Scoring Easy Points (Post 6)

 PB can be a lot of work.  Dashing here, there, back to the baseline for one of Sammy's lobs, and then back to the net.  Work, lots of work.

But there is a way to score a few more points with little effort.  Oh, you have to pay attention and make some decisions, hopefully correct decisions, but it can be done.

The path to restful points lies in not hitting as many balls.  "What?" I hear you say.  "Yes," I answer.  What you want to do is get into a ready position, wide stance, knees a bit bent, and when the time is correct, then just duck and let the ball pass over your head and on beyond the baseline.

This is a skill, like all the others, but primarily a mental skill, than physical.  Oh, the ducking can be hard on the knees and back, but better that than straining a shoulder on a hard, high ball.

Yes, we want to get good at letting balls go.  Now, how to hone this ability?  I would suggest this exercise, which I have done, and that is to watch a good game.  Stand by the net if you can and keep track of the number of balls that would go out, but were hit.  It's easy to see which balls are long and I think you'll be surprised how many there are.  It sure looks different if you are on the court.

Useful data are: 1) how many would go out, 2) how many did, 3) who hits them out, and 4) who will hit any ball, in or out, on which they can get a paddle.  

You want to store all that information.  Your goals are to recognize, nay, expect which balls are going long.  Who is more likely to hit those balls, and when you run across the player who will not let a ball go by, you can play more loosely and hit the ball harder at them.

This mostly will happen when you are at the KL and the opps at the baseline.  Be prepared!

So we did our homework, we know who tends to do what, and we wait to see them wind up to hit a hard one.  We get in our crouch and prepare to duck.  Extra points if you don't bother to watch the ball go out.  Just announce the new score and wait for the next chance.

Make Sure These Two Shots are In the Court (Post 5)

There are just two shots in a point that are pressure free.  They are the serve and the service return.

 If you miss hitting a good serve, you give up half your chance of scoring any points.  If you watch a lot of pro matches you will find top pros in the women's and men's side who put no effort in hitting a tricky or fast or difficult shot on the serve.  They are willing to trade that for not missing a serve.  I miss one to two a day, usually when  I'm trying hit a serve that will kick wildly and I like to hit it near the center line.  When it misses I regret the lost opportunity, I am ashamed, I cry for my partner's anguish and disappointment.  Try for fancy shots when you have a seven point lead, not when the game is tight, beginning, or you're behind.  Tip: try hitting serves with a bit of side spin, it will make it easier to keep them from going long.

Service returns are much the same.  You can cross the net at any height, your angle is not that important, up the middle is fine - added bonus to your side if you can hit the line.  A lob is fine, a drive is fine.  The crime here is hitting it long or into the net.  What's worse is that you give the opps an easy point.  Now I admit that there are some folks out there that hit the serve pretty hard.  There is no shame in not getting back good serves.  But strive to return all of them. Tip: the slower/higher/more "lobby" your return of service is, the more time you have to move forward.

Most of the pros will return a serve with a modest cut spin.  That will help keep the ball in the court and will help keep the ball from bouncing too high.  A low spinny return will also require the serving side to lift the ball, which might allow you to score an easy point as it comes over the net.  You are going to be at the KL when it comes across, right?

More Court Movement (post 4)

 The last post dealt with second shot kitchen line follow ups and staying behind the baseline after you or your partner has served.  Let me explore a couple more items here.

 

The serve and the return have to bounce, but all the next shots don't and that makes court position very important.  Do you seek to volley every shot?  I would suggest yes.  And you need to be in the proper position to do that.  If you have to run something down or are out of position, then you are more likely to have to hit it on the bounce. 

A volley returns the ball to the opps earlier and the less time they have, the better for you.

I suggest the following actions to get you in a good position to win the point or start the process to winning the point.

Follow all shots by you or by partner with some thought of where the ball will be returned.  After that thought move to the expected location.  Don't admire the shot -- react before the next one is hit.  The only important shot is the next one.  Think about how the opps see your shot and what they are going to do.  Always assume your shot will be in bounds.  Nothing more silly than hitting a drop shot and not moving up because you thought it was short.  If you were returning the shot you just hit, where would you return it?

If your (or partner's) shot is going to drop into the kitchen or be below the net, rush the kitchen line.  Don't wait to see it bounce before acting.  All short balls should trigger a full team press to the KL.  (Extra points if your team shifts to the side the ball is on.  More on that in a later post.)

 More generally you want to get in the way of the opponents -- don't give them easy shots choices, cover their likely returns.  It's frequently a good idea for one of the team to stand very close to the T at the center of the KL.  Hog the middle!

One of the interesting parts of this game is picking up on the habits of the players.  There are few players who randomly hit the ball.  Most shots are going up the middle, some down the line, a few are lobs.  Keep an eye on what your opp likes to do, then exploit that tendency. 

Almost all dinks will go cross court, for example.  However there is one player who likes to dink up the line.  I'm been asked not to reveal secrets.  An Erne might be a nice surprise for that shot.  Oh, and who tries Ernes a fair amount?  

More on these topics another time.

Moving around the Court, helpful hints to the New Player (Post 3)

I was going to put a number of items in this post, but when I got to seven, I realized that it was going to make for a very long post.  Short, sweet, and frequent is my intended style for now.

 So let me scale this back to two important points, one which is not obvious to early beginners, and the second is pretty universally ignored.

 

We have to two topics:

•  Follow all service returns to the net - extra tip: get as close to the kitchen line as you can.  Don't be afraid to run. 
  
• If you serve the ball, never step into the court until you see what the return of service looks like.  

Allow me to add some commentary.

Since the serving side must let the ball bounce, we can use that rule to control the kitchen line.  Like a goalie in hockey, the closer to your opponents, the less angles they have, the less time they have, and any errant shots can be better punished from the kitchen line.  The pundits suggest that getting to the kitchen line (KL) first is worth about 5% advantage with evenly matched teams.  That is probably accurate for very good players, but it's a larger advantage when the play is not of the highest quality. The third shot drops are not perfect, drives are not too punishing (usually!).  If you are up at the KL you might be able to end the point quickly with an angled slap, or you can keep the serving side at the baseline and seek to develop the point from there.

Of course this is a bit more nuanced and like a lot of stuff that will be passed to you as "correct," it works most of the time.  If your opponents are good, you may find drop shots more difficult to return as they are closer to your feet.  So you have to adapt to whom you are playing.  I'll write a post on adaption one of these days.  But basically, getting to the KL is much better than not, so do it please!

Let me add a bit of what will happen if you don't make the effort to move up.  The serving side likes service returners who stay back.  That allows them to hit an easier shot deep to the baseline.  They're not worried about keeping the ball low over the net or even care much about the shot's angle.  If they get it deep, they can get to the net.  Then if you don't hit a great shot they can keep you back, angle the ball off, or put it between you and your partner as the center is now wide open.

Enough about that, just run forward and make everyone happier.

 

Second point is rarely seen in my short experience.  Even some of the more experienced players hit their serve and step into the court.  Well that's fine if the service return is short.  But a good opponent will try to keep you close to the baseline and you will frequently find yourself stepping backwards before the third shot.  It's difficult to hit a quality shot when your weight and momentum are on your back foot.  There is no reason for a service returner not to hit a higher shot which will bounce higher and if it's deep will become awkward to return.  (There are some good reasons to return the ball high actually, as it provides more time to get to the KL, and makes a service return into the net less frequent.)

My suggestion is to be a step behind the baseline after the serve is hit.  Watch the return carefully, listen to it, then decide where you are going to move - up hopefully, sideways and on a rare occasion backwards.  Your partner is doing the same thing as well, so the team will smoothly develop the third shot and start working your way to the KL.  Always seek to move forward, don't get caught having to move backwards.

I hope this helps!

NSIP No Sorry In Pickleball (post 2)

 I'll start with a simple one...  There was a video on YouTube about how to be a good partner.  One of the things it suggested you do when talking to a new partner, is to inquire about pet peeves.  Here is mine.

I'll start by saying that if a partner is really repentant after a bad shot, then I don't mind them saying "Sorry."  It might be one of the seventeen steps to enlightenment in an unknown religion and I shouldn't scoff at that. 

But this is a game and we are all doing our best (well, sometimes we're thirsty and the drinking fountain is broken, and the porta-potty not as inviting as it might be and you've left three jackets at the park and you are fast running out of them, and you need a new paddle, and it's just a bit hard to concentrate at the moment, so we can't play our best), we are here for fun and we are all basically recreational players, we all miss shots, slams, and dinks into the net.  We all hit it long and too hard and too soft and too wide and basically suck more than we color our play with brilliance.  Hell, even the pros miss the same shots we do.  Of course we have to discuss frequency of errors to be honest about it.  

So, in my view, saying your sorry is not needed and might, just might get in the way to making the next shot -- which is the only shot that matters! 

I was informed the other day that if one were raised Catholic, that apologies might be deeply ingrained and hard to suppress.  I suggested saying "Harumph" instead of sorry.  The reader is invited to substitute his/her own word for harumph.  I've heard stuff in four languages, not all of it polite.  :-)

Pickleball tip 1: ignore the last miss and just think about the next shot.  It's all any of us have.

 

 

Introduction to Pickleball Thoughts

 My intention here is to create a number of short posts about my thoughts while learning the game of Pickleball.  

I tend to seek a deeper understanding of things as I do them.  This is not always a good strategy as some of these understanding can get in the way of performance.  You might want to look at the golf blog for evidence of that.  But PB is not golf and so far it seems to be a simpler game.  I may be wrong about that.

 As of late 2021, I've been playing for a couple of years.  As I've gotten better and watched a bunch of videos of the pros playing, thoughts of how to play the game better have arisen.  

The folks I play with range from beginners to maybe 4.3 or so.  That number is in PB ratings.  The number range from about 2.5 to 6.0; the bigger the number, the better the player.  Pros are north of 5.0.

I'd love to write this in the style of the P. G. Wodehouse golf stories, but I don't think I can carry that off.  I may drop names of my fellow players, though I've not decided about that.  I plan to pass notices about new posts to my local players -- names would be identifiable, and since I really have nothing bad to say about anyone, I may do it. It would make the blog more newsy and perhaps interesting to my targeted readers. But I don't want to pass out anyone's secrets!

I'm guessing that I'll produce a blog post a week or so.  I've got about five topics written down and I expect that more will arise as I do this.

I'll stop here and write a couple posts and then publish when I'm happy with what I have.