MLP Finals Review: Tactics From the Shock vs 5s Championship Match
The New Jersey 5s won their first Major League Pickleball title in 2026 by beating the St. Louis Shock in a Dreambreaker on Finals Day in New York's Central Park. The full broadcast runs about two hours, and the commentators spend a lot of it explaining why points are won. This review pulls out the tactical ideas that apply to your own game, plus two rulings that show up in the match. It is based on the league's own broadcast of the championship match, and every observation below is the commentators' read of the play, paraphrased.
The setup
An MLP final is a team match. Each side fields a mix of men and women, and the match is played as several doubles games. When the teams split those games, a singles-style tiebreaker called the Dreambreaker decides it. The Shock lineup included Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, Hunter Johnson, Anna Bright and Kate Fahey. The 5s had Anna Leigh Waters, Federico Staksrud, Jorja Johnson, Will Howells and Noe Khlif. The match went the distance, and the 5s took the Dreambreaker. Staksrud was named finals MVP, and Waters said the team had lost the final the same way in each of the previous two years.
Tactic 1: move the ball, but pick your pattern
Early in the match the commentators note that a player was not grinding the cross-court dink and was sending the ball all over the court instead. Their point was that ball movement pulls a defender out of position, and that a team that has been strong in one pattern can sometimes win by changing it. The flip side comes up later: dinking down the line is riskier, because the net is higher at the edges, and you have less court to work with. Cross-court gives more margin. If you want to practice the safer pattern, our guide to cross-court dinking is a good start.
Tactic 2: attack the weaker side
The commentary keeps returning to targeting. One opponent's backhand dink was described as weaker than her forehand, so the 5s tried to put pressure on that side. Another point is about the middle: hitting behind one opponent can open a backhand dink for the other and leave the middle unprotected. At every level, a good first step is to find which side your opponent likes less and make them use it.
Tactic 3: out of the air or off the bounce
Two comments are worth remembering. First, the commentators said the court surface produced a low bounce, which made players more willing to attack the ball out of the air than to speed it up after it bounced. Second, they noted that attacking off the bounce is a different, harder shot than attacking out of the air. When a pop-up dink bounces, you give up time and tempo. That was the reason one player was criticised for letting a pop-up bounce instead of taking it. For more on volley-based attacking, see our guide to poaching.
Tactic 4: do not overcommit to the Ernie
Later in the match, the commentators said Waters advised a teammate from the bench to camp out more in the middle instead of committing so often to the Ernie, because the opposing player was playing bigger than him at that moment. An Erne wins points when it works, but if the opponent reads it, you are out of position and the point is over. The same broadcast also explains the rule: you can leap over the kitchen to hit an Ernie, but you cannot land in it. Our post on the kitchen rules goes through the details.
Tactic 5: the Dreambreaker rewards depth and the net
The Dreambreaker is played as singles in short rotations, and the commentators stress two ideas. First, depth matters most early in a singles point. A deep ball keeps your opponent behind the baseline and takes away their options. Second, the player who gets to the net tends to win the rally. At one point the commentator says that in each case, the person who took the net won the point. A player who followed her own shot forward was praised, and a player who got stuck just inside the baseline was criticised because her pass became harder. If you play singles, this is a useful checklist: hit deep, then follow the ball in.
Two rulings from the match
- Touching the net. A player touched the net while the ball was live. After a challenge, the referee overturned the result of the rally, and the team that challenged kept its timeout.
- Foot fault. A foot fault was called on a player, and the officials showed the specific spot where the foot landed. The commentators noted the call on a toe, then moved on.
Both are reminders that at the pro level, small violations decide points. Teams also have a limited number of timeouts, and a successful challenge lets them keep theirs.
What to take from it
- Choose patterns that give you margin, and change them when your opponent adapts.
- Find the weaker side and the middle, and hit there.
- Take the ball out of the air when you can.
- Stay patient with big shots like the Ernie, and read the situation first.
- In singles, win depth first, then take the net.
To see how this connects to the rest of the pro game, browse our pro tour page. For the part of the game that decides most rallies, read our guide to the third shot drop.