How to move with your partner in doubles pickleball

Frank Hines

Contributor

Last Edited

Feb 25 2025

Better doubles court positioning

For starters, we have to understand why this is important.

When anyone starts playing pickleball, the first thing you are told is to get to the kitchen. It’s the most important thing in the game; do it at all costs.

Now that line of thinking is not wrong, but how you get to the kitchen matters.

Early on in my pickleball journey I would go out to play with some friends or go to an open play and it felt like there was always a handful of points where I would just get the ball smashed in my face.

I’d be at the kitchen (like I’m supposed to be), but I was not winning points. In every single one of those “ball meets face” moments, I would be at the kitchen and my partner would be at the baseline.

The problem here, especially at the beginner and intermediate levels, is your partner is not always going to hit a great shot. Their drop might not bounce or their drive might be too high and when that happens, the easy target is the person 14ft away from you.

Fortunately, there is an extremely easy fix to this. Just wait.

Yes, you heard me right. Don’t go to the kitchen when you are serving, at least not immediately.

Here’s how you do it:

When the ball is returned to your partner, take one or two steps towards the kitchen as your partner is hitting the ball. NOT BEFORE.
As your partner makes contact with the ball, pay attention to whether it’s a good shot or not.

This provides you with two huge advantages:

You are closer to the kitchen, so if your opponent pops the ball up, you can poach and attack.
If your partner hits a bad shot, you can quickly get back to the baseline or react because you are in a much better position.

That’s the magic.

Now what do you do when you are both at the kitchen and somehow find yourself getting split up again?

You know those points where maybe you or your partner leave a shot a little high and one of you takes off running to the baseline leaving the other to be an easy target.

Remember ball meets face?

Quick note, neither of you are right here.

Backpedaling frantically to avoid getting hit or to make a play does not work. Honestly, it puts you more out of position than holding your ground at the kitchen.

On the flip side, staying at the kitchen when your opponent has an attackable ball is just asking to get punished.

The trick here is to shuffle AND/OR hop-step backwards as much as you can up to the point where your opponent strikes the ball.

We get a couple of things out of this.

We create some distance between ourselves and our opponents giving us more time to react to the ball and when we stop moving once the ball is struck, our feet are stable giving us the best chance of hitting a good shot.

Whenever you hit a difficult shot in pickleball, the most important things are being under control and giving yourself room to move.

Being able to anticipate exactly where your opponent is going to place the ball is certainly a skill but we do not always guess correctly. By creating distance from your opponent and having a steady base, you are able to adapt to whatever shot is hit and allow yourself the ability to react much quicker.

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Now that we have an understanding of the foundation here, let’s discuss how to implement it.

Imagine you and your partner have rope tied around your waists and the goal is to keep that rope as straight as possible.

In order to accomplish that, you and your partner would have to move around the court together.

Have you had your “aha” moment yet?

You and your partner's movement from the baseline to the kitchen or from the kitchen to the baseline needs to be seamless. You want to both be in the same spot on the court as often as possible.

What happens when you do this is subtle at first but then very evident. Moving with your partner between the baseline and the kitchen allows you both to be in the best position possible to react to any ball your opponents hit.

Now think about the opposite, think about if you are at the kitchen and your partner is at the baseline. There are a much smaller number of shots that give your team an advantage.

When you move with your partner you set yourself up for success. You give your team the best possible opportunity every single shot and you are never caught off guard.

Just remember when you’re playing pickleball to move together, not separately.

Frank Hines loves the game of pickleball and sharing that passion with as many people as possible. He found the game over two years ago and hasn't let up since. Follow Frank on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

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