When it comes to making an opposing team uncomfortable, players will generally have little overall strategy. Shot selection is often seemingly random and it is difficult to maintain consistency and hold a good understanding of how you are attempting to set up a point when you change your shots frequently. One of the best general strategies is to establish a pattern—and break it at an unexpected moment.

This can take the form of abruptly switching the direction or the speed of your shot. For example, you might dink several forehands fully crosscourt then redirect a dink at the opponent’s backhand. Or, in the same crosscourt forehand dinking pattern, you could attack the opponent in front of you after several shots.

One of my personal favorite pattern setups is the crosscourt forehand dinking scenario—dinking wide crosscourt several times to push my opponent off the court, preferably with soft topspin volley dinks. When I receive a slightly higher ball that I like, I redirect the ball as a topspin roll attack at the body of the player directly in front of me. The abrupt change to the pattern coupled with good disguise catches even the quickest players by surprise.

This is just one example of momentarily sticking to a pattern to lull your opponents to sleep, then putting them into a losing position by suddenly breaking from what appeared to be a predictable pattern.

You can employ this strategy in countless scenarios, but it works best when you can disguise your pattern-breaking shot to look similar to the pattern-establishing shot. You can further build the strength of your pattern setup when you make your default pattern your most personally reliable shot.

So, next time you find yourself moving the direction of your shots around without much purpose, try establishing a brief pattern to set up your winning shot. It’s one of the most effective strategies in pickleball.

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Originally published in Pickleball Magazine.