How to Beat a Banger in Pickleball: 3 Tools That Actually Work by John Cincola

Every pickleball player knows the frustration. You step up to the kitchen line, ready to dink, ready to be patient, ready to play the right way — and your opponent just hammers the ball at your chest over and over again. And somehow, they keep winning.

Here's the truth: if a banger is beating you, it isn't because they're playing the right game. It's because you're letting them.

What Is a Banger, Really?

The word gets thrown around loosely, so let's define it precisely. A banger is not just someone who hits the ball hard. If you find a weakness in your opponent and exploit it with power all game, that's smart pickleball. A banger, by contrast, is a one-dimensional player. They win exclusively through power, have no plan B when it stops working, and make no distinction between when power is or isn't the right call.

That one-dimensionality is both their weapon and their fatal flaw.

The Biggest Myth About Beating Bangers

The most common advice you'll hear is to slow them down. Reset every hard ball. Put it back in the kitchen. Don't give them anything to hit.

It sounds reasonable. It's completely wrong.

Here's why: a banger is making poor decisions on nearly every hard shot. They're hitting at the wrong time, from the wrong position, with no strategic thinking behind it. When you reset those balls, you're giving them a free pass on a bad decision. You're letting them off the hook. And when there are no consequences for bad shots, there's no reason to stop hitting them.

Resetting doesn't neutralize a banger. It feeds them.

Tool 1: Punish It

The first and most important skill is counterattacking. When a banger speeds up at you and you send it back with authority, something shifts. Their confidence takes a hit. The game they thought they were playing suddenly has consequences.

The key is staying composed. Don't flinch, don't step back, don't look passive. Compact swing, hold your ground, and send it back. It only takes a few exchanges like that before a one-dimensional player starts to feel like things aren't going according to plan — and when they have no plan B, that's a problem for them, not you.

Tool 2: Leave It

The second-worst thing a banger can watch is their rocket shot sail three feet long. But most players react too late to make the leave decision confidently.

The fix is to start making your read before the ball is struck. Train yourself to assess five things in real time: where the ball is in the court, how high it is when your opponent contacts it, the size of their backswing, their forward momentum, and their known tendencies. If someone is hitting hard 90% of the time from a position with no margin for error, you should already know that ball is likely going out before they even swing.

Situational awareness is a skill. The more you develop it, the more balls you'll leave — and the more free points you'll collect.

Tool 3: Don't Give It to Them

The third tool is proactive: stop giving bangers the shots they love. Two ball types in particular are irresistible to hard hitters. First is the dead dink — anything with too much arc that sits up high and invites contact. Second is any ball out of the air above knee height.

The solution: keep your shots flatter when possible, and if you do give your opponent a volley opportunity, make sure they're picking it up below their knees. Their success rate on hard shots drops dramatically when they're forced to generate power from a low contact point with no time to set their feet.

Make them work for it. When every ball they get is tight, low, and fast through the court, that's a different game than the one they signed up for.

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A banger operating without consequences is a dangerous opponent. A banger being punished for bad decisions, watching their big shots sail out, and never getting a clean look at a setup ball? That's a player running out of options.

Take away their green light. Make them find a plan B they don't have.

Watch John Cincola's full breakdown on counterattacking here!