Why you should consider lobbing tall players in pickleball
Last Edited
Dec 23 2024
Category
Instruction
I know what you’re thinking: That headline can’t be what he meant to say.
But it is what I meant to say, and I think I can back it up with sound logic that goes against what most amateur players think.
Why lobbing (some) tall players works
If tall players are using their height to their advantage, they will be leaning forward and looking to take every ball out of the air when dinking. Friend of The Kitchen and pro player Roscoe Bellamy, who is 6-foot-5, recently gave a good demo of how this looks:
In this clip, Bellamy has a wide base, his weight on the balls of his feet, his butt back and he’s leaning forward with his upper body. This is what tall players (and players of all heights, really) should be doing at the kitchen line.
BUT there are a couple downsides to this:
- It’s hard to jump from this position.
- It’s hard to move backward quickly from this position without great footwork.
Those are two things tall people generally are not good at to start with.
Think about a center in basketball. In most cases they don’t have explosive jumping ability and they also don’t have great footwork (relative to their shorter, quicker counterparts).
To keep the basketball analogy going, a good lob should be 10 feet or higher at its apex – the height of a basketball hoop.
In order to execute a strong overhead on a ball that is 10 feet in the air, a player would essentially need to be able to dunk a basketball (without a running start).
So ask yourself: Do I think my opponent could dunk a basketball? If the answer is no, you have the green light to lob.
Sure, they could move back in the court and still hit an overhead as the ball comes down from its apex, but see point No. 2 above regarding tall people and footwork.
There’s also the element of surprise at play. Most tall players don’t get lobbed very often because their opponents think they shouldn't lob against tall people -- so a well executed lob is likely to catch them off guard. It will also have the long-term benefit of making your (tall) opponent more reluctant to lean so far into the kitchen.
So give it a try. Throw that sucker up there and watch it sail over their head before they have time to gather themselves and jump up for an overhead.
Then tell them The Kitchen sent you.
Important note: If you’re playing a tall opponent who also happens to be very athletic, like Bellamy or this guy, then forget everything I just said. Don’t lob those people. But I’m betting the taller players at your local courts don’t move or jump like the pros.
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