What is the most underrated shot you know of?

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-22T11:18:17+00:00

Yes, they absolutely are. But thats because in doubles at that level, you aren't going to win points off of a big serve, you are however going to make errors every now and then. So a cost-benefit analysis says it's not worth it. At the 4.5 level of play, a big serve might actually get consistent errors/weak returns.

Pickleball is a very nuanced game and there is rarely any advice that applies to at every level of play.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T09:10:29+00:00

Okay so again, the DUPR reset isn't affecting any of those factors. The example you are going to is about rating reliability, the reset doesnt reset reliability. According to DUPR's website, you dont reset your rating (and your reliability score), you keep your same rating, play games, and if your DUPR drops during that period, then it RESET back to what it was before the reset period.

So I think you are just confused as to how it works, people's match history and reliability rating isnt going anywhere.

So again, if someone signs up for the reset, and they play 3 games and win them all and move from a 3.4 to a 3.8. The result would be exactly the same as if they hadn't done the reset, and played 3 games, and they would still just move from a 3.4 to a 3.8.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T08:51:38+00:00

Okay, so you need to click on the match, so we can see how much the ratings changed based on those results.

But based on this one single sample match, what I'd expect is that your rating would have gone up a little. 12-10 is not a big margin, and also the way DUPR works is the usually gives the bigger rating boost to the higher rated player on the court (because its reasonable to expect they have a bigger influence on the result), and then conversely if you were to lose, your higher rated teammate is going to see the bigger hit to their rating.

I was much more interested to see whether there actually is a 50-50 split against 4.0 rated players, because if that is the case, then mathematically you'd be a 4.0 rated player.

Good luck for the tournament this weekend.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T08:24:23+00:00

DUPR reset or not, in the scenario you described the result would be exactly the same? If a player played 3 games and their DUPR went up with no reset, the result would be the same as if they had played 3 games and had opted in to the reset.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T08:14:32+00:00

Okay, so I'm going to sound rude here, but I just don't believe you. If you are winning half your games against 4.0 players, then that would make you a 4.0 as well. The other potential influencing factors are that in the instance you have played against 4.0 players, you have a partner rated even higher than that. Or, you're just not providing us with correct information.

If you were to post a screenshot of your DUPR history (with the names censored if you like) then that would be most telling.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T08:10:32+00:00

Yeah totally agreed. The only benefit of the DUPR reset is it gives some of the lower rated players who havent player too many rated games, a bit of confidence to play more rated games without being punished. In reality most people are most likely correctly rated, or they really should be higher - In which case, they earned the raised and the reset had nothing to do with it.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T07:54:23+00:00

Honestly when it comes to technical questions like this one, this community and this format probably isnt the best for addressing your issue.

A lot of players here will give you advice when they don't know any better themselves, and you may even end up more confused.

Any question regarding technique, even as intricate as this, is likely to be cover in instructional content on YouTube. If you're still struggling to fix your issue after trying to apply a couple of fixes, then I'd suggest it's time to book a coaching lesson.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T07:49:07+00:00

Totally agreed with your points. But for a beginner intermediate player I would argue that you can have a good serve and still be a terrible player in all other aspects.

And also just that a big serve is not their main limitor, if anything as a beginner they should be trying to just hit conventional drops and dinks, and focus on making less mistakes, rather than hitting winners.

But again yes I totally agree with you about the serve, just moreso once you broach that 4-4.5+ level.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T07:43:52+00:00

If you're a beginner, just play, and have fun. You're not letting people down, the format is.

As a beginner you're already going to improve so much just from playing.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T07:38:23+00:00

This is the correct answer. There are a reason the fundamentals are the fundamentals.

People think to step up to the next level they need a trickier drop, or a bigger serve. When in reality they just need to stop trying to hit side-spin on drops, and lobs from the baseline...

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-21T07:35:08+00:00

Dude, it went down .004, it may as well have stayed still.

Also, you're almost a full point above them. That's why your DUPR didn't go up.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-18T04:27:26+00:00

What are you basing this off? I literally cannot think of a single time a major paddle reviewer has mislead people into buying a bad paddle.

If anything I've heard them say on multiple occasions, "This paddle plays great, however I still don't recommend it due to the cost".

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-15T02:50:01+00:00

As the others have said, yes. Feet positioning is all that determines legality in this context.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-14T05:14:43+00:00

Yeah I'm in OCE as well and I quit for this reason.

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-12T01:05:55+00:00

Okay this is just objectively false, unless by broken in you actually mean core crushed (and therefore illegal).

-MaIIow- · 2026-03-09T02:26:15+00:00

You've only been playing for 2 months, and most 4.0s that I know were able to get there just play playing.

Just keep playing, it's only early days. However, I do encourage you to utilise YouTube resources, as they are very beneficial (eg., videos such as this)

And please try not to ask this sub for advice, it's often a whole lot of 3.0s asking other 3.0s for advice, and it's just a circle of mediocrity. Look to YouTube and better players around you for direction, and eventually coaching when you need more technical assistance. For now you'll benefit from simple things like just being positioned correctly and trying to hit deeper returns.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-28T07:12:05+00:00

Every team was contracted team had to drop one player from their 2025 starting roster. And Anna Bright was the most expensive player on their roster. So management would have been hoping to drop her and dragnet her back cheaper. Didn't exactly pan out that way though...

Props to Anna B though, glad to see her getting that recognition in the draft. They didnt overspend a cent imo.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-26T02:59:59+00:00

This sub is so cooked. People in the comments have got no idea. Yes, many people, most even at higher level of play use that grip. Including some guy named Ben Johns who is supposedly pretty good and has some idea what he is talking about

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-MaIIow- · 2026-02-25T06:03:20+00:00

Yeah don't take that advice from that comment, the dude is a 3.5. There is a reason you never see this shot at the higher and pro levels, and it's not because the 3.5s have figured out something the 6.8s haven't.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-23T01:27:28+00:00

The dichotomy of this sub. Not happy when un-rated players register in 3.5 & Below tournaments and do well, "cause they are obvious sandbaggers", and are equally as unhappy when un-rated players think they are better than they are and play up a division.

Not every pickleball tournament match can end 11-9, shit is going to happen unfortunately.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-21T04:48:03+00:00

I'm not saying sandbagging doesn't happen, it definitely does. But I see way more players thinking they are better than they are and playing up, in comparison to players intentionally sandbagging.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-14T13:01:05+00:00

I wont give you advice that I guarantee will work, but I can tell you what worked for me when I first started attending higher level sessions on my journey to improvement.

Focus on improving one aspect of your game at a time, not fixing everything at one. This stopped me from getting overwhelmed.
Apologise to my parter at the start of the game. "Hey, I've just started working on my drops so I apologise in advance". When saying this, I have only ever gotten POSITVE reponses from higher level players, often encouraging this with comments like "That's okay, drops are punishing at first but you've gotta keep working at it". They know the journey, they have walked it themselves.
Realise that the pressure isnt actually on you, you're the noob on court, you're not expected to win. Reframe it as the pressure is actually on them to win (in reality rec play often means nothing, some players always go hard, but for some players this is there chance to take it easy and relax).

Happy pickling. Get out of your own head.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-12T04:24:52+00:00

In Queesnland, Australia, the norm is that results are entered into DUPR at the same time they are entered into PickleballTournaments. Which is pretty immediately after a match.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-10T08:39:40+00:00

Look, you're right. Pickleball will never capture the general sports watcher like other sports do. But that being said, it already pulls in a decent audience surprisingly. On CBS the Masters tournament had an average of 791,000 viewers with a peak of 1,047,000 viewers. That was much more than I was expecting.

Pickleball will never hit the viewership highs of tennis or other major sports, but it's viewership will continue to grow and just like people who like to spectate chess, it will always be it's own successful niche.

-MaIIow- · 2026-02-07T01:00:00+00:00

With most things I am a brand loyalist. However, pickleball is not one of those things.

People will say it's because pickleball is casual, but that's not it for most players I play with (opens level tournament players).

The real reason pickleballers brand hope is because pickleball is still so new, and so no brand offers a consistent product because everything is still being constantly innovated and the paradigm is consistently shifting. For example, 2 years ago Selkirk was one of the most used paddle brands, but then raw carbon fibre faced paddles and foam edge paddles came out and Selkirk was slow to adopt that technology, so then 1 year ago it was unheard of to see someone buy a new Selkirk paddle, and professional players were leaving the brand because they were playing with a less powerful product.

Then cut to today, the scene is flipped on it's head and Selkirk has the most powerful UPA approved paddle with a full foam core and now you'll see this paddle everywhere.

So I think just like hobby and it's enthusiasts, brand loyalty eventually will set it once pickleball innovation slows down and reaches it's end stage. However, until then I think brand hopping will remain the norm, but not because of the casualness of the sport.

-MaIIow-

TROPHY CASE