The Chip & Charge Serve Return Translates Well into Pickleball

In tennis the chip and charge technique was popularized by Tennis legends Stefan Edberg & Boris Becker. In short it is a short high to low swing with an open face that imparts underspin giving the player time to approach the net. In pickleball this technique translates really well giving the player time to charge the net (kitchen) and is tricky to return for beginner to intermediate players. In pickleball you don't hear the term chip and charge as often, but slice return or underspin return are all the same.

If you watch the video you can see I employ this on both the backhand and forehand side. You want a short stroke, you want to your momentum to be moving forward, and you want to hit it deep to one of the backhand sides of the weaker player. Some keys to the shot ince you can master the basic chip return is to impart even deeper slice and to mix it up with topspin returns.

You can also do a slice drop on a regular shot, which is quite effective. This slice is meant to land in the kitchen and gives you time to come to the kitchen.