KOBO Founder’s Journal
Are You the Banger? Add a Soft Game to Your Pickleball Power
Every ball gets a full swing. Your partner suggests a dink. You answer with an even harder drive down the middle. Sound familiar?
A banger is an informal name for a player who relies heavily on hard drives. Power can be a strength; adding a reliable drop shot gives you another option when opponents handle the pace.
▶ Watch Mark’s video on YouTube · 53 secondsThe full-swing personality
Mark’s latest video gives the big hitter a friendly nudge. A drop shot? Never tried it. A reset? That means starting another game.
If you arrived from tennis, racquetball or squash, a big swing may feel familiar. And a well-chosen drive belongs in pickleball. The question is whether you can choose a different shot when the rally calls for it.
These court personalities are playful observations, not formal ratings or fixed identities. You might be the banger in one rally and the patient player in the next.
When another hard drive isn’t the answer
Watch what happens after your opponent returns your hardest shot. If they stay balanced and send it straight back, adding more effort may give you the same result.
The video jokes about meeting 4.5 tournament players who calmly handle your pace. There is no rating where power suddenly stops working. The useful lesson is to notice the response: are your drives creating pressure, or are you repeating a pattern your opponents already read?
A softer ball can change that exchange. It gives your team a different way to build the point instead of making every swing bigger.
Add the drop shot—and understand the dink
A third-shot drop is a controlled shot played by the serving team after the return, aimed to land softly in the opponent’s kitchen. A well-executed drop can help you move toward the kitchen line. USA Pickleball’s third-shot drop guide explains the compact motion and relaxed grip.
A dink is a soft shot played near the kitchen line into the opposing kitchen. It gives you a way to work with placement at close range. See USA Pickleball’s dinking fundamentals for a practical introduction.
You don’t need to dink every ball or drop every third shot. The aim is to have a choice—and recognize when your usual drive is helping.
A five-minute challenge for your next session
Before the next game, try this simple practice with your partner:
- Start close. Spend two minutes exchanging gentle dinks. Aim for a repeatable, compact motion.
- Move back gradually. Spend two minutes practicing drops toward the kitchen. Focus on placement before pace.
- Compare the results. Use the last minute to discuss which shots felt controlled and which floated too high.
In your next game, notice one rally where changing pace helped. That is a more useful starting point than trying to replace your entire game at once.
Send this to your big-hitting buddy
Keep it friendly: you enjoy playing together, and another shot could give your partnership more options. Share Mark’s video with the person who will recognize themselves—and probably laugh.
For more on the people across the net and beside you, read Vocal Energizer or Quiet Observer? and Quiet Assassin or Joker?
Read the video transcript
Are you the banger in your group? Every ball gets a full swing. Someone says, maybe try a dink, your answer, an even harder drive down the middle. A drop shot? Never tried it. A reset? That means starting another game. Maybe you brought that big swing from tennis, racquetball, or squash. But there's another gear, soft hands, and accurate placement. Power works until you meet those 4.5 tournament players who calmly send it right back. Maybe this Christmas? You don't need socks from Santa. You need a drop shot. Is this you or someone you know? Tag your pickleball buddy and say, this is you buddy. I love playing with you. But imagine if you got a drop shot, how many more games we would win? Tell us where you play and where we should send the KOBO demo team, so you can try the Thunder AXE and G4 Kevlar Power Series. See the link below if you are looking for a new paddle.