Conventional pickleball wisdom dictates you play soft to get yourself out of hot water from deep on the court. Drop until you can work your way in, right? Wrong, says Tyson McGuffin.

Modern paddle technology has changed the equation for how we should think about baseline defense when the scales aren’t tipped in our favor.

When your back is quite literally against the wall — when your opponent hits a penetrating serve return, let’s say — the odds of hitting a perfect drop-shot are not in your favor. The further back you are, the less likely you can drop it shallow back over the net. The margins for error are just so small. More likely, you’ll dump the ball short or sail a sitter high.

So stop play soft from here. Smash a drive instead. Modern paddles can compensate for less-than-perfect technique. You can get plenty of pace on one off-balanced drive to reestablish your positioning and your footwork and get yourself in a better place to effectively drop the next shot.

Push & Block: How to Play Smart Defense at the Kitchen Line

Rather than fight fire with fire when you’re outmatched at the kitchen line, the sounder approach is to calm things down and get back to neutral footing.

The Dink PickleballAlex E. Weaver

Better yet, a drive here could result in a weak counter or a pop-up or even an outright winner from time to time. By flipping the script on this one simple scenario – a situation you'll find yourself in numerous times in any given match – you’ve now gone from deep in trouble to pushing the pace from the mid-court.

So throw out that old rulebook and start driving yourself out of trouble.

Feature image via Tyson McGuffin, Instagram