What every coach says about the ATP.

What the ATP actually is (and why it's legal)

The around-the-post is exactly what it sounds like: a shot where the ball passes around the outside of the net post (not over the net) and lands inbounds on the opposite court. USAP rules make this explicit: the ball does not have to cross over the net. It just has to land in the correct service court. As long as the ball lands inbounds without ever traveling over the net, the point is legal. The shot is regulation-legal at every level of play, including tournament.

The geometry that makes the ATP possible is specific and rare. The ball has to be wide enough at contact that going around the post is the only path that lands inbounds (or the highest-percentage path). It also has to be low enough that you can hit it with topspin or slice that curves the trajectory toward the court. Most rallies don't produce ATP opportunities; the shot exists because some rallies do, and pros use it as a put-away when they appear.

The four sources

• Jordan Briones on Briones Pickleball Academy, who teaches the ATP geometry most carefully: which ball heights and angles allow it, and the footwork patterns that get you to the ball in time.
• CJ Johnson on Better Pickleball, who is the most contrarian voice. Her thesis: at 3.0-3.5, the ATP is a low-percentage attempt that costs more points (errors, broken positioning) than it wins. Most rec ATP attempts should have been a regular crosscourt dink instead.
• Tyson McGuffin on Tyson McGuffin Pickleball, whose pro ATP is one of his trademark winners. His framing: the ATP is a put-away in the right setup; the right setup is rare; recognizing it in the half-second before contact is the actual skill.
• PrimeTime Pickleball, which covers the ATP setup patterns most explicitly. Their content focuses on the dink rally patterns that produce ATP opportunities (specifically wide crosscourt dinks that the receiving team can't reset short).

Where the coaches agree

1. The ball has to be wide AND low. All four coaches teach this as the geometric prerequisite. Wide alone is not enough (ball can be lobbed back over the net); low alone is not enough (close balls go over the net). The ATP exists when the ball pulls you outside the sideline AND lands at a height where going over the net forces a high arc. Both conditions must hold.
2. Topspin or slice, not flat. The shot needs spin to curve the ball back into the court after passing the post. Topspin (low-to-high brush) is the more common version; slice works on backhand ATPs and is harder. A flat ATP attempt usually goes long because there's no spin to curve it down. Briones is most insistent on this.
3. Footwork before contact, not at contact. All four coaches teach this. The ATP requires you to be already moving wide, with a balanced split-step before contact, paddle in front of the body. Lunging-while-swinging produces shanks even when the ball is in the right spot. Tyson McGuffin's framing: "the footwork creates the opportunity; the swing is the easy part."
4. It's a put-away, not a setup. All four coaches teach the ATP as a rally-ender, not a tactical positioning shot. The whole point of attempting it is that the geometry produces an unreachable ball; the partner of the receiving team can't cover both sides of the net post in time. If you're attempting an ATP that the opponents can defend, you're attempting the wrong shot.

Where the coaches diverge

1. Should rec players attempt the ATP?

This is the sharpest divergence. CJ Johnson is the most explicit voice on the contrarian side: at 3.0-3.5, the ATP attempt rate exceeds the success rate by a wide margin. Most rec ATP attempts produce errors (out, into the net post, missed contact) because the rec player misidentifies the geometry; the ball was going to be defendable as a regular dink, but the player got excited about the wide angle and went for the ATP. CJ's recommendation: skip the ATP at 3.0-3.5; hit the regular crosscourt dink and let the point continue.

Briones, Tyson McGuffin, and PrimeTime all teach the ATP as a 3.5+ shot that's worth installing. Their framing: the ATP is not always going to win the point, but the threat of it shapes the dink rally; once the receiving team knows you can ATP, they pull their crosscourt dinks shorter (away from the post), which actually opens up the middle of the court for a different attack.

Honest synthesis: CJ is right for 3.0-3.5 in the sense that direct ATP attempts at this level have a low success rate. But the threat-shaping argument has merit even for rec players: just having the ATP in your toolbox changes how opponents dink to you. A reasonable rec progression: install the geometry recognition first (drill identifying ATP-able balls without attempting them), then add the actual swing only after the recognition is reliable.

2. Disguise: how much does it matter?

Tyson McGuffin teaches a heavily-disguised ATP: the setup looks identical to a regular dink return until the moment of contact, when the swing path commits to going around the post. His framing: at the pro level, an obvious ATP attempt gets blocked by the receiving team's partner stepping toward the post early. The disguise is what produces the put-away.

Briones takes a middle position: disguise is helpful but not critical at the rec level because most rec opponents can't reposition fast enough to cover even an obvious ATP. CJ Johnson and PrimeTime stay out of the disguise debate, mostly because their content focuses on whether to attempt the ATP at all rather than how to make it more dangerous.

Honest synthesis: at 3.0-3.5, disguise doesn't matter because rec opponents rarely reposition in time. At 4.0+ tournament play, disguise is part of the recipe; without it, the ATP becomes defendable.

3. Recovery after a failed ATP

Briones is most explicit on this. A missed ATP attempt leaves you wide outside the sideline, often with momentum carrying you further off the court. The recovery is critical: get back to the kitchen line as fast as possible, with your partner shifting to cover the middle. PrimeTime aligns with this pattern.

Tyson McGuffin and CJ Johnson focus less on recovery because their pedagogies are at opposite ends: Tyson teaches the ATP as a winner (so recovery rarely matters), and CJ teaches not attempting it (so recovery never comes up). The recovery framing is most useful for the 3.5+ rec player whose ATP attempts succeed maybe 50% of the time; the 50% that fail still need to be played out.

The unifying framework

When you stack the four sources, the consensus ATP framework looks like this:

1. Recognize the geometry first. Wide AND low. Both conditions must hold. If the ball is just wide, hit a regular crosscourt dink. If it's just low, dink as normal. The ATP-able ball is rarer than rec players assume.
2. Footwork before contact. Move wide early, split-step before the ball arrives, paddle in front of the body. Lunging-while-swinging is the rec failure mode.
3. Topspin or slice. Spin curves the trajectory; flat goes long.
4. Aim for inside the kitchen line on the opposite court. The closer to the net post on the opposite side, the harder for the receiving team's partner to cover. The crosscourt sideline target is the standard.
5. Have a recovery plan. The post-ATP position is by definition outside the court. Get back to the kitchen line; your partner shifts to cover the middle while you recover.
6. Use the threat as much as the shot itself. Even at the rec level, having an ATP in your toolbox changes how opponents dink to you. The threat is sometimes more valuable than the actual shot.

The right ball: a checklist

Briones provides the cleanest pre-attempt checklist. Before swinging at an ATP, confirm:

• Width: the ball is at or outside the sideline at contact (sometimes meaningfully outside).
• Height: the ball is below net height at contact, ideally at knee level or lower.
• Pace: the ball isn't traveling fast enough that you can't apply spin in your swing window.
• Your balance: you're balanced enough to execute a full topspin swing, not stretched.
• The post: the net post is between you and the net (not behind you or above you).

If all five are yes, the ATP is the right shot. If any one is no, the regular crosscourt dink is the right shot. Most rec ATP attempts fail one or more of these checks and fail the actual shot as a result.

What the coaches don't say (and why it matters)

None of the four coaches teach the ATP as a way to "spice up" a rally. Rec players sometimes attempt it for the highlight value; that's not the framework any cited coach teaches. The ATP is a put-away when the geometry allows; otherwise it's the wrong shot. Rec players who attempt ATPs for fun produce more errors than winners and lose the cumulative tactical advantage they could have built with a steady dink rally.

The partner-coordination layer is also under-discussed. While you're attempting the ATP, your partner has to know you're going for it (so they shift to cover the middle if it fails). Most rec teams don't communicate ATP attempts; the partner watches like a spectator and is out of position whether the attempt succeeds or fails. Briones's content gets closest to this with his ATP partner-coverage segments.

The honest framing

The ATP is a specialty shot that most rec players over-attempt. The coaches we cite agree on the geometry and the swing mechanics; they diverge on whether rec players should attempt it at all. The honest synthesis: the ATP is a real tool at 4.0+, a threat-shaping tool at 3.5, and a low-percentage gamble at 3.0-3.5 unless the geometry is unmistakable. Most rec ATP attempts are misreads of the ball, not failures of execution.

If your ATP attempts succeed less than 60% of the time in your last ten attempts, you're misreading the geometry. Drill the recognition (no swing, just identify ATP-able balls during dink rallies) for two weeks before attempting more. The recognition is the lever, not the swing.

Sources cited

• Briones Pickleball Academy: ATP geometry and footwork
• Better Pickleball with CJ Johnson: When NOT to attempt the ATP
• Tyson McGuffin Pickleball: The pro ATP and disguise
• PrimeTime Pickleball: ATP setup patterns and recovery
• Our ATP shot guide

Related coach takes

The ATP sits inside the kitchen-line dink rally. Our dink-rally take covers the rally state from which most ATP opportunities emerge, including the wide-crosscourt dink pattern that produces ATP-able balls. Our speed-ups take covers the alternative attack from the same rally context. Our poaching take covers the partner-coordination layer that interacts with ATP coverage.