The 5 New Ps of Pickleball: Paddle, Person, Positioning, Placement, and Play
By Adriana Falco
June 10, 2026 • 8 min read
DITCH THE OLD playbook. It’s time to rewrite the five Ps of pickleball.
Flip through standard coaching manuals or scroll through classic instructional columns, and you will inevitably run into the traditional “5 Ps of Pickleball.” For years, the community accepted Patience, Placement, Positioning, Poaching, and Power as holy scripture. These fundamental pillars were written and taught by club pros to serve as a strategic roadmap to help players control the pace of a rally, reduce unforced errors, and outmaneuver opponents.
But let’s be honest. The traditional list is fundamentally flawed. It mixes vague mental states with hyper-specific doubles tactics, and worst of all, it encourages a reliance on raw power that sabotages intermediate and advanced players alike. It also places too much emphasis on concepts that are either situational or difficult for many players to apply consistently.
If you want to build a truly robust game, it is time to throw out the old playbook. Here is a look at why the classic 5 Ps fail and why a modern strategic alternative—Paddle, Person, Positioning, Placement, and Play—will help a player dominate the pickleball court.
The Fatal Flaws of the Classic Model
The first flaw is the first original “P.” Patience is a mental state, not a tangible mechanic.
The traditional model stresses patience to help pickleball players relax during tense moments and avoid unforced errors, such as waiting for a high ball or playing soft in the kitchen until the right opportunity appears or the opposing team makes a mistake.
While the inclusion of patience was well-intentioned, it is merely an abstract state of mind, not an actionable movement. Overemphasizing passivity often turns players into timid targets who wait for things to happen rather than dictating the flow of the rally themselves.
Poaching, the fourth original “P,” is a surprise situational counterattack, not a foundational element of the game, and it can be disastrous. Opponents purposely send the ball to a player on one side of the court, often hoping that player will not be able to return it. Instead, the partner unexpectedly crosses over to play the ball.
Not only does the concept of poaching completely exclude singles play, but when executed poorly in doubles, it can cost a team the point and potentially damage team chemistry. It can also send a message to a teammate that he or she cannot handle the shot. Even worse, poorly executed poaches can leave large portions of the court exposed, especially when players fail to communicate and call a switch.
Teaching players to focus on power as the fifth original “P” is perhaps the most problematic of all.
It is one of the easiest ways to ensure players hit balls out of bounds, into the net, or worse, at opponents without sufficient control. At higher levels, the modern game relies heavily on resets, touch, placement, and speed control. Power should never be a standalone pillar, and it certainly should not be one of the first concepts taught to beginner players. It is merely a situational tool used to finish a point after an opening has already been created.
The Modern Framework: Built for True Strategy
By shifting the focus toward variables, you can actually observe, control, and execute, this alternative 5 Ps framework provides a much cleaner blueprint for victory.
#1 The Paddle: The Right Equipment
Your strategy begins before you ever step onto the court. It starts with your paddle.
In modern pickleball, paddle choice can influence everything from spin generation and control to power and forgiveness. Your paddle’s brand, model, shape, surface material, and core thickness all contribute to how effectively you execute shots and implement your strategy.
Are you using a raw carbon fiber surface designed for maximum spin? A thick 16mm core that prioritizes control and resets? Or a thermoformed paddle engineered for fast hands and aggressive play?
The paddle you choose can significantly impact your performance, particularly as competition levels increase. While equipment alone will not win matches, selecting the right paddle for your style of play provides a foundation that supports everything else you do on the court.
#2 The Person: You and Your Opponent
The second P starts with the most important person on the court. You
Your skill level, mindset, confidence, physical conditioning, and emotional control all influence how you perform during a match.
But “Person” also extends to everyone else on the court. In singles, that means your opponent. In doubles, it includes your partner and both opponents.
Successful players become students of human behavior. They constantly analyze strengths, weaknesses, habits, and tendencies. Does an opponent struggle with a backhand dink? Do they become impatient during long rallies? Can they move laterally? Are they comfortable transitioning from the baseline to the kitchen line?
Person also includes reading body language, paddle angles, movement patterns, court positioning, and emotional reactions throughout a match.
The more information you gather, the easier it becomes to exploit weaknesses and build an effective game plan.
#3 Positioning: You and Their Location
Court geography governs pickleball. Period. Positioning is where you, your partner, and your opponents are located on the court at any given moment.
Are both partners moving together? Is one player hugging the kitchen line while the other remains stuck at the baseline? Has a gap opened because of poor court positioning or a failure to recover after a shot?
The positioning pillar focuses on dynamic movement, court awareness, and maintaining proper spacing. Successful doubles teams move independently but remain synchronized, almost as if connected by an invisible string.
Strong positioning closes defensive gaps, creates offensive opportunities, and helps players establish control of the non-volley zone line.
Proper positioning also ensures players are balanced and prepared before striking the ball, allowing them to react more efficiently to whatever comes next.
#4 Placement: Ball Control
Like real estate, “Placement” in pickleball is all about the location, location, and location of the ball that was just hit. Where the ball lands matters infinitely more than how hard it is played.
Strategic ball placement is often far more effective than raw speed. Great placement means identifying open court space, targeting weaknesses, creating difficult angles, and forcing opponents into uncomfortable positions.
This may involve hitting deep returns to the baseline, attacking a player’s backhand, dropping a ball softly into the kitchen, or driving the ball down the middle to create confusion between partners.
Place the ball correctly and you will often win the rally. Place it correctly repeatedly, and you will frequently win the match.
#5 Play: Game Strategy
The final P replaces the dangerous obsession with power and substitutes it with something far more valuable. Strategy.
“Play” is about constructing points with purpose. It is understanding when to drive, when to drop, when to speed up, when to reset, and when to extend a rally.
Strategy dictates every decision you make on the court.
Power becomes one tool within that larger strategic framework rather than the objective itself. Used correctly, power can finish points. Used incorrectly, it creates unnecessary errors and lost opportunities.
The best players are not always the strongest or the fastest. They are often the smartest. They understand how to adapt, make adjustments, and execute a game plan that exploits their opponents’ weaknesses while maximizing their own strengths.
The New Five Ps
The traditional 5 Ps belong to an earlier era of pickleball instruction. While Patience, Poaching, and Power each have their place, none deserve to stand alongside the true pillars that influence every point, every rally, and every match.
Paddle, Person, Positioning, Placement, and Play provide a more complete framework for today’s game because they focus on the variables players can actually observe, control, and execute. They emphasize equipment, awareness, court geography, ball control, and strategy rather than relying on vague concepts or situational tactics.
The modern game is no longer won simply by hitting harder or waiting longer. It is won through smarter decisions, better execution, and a deeper understanding of what is happening on both sides of the net.
The next time you step onto the court, forget the old playbook. Focus on the five Ps that truly matter. Choose the right paddle. Understand the people involved. Master positioning. Control placement. Build a strategy.
Do those five things consistently, and you’ll stop reacting to the game and start controlling it. ●
About Adriana Falco
Adriana Falco is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Pickleball Weekly, a global digital magazine reaching readers in over 65 countries across six continents. A pickleball player since 2012, she combines more than 30 years of executive leadership with a passion for storytelling that captures every facet of the sport. With a career from international technology companies to major news organizations, Falco covers the people, businesses, innovations, and global trends shaping pickleball’s future, with a mission to connect and inspire the worldwide pickleball community through credible journalism and compelling stories.
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