Most points in the sport of pickleball are won and lost at the Non-Volley Zone line (also known as the Kitchen line). As a result, it is so important to get to the Kitchen line, and then hold that line!
The reason for this is to (1) take time away from your opponents to react to a shot; (2) take away angles from your opponents and put more pressure on your opponents to hit a quality shot; and (3) avoid exposing your feet to your opponents, which would otherwise make for an easier put away shot by your opponents. Generally, the closer your feet are to the Kitchen line, the more difficult you will make it for your opponents to hit a winning shot.
With this in mind, the game of pickleball is changing and is getting faster, with more drives and more speed-up shots. As a result, sometimes, it is necessary to take a step back off of the Non-Volley Zone line in order to give yourself more time to react to speed-up shots or other hard shots from your opponents. This is okay to take a step back off the Non-Volley Zone line to give yourself more time to react, and can even be a good strategy (assuming you are not moving and trying to hit the pickleball at the same time, which will likely result in more errors than you’d like). However, if you take a step back off of the Kitchen line, it is imperative that you immediately step back in and hold the line!
Bottom line… Hold the line!
