Jack Sock Is Teaching Pickleball Players To Disguise The Lob As A Speed-Up
- Pro Jack Sock is teaching recreational players to disguise the pickleball lob as a speed-up, catching opponents who lean aggressively into the kitchen line.
- The perforated plastic pickleball makes overheads hard to finish cleanly, so even an imperfect lob forces opponents into an awkward defensive scramble.
- Coaches say timing counts for more than technique here. The flick lob works best against aggressive net-crowders, in a tailwind, or against shorter opponents.
The Shot Most Players Only Hit By Accident Is Becoming A Real Weapon
The pickleball lob has a bad reputation. Most players treat it as a desperation shot, something they hit by accident when they meant to dink. Pro Jack Sock says that reputation is wrong, and in a coaching breakdown filmed for Selkirk TV, he lays out exactly how to turn the lob into one of the most disruptive shots in a recreational player’s arsenal.
Disguised correctly, the lob forces opponents off the kitchen line, punishes players who lean forward aggressively, and creates problems that are hard to solve cleanly from the baseline. Sock’s version isn’t a panicked, telegraphed lob. It’s a flick lob, built to look identical to a speed-up until the very last moment.
Why The Lob Is Getting More Attention At The Pro Level
The lob is not a new shot, but Sock says it’s having a moment. He points to players like AJ Kohler, who have made it a consistent part of their game, with more pros picking it up as conditions and ball physics make it increasingly viable.
Part of what makes the pickleball lob worth adding right now comes down to the ball itself. Under USA Pickleball’s official equipment standards, the ball is a perforated plastic design, a construction that makes it hard to put away cleanly on an overhead when the lob carries any height or depth. Even an imperfect lob causes problems. Opponents have to track back, adjust their footwork, and reset from a position they hate. That pressure compounds over a full match, and players are realizing they do not need a perfect lob to make it effective. They just need to hit it at the right time.
What Makes The Flick Lob Different From A Regular Lob
A standard lob is obvious. The body telegraphs it early, the paddle drops low, and any experienced opponent reads it before contact. The flick lob works differently. The setup looks exactly like a speed-up, so opponents load forward expecting pace. Then the paddle face flicks upward at the last moment and the ball sails over their heads instead.
That deception is the entire point. A player isn’t winning with the lob itself. They’re winning off a mistake they created: the opponent already committed in the wrong direction. It’s the same concept behind disguising any pickleball shot: when a player’s body language lies convincingly, even good defenders get caught out of position.
When To Actually Use It
Timing counts for more than technique here, according to Sock, who is direct about it: picking and choosing the right moment is the whole game with the lob. He lays out the situations where the flick lob does the most damage. It works best when opponents are leaning aggressively into the kitchen: players who crowd the line leave themselves exposed to anything behind them. It works when a player has been speeding up consistently, so opponents are already reading the same setup as another attack, right before the script flips. Wind working in a player’s favor turns a lob into a nightmare to judge. Shorter opponents struggle more on the overhead: height plays a real role, and a shorter reach turns a good lob into a truly difficult shot. And it works once a rally has settled into a predictable dinking pattern, when comfort breeds complacency at the kitchen line.
The flip side is true too. Against tall opponents who move well overhead, Sock says to use it sparingly.
Two Ways To Hit It, And Which One Sock Prefers
There are two contact methods, and both are valid depending on paddle speed and how naturally deceptive the setup looks. Hitting off the bounce means letting the ball drop and making contact after it bounces near the feet, which gives more time to set position and control the angle of the flick. The downside is that the slight pause can tip off a sharp opponent.
Hitting out of the air means leaning in and catching the ball in flight, mimicking the exact motion of a speed-up volley. It’s harder to execute cleanly, but the disguise is significantly better. Sock leans toward the aerial version, where the snap comes from the wrist and forearm at contact rather than a big windup.
The checklist for the shot stays the same either way. Set up with the same body language used for a speed-up, leaning slightly forward with the paddle in an aggressive-looking position. Make the decision early but commit late, so the body doesn’t give it away until the last fraction of a second. Open the paddle face upward just before contact, with the angle change happening at impact rather than on the backswing. Aim for depth, not just height, landing the ball within a few feet of the baseline. And follow through toward the target: a sloppy follow-through telegraphs the shot and kills depth control.
What It Does To An Opponent’s Head
This is where the flick lob earns its place as a real tool rather than just a shot. Lob someone once and it works, and they change their positioning for the rest of the match. That is exactly where a player wants an opponent: on their heels, slower to attack, more hesitant to speed up, and easier to manipulate with pace. Sock’s point is a simple one. Even an occasional lob keeps opponents honest, and that honesty costs them explosiveness, which is free pressure created without even winning the point.
Most players underestimate how badly a successful lob wrecks an opponent’s rhythm. Backing up from the kitchen line means moving backward while tracking a descending ball and trying to manufacture a quality shot at the same time. That is a lot happening at once, and most recreational and even intermediate players will either pop the ball up weakly or swing for a winner and miss. When opponents do recover, they are stuck deep with limited options. A player does not need to win the point outright on the lob. They just need to create a hard situation and be ready to put away the weak response that follows.
Building It Into Practice Without Burning A Whole Session
The shot doesn’t need a dedicated practice block. The better approach folds it into existing dinking practice: hit five standard speed-ups in a row, then throw in a flick lob using the same setup. A partner should not be able to tell which one is coming until contact. If a partner is calling the shot before it’s hit, the disguise needs work, and that honest feedback beats hitting a hundred lobs in isolation. From there, progressive drilling builds the shot into real game situations where the timing pressure is real. Placing a cone near an opponent’s baseline helps with depth control: a lob landing consistently in that zone is much harder to attack than one floating short.
The mistakes that kill the shot tend to repeat across players trying to learn it. Opening the paddle face too early lets a sharp opponent read it and start moving back before contact. Aiming too high without enough depth gives an opponent time to recover and set up for an easy overhead. Using it too often removes the surprise that makes it work in the first place: opponents adjust and start sitting on it. And using it against the wrong opponent, a tall, athletic player with a strong overhead, turns a soft lob into a gift.
As pickleball’s participation numbers have climbed into the tens of millions of American players in recent years, instructional content built around disguised, deceptive shots like the flick lob has become a growing part of how recreational players are coached to close the gap with more advanced opponents. The lob is a tool. The flick lob is a weapon, and pros like Sock are betting that most recreational players are still sleeping on it.
Used selectively, set up behind a real speed-up threat, and disguised until the last possible instant, the shot does something most single shots in pickleball can’t. It changes how an opponent plays every point after it, not just the one it wins.
Sources:
Image: Depositphotos
