Hanging by the Kitchen

One of the hardest things for new players to do is play at the kitchen.  I spent last summer going to various beginner group play and was constantly combatted when it came to positioning at the kitchen.  I even had a guy yell at me “That’s not a rule!”, and he would play wherever he wanted.  My response was to drop every single shot I took into the kitchen, which he couldn’t get to because he was standing so far back.  There’s a reason all the pros play at the kitchen line.

New players often fear the kitchen because of how close it puts them to the other team.  While the pros can do some real damage smacking a ball that closely, most beginners are safe.  

The other resistance I heard over and over again was the amount of space left “open” behind players.  My simplest argument to this is basic math.  A player’s half of the court from the net to the baseline is 10 feet wide by 22 feet long.  That’s 220 square feet.  The kitchen area for one player is 10 feet wide by 7 feet long.  That’s only 70 square feet.  That means playing at the baseline requires you to cover more than 3 times the amount of space!! 

The benefit to standing at the kitchen is that you can hit the ball out of the air and cover all the space that your arms can reach.  Now, is there a risk that the ball can be lobbed over your head?  Of course!  But lobs are a tricky shot.  And when it comes to beginners, most balls that go over your head out of reach are going out.  It is well worth the risk and saves tons of energy for having to move less.  Not to mention, being at the kitchen allows for you to attack the ball.  It’s hard to slam an overhead from the back of the court.

So, how do you get comfortable at the kitchen?  The best thing to do is play a kitchen game.  With a group of 4, play like a regular pickleball game, but the kitchen becomes the entire court.  Serve from behind the kitchen line and do all dinks.  If it goes deeper than the kitchen, it is out.  This works on the soft game while helping get used to being up at the kitchen. 

Positioning is a key part of the game of pickleball that will jump a player’s skill level quickly.  The kitchen is the key to covering the most amount of court with the least amount of effort.