Coming Attractions for Next Year

 Well peeps, there are some exciting things on the list for next year.  We have Dr. Parry Reposte, noted pickleball psychiatrist who will write a couple of posts about his interesting cases.  Perhaps we can all learn what drives the usual and unusual pb player.

I've also come across a diary of a gal who describes her journey while taking up the game.  Most amusing, of course.  And we've all been there.

And I'm thinking about a couple of post things.  One is balance.  It's not much fun when you lose it, and I've just become curious about it.  I think it's all about moving your feet properly.  Which of course is a big topic for us players.  I want to do some YouTube research and see what the kinesiologists have to say.  

I played a couple of times with Larry recently.  This is fairly rare; we don't get to play together much.  Larry has some interesting skills and maybe he can fix some of those in the next year.  But I digress...  Larry watches my game as closely as I watch his and we've had interesting conversations while wandering back to the parking lot.  The conversations have been about my lack of a smash shot or my passing up opportunities to hit the ball hard.

And there are reasons for my not smashing the ball whenever possible.  One, the smash is a shot fraught with peril.  I estimate about 30% of smashes end up in the net.  Also, a smash, either good or bad, will usually end the point and I'm all about having a longer rally.  And then if I'm not playing in high level game (well, a relatively high level game, I have no delusions about my absolute abilities!) then I'm happy to challenge the opponents and not just put the shot away.

I played a game the other day and pretty much dinked every shot.  We beat a pretty good team, known for their banging style.  It was an interesting experiment in how well dinks work in almost all situations.  "When in doubt, Dink," is my motto.

When I was starting out there were players who would just hit put away shots and after a while wondered why no one would hit the ball to them.   "Challenge, don't punish" is my motto.

OK, so Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you.  It's been a fun year and I look forward to more funner times next year!

Rich

The Problem with Strange Styles

I will admit that I'm a bit of a style snob and think that the third shot drop and following the service return with movement to the kitchen line is the most efficient way to play.

But not everyone plays this way.  I wanted to write about why playing differently or unexpectedly is a problem.

In the rec play that I'm used to, there is no discussion of style before the ball starts going to and fro.  Though there probably ought to be.  I played the other day and told my partner that I dropped thirds and liked the soft game.  He was fine with that.  There was no discussion of following service returns in, as that is expected in all but beginner games.

I played with someone who loves to roam the back court and seems to rarely move to the kitchen at the expected times.  This guy hits the ball beautifully with excellent paddle to ball contact and he rarely over hits a shot.  He chases down a lot of shots, but since he is playing from the back court and the opponents usually from the kitchen, he doesn't do very well in a better game.  

And as his partner recently, I found it very difficult to know where he was and predict how the point was going to play out.  I was the only person on our side at the kitchen line often and that's not fun and not very successful.  

I decided a few years back, that control from the kitchen is most efficient way to play.  That decision was not shared by this partner and that made for an awkward game.  It was hard to understand how he and I needed to play to be a successful team.  Maybe with some discussion that might have been possible, but if I were adjust to his style, I would have to give up the kitchen line.  

Let add one more anecdote to this...  I was played a couple of games with a gal who was just getting started playing.  I think she had some tennis background as she could hit the ball ok.  But the skills required to play PB were lacking.  Here's scenario.  She is at the net and I'm returning the serve. I hit it back and come up the kitchen line.  As I'm doing that, she is backpedaling furiously.  As the point ended, everyone but she was at the net.  I found it amusing and interesting.  If you start to play a new game and you are not doing what everyone else is doing, I think you should realize that you might not be doing the right thing.

Let me sum up a bit.  I have no real problem with folks playing with an unusual style.  But it does create more problems for your partner than for your opponents.  If insist on this, then having a 30 second discussion with your partner before the game is important.  Now what you tell your partner is another blog post!  I'm not coming to the kitchen line -- so should partner?  I'm going to play from the back court -- again, where should partner play?  Who gets which shots?  The questions are endless and maybe unique for every style.  It might be easier to everyone to play classically and work out a strange style with a long term partner.

Shot Depth Selection

 I hope the holiday season is going well for all.  

I've never written much about shot selection other than, "hit it in the middle," and I have a couple of thoughts to pass along.

I don't want to talk about the traditional stuff like hit it to the backhand, keep them deep, etc.  I want to bring up two different thoughts that I've found effective.

First is the shot that is soft and in the middle somewhere.  The key is a shot that can't be attacked, as it has a low bounce and is off pace.  There are a lot of players who like to hit shots that coming at speed.  I first recognized this with the former racquet ball players who lived and died on a hard hit.  They have no problem with a fast shot.  So it's best not to give them one.  A soft low middle shot works wonders if they have to move their feet and decide if they should hit it or their partner.  (If they still hit it hard, prepare to duck!)

The second shot is much like the first.  But let's set the scene where everyone is near the kitchen.  Typically the lower skilled the game, the higher the ball is over the net.  In that game, the ball tends to move faster and faster until the point is over.

In a higher skilled game the ball is quite low and while there are speed ups, there are also resets.  And a great reset cannot be volleyed.  This is vital for resets and a lot of touch shots at the kitchen lines.  Hitting a ball softly enough and with enough arc to get it to bounce is important.  See the bonus tip below...

Of course if the ball is up enough, you want to hit it to someone's feet, but if that's not possible, a shot that bounces is very powerful.  This is a pretty rare shot in the beginner and intermediate levels.  And it's not easy, so it requires some practice and desire to play it.  But not only is it difficult to return, but it gives your side time to get back in position or reset or get paddles ready or recover balance.

Bonus:  I was warming up the other day with stranger at the Downs.  He hit the ball quite well and we had some dinking rallies that lasted long enough for me to be analytical about.  I noticed that it was common to hit a dink that was low over the net, but easily volleyed back.  I realized that I needed to clear the net by a few more inches and hit the ball softer if I wanted to have the ball bounce on his side.  There was need to deliberately hit a more arcing shot.  This was more difficult, but the shot was harder to return.  A ball that bounces is usually below the net and tougher to speed up successfully.  If your shot or your partner's is going to bounce, then close on the kitchen line and get your paddle up as it's quite likely that the return will be attackable.

Invis Sport Glasses

 I wanted to pass on my observations with my new Invis safety glasses.  Links below, details below, bottom line: I would buy again.

There were two reasons I wanted them.  One being that they are photo active, and the other that they are non-polarized.

Let me talk about photo activity first.  I frequently find in these winter months that the sun is intermittent at best.  I usually would just wear my sun glasses, or change over to some Gearbox clear glasses.  But that was not convenient.  So the photo active part was wanted.  The question is how dark do they get?  I've found that they get dark enough.  I've never found that they were not dark enough.  I've not used these enough to fully state that on a full sun day that these would be as good as sunglasses.  But I don't notice additional sun shine, so I think this works for highly variable sun days.

My sunglasses are polarized, but I've heard, probably from a glasses manufacturer, that polarized lens will cause problems with depth perception.  But polarized lens cut down on glare, which is a real situation this time of year.  So this problem and solution might not be solvable.  I find the glare an issue, but I might be seeing the ball better.  I'm on a pretty good play streak right now and any better vision might be part of that.  I have no definitive thoughts on how well the glasses work for that.

I bought wrap around style glasses.  The lenses are bit smaller than my sunglasses, but there is an adjustable nose piece that allowed me to lower glasses to a more comfortable position.  I would have preferred bigger lenses.  Maybe next time.

Protection: Sadly I've not been hit in the face lately so I have no data on that.  They do seem solid enough to at least deflect the ball.

The glasses cost about $57, add tax and some shipping to that.  They were shipped from Utah, and it took six days to get here via an unknown shipping firm.  They provided tracking, but it wasn't wonderfully accurate nor updated often.  The glasses are very light in weight and don't slip around.  They can fog a bit if you have them situated close to your nose.

Bottom line, I would buy these again.  I would look for larger lenses. Price was fine, and at the low end for glasses.

Web site is: https://invissports.com/   Here is a link to the ones I purchased: https://invissports.com/collections/light-adaptive-glasses/products/vici-light-adaptive-sports-optics-set

Another Theory About Not Getting Up to the Kitchen

 I've taught a lot of beginner classes and in the last couple we've tried to get the beginners to move to the kitchen after they hit the serve back.

This is usually impossible for them to do.  You can be standing next to them on the court and yell and wave your arms, but they are rooted in place.  I think I could fix this with a shock collar, but the club won't provide any...

I thought that this play was too scary and folks were concerned about being hit or not being comfortable with a net shot.  But I've come up with a different theory.

I'm guessing that they don't move up because they don't know what's going to happen with the next shot.

I understand this and maybe a lot of other unusual play I see is due to that.  Which leads me to talk, on this rainy day, with cold fingers dancing on the keyboard, about the patterns of play and why we want to know about them.

With a small court, the two bounce rule,  and two people on a side, there are very few scenarios that occur.  I'll limit my discussion to classical pickleball.  You bangers can write up your own plays!

Shot 1, get the serve in.  Shot 2, hit a return to the middle of the baseline, move to the net.  Shot 3, drop or drive and work your way towards the net.  See the prior blog post.  Shot 4, 6, 8, try to keep opponents back.  Shots 5, 7, 9, keep trying to get to the net.  All the rest is dink, lob, return, body bags, dink some more, and don't make mistakes.

As you've played enough, you will see this play out with minor variations.  The variations occur due to your opponents' shot selections.  The toughest opponents are not predictable and mix up shot targets and use both hard and soft shots.

Let's get back to the second shot.  In a beginner game, it doesn't matter where you hit it.  The two bounce rule forces the play to pause a little bit and the player who hit the serve, must use this to move up to join their partner at the kitchen.  

Theory Three...  ("I used to have three theories on raising children, but now I have three children and no theories,"  Ed Hume)

I talked to a player who has played for a number of years and she doesn't follow the service return to the kitchen.  Today I asked her why.  

She mentioned that she had a problem getting all the way up.  And she felt more confident in hitting a shot from close to the baseline.

So at her play level, it was more effective to stay back and wait for a better time to move up.  But it doesn't work when she gets into the tougher games. 

I have a lot of respect for this gal's playing ability.  And reading between the lines, I suspect that when she tries to come up with a service return, she finds herself still moving when trying to return the third shot.  This is very common and hitting while moving is not for the faint of heart.  See the previous post for some info about stopping and playing from fixed feet.  

I think you need to move up, always.  

Do not fear!  Moving up can be done a few ways.  One, you can sprint up, like the pros do.  Two, never wait to see how good your return is, just follow it in.  Three, return a shot that is more of a lob and that will create more time for you to move up.  

Finally, it is not necessary to move all the way up.  A good couple of steps up is much better than staying all the way back.  Stop so that you are stationary when the opponent starts to hit the ball.  Make sure your paddle is properly placed and as the point develops, move up, or back, or stay still to maximize your play.  Make sure your two steps are directly at the ball.  You usually have to move at some kind of angle to do this.  You don't want to widen the distance between you and partner.

The pros play a lot of shots from mid court and if you are ready, those shots are not that difficult.  Just make sure you are not standing tall your paddle at your knees.  As the Master would say, "Grasshopper, do not do that."

Foot Not Loose Part II

 In the last post I mentioned not moving your feet in various scenarios.  I've applied what I wrote and I want to explain when and how and why a bit more, as I found that not moving your feet is incredibly strong PB.

Let me sum up the last post quickly.  In various scenarios you want to be stopped with a side split step and prepared to hit balls that you can reach.  You might have to stretch and you will not be able to return a perfect shot hit out of your reach.  Finally, you want to have your paddle ready for the expected shot.

When is this useful?  This scenario arises most often when your side has served and you have returned the third shot.  At this moment in the play, you want to start working your way to the kitchenline.  And to do that, you want to start moving into the court.

There is a view that the transition area, or service area, or no man's land is a place to be avoided.  And the play there is difficult and good players don't play from there.  I disagree.  Even in pro level matches a lot of play happens there.  And as I was experimenting with this "stop and get ready" technique, I was surprised how often I used it.

The real key to this is to stop early enough to be in balance with a wide stance and your paddle ready.  The paddle ready part is important and it's not a single position.

The further from the kitchen you are, the lower you want your paddle.  Let me explain in detail about play near the baseline and that explanation is merely modified as you move towards the net.  

We have hit the third shot and the opponents return it from the kitchenline, as they should and as you should have expected.  You want to still be behind the baseline unless the third shot was outstanding.

If the third shot was good, then you should have followed it a bit into the court.  And stopped.  And have your paddle ready.  

Where should the paddle be?  Well, where is the worst case shot?  At your feet.  So hold your paddle very low and out in front of you a bit and be ready to hit a shot on the forehand or backhand.  Pro tip: if the ball is a lot higher than your paddle position, it's going out, so you want to be ready to duck.  Use your paddle position as a way to measure possible out balls.  Do not reward bangers who can't keep the ball in.  Punish them, it's fun and they deserve it.

If you stopped early and got ready, then shots will be surprisingly easy to return.  You might not be able to smack the ball back, but hitting a drop shot or low shot will be easily possible.  If you hit that shot well, you'll have the time to move closer to the kitchen.  But maybe not, so if you don't hit a good shot, stay stationary and ready to hit the next ball.

So you move towards kitchen when you can, and adjust your default paddle position higher as you advance.  Keep using the paddle height as a measuring device for out balls.

(Note that this is classical pickleball and the shots you are trying to hit, if successful, will allow your side to advance towards the kitchen, you are not trying to win a point from here.  Win points at the kitchen, not from mid court.)

When you reach the kitchen, your paddle should be above net height.  And you may be entering into a dinking point, where you will need to move your feet as the angles are sharper.  There is time for that as the ball is not moving as fast.  Pro tip: watch the face of the opponent's paddle as they hit a dink, as that will show you the direction of the ball before it's hit.

The stop and get ready technique is not difficult.  And hitting a ball when not moving is really easy.  But what is difficult is stopping early enough.  You can't worry about being in "no man's land."  And you can't worry about missing balls that paint the line.  You are happy to trade those shots for the ability to get all the others back. 

When do you start stopping?  I saw one pro in a video state, "Start stopping when your shots reaches the net."  So, as the opponents are reacting to your shot.  And I would suggest, stop earlier rather than later.  This is opponent dependent too.  The harder the shots come back, the earlier you want to stop.  

As I mentioned, this came up a lot as I played and it worked.  This is probably the most useful and powerful technique I've written about.   So give it a try!

Stop Moving Your Feet

 There are four distinct hitting forms in PB.

We have the serve, the return, stuff at the net, and then the shots in midcourt.

The serve can be as much foot movement as works for you.  But from zero to a lot, it's not critical to serving well.  

The return might require some foot movement, but usually the ball is hit from close to the setup position.  There are a couple of exceptions, one being a wide serve and the other the short serve.  Yes, you want to some running before and certainly after a service return (get to the net...).

Dink rallies require a lot of foot movement and you want to be very active and moving side to side as the ball shifts position.  This is the most active case for movement.

Let's talk net play.  If the opponents are not at the net, but you are, there is little foot movement required as long as you setup properly for the expected return.  Setting up properly means, middle coverage for sure, and if the ball is close to a sideline, then both net players should shift a bit towards that sideline.

We are down to one case and I wanted to talk about this, as it's common and not obvious.  This is the scenario where you are not at the net, and the opponents are.  This could be a third/fifth/etc., shot situation, or one where you get pushed off the kitchenline or where you are going to defend a popup or bad lob.

There are a couple of things that true of this case.  The ball is likely to be hit close to your feet -- if it's above your waist, it's probably going out.  

Secondly, this shot is not likely to be hit with a sharp angle, as it's unlikely to be hit softly -- wide hard shots go out.  Most of the action is going to be middle court, but usually with a touch of angle.  And the angle comes into it as the defenders are blocking a large portion of court and usually one defender is deeper than the other.  The ball will usually go to the deeper player.

The new thought I want to share is that the pros usually will not have to move their feet to return these shots.  They setup in the middle of the "open" area where they expect the shot, they use a wide stance for balance and to lower their bodies, and they will also lower their paddles.  

Almost all the shots will be reachable with some stretching to the side. 

The difficult shots are the ones that come straight at you.  To handle these you want to be relaxed and you need the paddle extended in front of you.  The ball is usually coming at a good pace and there is not need to try and hit it back hard.  Think blocking and just solid paddle ball contact.  You are not trying to win the point, but to eventually, hit a shot that will be low enough or soft enough to allow you to return to the kitchenline.

What you really don't want to be doing, is standing up tall, have a raised paddle, have panic in your eyes.  Get low, be ready, and don't try for miracles.

One more scenario.  You and partner are at the net and you are in the middle of a dinking rally.  Your partner hits a bad lob and the next shot will be hit hard and at your feet.  You have time to take a step back, split step and get your paddle down.  Don't try to retreat much more than that as it's better to be ready and low than moving to get to a better position.

If you watch pros, particularly the ladies' doubles, you will see a lot of these defensive shots.  Some are from the baseline and many from the transition area.  

You are not going to get a lot of these back, but setting up properly and being ready gives you a fighting chance.  

When Everyone Dinks (And no one lobs...)

 Last week on the Thursday, I wound up in four or five games where the play was almost all dinks.  (We excluded the lobbers, of course.)

So it was serve, return, third -- sometimes a drive, usually a drop, but then the points became dinking battles.  And the point usually stayed that way until a ball was netted or a sideline missed.  Did I say there were no lobs?  Yeah, well that was true.

There were the occasional speedup, but they didn't work well and were soon discarded for increased consistency with the dinking.  The blocking abilities of speed ups were being flagrantly displayed!  What speedups there were, were reset and dinking resumed.

These were very different games from the usual at the Livermore parks.  Usually there is some dinking, but it's quite common that there is none and it's all about hitting the ball hard and frequently out.

The rallies were quite long, I would estimate some over twenty shots.  Careful play and lots of shuffling back and forth as the ball moved around the kitchen area.

I really enjoyed the points.  However I realized that my usual backhand speed ups were not consistent enough, I was being too aggressive in hitting them.  Once I realized that, I put effort into relaxed dinking and never hit another speed up.  This worked and what little tension I had during the rallies dropped to nothing.  I highly recommend it!

What was really amusing was that after a twenty point rally, no one on the court could remember who had served or even which side had served.  This occurred a couple of times.  It was amusing when this happened.  We kind of worked out the score, maybe, and then just decided who was going to serve next and kept going.  But lots of stunned looks while we were trying to remember.  You might think, ok, you are old folks, this is normal.  Well, there was at least one of us under 50, so I think it's the game and not the minds.  

---- Bonus!

We had the last beginner class today.  I wanted to suggest what folks ought to do after they take the class.  If you are pretty good hitting the ball, then just go and play and build your skills -- note that the class didn't teach you everything!  But there is the occasional student, has trouble getting the paddle on the ball.  I think the best way forward for them is to find a friend and just hit the ball back and forth until you learn the needed eye hand coordination.  Don't worry about being perfect, but you want to be able to hit most of them back across the net.  Then get out and play!

A Down's Downer?

 There was an article in Road and Track magazine many years ago about being good at something, but realizing that you were never the best or even really, really good in an absolute sense.  The "cold shower" of life, one might call it?

The article described a boxer who came up against a world champion and whatever he tried to do, it was not going to work.  But that was boxing and let's return to our mutual sport of pickleball.

One Thursday last, it was late in the morning and I was pretty much done playing.  But Ron, a good friend, came out late and wanted to play a couple of games.  I signed on and he and I played a couple of guys I've never met before.  When the smoke cleared we had lost 11-0, a well deserved pickle.  

I was even more done at this point, but Ron wanted a rematch and once again we were back in the breach.  

This game went 11-2 in their favor.  

I wanted to talk about what their game was like and why the score was as lopsided as it was.

If I have the reputation for not hitting the ball very hard, these guys made me look like an absolute banger in comparison.  They hit the softly unless they were putting away a pop up.  They also had extremely good ball control.  I hit a couple of very nice dropping drives and they effortless volleyed from knee height at the kitchenline, dropping the ball about a foot into my kitchen, two inches inside the sideline with some clever spin so the ball bounced outside the court.  

And they did it more than once.  That's a tough shot to get right...  Hmm.

The other shot of which I was the victim, was a soft shot landing about a foot out of reach, two inches inside the sidelines and the perfect depth, i.e., at my feet.  

Needless to say, though I will say it anyways, none of these shots came back.  And they were all hit with minimum speed.  They didn't hit any shots out?  Maybe.

There was no shot I could hit that gave these guys much trouble.  Oh, the games had a few side outs and such, so they didn't play perfectly, but the results were never in question.

I've said in the past that the best scenario as to ability and the game you are in, is to be the second best player on the court.  You'll hopefully learn something from the better guy, but have a pretty good chance to win the game.

Playing in the game last Thursday frustrating, not in the sense that I would lose the games, but that I lacked any tools or skills that were competitive at the level these guys played at.  I was the worst player on the court, and I had ball control that was poor.  

There are two directions to go from this point.  One being to not play at that level again.  The other, embark on acquiring skills to move up a level or two.  

Obviously the first option is the easiest and more practical.  Whatever level you are at, there are probably games you shouldn't play in.  Lower level will bore you, and too high a level will scare you.

The second option is to get better.  Now, no one is as young as they used to be and athleticism doesn't run real deep in my family's gene pool, so that really is not an option either.  And there is a down side to being an extremely good player, with whom do you play?  Yah, at every level of ability there a certain window of skill that makes it a good experience.

I decided a year ago or so that my skills were just fine for the people I usually play with.  I'm happy to pick up the odd refinement here and there, but drilling for hours and never playing is not interesting to me, nor would it lead to more playing options with my peeps.

I'm happy I played in the two games at Downs with excellent players, but I would have a more enjoyable experience playing at a lower level.  You have to learn to say, "No!" on occasion and stick to it.

Protecting Partner - Play of the Third Point

There is a link to a John Cincola video below.  He talks about the play of the third shot.

He characterizes the play as "being a way to protect your partner" and "being a good partner."  Those are accurate descriptions, but I like to think of it as "blocking the shot your opponents want to hit."

I'm going to talk about how act when your partner is going to hit the third shot.  I've written about this before and my thinking has been in flux, but I've come to a conclusion and it matches what Cincola says.  I think I'm on solid ground here.  :-)

But John has a method and I think it's a great starting point with much flexibility.  OK, enough introduction, let's set the scene and run through the three cases.

General Setting: you are on the left of the court and the ball is coming to your partner to hit the third shot.  We will talk about what you should be doing.

John's rule of thumb: 

    Step ahead of partner by two or three steps forward and also one step closer to the center line and then stop.

    Rotate your feet a bit so that you can easily watch partner hit the ball.

    Case 1: best case, partner hits a good drop cross court in front of you.  You continue to advance to the kitchen line and be prepared to block a shot that will go through the middle of the court and at partner's feet.

    Case 2: Partner hits a bad drop shot, i.e., one that's too deep.  You take a step backwards and get ready to defend a shot at your feet.

    Case 3: Partner drives the third.  You want to face the player hitting the fourth shot, but you don't want to advance nor retreat.  But split step and be ready to defend or pounce depending on what the opponents do.

And that's about it.  You assume a moderately aggressive position, favor the middle a bit and then depending on partner's shot quality, you will stay, advance, or retreat.

What you don't do, is to advance all the way up to the kitchen before you assess the quality of your partner's shot.  This is a very common play of aggressive intermediate players.  It works well in most games, but it won't work as the skill levels get better.

And, worst of all, you don't sit back on the baseline and see what's going to happen.  PB is about moving to the kitchen and the third shot and how you play it is vital to the serving team.

I mentioned that I thought/think of this as blocking opponents' best shot.  And that usually means getting in as far as possible and blocking the direction of the shot that the opponents would like to hit.  This is usually at the feet of the player further back in the court.  Doing this makes the opponents do things they would prefer not to, for example trying to hit a sideline instead of a high percentage middle shot.  

Here is the link to John Cincola's video.  He has a lot of videos on YouTube and the content and delivery is very good, highly recommended.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swTf6jMACgQ

The Eight Actions of Good Players

 I don't think that PB is an incredibly complex sport that requires years of base knowledge to play well.  Its charm is that it's fairly simple.  But there are things that you must do as you play in better games.  Allow me to regal you with eight simple tasks -- know them and improve!

One: When you or your partner are serving, you stay behind the baseline and look for clues as to the quality/depth of the second shot.  You will not automatically advance into the court, unless your opponents are weak armed beginners, or there is a very strong wind at your back.

Two: when your partner is receiving the serve, you will be on station, fairly close to the center line, but faced a bit towards the active service court, to call out shots for your partner.  See item six, too.

Three: when returning a serve, you will proceed to the kitchenline every time -- maybe you'll not be able to get there, but you will advance as far as you should.  You want to be stopped and split stepped before the opponents return the third shot.  So if you are slow, then stop earlier; if you can sprint, then do that.  It's more important to be ready than all the way up.  It is, however, very bad not to advance into the court.  (My pet peeve.)

Four: Always get your serves in.  Aim for the middle of the service court.

Five: If you hit a short or drop shot or any shot that will bounce, always advance into the court.  You've hit a good shot, and you must advance to take advantage of that.  If you stay back the opponents will have the advantage.

Six: The closer you get to the kitchenline, the higher you must hold your paddle.  Having it near your feet is good when you are near the baseline.  At the kitchen, it must be held above the net height.

Seven: When your partner returns the serve, always move to cover the middle of the court.  This is a main responsibility of the player who starts at the kitchenline.  Note that there is only one player who starts there, though in a good game everyone will end up there.

Eight: Hitting a shot in the court softly is much more effective than hitting one into the back fence.  Though in a high level game, trying to body bag your opponent is often necessary.

I would add a couple more to this list, but in my opinion, I would expect a good partner to do all of the above, every point.  This is not 5.0 stuff, it's 3.8 stuff and at that level expected by all the players.

Note that none of the above is hard to do, it's almost all about moving to field the next shot.  Or, as in item one, it's about not moving to the wrong spot.

Once you do all of the above automatically, then we can talk about watching the opponents' paddles and swings for clues as to the next shot.  With that information, some of the above rules can be refined.  

Playing in the Wind

 It was windy on Monday and today at May Nissan, and I had a couple of thoughts on that.  Allow me to share...

Firstly, don't judge your play level on a windy day.  One of the delightful aspects of pickleball is that lack of weight of the ball.  When the wind blows, the ball gets blown around easily.  This mostly affects soft shots, touch shots, dinks, and drops. 

So if touch shots are harder and they are not easy to start with, a windy day might be a good time to work on third shot drives.  

Pro tip, pay attention to the wind direction when returning serves.  If the wind is at your back, you want to setup a step or two closer to the base line as deeper shots will be rarer and soft shots will die shorter.

And conversely if the wind is blowing into your face, move back further from the base line to receive a serve.  You'll also have to hit the ball harder to get the normal depth on your service return.  Now, there is a bonus to having the wind in your face, your opponents' shots are more likely to go out, so watch for hard shots and prepare to duck.

Strangely, I don't think that wind matters too much when serving.  I'm a big proponent of serving to the middle of the serving court, so with a tail wind or otherwise, my normal serve is usually fine.  

And then finally, dinking can be very difficult with a lot of wind, so dink carefully.  Should you bang on a windy day?  I'd suggest not, since if you are a better dinker you'll do better on a windy day then a lesser skilled opponent.  

While windy days are not as much fun, think of it as a training session and try to make solid shots that work and get comfortable with wind.  One more skill on the training path of pickleball!

Ready Position of Your Paddle

 There are a number of YouTube videos out there that discuss how to get from a low level to a 5.0 in a matter on months.  I haven't watched many of these, but I ran across one that had some content that I wasn't aware of.  

The guy's name is Albert Wan and I'll link to the video below.  In the video he had five tips that he found vital in getting to 5.0, the one I want to talk about is paddle position to get faster hands.

He discusses where your paddle should be in the normal three scenarios of court coverage, that being the ball is in front of you, or coming from center court, or coming from cross court.

In video he uses the example of when he is on the left side of the court and he is right handed.  Note that his partner is covering the middle of the court, but you all figured that out already, yes?  Let's run through the scenarios...

In the first scenario, the ball is directly in front of you, your responsibility is down the line and your body,  Anything that is going right of your body, i.e., towards the middle of the court, is your partner's ball.  So don't stretch in front of her!  Since we want to cover our body and the down the line shot, the paddle is held in a backhand position.  Not in a neutral position, backhand only.    Note that this makes it easy to hit shots towards the middle of the court and straight ahead, we are not interested in hitting anything to our left.

Second scenario, we are again on the left, but expecting a ball from center court.  Now we set up fully forehand.  We are ignoring any shots that would be to our backhand side as they are not likely to land in the court.  Again, we are somewhat left of center.  No team can cover the full court, so we allow opponents a miracle shot if they want to try for it and we trade off better overage on the rest of the shots.

Finally we are again left, but are the ball is coming cross court.  Now there is more room to our left and so we have to cover a backhand as well as a forehand shot.  It's more likely that a backhand shot will cause us trouble as our partner should be covering the middle.  So now we set up for a backhand shot.

That covers the case if you are on the left side and let's try and generalize the expected shots and how we want to ready our paddles.

I'm either right, left, or center and the ball that the opponents will hit is in front, a bit to the side, or full cross court.  You want to know before it happens which ball would go out, go to partner, or to you.  If it comes to you, is it more likely to be a forehand or backhand shot?  And knowing that, get your paddle ready to hit the expected shot.   

Sure you will be surprised and beaten on occasion but mostly you're very ready to return to return the usual shot.  You will not have to move your paddle much.  You will be known as the player with the fast hands!  And an added bonus is not causing partner any complicated shots if you try to cover a shot that is hers.  

Let me drop in a thought about where you are going to hit the next shot.  Albert doesn't mention it, but if you are readying your paddle as he suggests, then you can most easily hit a ball back to the center of the court.  This is a good if not great thing.  Middle shots are never a bad shot.  I've expounded about them at length in other posts, and another way to think about readying your paddle is, "How do I setup to hit a shot to the middle."  

Here is the video link, he describes the fast hands stuff towards the end of the video.  The video is short, about 5:30 minutes.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg6xa2caG-I

A Tasty Tidbit

 I played this morning and I beat an opponent up the sideline about three times in row.  This was the third shot for my side, we were serving.  Normally I will drop this shot, but this opponent was hitting the ball directly at me and not cross court and she was not moving properly after hitting the shot.

She would advance, as is correct, and then I hit the ball down the line and it was out of her reach.  This happened enough to really bother her and she and I talked about it after the game.

This is the second/third shot situation.  She hits a ball and I have to let it bounce, and she must take advantage of the two bounce rule to move up.  

The harder she hits the serve, the less time she will have to move up.  So she needs to move faster with that pace of service return.  

Her other problem was that when she moved up, she veered just little bit towards the center of the court, which exposed the small path on the sideline.  When it came time to hit the ball she could only do it at full stretch and it just didn't work.

What's the solution?  In perfect play she should have been at the NVZL and stopped and split stepped before I returned her shot,  So she needs more time or speed to do that.  I caught her still moving probably every time.  If she can't get to the NVZ, then she needs to stop earlier and get ready to return.

The next problem is that she is not protecting that sideline enough.  A reasonable rule of thumb when moving to the NVZ is to run towards the ball, not just forward and not just to the middle.  

Her main responsibility is to block the down the side line shot and anything hit directly back at her.  Her partner should have shifted and angled to cover all of the middle shots, all of them.

That is the answer to that scenario, run early, fast, and protect the sideline.

Let's talk about the two other cases.  Assume that she had hit cross court.  I think this is a good play, as it puts the ball in front of her partner, so it's the full team against the opponents for the next shot.  In this case, she has duties too...  She still needs to get up to the NVZL and she needs to cover all middle shots.  Her partner has shifted to cover the sideline, the rest is hers.  Note that the ball is going to travel further cross court, so there is more time to do all this.  But she must move to the middle of the court, probably moving over the center line a bit.  

Third case is a service return that goes up the middle of the court.  This is the traditional target for a service return.  If you look up, "Where do I return a serve?"  The answer is up the middle.  

What must happen now is that both players will cover the middle, their paddles at stretch should overlap.  They should not worry too much about the sidelines.  A shot from center baseline towards a sideline is difficult as the outer boundary comes into play.  So if the opponent can hit that shot, good for them.  You should be happy to trade those shots for good center coverage.

In all cases as you move up with a service return, always move toward the origin of the next shot.  Think of it as cutting down the angle and the closer you get to the NVZ, the bigger/better your coverage of the shot.  

Note that the middle is covered in all cases.  You can't leave the center open ever.  If I am the guy hitting the third shot, I love to hit into the middle.  If I do that, I can't go wide of the court, my opponents frequently will both expect the other to hit it, and a ball in the middle does not present an angle shot to the opponents for the next ball.  I will follow my shot in, if possible, and be in a good position for the rest of the rally.  

The second shot is the most important shot for the receivers, the third shot is the most important for the servers.  Moving correctly in these scenarios is the essence of pickleball.

Two Things That Seem to Work Well

This post is dedicated to John, who said today that the Jill Braverman tips below he figured out by himself after only three and a half years of play.  Well done, John, and let's look forward to the next three and a half years!

 

A couple of the recent posts have talked about Jill Braverman's style of playing.  I find these to be accurate and useful.  I've been trying a couple of the techniques that she advocates.

First one is to have broad stance at the kitchen line.  Feet wider than my shoulders.  This does the following:  My head is closer to the net top and it's easier to return shots that skim the net; while it didn't come up today, that wide stance is good if you want to duck a shot.

Secondly, the stance provides very good balance if I need to rotate my torso to one side.  The problem I imagined with this stance is that I would not be able to move sideways for a cross court dink.  But what it made me do is to shuffle my feet since it was impossible to cross them to move to the side.  I've been told this is a good thing.

The other habit that I'm trying to ingrain, and this was in the last post, is to run through the service return to get to the kitchen line.  While it might have caused me to hit a couple returns long, the advantage to be at the net and ready was a great tradeoff.  

So there are a couple of very simple techniques that anyone can adopt without any effort.

A Quick Tip, But it Requires New Thinking!

 I've written about the YouTube content of Jill Braverman and I like what she has to say and how she says it.  

She had a short video the other day that suggested a new way of thinking in re the service return.

She makes a couple of points, in that a service return error is a real killer as it provides an easy point for the opponents.  No easy points, as she says, is a good mantra to follow.

But the interesting point she make is that the entire goal/use of the service return is to allow you to get to the kitchen line.  It doesn't matter if you hit a great return or a horrible one, use the shot to get up to the kitchen.

She likes to think of the shot itself, as a "flowing event" where she will run through the stroke as she moves all the way up.  

Let me add a couple of thoughts on how to make this easier for us rec players.  One is to start several paces behind the service line - if you are up against the fence, that's fine.  Better too far back than too close to the base line.  

Two, watch the server's swing and paddle like a hawk, they will frequently telegraph what serve they are going to hit and where.  If you start very deep, you are going to have to run up for a short serve.  If you watch for that, then it will not be a problem.  

We've all been told not to run through a shot.  I would agree with that mostly.  Obviously some times you have to, but if you are blocking or not trying to hit a killer shot, and most service returns can be hit with minimal energy, as keeping it in and having time to move forward is more important than winning the point.  So if the shot is not complex, then run or glide through it, hit it in the middle and get up to the kitchen.  

And when you get to the kitchen, get your paddle up and your arms extended away from your body.  Face the ball and get ready for the third shot.

Here is the link to Jill's video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mfZeFD_6PAo