When it All Comes Together

 I have a couple of thoughts to pass on.  

I played a nice two out of three game match the other days with some young guys at MN.  Their strengths were hitting the ball pretty hard.  Weaknesses were common issues that beginners have.  Firstly, they typically didn't follow service returns with a gallop to the kitchen line.  They liked to hang back and anticipate a ball that they would be comfortable with.  Probably comfortable in that they could hit it hard.

I think following a service return to the kitchen line is a fundamental part of playing the game.  It's right up there with "Pass Go and Collect $200," kind of thing.  If you don't do it, you are giving away all advantage which comes from the two bounce rule.  When I teach the beginners, I stress this positional need.  It is not readily accepted and not often remembered for the beginners, but after you've played a bit, there is no real excuse.  You have to do it...

My partner and I were able to just play back deep to the service returner, capture the kitchen and easily win two of the three games.  Yes, they managed to win a game, it was close and their ground strokes might have been better than the ones from my side but their lack of understanding of the game made for fairly soft opponents.

The other issue that shows up in that skill area between beginner and advanced, is hitting the ball too hard.  It's so very common and it's usually quite successful until it isn't.  When they come up against players who can block and duck, they are usually easily beaten.  Why do players moan about a shot into the net, but don't react when they hit it eight feet long?  Clearly the longer shot is less accurate and skillful than the shot to the net which was two inches from perfection.

Now on to something different.  I've gotten in a couple of private games with pals in the last couple of weeks that were just great.  And they were great for a couple of reasons.  All the players were very close in skill level and that skill level was probably in the high threes in re DUPR levels.  Which meant that the points might be long, no one was being picked on as the weakest player, and finally, there was agreement as to pickleball style.  There was aggression, thord shot drops, dinking, and speed up, but also resets and even, sadly, a number of lobs.  :-)  All very cat and mouse type play then trying to overpower the opponents.

There has been a number of videos on YouTube about how the soft side of pickleball has died and that dinking is dead and everything ought to be sped up.  I would agree that you can play that way and maybe as a pro you'll have to.  

However, some styles are more interesting to play.  And I'll agree that what is interesting and boring are different for all of us.  If we accept that, then clearly some games will be more enjoyable and fun than others.  There is a reddit group about pickleball and bangers have sought advice about whether their style is good or bad.  A number of repliers have mentioned boring points and frequently that hitting every shot hard might lead to a lack of folks that will play with the bangers.  In the Livermore park play area I don't see much of "I'm not playing in that game" or "with him/her."  Though at my last day at Down's someone tried to hit me in the face three times, not only did I not play to that player for the rest of the game, I avoided him after that and realized that the style of Downs play was no longer of interest to me.  

The Downs style was not always like that.  But as players got better they hit the ball harder and then a bunch of younger players from other sports came in and the style changed to a very aggressive banging game.  

Interesting to me, I see the May Nissen group to be much like the Downs was when I was learning my basic craft.  In the time I've played there, the level has gotten a lot better and also there is a fairly narrow level of skill.  It was more divergent at the Downs for some reason.  But at MN, almost all the players are OK and fun to play with. 

So these last couple of games I mentioned were like going back in time when we were all a bit more innocent and the world was a kinder place, but with better skills and in the company of like minded players -- kind of what it's all about. 

Pickleball 101 Syllabus and Stuff

 PB 101

Here are the things we teach and some thoughts as to why it is so.  There are two parameters in play.  The first being that the class is only an hour and half.  And the second is that there is only so much information we can pass on that will be remembered.  It seems to be an hour and a half is about right to introduce the students to a new game with strange scoring and a lot of new physical skills and strange ball and paddles.  We used to try to teach a lot more, but it was too complex and difficult for the students.

The simplification came about that instead of making students into PB players, we now provide and introduction to the game.  If they like the game, they can develop skills as they play.

The philosophy is to provide enough skills and knowledge to get them to play a couple of games.  Usually I've found that the students will have enough skills to play in the Tuesday, Thursday games and I mention that to them as a path to improvement.

Here is an outline that I use, that has worked well:

1) Introduce yourself.  Go over the names of the areas of the court.  Which lines are important, etc.  You have to mention the non-volley rules, but don't go crazy.  You usually have to define what a volley is, etc., and there is so much new for them, it's only going to stick a little bit.  Not a problem.

2) Demonstrate dinking.  Get a couple of people on each side of the net.  As they try it, check their grips.  Correct bad grips to the Continental or shake hands grip.  If the grip used is from tennis and they know what they are doing, I'll mention problems with a strong grip, but I won't insist they change it.  If they can't get the dinking, then put down the paddles and just toss the ball back and forth over the net underhanded until the light bulb goes on.

3) As soon as they can control the ball a little in hitting and returning, then break for water and then it's service time.  I will demonstrate drop and bounce serves, then have each person hit a couple with one on one supervision.  If they get it, then send them to the far side of the court and instruct them to catch/stop/pick up any balls and then serve them back.  I'll get all four going and then roam around while they hit them.

Spend some time on this as it's usually the hardest stroke to hit.  They usually will not swing at all hard enough.  "Hit the back fence!" I tell them, it works occasionally.  The serving target is the center of the service area and I generally will say nothing else.  Things to watch for, are foot positions and sideway swings.  It's usually the ball position relative to the body that causes the most problems.

4) After serving, take another water break, and then go over rules as it's time to play.  The scoring will be the most difficult topic of the day.  I stole  a good explanation of the scoring system: in that on every side out, both players get to service and the score keeps track of the first and second server.  

This is true with the exception of the first point and that's where the struggle is.  

5) Let them play while you are on the court.  You'll need to move folks around as their roles change -- Up, Back, etc.  Somewhere along the way you need to spend some time on the two bounce rule.  Getting the servers to stay back on the baseline and the service returner to come up is good training, but it usually will not happen.  No problem!  So let them play, make sure they call out the score properly.

And that's it.  Other topics you can blend in as they come up: don't fall, don't run backwards, get some safety glasses, make sure a new paddle will match their eye color, etc.  All the little bits of knowledge you learned in a year or two.  Note that you can't pass all that on.  Less talk more play is my philosophy.

Forehand Drives and Using that Core

 John Cincola has a nice channel of PB content on YouTube.  He had a video the other day about forehand drives and I wanted to talk about that for a couple of reasons.

Let me summarize the stroke as John sees it.  He wants to face the shot head on and then take the ball just at or inside and in front of his right hand foot.  (Right hand foot???)  He doesn't move his feet sideways as you would hitting a tennis shot.  There is shoulder rotation, hit the ball in front of his feet and let the paddle wrap around his left shoulder.

I like this stroke.  With no real feet movement, it's really easy to reset for the return shot.  Also using your core in a rotational pattern and not, for example, moving your upper body towards the target, is efficient.  The stroke is also short.

I was using this a lot today while playing and I was getting very good power and speed from it.  Then I realized that with little modification, this becomes as excellent service stroke.  While I am happy to see some body and weight shift towards the target on a serve, it's not really required to get enough speed for a good serve.  I started using it as a serve.  I hit the ball lower than I usually do and with more speed.  My control was very good.  My consistency was excellent, I didn't serve out all morning -- but I usually will only serve out about once a week, so I can't claim more control with a small sample.

While I was thinking about this, I was watching my partners serve.  They had pretty good serves, they got them in for example and the depth and speed of the shots was fine.  I did see some body motion towards the target, again, something I like if you have trouble with serving.  But I could see from my partners that there was a lot of power loss in doing so.  The balls were hit from too far forward and as they had to reach for the ball to hit it, they hit softer shots than the effort they put in.  I think having a more square stance and dropping the ball off the front right knee and just using their core to rotate and hit the ball would be more efficient.

Pro tip on serving, you absolutely need to tightly control the location of your ball drop to control angle, direction, and spin.  If you miss serves then check this first.

Link to John's post: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9J9lwF01gSE

This stroke felt different to me.  I don't use my core rotationally much and I probably want to.  It felt good and strong and I'm going to pursue it.  Now let's seek understanding and progress in other areas.  I also play golf.  If you hit golf balls correctly, you also want this core rotation.  One of my many golf flaws is to move my body towards the target.  What I want to do is to force my body to stay somewhat stable and in position and use that leg brace to power a rotation via the core.  I'm hoping to make this work too.

Take a look at the video, it's all of 30 seconds long, see if it helps you.

A Couple of Musings...

 It's been a long time since I wrote anything.  The reasons for that are that I've found another sport, disc golf, I'm also rekindling my interest in regular golf, and then I feel that my understanding of PB is such that I don't have much new to say. 

I see things that folks are doing and are less than ideal and I think about writing about them, but I've already written those posts, probably a couple of years ago and I don't want do it again.

But there are a couple of things that I wanted to talk about and I'm tired of reading today and felt like writing.  So shall we begin?

A question came up about serving styles the other day.  The question was whether a very long stroke with a lot of reach back was a good thing for serving.  One of my core interests is serving I think that if you are serving out more than once a day, then you are not being efficient.  The way to serve consistently is to have good timing and rhythm and a consistent impact location.

An elaborate stroke where there is a lot of arm and body motion can work very well.  I like the idea of a bit of forward step and a weight shift as I think that imparts a nice sequence and makes for easier timing.  You then add a ball drop at the appropriate time and then it's an easy stroke.  Note that if you volley the serve versus using a bounce serve, then the timing of the drop is different.  But most people will do that automatically after some play.  It's great being a human, we are so good at figuring things out.

So it's basically a backswing, step forward, drop the ball and then hit it.  Make sure you are releasing the ball consistently and fairly close to your forward leg.  You want to hit the ball on an up stroke (required if you use a volley serve) and you can vary how deep you hit the serve by contacting the ball higher than normal.  Advanced pro tip: have some break in your grip so that you brush the ball and impart some top spin.  That will make it easier to keep the ball in bounds.  

Now, when you are not serving, then elaborate strokes, like you see in tennis, are not a good idea.  Those strokes take a lot of time.  You need the time to make a long back stroke and then there is the time to swing at the ball.  Time is valuable in this game you want to hoard yours and try to steal from your opponents.  Yes, there are posts about this topic too.  So a short swing, taking it back no further than your body and a short forward stroke to hit the ball in front of your body is what you want.  At the net, it's a very short stroke, or pop, or push, or block -- nothing slow, and make sure you get your paddle ready for the next shot.

Next topic is about body bagging, aka, trying to deliberately hit your opponents.  If you are playing in a tournament, this is valid, useful, and at some levels required to play well.  However, in rec play, I think it should be avoided.  Especially don't do it when playing with beginners.  They will not appreciate it and if they are not used to it, can be dangerous.  

I'll also suggest that playing against people who are not wearing safety glasses, it's a shot that should be avoided.  I understand it's their decision not to wear glasses, but accidents happen a lot in this game and I would not be happy to cause a serious injury in any deliberate fashion.  

It's really easy to get a ball in the face from ricochets and net balls and partners who clip a ball with edge of their paddle, so I think it's smart to not add deliberate shots to the mix.

If you are going to try to hit someone, aim for a hip, but there is still a chance that a low shot can turn ugly.  It's rec play and we are there to have a good time and go home healthy.  Shots near people I like to avoid as much as possible, even if it's the best shot for the occasion.

I've been playing at May Nissan for the last couple of months.  I'm enjoying it a lot.  It reminds me of what Downs was like a couple of years ago.  It's probably more social and that might just be due to more people and more co-ed than the Downs ever was.  I also wanted to mention that the level of play is getting a lot better and the differences between the beginners and more skilled players is getting smaller.  So the quality of the games is improving and becoming more enjoyable.  Well done, all!

I think that's about all that's on my mind these days, I'll see on the courts.

How to be Nonchalant...

 A number of players have remarked on my game about how relaxed and effortless it looks.

I would not call it effortless, but in a lot of ways, I am not feeling  hurried.

There are a lot of benefits to not being hurried, or to rephrase, having a lot of time.  I try to be at rest for the next shot and I try to be at the best court location for the next shot.

I suspect that this looks effortless is that I am moving as soon after I hit a shot as possible, or if my partner is hitting the ball, I will be moving before he hits it.  So if you are watching the ball, you don't see me move early, though it's always happening.

If my partner is hitting the third shot and it's going to be a drop or something less than a drive, then I want to be very close to the kitchen line and stopped when partner's shot is returned.  I will, of course, alter my location based on where partner hits the ball.  The rule of thumb is to move toward the ball, not just moving forward.  I'm either expecting to guard a down the line shot, or a middle shot.  Note that cross court shots go through the middle of the court and someone should always be looking for it.

(Pro tip...  We all have patterns of play and in the early points watch what your opponents will do with a drive, for example.  A common play is to try to dink as the opponents are deep.  If you are expecting this shot, you will be able run up and return it.  Also the players who live to hit the ball as hard as possible, are usually obvious about it, punish them by being ready to duck their out balls.)

I gain time to move and stop by moving as early as possible.  I don't hit a shot and admire it, or expect it to end the point, I move to defend the next return.  I don't mind stopping in the transition area, for example, if I expect the shot to head there and this is fairly common.

And part of defending a shot is having my paddle in a location that covers the most likely return; if my shot is high, I will expect a low shot to my feet.  If I drop it well, then my paddle will be above the net and ready to block a speed up or to drive a pop up down to the opponent's feet.  

And that is all it is.  

Note that the faster the ball speed, the less time you have to move and thus even less time for admiration.  Also better opponents will hit the ball harder and rob you of time too.  You gain time by hitting slower shots that are low and can't be attacked.  Soft sliced returns are quite effective.  Dinks will also gain you time if you or your partner are out of position or are in a defensive position.  

The Men's Open Harvest Tournament 2024

 I watched a lot of the open men's play at the tournament this year.  The play wasn't too much of a surprise as to style or skills.

I thought the ability to hit the ball was very good.  There even was a  guy who excelled at blocking overheads from the kitchen line.  There were a lot of fire fights, rarely started from the kitchen line, but usually close to it, we might call that the late transition area.

Almost all balls were attacked and hit hard.  

Only one guy, our Jimmy, actually dropped the third shot, others were quite content to just drive it.  More on this later.

I also saw a lot of intentional body bagging, including head shots.

A close reader of the blog will have noted that the style of play exhibited is not to my taste.  I must confess that it wasn't too long ago I was heading into that stylistic direction and realized I was turning into the player I didn't want to play against.  I turned away from it and it's one of the reasons I don't play at Downs anymore.  

So most of the matches were hitting with the occasional reset followed by more hitting until the points were over.  Not classical pickleball, but that seems to be a dying art at most playing levels.  

I wanted to return to Jimmy's play.  He seemed to be the only player who would hit a soft third shot.  And it was quite effective.  Frequently the points would evolve into overheads and hitting, but he was managing to score well with some soft play and his side was able to get to the kitchen line.  It is still my theory that at some point you have to get back to playing soft shots.  When all the players can hit and return, then you've got to change the play.

Another impression was that uniformly, the shots that were missed, were not drives, but shots that required some touch.  I think they are harder, but they are efficient.  All the players could return drives at that level.  Time for the old curve ball...

The women's play was also interesting, but for another reason.  I saw a lot of lobs.  (I was going to put in a joke about Larry giving lessons, but I won't.)  There were some older teams playing against younger ones and one of the older gals said that the lobs were needed to slow down the kids.  Hah!  Maybe I will have to reassess my view in re lobs.

And one of the older gals had some beautiful ground strokes followed by flawless court movement.  I really enjoyed watching her play.  Very much a classical style and esthetically pleasing.

It was a nice job putting on the tournament from my perspective.  I would have liked to have had a few more paddle vendors there, but I really don't need anymore.  The tacos were good as were snacks for players and volunteers.  I wasn't involved in the setup or tear down, but a lot of work went into that and it was well done.  Thanks TVPBC for a great event.  

Andrea Koop and How She Plays

 Andrea Koop used to be in the top five or so of the women's game.  I haven't seen much of her lately.  She is a lawyer and maybe has a full life outside of whacking plastic.

When I watched her, she played a very classical game.  Her serves were very soft for a pro game.  I only saw her miss a serve once.  I was a bit stunned at that.  She hit the ball to the middle of the service court always.  Nothing fancy, just a way to start the rally.

But there is also something that she does that is worthy of our attention.  She is probably no different than any other good player, but she is very obvious about it.  And the thing I'm talking about is that she tenses up every time her opponent is going to hit the ball.  She is expecting that the ball is coming to her.  If the ball goes to her partner, she dramatically relaxes.  This goes on for the entire point.  Tense, relax, shift maybe, tense, hit, move, tense, relax...

The power in this is that you are never surprised that the ball came your way.  Always assume the next shot is yours.  

I was at the Harvest Tournament today.  I'll create a post on some of the interesting things I noticed, but let me tease with this.  The men's doubles was, with rare exception, all about hitting the ball really, really hard.  And probably 30% or so were going out.  Getting back to Andrea's methods, suppose you were expecting all the balls hit at you to be going out, would you be more inclined to duck?  

How to be a Sought After Partner

 One of the reasons the better players like to play with each other is that a good partner requires a lot less thinking and thus makes for an easier game.

What are the things that are good as a partner?  Well, there are not too many actually.

Number one, get your serves in.  No need for speed or accuracy, just in.  It's a small thing, but critical.  

Number two, never step into the court after you have hit the serve.  You can get away with this against soft players or a strong tail wind, but you are going to be running backwards a lot of time in a stronger game.  If you have to run backwards, it's hard to watch as a partner and it's very difficult to then hit the third short off the back foot.

Number three, always follow your service return with a run up to the kitchen line.  Number three point five, when you come to the kitchen line, run towards the ball you just hit.  Note that your running direction is rarely straight forward, but either towards your side line or to the middle of the court.

Number four, someone on your side has to cover middle shots always.  Depending from where the opponents hit the ball, you and/or your partner must be shifting to the middle.  For example, if I return a serve and hit is directly across the net to my opponent, I will run straight towards that opponent and I'll cover my sideline.  My partner will shift to cover a cross court / middle shot.

Second case, I return cross court to the server, then I run to the middle of the court and my partner shifts to cover his sideline.  

Case three, I return to the middle -- which I will do 80% of the time -- then both my partner and I will be at the kitchen line and close enough to each other to be able to get both paddles on a middle ball.  I've played a number of games with Angel, our local pro, and I found it interesting how closely he and I stayed to each other while playing.  We could probably touch paddles at all times.  Double middle coverage is a wonderful thing...

The astute reader will notice that in all of these cases, about 20% of the court is not covered.  (We will ignore lobs, as they are borderline illegal and not found in a serious game (kidding).)  That lack of coverage is acceptable as the uncovered area is at an angle to the hitter, and thus hard shots will go out and softer shots allow time for you to move to return it.  It is the middle coverage that is most frequently needed.

Those are the things that make you an easy player to partner.  And what makes this easy?  Well, if I'm your partner, I know where you are all the time and I know what shots you can return.  It makes it easy to know what balls I have to hit and which ones are yours.  I don't have to stretch in front of you to hit a shot.  

Number 5, this is optional in a friendly game, but required otherwise...  If I am returning the serve, you are at the net.  It is your responsibility to intercept all center shots, i.e., poach aggressively.  Poaching is fun and this is not onerous duty, but it's vital in a tough game.  

Number Six, you will notice that there has been no requirement to hit hard shots, or great slams, or inside out twisty slice shots or anything fancy.  Hitting the ball hard is not required nor needed.  Accuracy and control and just keeping the point going is what is highly prized.  Also, personally, I will view your game more respectfully the more you dink and are strategic, rather than trying to win the point with a huge shot.  Huge shots hit the net and the backstop and occasionally the opponents, none of which is a good thing.

Good luck in the tournament all!

Downs, the Abandoned Park

 Back in the day, I used to play at Downs park four to five times a week.  But I've dropped the park visits for a couple of reasons.  A few friends have asked why and while my personal decisions are probably not of interest to a lot of, there are some universal topics that others may have to face and perhaps a discussion would be useful to them.

Firstly, let's ask why we play.  The universal answer might be to have fun.  And, as the devil is in the details, how does one extract fun from pickleball?

I found fun in learning to play better and to play more interesting rallies.  

That is not universal.  The other part of any game that holds deep meaning for many, is winning.  

Secondly, the play level at Downs has increased significantly from years past.  A lot of that is from younger players from other racquet sports coming to pickleball.  They have good eyes and move better than us folks north of 70.

Thirdly, it's been my experience that almost all players from the 2.5 to the 4.0 arena hit the ball too hard.  They love the drive and that is a useful tool up to a certain skill level.  When your opponent easily handles all your drives, then the soft game becomes important.  But a lot of players never realize that.  I dropped by Downs a couple of weeks ago to say hello to friends.  All four courts were in play and there was banging games on three of the courts.  The one court where the dinking was happening (and required) was the 4.5+ group who had realized that banging was not the ultimate answer to better pickleball.

So, with all this in mind, I came to the conclusion that the Downs was longer the place for me to play.  I don't like a banging game, I don't mind some blocking, but when a game is nothing but banging, it's boring.  I also found some of shots to be very hard to see.  I think there are lighting conditions at the park can hide a ball for that vital fraction of a second, it would then usually appear in front of my face.  Not a lot of fun.  

I'm not a 4.5 player and I'm not interested in trying to get to that level, my level is sufficient to play socially with my friends in somewhat competitive games and that's just fine.

I'm spending a lot of time at May Nissen.  The skill level is rising there and it's a lot like the Downs was a few years ago.  It's an older crowd, learning to play better, moving better, and more social.  Those are good things and the enjoyment is rising as the players get better and make the transition from opponents to friends.

So farewell to Downs.  Thanks for all the good times and good friends.  

Opportunity Lost

 I played a game the other day and one opponent after the game said that it was no fun as the teams were very unequal.  There was detail in that comment and he went on to state that my side had a lot more control than his.

I've written a lot of posts about playing when there are differing abilities.  Generally, my opinion is that the better players should adjust their game to their competition or just a touch above.

I've personally used that guideline as I've transitioned from play at the Downs to May Nissen and Muirwood.  

If you are on the lower skill level and your opponent is better, but not just hitting winners all game, then you've got a useful (wonderful?) opportunity to enjoy.

Let's take the case I've just mentioned.  One team is more consistent than the other.  My suggestion would be to not try to hit winners yourself.  You want to strive to have longer rallies too.  Keep the ball in play at all costs.

How do you do that?  The easy answer is to hit more dinks and drops.  Hit a dink any time you are out of position, or your partner is.  If you have not gotten to the net (which means you are the serving side), then work on third or fifth shot drops.  If your skilled opponents are reasonable people, they will not punish you for these attempts, but will just try to keep you in the back court.  This will usually allow you to hit additional soft shots as you try to move in.

What normally happens in a lot of intermediate play is that the longer the rally, the harder the ball is hit.  You can be very successful by hitting all shots hard, but better players will block, let you hit into the net, and duck a lot of long shots.  

In my opinion, longer points are much more interesting than short ones and I find the soft shot features of a classic pickleball style to be a fun way to play.  

I think it's fine and appropriate to suggest at the start of game, that all players play "friendly" and see what happens.  You might find new skills, a closer score and different way to control the ball.   Think of this kind of game as a practice rally session with a better player.

So much for my soap box...

There was a Reddit comment about pickleball while watching a 4.5 5.0 game.  What the Redditor found to be strange is that when a pop up occurred, the ball was not put away but was returned as a solid shot that allowed the point to continue.  I would point out that winning a point or the game is secondary to social enjoyment, skill development, and interesting points.  I fully understand why the question was asked, but perhaps the simple answer is that there is more to the game than winning.

A Serving Side Technique, is it Good or Bad?

 TLDR: don't rush the net automatically when partner is about to hit the third shot.  

As people improve they realize the importance of getting to the kitchen line (KL).  What I want to talk about is how you want to get there if your side is serving.

Specifically, your partner is going to hit the third shot.  What should you be thinking about doing in this situation?

I see a number of people who will always rush the KL while partner hits the third ball.  This doesn't always work.  Let's look at some of the shots that partner will hit and what else we might want to do.

If partner is going to hit a good third shot drop, then you do want to rush to the KL and be ready to put away a weak return.  Keep your paddle up!

If partner is going to hit a bad drop, then you will be an easy target if you are at the KL.  It is better to be back then too close in this case.

If your partner drives the ball, you don't want to be at the KL, but you would like to have moved into the transition area.

There is one more case and that's where the service returner has not come to the KL.  In this case the third shot should be returned deep into the court to the returner and both players on the serving side will immediately move to the KL.  This is the best case as your side will own the net and the opponents are separated in depth.  The goal is to hit the fifth shot behind the player at the net.  If that is not possible then just keeping the opponents separated and look to exploit the net ownership.

Back to main topic.  So the rule is to move to the KL if partner is going to hit a good drop.  If partner drives we move a bit, otherwise we hang back.  So the best play is to move in a touch and watch partner's shot.  If it's a drop, keep moving in.  Otherwise, stay back a bit and see what the opponents will/can do.  If they look awkward or don't hit a good fourth shot, then seek to exploit that and keep moving in.

I'm assuming that your opponents are reasonable players.  If they are weak, then you can more aggressively move up.  If they are strong, then caution is a good idea.

The serving side should see a point as successful if they can manage to get to the net and start a dinking rally.  This requires that the third shot be done well.  A bad third probably will end the point.  This is not an unusual or bad occurrence, as even at the pro levels, there is  large percentage of the time that the servers never achieve parity in a point.  The advantage of controlling the KL is huge.

What does a point look like if the third shot is not a good drop?  The opponents are at the net and probably have hit a shot that lands somewhere into the middle of the court.  I think it's best to then hit a soft fifth shot and try to get your side to the net.

There are a lot of folks who feel that hitting the ball hard is what the game is all about.  So the fourth shot comes back and they will hit the fifth harder and typically the ball speed will keep increasing until someone thinks about ducking or the net gets in the way or an angled shot ends the point.  While that is exciting play, the points can be short and they lack the Zen of pickleball, which was designed to be all about the rally.    It is well known that the inventors of the game were deep into Zen as there was a Zen master on the island and they were all devoted students.  It is a disturbance in the force to fight the Zen undercurrents of PB or life itself.  One seeks to become one with the game and that is why the satisfaction of a good drop shot is so rewarding.

As the Master has said many times, "Why hit the ball hard, when softer works better?"  Be like the Master!  The balls and paddles will last longer too!

Serving Part Zero

 I've promised this post to my readers and also to myself.  It's one of those subjects that I had something to say and, from observations, it's useful to many a player.

There are a couple of things that you have to do to serve consistently.  However like a lot of PB play, you can get away with a lot of less efficient strokes.  If the paddles and ball were heavier, you couldn't, but we are happy to play with what we have.  So, strange play will work frequently.

OK, enough with over long introduction.  What we need is a stroke that is an upswing and therefore the ball must be hit from a fairly low position.

If you drop or bounce the serve, the ball must be hit at a level below the knee.  Did I say below the knee?  Good, because that's important.

The next vital point is that the ball must also be aligned with the center of the body.  The feet/toes should be on a line to the middle of the target service area.  You need to be bent a bit from the hips as your arm should be pretty close to vertical as you swing at the ball.

So we drop the ball, it's in line with the navel and below the knee and underneath your shoulders.  The swing comes from below and strikes the ball with an upward strike.  You have to hit it up to get it over the net.  A reasonable target in re height above the net is perhaps 6 or 7 feet above the ground.  

There is little need to skim the net as we seek not to win the point with the serve, but to start the rally.  If the serve is deep into the service area, fine, but in no case do you want to strive to hit the serve deep if in doing so, you serve long.  

A survey was done of a senior pros' game and the impact of all the serves were recorded.  The average impact point was the center of the service area, not deep or on the edges of the area, but dead in the middle.  Seek to play like a professional!  Seek the middle!

Now...  Let's say that you have mastered the simple stance and the ball drop and the upward strike and now you hit every serve in and you don't need to hit any warmup serves and all is well.  Yet, you seek more adventure!  More thrills and perhaps a hit of envy from your fellow players.  This is easily done.  We will now discuss the wrist.

I didn't mention it above and I assumed you were keeping the wrist joint fairly straight in relationship to the arm.  This is fine and the serve it produces will be gentle and not very spinny.  (BTW spinny is not a word.  It seems there is no word that describes something that spins.  You read it here first.)

How to create some useful spin...  This is all done with the wrist position at impact.  The more you increase the angle of the wrist to the forearm by bending the wrist back (extension), keep it in that position, and then strike the ball, you will create top spin with the ball.  You are brushing the ball and the angle of the paddle face does not match the swing path of the paddle.  This creates an imbalance in the universe and from this action, spin is created.  Ah, there is some heat there too, but not worth of discussion.

The more the wrist angle, the more the spin.  With this paddle position at the strike, you may have to hit the ball from a touch higher position and you have to hit the ball harder.  If you like the whack the ball, this is a tool you'll want.

With this, we have more pace, and with the spin, it is easier to keep the ball from going long.  You will also find the ball will be less affected by wind.  Again, height above the net is not a problem, in fact you can now hit the ball higher over the net as the top spin will cause the ball to arc more vertically into the court.

Alrighty, next variation and actually about the last one.  I've stated that the paddle has a straight path into the ball.  Well, maybe I just hinted at that, but it is the basic stroke.  Then we have wrist angle and now we mention not swinging straight through the ball, but we introduce a side angle.  Typically you will swing the paddle across the ball with the paddle moving towards your body.  If your feet and shoulders define a line to the service target, the paddle will now be from outside this line, across it, and finishes left of the line.  

How much of this deviation is another variable to play with.  Add in bending or not bending the wrist and you have many serves to choose from.  

And that's about all I know about serving...  Point your feet, drop the ball, cock your wrist, keep the wrist stationary, and hit the ball from below your knee.  

I had a group students in the PB 101 class and they were all tennis players.  They all liked to step with their lead foot as they hit the ball.  I like this as it is a useful motion and gets the entire body into the shot.  If you do this, you will create more speed with less effort.  I recommend it, but it's not critical.  To do this, your feet start pretty close together and then step towards the target.

Let me touch briefly and what errors I normally see.  The big error is that people drop the ball too far away from their body.  When that happens the ball is typically struck from too high a position and the moon ball is the result.  If it drops in, ok, but not what we want in the long run.  Drop it close and low and you can hardly go wrong.

Serving Part One

 Hello Readers,

I've wanted to do a post or two on serving.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  I've taught it in a lot of beginner classes, and beginners struggle with it.   Also some very nice intermediate plus players struggle with it too.  And then there are the yips -- when you have lost your serve and wonder where it went.  It was around here Monday, but today it has vanished.

Let's talk yips first.  I had a friend who lost her serve and I offered to help.  Now, I'm no authority, but if I have a consistent part of my game, it's serving.  One a good/God week playing playing four or more times at three hours per outing, I usually would miss one serve.  And that's one per week.  

I looked up the yips a bit, it occurs in a couple of my other sports.  I was surprised to learn that major league baseball pitchers get them too.  And they lock up so badly, they can't pitch much at all.  I had never heard of that and you can imagine the expensive issues for clubs and players when it happens.

It also shows in golf, usually with putting.

Solutions...  There are solutions.  There is a guy out there who claims to be able to fix baseball pitchers over the phone.  He doesn't say how and it's a trade secret, he wants some money for his consultation and cure, obviously worth it to save a million dollar career.

The golf problem is not as simple as far as I know.  Bernard Langer famously got the yips three times in his career and fixed it each time.

OK, back to PB...  

When I teach beginners I just tell them where they should hit the ball, middle of the service box, but then you knew that!  And have them try it.  This works reasonably well for most of them.  I don't like to pass on much technical information as it would be hard to remember it, and I think the purpose of the beginner lessons should be to give the players just the skills to enable them to join a beginner game know the mechanics of what to do and where to stand/be and that's about it.

Some of the issues I see with them is that they don't hit the ball hard enough, don't hit it close enough to their knee, and their feet are not aligned with the target.

I had one group of beginners and they were all tennis players.  They all made a nice step forward before swinging at the ball.  While this is not essential, I like it for several reasons.  It gets the entire body moving into the shot, the legs have to be reasonably aligned or it will feel awkward and with this, there is some inherent timing for the arm swing.  

Back to the yips...  Firstly, this is mostly a mental problem, but it's a good idea to make sure of the above fundamentals.  So, make sure the stance is angled towards the middle of the service box, feet close together, a step towards the target, ball drop, and hit the ball from near the front knee and obviously drive it up, well over the net.

Beginners, by the way, rarely hit the ball hard enough.  "Hit the back fence," I tell them.  Sometimes that works.

If you are intermediate player with the yips, then you should be doing all of the above.  The error I see with this is the contact point of the ball.  People want to hit it when it's very high -- thigh or waist!  And they don't drop the ball close enough to their body.  When that combination happens, we get really ugly, high serves with no pace.  

Let me mention bounce serves here.  The bounced ball does not bounce very high and if you are going to hit it at all, you have hit it from a very low location.  I like that.  The timing of the drop, step, and swing are a bit different, but it inherently has good things going for it.  I think mostly the timing is easier for a beginner.  If you haven't played a lot of tennis, then the drop serve might seem difficult as it can be imagined that there is not a lot of time in which to actually hit the ball.  This is not true, gravity is not that "fast" and you have a large part of a second to hit the ball.  

If the mechanics are sound, then also make sure of the grip and paddle presentation to the ball.  I'm happy with the continental or shake hands grip, though I think a western grip makes a lot of sense for serves only because it's an efficient way to generate more top spin.

The above techniques have to be trusted by the server.  If they are not, then we are creating doubt and angst.  Bitte, keine Angst!

If the mechanics are all correct and the serves are still yippy, then we have to calm the mind.  A routine of bouncing the ball a couple of times before each serve or touching the back net are examples of getting ready by creating a comfortable routine.  This is common in many sports.

If all of the above is fine and the serves are still a mess, then the fine motor skills are letting us down and there is some paddle position that wrong.  Make sure that your paddle hand, paddle, forearm, upper arm, etc., are pointing to above the net at impact.  The paddle face should be square to this swing path.  If the ball is not going in the correct direction, then the wrist/hand have to be the problem.

How do we correct that?  There are two techniques for this.  In the Inner Game of Golf by Gallwey, he suggests just paying attention to the hand position and grading it from 1 to 5, 5 being where you want it to be.  Gallwey and found that this is a feedback loop and will create the proper position after some repetition.  You swing, score the position, say it's a 2.  Then do it again and you should see things moving towards 5 as the brain is a wonderful thing.  Gallwey's books are quite interesting and if you are in to sport performance, I recommend them.

The other means, and I don't know where I got it, is to give your hand (or arm, or anything) a task to do.  And we want it to be a positive task, i.e., "do X" we don't want to try to, "Don't do Y."  The thinking on this is that the task will help the mind properly do the right thing, rather than what it's doing to make a bad serve.  A good task would be point to the top of the back fence when hitting the ball, or, wrist firm, as I will cut across the ball.  This is some basic conscious attempts at control, but note that is all of this we are dwelling on specific technique.  Your body will respond and improve things as you request better outcomes.

OK, that's probably enough for this.  I think I'm going to go over more of the basic structure in another post for beginners.

YMCA

To the tune of YMCA by the Village People

 

Player, there's no need to feel down

I said, Player, pick yourself off the ground

I said, Player, 'cause you're in a new town 

There's no need to be unhappy

Player, there's a place you can go

I said, player, when you're short on your dough

You can Play there, and I'm sure you will find 

Many ways to have a good time

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for you all to enjoy

You can hang out with all the guys

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

You can get a good dink, you can have a good drive

You can do what about you thrive

Player, are you listening to me? 

I said, Player, what do you want to be? 

I said, Player, you can make real your dreams

But you got to know this one thing

No banger does it all by himself

I said, Player, put your pride on the shelf

And just go there, to the Pickleball Courts

I'm sure they can help you today

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for players to enjoy

You can hang out with all the boys 

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

You can let yourself dink, you can have a good drive 

You can do what about you thrive 

Player, I was once in your shoes

I said, I was down and out with the blues

I felt no one cared if I were alive

I felt the whole world was so tight 

That's when someone came up to me

And said, Player, take a walk up the street

There's a place there called the Pickleball Courts

They can start you back on your way

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for players to enjoy

You can hang out with all the boys 

Pickleball Courts, you'll find it at the Pickleball Courts

Player, Player, there's no need to feel down

Player, Player, pick yourself off the ground

Pickleball Courts, it's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

Player, Player, are you listening to me

Player, Player, what do you wanna be?

Pickleball Courts, you'll find it Pickleball Courts

No banger does it all by himself

Player, Player, put your pride on the shelf

Pickleball Courts, and just go to the Pickleball Courts

The GUP

Let me present another idea that Gregg Whitfield (see links previous post) brought to my attention, the idea that you want your opponent to hit from a low position.  

Let's think about that for a quick moment.  The concept is probably not new to you, think "hit to their feet"  and "a low dink is a good dink."

The power that comes from this is that our friendly opponent has to hit the ball upwards to clear the net.  If they don't do a good job with this shot, then we would smack it back to them on a downward trajectory.  Basically, once more, hitting to their feet.

How is this done on a general basis?  We want to target the depth of our shots to match the opponent's position.  That might be mid court or deep or even at the kitchen line.  We want the ball to bounce near that depth.

If you are like me, that generally means a shorter shot than you are used to hitting.  And it probably means a softer shot with less power than typical.  Gregg might mention another point, and that would be that some back spin would be ideal for its ability to control the shot and how difficult it is to return a back spun ball.  A shot with back spin will have a flatter trajectory than a top spin shot.

Back spin will tend to come off the paddle lower than no spin or a top spin shot.  Frequently a back spin shot is returned into the net.  It will also bounce lower than other spins, which helps with our interest in hitting a low shot.

Any short, soft shot will require our opponent to hit up on the ball.  We, of course, having hit a low shot, have our paddle up and ready to hit the next ball down into the court.

So, bottom line, on any shot, hit it so that the ball will bounce at the same depth or shallower than your opponent and don't worry about pace.  Then be ready to hit a high ball return!

An Informal Blocking Lesson

 As mentioned in an earlier post, I was invited to a drilling/playing session with Gregg Whitfield, the local pro at Cambria, CA.

We were hitting and then played some games with a emphasis of keeping the ball in play.

One of the deficiencies with my game is the tendency to hit the ball, rather than just block it back.  Swinging at a ball from the baseline is fine, but when moving in or at the kitchen line, the block is more controlling and accurate  -- or so I've been told, I've not actually tried it!

The technique is to hit the ball in front of your body, no swing, gentle hand to control power, and use the wrist to change ball direction.  The paddle face has to be open, aka facing the sky a bit, for all shots.  (Gregg mentioned to me was that even on a shot at my ankle, I was starting to roll it.  While a roll is a beautiful thing, it's maybe not proper for all occasions?)  You need to hit the ball very softly here.  The open paddle gets the ball over the net, but if you hit it hard you'll pop it up.  

What this added to my play, there were fewer net balls and fewer popups.  I was hitting dinks that were more difficult to attack, easier to control.  I was very happy with the shots.

I tried hitting blocks as a fifth shot from mid court.  I usually would roll these as deep as the opponents, but I tried to just push the ball back, not much swing and mostly block.  Most of those shots came back, but were not difficult for me to return.  Note that none of these shots went out, which is maybe the entire idea of all of this, keep the ball in play, hit a conservative shot, attack when it's obvious.

As  I read this over, I think the main point here to choose to block rather than to hit out on a lot more shots than I typically would.  The philosophy is to reduce errors of two types.  The first being to avoid hitting an out ball and the second avoiding a long swing that makes it more difficult to return to a ready position.

And second change to my game is to not roll the shots much.  I've played with these changes for three sessions and I've found then quite effective.  I think in the last session I didn't hit any ball hard.  My win rate was as good as I get and didn't lose any game that I shouldn't have.  And if Randy had been on his game...  (Kidding!)

Back at Cambria: As the session proceeded, there were four of us playing and with that style there were some long rallies.  I'd guess one was over 20 shots.  Ah, Gregg could have put a couple of balls away, but that wasn't the point.

Then practice ended and there were a few final games with one of the heavy hitters.  I played with Gregg against an intermediate player and the other advanced player.  I found the game much easier to play when I blocked than with my usual roll shots.  Progress was made!

I appreciate Gregg spending time and knowledge with me.  His YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/@greggwhitfieldpickleballsh8164

His main web site is:

https://www.pickleballshotsandstrategies.com/