This Shot Is Changing Pickleball In 2026 (You’re Not Using It)

I'm going to share with you the number one shot that you need to add to your game in 2026, or you'll be left behind. I'm joined by Zach Marceau. He's ranked top three on the college tour. And he actually showed me this shot this morning, and it completely opened up my eyes. I said, Zach, we have to come to the courts and make a video on this to teach the world about this. Yeah, I'm super excited to be here. It's something I've kind of picked off some of the top pros, so I'm really excited to show you guys this shot today. This shot is fourth ball pressure. Look how if I'm in the mid court and I'm trying to hit a drop, how Zach is able to apply pressure even on these low balls. Look at this. So much top spin, bam, look at that. What I do specifically that Zach actually pointed out to me, Zach, if you head back, is this is my normal shot. Just check this out. So I would try to hit the ball and I just tap it with my wrist, but it doesn't come in very hard and he's able to get to the kitchen on me every time. Is that true, Zach? Yeah, so pretty much Tanner would kind of just hit this like little baby flick and it would land pretty short in the court. And for me, I could hit a pretty easy reset or a fifth shot drop and come in behind it and be established at the net and not really have a ton of pressure getting in. So here's what I do the wrong way. I don't do it anymore, but this is what I was doing. Look. Easy reset and then I'm all the way in. Let's do another one. If I leave the drop a little up, Tanner's not taking full advantage. That's exactly what I do. It's terrible. Now I want to do what Zach showed me literally this morning and I'm like, wow, why was I not doing this? Okay, check this out now. Pretty similar drop. Top reset. Hit it nice and low, Zach. Okay, let me do one more. So you guys can see the difference. Bam. So see that? Literally, he showed me that like 15 minutes ago and I feel like my game has got so much better because now he struggles getting to the kitchen line. We're going to teach you that shot now. Zach, what is step one to this shot? So the first thing we're going to need to do is have a solid base as to any shot in pickleball we want to be about shoulder width. We want to push our butt back to create a counterbalance so we can reach in as far as possible. So for me, my positioning kind of looks like this. This is the first step to this shot. Moving on to the main question that I had with this shot is how do you basically set your wrist? Are you adjusting your grip? What grip are you using? Because I think that goes a long way in generating spin from down here. Everybody wants to know that. For me, what I actually do out of continental is I take my paddle and close it myself. So I take my wrist and pull it back just like that. So I'm effectively taking my wrist from a neutral position and closing it like that. Because anytime you take a paddle with grid on it and close the face and you swing up on the ball, you are effectively putting topspin on the ball. So that's the first thing I'm doing as soon as I'm set with a good base is I'm closing my paddle face like this before I actually even swing on the ball. Next up is for actual swing. What are some things we should look for when we're making contact to the ball? So for me, one of the biggest things is making sure I'm contacting the ball out in front because as soon as the ball gets behind me, as you can see with a closed paddle face, now it's pointed straight at the ground. So I need to make sure I'm contacting the ball out in front. And for the actual swing, for me, I am swinging with starting from the ground and I'm pulling up straight to my ear. I'm not pulling across my body. I'm not pulling. Why don't you go across the body? So for me, I think it's the most effective way to create spin. Finishing on the same side of your body kind of gives it that extra chariot whip as Ben Johns calls it. So it gives it a little more spin and allows you to control the pace a little bit easier. Going this way gives you less margin and it is going away from the court. If I finished towards my ear, you're finishing with more margin towards the middle of the court, allowing you to put more pressure on your opponents. All right, let's get some examples, Zach. Yeah, absolutely. So I'll hit you some balls. Nice. I'll try to get them nice and low. Yep. Look at that. Wow. So you're hitting that great. Good. Look how low that is. And there's still so much spin. Good. Let's do one more. Nice and low. Wow. So if the ball's higher for me, what I like to do is really pull it with a little more of an angle in my paddle face. So instead of this pointing towards the middle, I'll kind of shift it this way and go like this. That way the ball has a little more curve on it, going out of the court more so that it gets to, for Tanner, who's a lefty, it would get to his backhand. And for a righty, it would pull them off the court, exposing more of the court. So I have more room to put the ball away. Let's see what that looks like. Here we go. So the high one and I'm pulling it off the court. So it'd be harder for Tanner to make. And then I have more court to put the ball away. That's so deadly. And guys, the main reason this is so important and why I wanted to add it to my game is it's so much pressure trying to get to the kitchen line. So after I hit my third shot drop, I'm feeling pressure having to hit like elite level resets, resets, resets, because every ball is just getting attacked. If you're not using this form, you're just allowing your opponent to get into the kitchen easier. We're going to transition into some live points so you guys can see this in action. So let's do it. Here we go. Wow. Good. So Tanner got that ball a little lower. So for me, I know he's able to come in a little more off it. So I tried to roll it a little shorter in the court and not leave it too high for him to attack. Nice. Wow. So you guys can see it is extremely hard for me to get in. If I don't hit the shot, perfect. Jumping out of the video for one second, Zach is on the court all day, every day, eight hours a day. And I never see him drinking enough water, let alone electrolytes in general. I'm about to change his world with some slam it focus. I will pick that up. I've never tried it. Never tried it. This is an honest reaction. He's on the dinosaur. So Zach, all you do is crack it open. Okay. Put the lid on. Okay. Shake her up. And then let's get an honest feedback taste, not staged at all. You better say, no, I'm just kidding. No, I've never, never tried slam. I've tried a lot of electrolytes. That's really good. Holy, what flavor is it? Mixed berry. This is mixed berry. This is good. But yeah, seriously, you can have the whole thing more poorly. It's focused. I love it. It's clean. It's healthy. It makes you feel good. It makes you play better. You have no mental fatigue. Let's get back into it. Now that we saw it in action, I'm going to hit some and Zach is going to critique me. The shot's super easy to learn. Like I said, I haven't been doing it for more than like 20 minutes and I feel like I pretty much already have it mastered. Zach, let's see it. Yeah. Nice. Nice. It's good. Nice. Really good. Yeah. It's perfect. On those higher ones, make sure you go to my backhand. That's perfect. Yep. That's really good. Okay. Here we go. Look at that. Yeah. So like the ball is like mid height and all I'm doing is turning my paddle slightly in swinging like this. I feel like it's like virtually ungettable for you to hit. And even if I do, it's such a challenge to be able to get it back in the kitchen. And if I leave it at all, any up, I'm all the way out here and there's so much court that's exposed. So it is a lot harder for me. Why don't you do some just a tad lower? Yeah. Nice. That was pretty low. Here we go. Nice. Look at that. Okay. Here we go. That was nice. Really good. Yeah. I'm pretty much Ben Johns. You're doing a lot better job too. Like this morning, there were a couple you missed in the tape because the ball kind of got behind you and you had a bit of a backswing, which might close the paddle face too much and put the ball in the tape. But starting out in front more and swinging up, you're doing a really good job of getting that pace and spin, consistently landing in the mid court, making it really hard for me to hit resets. Perfect. All right. Let me do one more. Get it low. I want to point on what he just said. Zach, hit me a low and I want to explain it. Check this out. Good. So on that ball, it's very low. It's probably here. Normally I would tap it back. Now I'm able to apply pressure. But the key that Zach was just saying is when it's this low, I'm not winding up from here. I'm simply starting just below the ball and then coming through. When the ball is higher, that's when I'm kind of taking that bigger swing. So let me get a higher ball Zach. There. Look at that. One of my favorite parts, you're not using your wrist at all. So it's going to be more consistent. And since we're coming like this on our body, it's so deceptive. You can't read pretty much where it's going. No idea where it's going. And I think taking out the wrist, like you said, makes it way more consistent. You just take out the timing completely. You don't need to try and time up when you need to snap. You're just locking it in place and swinging. That's it. Thanks for making it to the end of the video. If you enjoyed and found this valuable, leave a comment down below and make sure to follow Zach's journey on Instagram. He's come such a long way in his game. He's a top player on the APP Tour now. Zach Marceau, underscore PV. Thank you guys. YouTube thinks you should watch this video next. And so do I. Keep getting better at pickleball.