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

Thoughts from The Harvest Crush Tournament

I wanted to pass along an observation I had at the Harvest Crush 2025 tournament.

I was a volunteer runner on Saturday morning and that put me on the courts, looking for things to run.  It gave me a close up look at the action on the 4+ DUPR level courts.

There were some really interesting points.  And while there was not much dinking, there was a lot of fire fights and some points where one team had the kitchen line and the other was defending overheads from the baseline and transition areas.

I was impressed how well the defenders were able to get shots back without over hitting the ball.  I'm thinking about a recent post where I talked about a push shot and how that was inherently consistent and accurate because the paddle stayed on a path for the ball strike for a long period of time.  And that made the timing of the shot much easier.

The situation as the tournament was different in that the defenders were not trying to hit winners or be aggressive, but just wanted to keep the ball in play until they could get back to the kitchen line.

And they used a variation of a push shot.  The paddle was placed to hit the ball and not swung or pushed much.  Since the overheads carried a lot of speed, there was no need to add much speed to the ball with any kind of swing or push.  You could see this as a bunt in baseball, where there is no attempt to add energy to the incoming shot.

This shot was universal at the upper skill levels.  In the women's game at least!  I didn't see any of the men play and I would have been curious if highly skilled guys would be willing to block a ball back without trying to smack a winner.  Maybe I'll be able to report back next year.

Let me talk about the full scenario for a moment, as this is not just an overhead defense kind of point.  It also applies to a lot of other scenarios as points develop.  There are three states that each team is in any moment in a point.  You are either in trouble, in control, or you're tied with the other team.  

If you are in control, then hit an aggressive shot that...  goes in.  Don't throw a point away when you were ahead.  Use your advantage to make the next shot harder for the opponents.  Winning points is often a cumulation of errors until a winner can be hit (this is very rare in a pro game), or the opponents miss a shot because they were attempting difficult shots.

Second case, you are in trouble. Now you want to hit shots that give you a chance to get back to even.  It's my opinion that trying to win a point from a disadvantaged position is largely unsuccessful.  I'd rather see a dink or lob to get more time for your team to get into position.

Third case, which is usually when everyone is at the kitchen and the ball is low.  This is no time for heroics.  You want to wait for a good opportunity to strike, usually some kind of pop up, and then use a combination of shots to win the point.  Moving the opponents side to side, or back off the kitchen line are good tactics.  Be careful of speed ups in a good game, as they are frequently returned faster than the speedup.

If you side is serving, you are going to be in a defensive mode as soon as the serve is returned because the other side will be at the kitchen.  "They won't be there in my games," I hear you say...  Well, one day they will and I'd suggest that you should play as if you are in a good game.  In this case, you have to be careful and your goal is to get to the kitchen line where you can achieve parity in the point.  Yes, you can win a point from the baseline, but one day that won't work.

If your side is returning the serve, you have the opportunity to gain a significant advantage by hitting the return and then, always, always, join your partner at the net.  The servers have to let the ball bounce and you have to use that rule to get to the net.  If you don't do it, your side is split, your side will soon be on the defensive as the servers will be at the net before you are there.  And worst of all, you are not playing pickleball.  There is no game beyond the beginners where getting up the net is not expected.  You have to do it.  Yah, I know at first it's scary and you might get hit or look clumsy, but gird your loins and whatever else and get up there.  Get your paddle up and watch the ball closely.  Shots from the kitchen are usually easier than the baseline, you have to get used to it and learn to love it!

When does parity occur?  Well, it kind of depends on the third shot.  If it's a drop and the servers advance successfully, then that is the first time in a point that it happens.  When there is a dinking battle, then advantages, and trouble, and neutrality will occur frequently.  A good play needs to be aware what state their side is in and choose their shot appropriately.  "Why didn't you smack that last shot?"  "I hit a dink because you, my dear partner, were not in position yet and if a speed up were returned, we would lose the point."  "Oh."

That's it, that's classical pickleball.  Get out there and enjoy it!

Wrist Rotation and Why it Might be a Good Thing

 Hi all.  I spend a lot of time working on my golf swing.  The golf swing has a lot of similarities to a pickleball swing, particularly when serves and baseline shots are considered.

One of the fundamentals of the golf swing is that the right forearm will rotate clockwise for the right handed player.  And this might be true in some fashion for the pickleball player.

In golf you want to maintain this rotation position as you start the swing towards the ball.  

How about pickleball?  Well, if you were to do that, you would be bringing the paddle edge on towards the impact area of the ball.  What happens at impact is the big question.

If you maintain a lot of this rotation with a serve for example, you will get a low shot with a lot of clockwise spin.  The ball will skim the net, curve left to right, and skip to the right as it bounces.  You might very well want this.

Also in swinging the paddle edge on, there is less wind resistance, though how that will increase swing speed, I have no idea, but it has to be something.  

So if you do this edge on swing, you'll get more speed, some curve, more spin, and a lower shot.  Some of you might want that in a bad way and if you are interested, then try it out.

I think though, that the general case is that we all have some rotation taking the paddle back and then maybe rotate back automatically as we hit the ball.  

(Though a lot of beginner players have no rotation.  I'm not going to call that "bad' or inefficient, I'd be more concerned if the elbow is not extended, as that would shorten the arm and you'd get less paddle speed for the effort you're putting into the swing.  Actually, the elbow position is critical to a good swing.  The elbow should stay close to the torso and not move away from the body to move the paddle towards the body.  The arm needs to lag behind the elbow position to swing efficiently for longer shots.  Watch a video of a major league baseball pitcher and you'll see a lot of elbow lead.  Maybe more in a future post.)

If we alter the paddle parameters, we are going to get some interesting effects.  Let's consider a baseline shot where we are hitting the ball about waist high.  Now if we come in edge on and don't fully rotate the paddle to "square," then we may create a ball trajectory that is a bit high, but it will have cut spin on the ball.  Again, you might well want this effect.

There are a couple of caveats.  One is that the paddle is going to present to the ball a smaller shape and if you have problems with miss hits, and that would be all of us, you might get more of them.  Also, although you ought to get more paddle speed out of this swing, you might get less ball speed as the ball paddle impact is at an angle and some of the energy is going be used to create spin and a higher trajectory than a flat hit.  In certain circumstances you might want all of this or some of it.  You could think of it as a different tool

The edge on swing is also compatible to a backhand shot.  I remember watching a match where Lauren Stratman hit three consecutive backhand shots with an edge on paddle position.  Lauren comes from tennis and the stroke might be from that sport.  Again, play around with it if it might help your game.

In prior posts I talked about extending or breaking the wrist for almost all shots.  I don't think this edge on stuff is incompatible with that, I still like it for power and efficiency.  

I was a runner at the Harvest Crush tournament this morning and I've got some observations about paddle technique that I'll pass on in another post.

The Warmup Game

 Let me lead off with a couple of anecdotes.  I spent some time in Cambria and the pro there, Gregg Whitfield, was kind enough to play a bit with me.  (He has some videos on YouTube, worth looking at.)  There were four of us warming up and one of the players took a popup and put it away.  Gregg politely suggested that was out of place in a warm up game.

Data point 2, There was a reddit post in a pickleball section.  A guy was watching some 6.0s rally a bit and was amazed that when the popup came that the ball was not put away, but just returned to continue the rally.

You and I show up at the local park and we are about to start our first game.  What a "warmup" is is some gentle dinking, maybe some longer shots, a serve or two, if that's a problem child for someone, and then it's game time.  There is usually a real push to get to the play.  I don't know why, the hurry to play and the game length and the waiting time for the next can be long and so why shorten the time you have on the court?  Particularly for the first game.  

Let's apply the anecdotes to the first game scenario.  I would suggest that playing full bore on that first game is probably a source of injury as the usual warmup really doesn't warm up anything.  I think you have to play, maybe at a slower speed, to actually get the legs going and the back comfortable.

So how about that first game you work to create some longer rallies and when the chance comes to easily end it, just put the ball back in play for a few more hits?  Now, this requires the cooperation of all involved, but it is probably worth artificially creating a longer game to fully warmup.  If the need to win conquers the need for fun, then go full out on the next game, control yourself!

When I'm playing with lesser skilled opponents I frequently will not put the ball away and just play it back and give the opponent a chance to hit a better ball.  I will lose the occasional point this way, but I think everyone enjoys a longer rally.  Also, I'm more likely to get balls hit to me if I don't put them away every time.  I'm there to play and make good shots and I'm not there just to beat up on beginners.

I think this makes a lot of sense for the first game and anytime you're playing down to a lower level of skill.  And playing a soft shot regardless of what was hit to you is a good skill to have and to practice.  

Hitting the Shot You Wanted, but Doing it Well

 In almost all rallies that last more than a few shots, someone will get to hit the shot they want.  Or get a chance to hit the shot they want.

Almost all of the "sitter" shots are at the kitchen line and are fairly high above the net.  

So what happens?  About 40% of those "easy" shots end up going into the net.  I have a theory but before I get to that let's set the scene a bit. The sitter is the culmination of all the play of the point.  You've made shots that were not easily attackable and now you have one you should be able to put away.  This is the shot you've been waiting for.

Technically what I think happens is that most people increase their swing speed by about 50%, which changes the timing of the strike.  You end up hitting the ball with the paddle pointing into the net.  If you had hit it with your normal swing speed, the paddle face aligns with the open court.  

As I mentioned in a prior post about the push shot, the paddle face alignment to the proper target during a shot, if the shot is a swing, is a small window of opportunity.  Swing early and a right hand forehand shot goes left, a late swing goes right.  Most of the slams are forehand shots but on a vertical plane, so early goes into the net and late goes into the back fence.

My solution to this error, and it's my solution to many, many errors, is don't swing harder than your usual shot.  We think that a hard, speedy shot will be successful and it frequently is, but it's prone to producing errors.  People who make few errors are very difficult to beat.  Fortunately they are very rare at the rec level.  If you want to be unbeatable, just get your shots in, don't try to put them away.  I'm frequently called "nonchalant" on the court, and it's usually when I hit a shot by not hitting it very hard.  There is a lot of time to hit a ball.  More than you think and it takes experience to use this time to hit the ball properly without over hitting it.  

Having said all of this.  I struggle with hitting these shots too hard as well.  We get keyed up in the moment and the speed and can't manage to hit a hard drive softly, or a sitter gently.   But I work at this.  

I was talking to one of the regulars at the park today and he had coached tennis a lot.  He is signed up for the Harvest Crush  tournament and we had discussed how frequent errors are a problem.  He and his partner spent a couple of games just counting the number of out shots they hit.  He found that keeping track of how many they made them less likely to create them.  I think that works.  I keep track of service errors per week and also I'm very aware of service return errors.  If I'm playing well, those two statistics are small numbers.  I want to get better at the push shot from a prior post, and then those pesky sitters that frequently go awry.  

There are a number of books written about sports called "The Inner Game of X."  for skiing, golf, and tennis written by Tim Gallwey.  These books are worth reading.  What he suggests is that your mind can figure out very complex things if you just let it.  Give your mind a task, provide some feed back and then iterate.  I'm familiar with the golf book, and as an example, you might want to change your wrist at impact.  He would tell you to just hit balls and for every shot give a number to how successful you were in getting your wrist to do what you wanted.  He found that it didn't take long for your mind to solve the problem with little analytical effort on your part.  

That's enough for this post, I feel I'm on the way to another book, so I'll close.   If anyone tries these feedback ideas I would be interested in knowing how well it works.

Moving While Your Partner is Hitting the Ball

 I've written about time occasionally in the blog posts.  You increase time by dinking and you shorten it by hitting hard.  So if you need time to get into position or for your partner to get into position, look for a soft/slow shot to help.  The extreme example is the lob, of course social pressure and possible ostracism comes with that, but if you are strong mentally and willing to travel to a new park, hey, go for it.  :-)

What I haven't talked about and it's a frequent thing, is moving while your partner is busy hitting a ball.  If it's a good time to go forward, then do that.  If your partner likes to pop it up, then maybe retreating is a good idea (just kidding, find a new partner!  (Just kidding, practice more!))

Any time you are not making the shot for your turn, you want to be thinking about your side's next shot.  And movement is a big part of that.  If partner is dropping or even dinking, then get ready for it.   If you guys are driving, then maybe you can move into the court, but maybe not.  Depends on your opponents, the wind, and the quality of your partner's shot.  But in all cases, you want to move if it's appropriate.

The usual mistake is just standing and watching.  The game is quite dynamic and you should be moving all the time as the ball goes back and forth.  Watch the pros play and watch all four players and ignore the ball.  They only stop moving when they are actually hitting a ball.  Of course, sometimes they are hitting on the run, but it's not something you want to do.  Get to the proper location, get ready, hit a shot, and then start moving for the next one.

If you get good at using your time to move, it gives you more time to actually hit the ball.  Which makes ball striking easier, and that makes your more consistent and more dangerous as an opponent.  

More on the Push Shot

 I touched briefly on the push shot as a way to punish bangers at couple of posts ago.

But this shot is applicable to much more than an anti-bang block.  

One of the difficulties with hitting a pickleball is that the ball is so light that it slows down quickly.  Both of those variables affect the timing of any hit.  I'll also add wind and spin to that list of variables.

So if we want to become more consistent, then we want to minimize the timing of a shot.  The usual way to hit the ball is to swing at it.  This implies that the paddle face is going to square up to the target location for just a moment.  Think about a gate swinging shut, it faces everywhere as it closes and if we were to toss a ball at a closing gate and expect it to be hit back to us, there is a small moment in the swing where this works.  And a swinging paddle is not much different.

We do have a few things going for us.  The paddles don't weight much and we can move them fairly quickly.  So last minute path and face angles are quite possible, usually.  Also, we are paying attention to the wind of course, and also noticing the spin as the ball came off the opponent's paddle and we can adjust a swing before the hit.

But at the last fraction of a second things frequently will not go well.  Now, let's return to the push shot.  Using this pushing technique, the paddle face is always pointing toward our target and we don't swing it, but push the paddle maintaining the face of the paddle and its angle.  Doing this will help remove a lot of last minute issues with a difficult strike.

There are some shots where a push is not useful as sometimes we need to add a lot of energy to a shot.  Think service return or even serve, we need a swing for these as that will deliver more power.

But if you think about defensive shots, say returning drives from the baseline, or when at the net, here the energy comes from the ball and a push or just a block is enough to return the ball properly.

Inherently a push shot has less energy, but you will get more accuracy and control.  It is a difficult opponent to beat who doesn't hit a ball out.  I think the Master talks of that to Po on a regular basis.

So, other than drives, serves, and service returns, you might find that a pushing shot works well.

Crime and Punishment

 It's time once again to return to the most hated shot in pickleball.  No, we will do lobs another time.  Let's do some more banging on bangers.

One of the problems with PB is that a lot of stuff works at lower skill levels and it's easy to just do the one good thing and expect it to work forever.  I've been playing a lot at May Nissen and I'm impressed how the general skill level has increased in just a few months.  So even if you're playing well, constant improvement is needed to remain "skilled."  

So banging...  I get that it's fun and if you come from tennis, you probably find it easy to do.  So it's your super power and you win a lot of games because of it.  And why you win a lot of points is that the other players don't have the defensive skills to neutralize the hot shot.  But in a year or so they will have it.  And if you just hit everything hard, one day it just won't work.  This is also true of hard serves and strange spins; people figure it out and then it's less effective.

The other problem with hard shots is that it cuts into the time you have to approach the net.  Of course, if the drive is good enough, then getting to the net is not a priority and maybe never needed for most games.  And again, that lack of getting to the net is going to be crippling one day.  

So bang away and enjoy it while you can!

Punishment.

One more problem with the bang...  The current defensive play against a hard shot is to block it.  But I've recently seen a couple of pros in YouTube videos who advocate not blocking, but hammering the drives back to the driver.  They teach a pushing shot that keeps the paddle moving in a straight line towards the drive.  There is no paddle swing or chop.  You want to hit this ball with the paddle in front of you, arms fairly close to your torso, on either forehand or backhand side.  It's a simple push of the paddle, done with the intent to speed up the ball.  It's not a swing.

And per Jill Braverman, you want to try and whack it.  I've tried this and I really like it, I took it to the Downs park and it was effective.  

This pushing shot is not unknown.  There is one guy at May Nissen who transferred this shot from ping pong.  It's effective for him and he uses it on almost all backhand shots, which is his more consistent shot.  "A shot of high confidence," as my father might have said.  This player has a highly modified grip to make this shot easy.  That grip is not good for forehand shots, which then require some effort to get the paddle in a good forehand position.  I'd suggest learning the shot with a neutral grip so it can be used on both a forehand and backhand shot.  It's worth learning.

Here is a link to Jill's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ1XvktXetc&t=346s

It's All in the Dough

 The acolytes were having an afternoon game.  Yes, trying to be diligent and play their best as a Master might wander past at any time.  Fall had arrived to the monastery.  The air was cool, just right for extended pickleball play.

And indeed, the Master did drop in to see an eight shot rally.  

"Po, may I have word," asked the Master.

Po hurried over to the side of the court and bowed to the Master.  "How can serve, Master?"

"I wish that you remember the last point you played.  Is it memorable enough, Po?"

Po thought about the point and was able to remember it all as he had been on the server side and had hit most of the shots.  "Yes, Master, I remember it well."

"Good, Po, see me in my study at four o'clock and we will discuss it."

"As you wish Master."

The Master swirled his robes and seemed to vanish as he entered the building.  The acolytes shrugged as the point had seemed routine and then returned to their game.

At four O'clock Po arrived at the Master's study door and knocked.

"Come in Po, thank you for being prompt."

Po enter the study and sat on a cushion across the low table in front of the Master.  He was sitting upright and graceful as a man does who controlled his body at the highest levels.

"I have tea, Po, would you like a cup?"

"Thank you Master, that would be welcome as the day is a bit cool."

The Master gestured to a plate with a stack of delicate cookies on it.  "Help yourself to an almond cookie, Po."

The Master readied the cup of tea and slid it in front of Po.  Po helped himself to a cookie and placed it on the saucer with the cup of tea.  He tasted the tea and smiled with its quality and taste.  It was just the proper temperature, too hot to drink quickly, warm enough to sip.

"Thank you Master, the tea is splendid."

"Try the cookie, Po."

Po picked up the cookie and took a bite.  Po had a sweet tooth and found cookies to be a high art form.

"Is it good Po?"

"Very nice, Master."

"How is it nice, Po.  We are here for some analysis, so please be specific.  What are the characteristics of the cookie that caused you to call it "nice?"

Po reflected a bit.  He had done six months in the bakery as all young monks did.  He had baked a lot and found it fulfilling and challenging.

"Master, with a cookie, I start with the aroma.  Clearly this cookie was baked today and it smells of cinnamon, almonds and vanilla.  Then there is the taste and now I sense the sugar, cinnamon again, and the almonds, which are stronger as I am chewing through some of the nut meat.  Then there is texture.  The outer crust has a nice toughness to it, followed by a softer and moist inner texture.  The cookie has been warmed slightly and its temperature probably helps with the aroma and deepens the flavors on the tongue.  It is a very nice cookie Master, may I have another?"

The Master chuckled and waved his hand towards the cookie plate.

"What ingredients are in this nice cookie?"

"There is a flour and sugar base, a pinch of salt, cinnamon, almond extract, vanilla extract, and almond nuts and butter."

"Po, if we wanted to, what ingredients could we leave out?"

"Master, I don't understand.  All the parts are what makes this a wonderful cookie.  If we remove any we make it worse.  And if we change the amounts or ratios of the parts, we will cause damage and it will not be as successful."

"So the cookie was at some point constructed and balanced and eventually created to provide harmony and inner happiness to the eater, yes?"

"Exactly Master."

"So, Po, now we must talk of pickleball and the point I saw you play this afternoon.  Do you still remember it?"

"I do, Master."

"Tell me the shots, most of which you hit."

"I served, a routine top spin serve.  I sought to hit to the backhand of my opponent and it was fairly deep.  I was satisfied with the shot on placement and speed and spin."

"I agree, Po, a very satisfactory beginning to the point.  What was the second shot?"

"The service return as in the middle of the court and fairly deep.  I moved to return it and noticed that there was not exceptional spin on the ball and it was short enough to be aggressive with it."

"So, the third shot was a drive?"

"Yes, Master.  As was the fifth.  I was hoping to get a shot past Jo, but he is pretty good at the net."

"You eventually drove a shot out of bounds?"

"Yes, Jo, ducked after several more drives and the final drive had insufficient spin and too much power to stay in play."

"If, Po, we call the serve flour, and the drives, sugar, what kind of cookie were you making?"

"Er, it would not make a good cookie."

"Yes, Po, it lacks the little things that make a cookie successful.  Such is a pickleball game.  A good serve and a drive are enough for the players in the village, but here we require more texture.  You need to add the cinnamon and pinch of salt!  What will you do the next time playing against Jo?"

"Well, the serve was good and I think a third shot drive is practical and on occasion effective."

"Yes, all true, tell me more."

"So I think that the fifth shot and beyond were lacking texture."

"Yes, so how do you introduce the trace ingredients?"

"All shots have the fundamental parts.  They have speed and trajectory, spin and location."

"Yes, so how do you use these parts to create something that Jo will struggle with?"

"If I don't slow down the shot, I'll hit it out,  So I must hit a slower shot.  And then maybe more spin or a higher trajectory.  A drop shot is the opposite of a drive."

"Yes, it is.  What is the understanding of the effectiveness and power of a drop shot?"

"A good drop shot is more powerful than a drive."

"And why is this?"

"An opponent can't attack a good drop shot, so it allows my side to approach the kitchen.  We would be able to hit the fifth shot from a closer position.  If the opponents hit a poor response to the drop, then we might be able to drive the ball down into the court."

"While it might be very important where you hit a drive, where do you seek to hit a good drop shot?"

"Master, it is my experience that its location is not very important.  I'm happy to drop into the middle of the court or to a sideline.  It truly is not important.  What is important is that we move to the net when the drop is hit."

"Excellent, Po, so we will have no more rallies where it is drive followed by drive?"

"I agree, Master, build a good cookie, not just some flavorless dough."

"That is all Po, feel free to take a couple of cookies with you."

"Thank you, Master!"

A Couple of Items for a Better Hit

A Couple of Tips:  When you swing at a serve you can do it a number of ways.  If you move your paddle horizontally into the ball you are not using the best method if you want to create some speed.

If you swing your arm in a circular path to strike the ball, you have more time to accelerate the paddle and will end up with more ball speed for probably less effort.  The arm path is a long arc and the further you have the paddle behind you when you start the swing, the more you will be moving the paddle away from the ball initially and then along the arc to the ball.  Eventually you get back to the ball on a nice upward path with good speed.  It's worth trying if you'd like to hit the ball harder.

I played a couple of game with Ron today.  He is a 6.0 rated singles player and has the creamy nice strokes that a life time in tennis provides.  What I stole from his game today is that in a lot of shots his paddle will not swipe or swing, but remains pointing to the target during and after a stroke.  It's my observation that a lot of shots fail as the paddle gets to the ball too early or too late.  If the paddle face is accurately aimed and remains in a proper orientation, then it's much harder to pull or push a shot due to timing.  

This is easy to do for shots where you don't have to supply a lot of power to make the shot.  For example, when blocking or hitting shots from the mid court, just a gentle hit is all that is needed and a steady paddle face will be useful.  I've found myself swinging through those shots and it's not good.  I used this technique of a steady paddle today and found it easy and accurate.  Give it a try!

In the works: I've been working on a couple of longer posts.  One about serving and the other a different kind of post that I'll keep under wraps for the moment.  The serving post got really long and it covered topics that I've discussed before and it was becoming a book if I did the job thoroughly.  I recognized my problem and I've shelved it for the moment.  But that's what's happening in my pickleball world.  

Return to Downs:  I've decided to return to Downs on Tuesday and Thursday.  The  bangers seem to have moved on and the group that is left is a lot of the original crew when I was starting out.  It was "old home week" to see them and it's fun to play with them again.  Sadly, the Downs is short on courts as I'm getting spoiled with the May Nissen and Muirwood layouts.  I've made friends and enjoyed the play at May Nissen and I'm going to still hang out there for the social aspects and more relaxed play.

Court Coverage

 I was playing today and watched a number of opponents move apart as they prepared for a return shot.  The usual movement was each moved up the center of their respective service box and often deliberately moved apart to do it.

This is the exact wrong thing to do.  And as I saw this I thought about court coverage in general.  We don't mention it in pickleball 101 lessons nor in the Skills and Drills classes.  Beginners and intermediate players seem lacking in what they should be doing.  Let's take a look in some detail.

Firstly, you don't want to cover the entire court.  The court is big enough that you really can't do it.  Even the pros don't cover it all and they have the quickness of the proverbial cat.

Secondly, you can and should cover about two thirds of the court.  And you and your partner must form a solid wall of coverage.  Which means that the middle is well covered.  The middle is defined as that space between you and partner.  It will move.  You must have coverage overlap in the middle.

The full width of the court is 20 feet and I've declared that you can cover about 12 feet of that, which leaves about 8 feet open for a target for your opponents.  And I'm absolutely sure that you want none of that 8 foot area between you.  So we provide a single alley for the opponents.

So where is this alley?  You want to provide it as a single cross court shot, or as two narrow cross court shots.  

Let me explain.  There are two cases you must understand.  Either the opponents are hitting from the middle of their court or from a sideline.  The sideline case is easier.  One defender must cover enough of the sideline to make it a difficult shot.  So you or your partner slides almost to the sideline and is directly in front of the guy about to hit the ball.  The other player will be in the middle of the court.  Which leaves a cross court shot which has no immediate defender.  Or does it?  Think about that cross court shot.  The outer sideline is only a few feet away and it's only a very good shot that crosses the width of the court and stays in bounds.  Let the opponents try for that.  Ha!

The only other case is when the ball will be hit from the middle of the court.  You and your partner will be defending the middle of the court and allow an opening to both sides of just a few feet.  You will have both paddles able to return an middle shot.  And this is the same case, if your opponents can hit a perfect shot that stays in, you are probably playing in the wrong game.  If they hit it up the middle you will have a good chance to return it and should certainly get a paddle on it.  

And this is 90% of playing pickleball.  You and your partner cover the percentage shots of the opponents and allow them open alleys to very difficult shots.  Note that a lot of those will go out and if they hit marginal shots you may be able to move into the alley to hit them.  As the ball moves around the opponents' court, you and your partner will adjust your defensive wall to block their easy shots.  Simple game really...

Pro Tip: if you play as advised above, you will observe that every opponent has shots that they like to hit.  Sometimes those are drives or cross court shots, or even, and you might not believe this, lobs!  As you play the opponents you want to sucker them into hitting their favorite shot and as soon as their head goes down to hit it, you can adjust your position to counter it.  It becomes a bit of cat and mouse and you'll soon be playing the player and not the ball.  

Wrist Usage

 I was teaching the Skills and Drills class recently and one of my students had trouble hitting her serves hard enough.  

She kept her wrist immobile and was not allowing a wrist's normal action to help produce paddle and ball speed.  Let's discuss the anatomy of the wrist.

We will start with some vocabulary...

Flexion is bending the wrist so that the palm moves toward the inner forearm.

Extension is bending the wrist backward, moving the back of the hand toward the outer forearm.

Radial deviation is moving the wrist toward the thumb side (radius).

Ulnar deviation is moving the wrist toward the pinky side (ulna).

So we have extension and flexion.  We are very interested in extension for this post.  Flexion will show up as needed and in a lot of swing type things will happen automatically -- we usually don't want to try and help it move (heed this, all you golfers!).

The total movement of the wrist in the extension and flexion movement is close to 145 degrees, with a touch more movement on the flexion side than the extension direction.

The total movement available to deviation is about 55 degrees with five degrees more available in the ulnar deviation, i.e., moving towards that pinky finger.  We will revisit this later.

The important concept here is that the wrist can do a lot more movement via extension - flexion than the deviation movement.  And with more movement we can create more speed.

My favorite physical therapist (FPT) also remarked that the wrist/hand has the most strength when the hand is extended about 20 degrees, so just a little wrist break.

So how are these wrist positions used in pickleball?  In dinking, we don't want any wrist movement as any wrist flipping or flopping is going to create a timing issue and lead to less consistency and thus accuracy.  

Hitting volleys is a lot like dinking, less wrist movement is a good thing.  

That leaves us with ground strokes, overheads, and serves where we want to get more power out of our anatomy.  Serves and ground strokes are pretty much the same and let's look more closely there.

Drop serves need to be hit with an upward stroke with the entire paddle below your wrist.  A common beginner error is to swing more sideways than down to up and when doing so allow the edge of the paddle to get above the wrist.  The solution to this is to add some ulnar deviation, i.e., down cock your wrist.  The deviation will put your thumb in line with your forearm and ensure that your paddle is below the wrist.

The most common problem of beginners in the 101 class is that they will not hit the serves hard enough.  This is a learned skill and it's hard for a lot of beginners.  And we want to hit the serve as hard as possible as long as it will stay in.  

Hitting the ball can be done many ways, not all of them efficient.  In a good efficient serve the whole body is going to be involved and we are talking from an initial weight shift and forward body movement to the feet to the torso to the shoulders to arms and finally to the paddle.  It's rare to see the full body serve in the rec area.  And it's not needed much at DUPR levels below 4 something.  (Having a serve that no one can return leads to really boring points and should be avoided as a common courtesy to all the other players.)

Let's look at a reasonable serve.  Maybe there is a forward step with the foot closest to the net, then some body rotation and then the arm will swing in a circular motion impacting the ball as the swing path is on its upward path.

And what is the wrist doing?  Well to make the most of this energy you want to place your wrist in extension before you start the circular swing path.  There is no need to try and help the wrist get from extension to flexion as that may happen due to the physics of the swing.  I will return to this in a moment as the wrist position at impact is important for spin generation.

You'd like to swing the arm fairly quickly.  A fast serve is a happy serve.  But we are most concerned with hitting the ball in the court.  I had this nightmare recently where I served out in a game with the score 10 to 11.  I woke up in a cold sweat on that one.

Let's talk service misses.  How about long?  One variable is how hard you hit the ball, the next is what trajectory the ball has, and finally what spin is on the ball.

For every speed of the service ball there is an ideal trajectory.  The serve is one of two shots where the height above the net is not important.  The proper height when crossing the net should be a couple of feet above net height - leave some room for error.  So basically about head high at the net for a short player.  On the circular swing path there is an area where you will hit the ball on this trajectory without having to make hand or arm compensations.  You want to find this area.  Most of the time you'll find it by trial and error.  It's fairly close to your forward knee -- so a bit in front of you, but not much and fairly low.

Lastly let's talk spin.  The path of the paddle and the face angle of the paddle determine spin.  If the paddle face is 90 degrees to the path there will be no additional spin created on the ball.  Note that if you're returning a shot, there may be some residual spin from the shot you are returning.

The most useful spin when hitting a serve or a deep ground stroke is top spin.  The spin is clockwise if you were observing the ball from a net post as it crossed the net.  This spin is best as it will cause the ball to curve downwards as it slows, thus keeping it in the court.  The more spin you can create, the harder you can hit the ball and keep it in.  Also with the ball curving downwards, you can use a trajectory that is well above the net for fewer service and service return errors.  

Wonderfully, there is an easy way to create top spin.  You put your wrist into extension and then keep it there as you hit the serve.  The paddle is no longer 90 degrees to the path, but maybe 45 or so.  That change in angle creates a brushing of the ball and so some of the energy of the swing goes into producing spin rather than propelling the ball forward.  Just set your wrist and hit your normal serve.  You may have to adjust the impact area of the ball and you might have to hit the ball harder.  This is an important tool in playing PB, you must get serves in and this is an easy way to increase consistency and safety with the benefit of more speed.

My FPT also mentioned that tennis elbow is due to too much flexion when hitting a backhand.  In the flexed position the impact forces will strain the flexed muscular system and eventually create some aches and pains near the elbow.  I suffer from this on occasion and it comes and goes with little explanation as to why.  Well, the flexion information is new to me and when I hit my famous backhand roll, I put my wrist into full flexion always.  See the video below for how the pros hit backhands.  They use more body and arm motion than I do and while there is usually some flexion, it's not a lot. 

Here is a link to a YouTube video of pros hitting shots in slow motion.  Note that their wrists are in extension for almost all shots.  Also they use ulnar deviation for most shots  -- their thumbs are straight down the arm path.  Finally, you might notice how frequently the pros are not hitting the center of the paddle -- there are a lot of balls coming off the edges -- I found this quite unexpected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7LFGzcM5F0

Blogging Fears and Drop Shots

 The main fear I have is that I'll spew some "technical" advice in a post and find out later that it's wrong and my true believers out there will be doing worse than had I not "helped."

I did ask a pro about the technical quality of the blog, and he was a reader and had no problems with the content from a technical perspective.

What a relief.

However there is an issue that I wanted to bring up for those who are trying to apply some of my thoughts to their own game.

I like to hit soft third shots and then aggressively move to the net when I'm on the serving side.  I have always stressed that the player who returns the serve has to move to the kitchen line without exception -- this is accepted in the PB world and you will not find pros who don't do this.  Is the game "King of Kitchen?"  I think it is.

I believe in those "rules" and think they are fully valid.  Now, it came to me the other day that my stressing being at the net requires a couple of skills and not many beginners have them immediately.  Those skills being the ability to hit a soft shot and be able to blocking shots at the net.

I see a lot of beginning and intermediate players who hang at the baseline after returning a serve.  I've asked about that and the reasons boil down to a lack of confidence in hitting shots at the net, or a fear of getting hit, and if we were to look deep into the intermediate skill space we will find a lot of players who have no soft game.  They hit all the shots hard and hope for good results.  Note that the style of hitting the ball hard at all times will work wonderfully for a while, then it won't work at all.  As the skill level approaches 4, most players have no problem with a hard shot and are quite comfortable with it.

I noticed in my early days at Downs that the people coming from racquet ball are more than comfortable with a hard shot.  To beat them you can't feed them hard shots.

The point is that if you are going to adopt the style I advocate, then you need to drop some shots, not be afraid to dink, and be able to hit a block shot or two.  Yah, you need to stop worrying about getting hit, another real good reason to keep your paddle in front of you.  <Insert standard safety glasses reminder here!>

Drop shots can be more effective than a hard shot in scoring points, they will give you more time to get into a good position for the next shot, and a lot of people are not used to hitting soft shots or returning them.  Many a drop shot will win the point outright.  

What a drop shot does is block your opponents from hitting an attacking shot.  By hitting a short ball you are using the net as your third partner.  The opponent's next shot has to be lifted above the net.  If they hit it hard, it may well go long -- prepare to duck.  If they hit a good dink, then you dink back.  If they dink poorly, then you whack it and try to end the point, or at least put them under pressure with an aggressive shot.  

One of the interesting aspects of PB is that trying to win points usually is not as effective as just hitting good shots.  I see many balls going long or wide or both by a player who thought he could hit a great shot and end the point.  A better philosophy is to try to make your opponents hit more and more difficult shots as a rally plays out.  You want to make them move their feet, hit low shots, keep the ball in play, and make your opponents contend with the net.  Longer rallies are also more funner for sure.

Pickleball 202

 The question came up as I was teaching at the TVPBC PB-101 class last Saturday, what the Skills and Drills class was all about.  That question morphed into what might be the syllabus for a class that players would take after they've taken the 101 and then have played for a while.

Let's talk a bit about what the 101 class is in reality.  It's an introduction to the game.  There is little technical instruction, at least from me, as I think in the short time of the class that students should be deciding if the game is worth pursuing, rather than how to volley a top spin backhand.  There is a real limit to what can be absorbed in the hour and a half that the class lasts.  Indeed, the original class used to be dinks, volleys, ground strokes, serves, and then some play.  It was recognized that that was too much to retain.  The current instruction is try some dinks, learn to serve and I will work with each student individually for that skill, then we play games.  

With the serves comes scoring and setup for a point.  Setting up for a point implies movement by the receiving team -- see the previous blog post.  And I'll repeat here that no student will advance to the net after they return a serve.  It's just impossible at their level of understanding of the game.

Back to the topic.  So what is the syllabus for the next class?  Note that we've not really taught any hard skills.  We've placed them in the court and we've given them some goals, e.g., hit the serve towards the blue dot, try and understand the scoring.

So the goal for the second class would be to take the players and move them to say, 2.5.  We would like to see them serve well, i.e., get the ball in, automatically setup for both serving and returning of serves, know the scoring well.

And the last little bit is to get the ball back more consistently. 

Thus we spend some time on hitting serves and aligning feet for the serve and then should turns and some weight shift and then ball whacking.  

Setting up for points should be well known to them if they've been playing at all.  The same would be for the scoring.  So I would expect that no real time need be spent on that.

Which leaves us with more consistent ball striking.  In my humble opinion, hitting the ball well is merely a function of getting to the ball.  Since the ball is less than an ounce in weight, and the paddles about 8 ounces, there is little strength required to hit the ball.  But there is a real problem if the ball is too far away from you when you go to hit it.  

So, the big topic is movement.  I've written close to 250 posts in this blog and I suspect that a full 100 of them mention moving to the proper place.  And if I have a super power in this game, it is probably in being well placed most of the time.  I don't see this skill as being difficult, but it is for almost all players at the intermediate and beginner levels.

If I were to design the next class I would invent or look up drills to make people get to the correct position.  For example, if someone serves and steps into the court, they lose the point.  If someone returns a serve and does not advance, they lose the point.  If there is no middle coverage, they lose the point.  If the players get too far apart, they lose the point.  

I think these are the fundamental skills to play pretty good PB without needing to hit 40 MPH serves and volleys.  I see these skills as the fastest route to a high 3+ DUPR skill level.  And I would design a course around these points.

It was Five to Two and No One was Feeling It

   I was playing the other day and the teams were uneven, though not deliberately.  I hadn't played with any of the players.  In a couple of minutes the score was five to two and the outcome of the game really wasn't in doubt.  

And everyone knew it.  So there was this let down and it would be easy to grind out the rest of the game while thinking about the next game.  I was pondering this and it looked like the other team decided that the rest of the game wasn't going to be a lot of fun either.

As I thought about this, I thought that there was not guarantee that the next game was going to be better and then I thought, well how can I make the most of this game?  The players were nice and the game was friendly and there was no reason that we couldn't try to make the most of the game we had.  

There is an adage in golf that is, "every shot is a separate contest."  Well, that is pretty much what PB is too.  A nicely struck forehand is a joy forever and sometimes every backhand is a challenge.  And I would suggest that to make any game more interesting that we seek to hit every shot well.  It is incredibly common to not hit balls in the sweet spot of the paddle and just playing attention to that and seek to improve it will provide challenge in any game situation where you are winning or getting killed.

With some of that in mind, I played out the rest of the game and enjoyed the opportunity to just play well and control the ball.  

I've often written about at what level to play when skill levels are uneven and in my opinion you want to play close to the skill levels of the other players.  All of the above is what to do with your excessive skills as you play in any situation.  You can choose to hit the perfect shot to a place where your opponents can easily return the shot and thus extending the rally or just bang it away, which will bring satisfaction to no one.   Longer rallies are fun, I think and make the game more interesting for everyone.

Comfort Zones, Oh My

 One of things that I see in the PB-101 class is where the students feel comfortable standing.  And that position is about 4 feet into the court from the baseline, not quite to the middle of the transition area, but a couple of steps into the court.  

After you've played a bit, you will realize that that location is the absolute worst position from which to play.  I'll return to this in a moment.

A good player will seek to spend 10% of her time behind the baseline, 80% at the kitchenline and the remaining time trying to get to the kitchenline by moving through the transition area.  You might also have to retreat into the transition area as a point develops, but you don't want to be there.  The difficulty is that your feet are most exposed when in the transition area.  (Pro tip: in the transition area, keep your paddle positioned near your feet!)  An opponent can try to hit them with no fear of hitting long and you are too far away from the net, so you'll get no help from the net.  Net help?  Yes, that's why dinks and drops are so powerful, a low ball close to the net requires a very good shot to get the ball up and over the net, but not too high to create a sitter.

Beginners don't like the kitchen as it's probably scary and they are not used to the speed of the ball and there also seems to be an occasional fear of being lobbed.   And that's fine.  When teaching a class I push for them to get to the line and stay there, but it doesn't affect what they usually do.  I hope that as they become players that those words will come back to them and produce a better player.

And they don't like to be behind the baseline.  I think the fear here is that they are too far from the action and they won't get to the ball when it's hit towards them.

So they find their comfort area and while it's comfortable, and maybe a good place for a true beginner in a beginner game, as soon as you start playing regularly, you have to learn to face your fears and become comfortable with being behind the baseline and being at the net.  And you must learn to want to be at these two positions.  They are powerful and give you maximum control of the next shot.  If you are not where you should be, you empower your opponents.

I frequently see a service returner refuse to move up when they hit the service return.  This is very common even with pretty good players who have played for a couple of years, and it's the worst play in pickleball.  By staying back, you will allow the serving side to return deep to you and then move up to the line.  Your side will be split and you will have turned an advantage to a deficit.  The big difference between PB and tennis is the two bounce rule.  The service return has to bounce and this rule is there for the sole purpose of allowing the service returner to advance.  It's a huge deal.  If you don't come up, you are not playing pickleball.  You can still have fun and be comfortable by staying back, but in a intermediate game, you will be expected to be moving up every time you return a serve.  Watch a pro match on YouTube and see what they do.  They will sprint to the kitchenline every time.  Now in rec play, the sprint is not needed, but at least try to trot a bit!

Let's talk about staying behind the baseline after your side has hit a serve.  The error here is to move into the court and then find the service return is so deep that they have to run backwards to field it.  Had you stayed behind the baseline, you won't have to move much for a deep return, and you'll only have to move forward for a shorter return.  You will, of course, be keeping a sharp eye on how your opponent hits the serve and if they hit a short one or a soft one, then you can move forward to deal with it efficiently.  Don't worry about a service return that is so short you can't get to it.  It does happen and usually from a mishit but it won't happen often.  Worry about and be prepared for deep shots!

These are the two things that really separate beginners from a true intermediate player.  Being in the proper position is the most important part of the game.  Good positioning allows more time to hit better shots, less stretching to the side, and less hitting a ball while moving.  Make sure these two items are part of your play -- they are the most important things to learn about this game.