightly forward, knees soft, weight on the balls of your feet. As the server tosses, take a small split-step so you’re already moving as the ball arrives.
Should you ever hit a short return?
Occasionally, yes — as a surprise. A short, soft return that lands just past the non-volley zone can catch an opponent who’s backpedaling expecting depth, and it denies them the comfortable mid-court third shot. But this is a 10% shot, not a default. Hit it twice a game to keep opponents honest, not as your normal return.
Drilling the return
Twenty minutes of return practice will change your game more than almost anything else you can drill. A simple drill: one player serves, the other returns deep and walks to the Kitchen. Ignore the rest of the rally — reset and do it again. Twenty reps. Then switch sides.
Measure success two ways: where did the ball land (deep, ideally within four feet of the baseline) and where were you standing when the opponent hit their third shot (at the Kitchen line, paddle up). If both are yes, the return worked. If either is no, do another rep.