Rules of Thumb -- Hints for New Players

This post came out of my mental doodling.  I wrote some of it a couple of weeks ago and have let it simmer.   I think this is of more value to a new player than one who has banged the ball a lot.  Rules are good things in general.   It's a rare person who should transcend them.  But this is not a real difficult game and while it has some subtlety to it, it ain't chess or go.

All of that aside, I think the stuff has some value and usefulness.  Feel free to add to the list via the comments.  So here are 11 items for discussion.

1) The ball slows down quickly, you have more time than you think to hit a shot.  Good players have developed a small pause before impact to improve their timing.  If you come from other racket/paddle sports you probably react too quickly.  Enjoy the shot, relish it, and hit it in its proper time.  Being too quick results in a pulled shot, too late and it goes right, straight is what you want.  (Assumes a right handed player.)

2) Get closer to the ball than you think you should.  This is a lot like the first point.  The ball slows quickly and doesn't skip, it tends to sit up a bit shorter than you may be used to.  Don't let it bounce too far in front of you.  Foot movement is the mark of a good player. 

3)  Strangely hit balls may have a lot of spin -- so look for strange jumps to the sides or towards the net - they probably do not have top spin on them.  Like point 2, get close enough to handle the strange bounce.

4) It's a simple game, but you need to realize what's happening, e.g., if a player winds up and likes to cut ball, if it's high at all, it's going out.  Partner gets pulled wide, shift towards the middle.  Move where you would expect the next shot to be hit.  There are a lot of shots that are going out.  Look for them, expect them, and enjoy letting them go.

5) When hitting the "sitter," usually at the kitchen line, hitting the ball downwards is more important than hitting it hard.  Feet make a great target.

6) When in doubt, or out of position dink or drop it.  The soft game is under valued.  We all like to hit the ball hard, but hitting it softly and accurately will be better in both the short and long runs.

7) Hit most service returns with a cut spin.  It takes speed off the ball, it will provide a bit more carry into the court and it will provide more control.  Finally, if your opponent doesn't provide a lot of lift, they will hit your cut shot into the net.

8) Return the ball into the middle is a good thing to do.  Hero shots up the side line work on occasion, but a shot in the middle is usually more productive.  Extra points if you can keep it low.

9) Have a serve that you always hit in.  It doesn't need to be fancy or hard just consistent.  A long smooth arm swing will help if you are having trouble with it.  A lot of beginners seem to find the bounce serve easier to use -- if you're struggling, it might be worth a look.

10) Don't follow your serve by stepping into the court.  Stay back and move up as appropriate.  Also true if your partner is the server.  Hang back and look for a short ball, then go forward.

11) Always follow your service return by advancing towards the kitchen line.  This is a rule and not a rule of thumb!  Always do this.  

Just Out of Reach, or a Just Sew Story

 They called him "the Tailor," since he was so good at seams...

Two thoughts here.

Treasure: 

I've noticed an area between opponents where one is forward of the second.  The seam that you can exploit is between them and just out of reach of the forward opp.  The forward guy goes for it, it's too close to let it pass, but he only gets the paddle top edge on it.  Or it just splits the court up the middle.  The back guy is going to have trouble handling it, even if he doesn't just stop after seeing his partner try to hit it.  

Granted this is a small area, but it seems worth looking for.  I think the seam is wider than you would think as a lot of players will not let any kind of a near ball go by.  Then there is the tendency of not moving one's feet and we have the perfect storm of a pickleball point.  A ball that is hit with some side spin to go around the forward guy works quite well.  It has a high aesthetic value as well.

If you grant me that this seam exists, and if you look for it, you will see it too, then the question is how to create the needed separation between the opponents.

Some opps will do the hard work for you, as some will not follow a service return to the kitchen line.  Once that happens the forward/backward gap is produced.  Then you want to temp the opps to hit to the player who is facing the back opponent.  From there it is an easy cross court shot to take advantage of the gap.

This gap also occurs if you can keep one of the opps back and keep them there.  Again you are looking for a cross court shot to finish the point.  This scenario will more likely show up against the serving side.

 

Defense:

There is defense to this.  If you are on the side with the gap, the solution is to dink or drop to the side where your partner (or you) is at the kitchen line.  This is basically a short soft cross court shot, that doesn't allow the opps a cross court shot and allows the back player to advance and eventually close the gap.  A softer shot allows more time to advance.  Just avoid hitting it hard at the opponent in front of you.

A lob would probably work too, as it gains some time for your side.

And the best defense is to avoid creating the gap in the first place.  Do your part and... always follow your service return into the kitchen line, and... Don't go up to the KL unless your partner can (and will) join you.  (You can get away with an early rush if your last name is Waters or Johns, otherwise stay with your partner.)

Holiday news

 The master and acolyte

 Po are traveling to see family due to the holiday celebrating the victory of the temple over the monastery from the other Provence in the 1847 pickleball masters' tournament.  

They will spend time in meditation, as is traditional.

They send best wishes to all who celebrate this and all other international holidays. Normal communication will resume at the end of their journeys. 

Student Po Receives More Insight

 Student Po was called to the master's study.

"You wished to see me, master?" he asked.

"Yes, Po, you watched the masters play this morning.  As part of your training, we shall discuss what you observed.  From your observations, hopefully we will derive knowledge, and from knowledge, comes skill.  And as you know, skill will provide mastership."

"Yes, master, I am ready to think."

"What are your first impressions, Po?"

"I was surprised how gently the masters hit most balls.  They did not seek to win points, but still they did win them."

"Yes, thus is it is, thus shall it be."

"They also didn't move very quickly.  They flowed to the net, they dinked, they dinked, they dinked, and then it over.  Then it began again.  How is that possible, Master?  I run all over and often lack for breath.  They were not even sweating and we are having unseasonable heat."

"The ways of a master are profound.  Did you notice that they knew where each shot was going?"

"Yes, they were always in place.  It was magic."

"Heh, heh.  No not magic.  A true master can foresee the shots of the point, when master plays master.  Lessor players do ill advised things and are thus less predicable.  Points are like players, they follow patterns.  Know the player, know the pattern, you then know the point.  Let us talk shot selection then, Po," continued the Master, "were you not surprised by the shots the masters hit?"

"Yes, they simply moved the ball to allow them to dance the court and caress the point."

"Student Po, the essence of pickleball is control.  It is not savage overheads or huge topspin shots that paint a line.  Oh, those shots have their place, for example when you are leading ten to nothing, but have little place in a master's game.  What then are the main shots that a master uses?  You watched their game, what did you see?"

"Serves were nothing special, but they never missed one."

"Yes, the sign of someone in control."

"Then the returns of serve seemed to be nothing special either," said Po with a frown.  "The shots were not hard, they were fairly deep, but nothing that would win a shot.  And the servers had no trouble hitting them back.  Even the deep returns were easily returned."

"So the servers stayed behind the baseline after they served?"

"Yes, I guess they did.  They either returned from where they were, or just moved smoothly forward to return a shorter ball."

"What did their returns look like?"

"Hmm, well they didn't catch my attention, I confess."

"Let your attention capture everything, Po.  Master the details to become the master.  So, continue."

"The returns seemed soft, Master.  They looked like marshmallows crossing the net.  I often thought that their opponents would slap them back and win the point quickly, but that never happened."

"Of course, a master will not take on a small percentage shot.  Sum up a typical point for me, Po."

"Ah, there is a soft or perhaps better called a smooth serve to the middle of the service area.  Then a softish shot towards the baseline.  Then the servers would hit a soft shot that crossed the net, usually dropping near the kitchen line.  Then would come a soft shot to the middle of the court or a dink, depending if the servers were at the net or not.  If the servers were not up and had to hit a shot from the middle kingdom of their court, then they would always dink or droop.  There was no attempt to win the point then, just to get to the kitchen line."

"Yes, when master plays master, the play is completed over the kitchen."

"And Master, there was no hurry with any shots.  It seemed like the points were in slow motion."

"The masters' path is like that of the tiger, waste no energy and yet enjoy the antelope.  And so we could summarize, which sadly will destroy detail, but the goal is to move forward, capture the net, then bend the opponents like the north wind will bend the willow.  All shots contribute to that end.  They do not seek to hit a 'magic' shot from the middle kingdom to score a quick point, nor return a serve so severe in nature that Brother Ben Johns would struggle with it.  No strive for a sudden victory.  The flow of the game is of the highest import.  Po, do you have a questions?  Do you now see a hint of the game at its peak of pleasure?"

"Yes, Master.  Strive to simplify and walk the jungle path with a soft foot."

"Ah, well said Po.  Now, shall we adjourn for lunch?  I think they are serving sand dabs today."

----------------------------------

Ok, some background.  The other day I had two games where the play went as described above.  Smooth and efficient, little running, no attempt to over power a point by anyone.  It was a game of chess rather than hand grenades.  I highly enjoyed those games as the control/strategic aspects of PB are what draws me to it.  (I claim no flowing robes, or mantle of the master.   I cheerfully admit that all of this is my opinion, but that's what I like and allow me to proselytize in my small way.)  :-)

I was also watching a game yesterday, where the whole game was resolved with "who could hit it harder, sooner, faster."  The ball kept moving faster and faster until each point was over.  

Interestingly enough there was only one player who was pushing a power game.  And as soon as the ball came to him, bang it went.  Even when it would have been a much, much better shot to drop it over the net, and keep moving up.  Nope, it was whack, followed by whack and players frequently were hammering it back and forth from mid court.  

I talked to one of the players afterwards and he mentioned that it was frustrating that all of the points were the same.  He was playing with the "hitter" and win or lose, it just wasn't a pretty or satisfying game.

There are a lot of reasons to play any sport.  I'd like to think that some of those reasons would lead to harmony with the heavens.  But I can't claim that my reasons for playing are more valid than anyone else's.  If someone gets their enjoyment from smacking the ball continuously, fine for them.  

Maybe this boils down to being a perfect partner, one more question might be "what style of pickleball do you want to play?"  Of course that would require you to play several styles on demand!   Then there are the opponents, if they want to bang, then you have to be good at resets, or everything escalates...

Let me finish this overlong post with this: I don't want to be critical of anyone's reason to play, or style.  It's all good.  For me there are some styles that are more interesting and fun than others.   And it seems I'm gentling proselytizing again, see you on the court!

Master, The Net!?

 "Master, if it weren't for the net, I think I would be a very good player." said the young acolyte.

"Harrump," said the master and stifled the smallest of burbs.

"Think Grasshopper, if you don't have a net, then your feared opponents will not have one either.  The yin and yang of the world would be in disarray."

The master sipped his tea and nibbled a bit on a macaroon.  "Who's side does the net help, Young one?"

"Hmm, well if I am hitting the ball, I guess it is against me."

"The net is a like a sword with two edges, it cuts both ways.  Your answer is true, but not always.  A master can use the net to alter time and space and create a drop or hop shot at will," said the master.  His lips smiled with hidden knowledge, albeit coarse with macaroon crumbs.

"But for normal players, you are correct.  The net punishes the hitters and protects those who seek to return the next shot.  As soon as a shot comes over the net, then the forces switch, as have the roles of the players.  The ebb and flow of the point, as you learned in your early lessons," said the master.

"You must embrace this relationship," the master continued, with another slurp of rapidly cooling tea.  "How can you help the net protect you and your partner?"

"Hmm, I don't understand that question Master, how can I help an object?"

"Think geometry, Grasshopper, the closer the ball is to the net, the less angle space the hitter has.  Of course as the ball approaches the net the available angle space will diminish to nothing.  Do you not remember the graceful curve of the sine wave, as the length of adjacent leg of the triangle approaches that of the hypotenuse, the angle is forced to 1, an angle of 90 degrees or, in your rudimentary view straight up, creating, as a non-master might say, 'a challenging shot.'  Not impossible, mind you for a master.  But we were talking of you and ordinary players.  So, yes, if you can hit your ball close to the net it is protective in nature as a dense woods protects from the wind and rain.  What else is protected by the net?" asked the master.

"If I envision it correctly, the closer the opponent is to the net, the more my feet are protected from attack!"

"Yes, quite so.  Your upper body is more of a target, so you will of course carry your paddle higher as the ball is low or close to the net.  Your feet can only be hit with a soft drooping shot.  Think of a noodle in hot broth too long.  Such a shot can't be moving rapidly, so even if your paddle is held high, you will have time to respond.  Is that all young one?"

"I think so Master.  I should seek to use the net to help my side and avoid its energy when it opposes me."

"Yes, exactly.  Hmm, I seem to be out of macaroons and this tea is cold.  Would you be so kind?"

-----

Many years ago I created a mnemonic aid to remember the definitions of the sine, tangent, and cos functions.  It is strange  how often that has been useful over the years since 1968.  I have a horror story about the 23.3 degree latitudes of the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, too.  That, sadly, has been of little value.  It's all my teacher's, Miss Zur's, fault who said in 5th grade while interrupting my very precise oral report, "You'll never remember that.  Use 20 degrees."  Of course that's a bad case of rounding; she might not have been hired for her math skills. It is strange, as the master might say, what stays in a man's mind for decades.

About Those Bruised Knees....

 So I'm playing today, for a short period of time, sadly, and my partner misses a shot a few feet up from the baseline.  "I hit my leg," he said.

I smiled wryly, because I've got some nifty bruises on my right knee and they don't seem to have enough time for the purple, abused flesh to heal.  

I don't know how frequently this happens, maybe there will be a comment or two.  It is, however, a problem for me and I'm happy to fix this.

Then it struck me why this happens.  The big error is that I and my partner had our paddles at our sides, which is ok, but not in front of our legs, which "ain't so good."  Now it might be that the right leg tends to move first, leaving the paddle behind.  But in either case, that paddle needs to stay in front of the body.  

That protects the knees, and feelings of self worth, and it also extends the paddle's reach towards the ball.  There is no reason not to like that.  Be like a fencer and get that foil out in front.

An easy way to make sure that happens is to keep the paddle elbow bent somewhat.  That keeps it up and hopefully in front of the body.

I hope this will help someone.  I'm going to put it into practice.

New Technique for Service Returns

 I watched a YouTube video about things beginners don't do well and one of those was service returns.  Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zns7Wl76li8

They suggested to return the serve deep into the server's court, good when you can!  But the two points I found interesting and are passing to you guys are these: Firstly, start well back of the baseline, and secondly, run through the shot to generate movement and momentum towards the KL.

How far back do you start?  If at the Downs, they would be very close to the boundary fence.  They did mention that if the wind was at your back or the server was known for short serves, then move up a bit.  But they were still talking about being three feet behind the base line.

The idea is to be moving forward when the serve is hit and continue to run after you've hit the return.

How well does this work?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  I usually setup further behind the baseline than anyone else I've noticed.  So far back that Robo has on occasion tried to sneak in a short serve.  I also was running through service returns and found that I had a lot more time to setup at the KL before the third shot came back.  

You might be worried about hitting returns that go long when running through the shot.  I think I hit one long when I tried it, but it was not much of a problem.

So give it a try and see how it works for you.

Questions for a good Partnership

 Ramin asked about setting up a partnership in five easy steps.  Well, I'm not sure five is the proper answer.  

I did run across a video on YouTube about this very topic.  I've included the link to it at the bottom of the post.  

I'm listing their points and I'm going to insert comments of my own.  

I've spent a lot of time playing bridge, where you sit down and fill out a card that explains the major 50 or so understanding that partners need to agree on.  If you have professional or very high level partnership, your agreements might run hundreds of pages of notes and understandings.  

Pickleball is a touch easier and less complex than bridge, but being on the "same page" is a good idea.  And as the ladies in the video point out, we are here to have fun and being a good partner will make it easier for your partner to have a good time.  Hopefully your partner is trying to make sure you have one too.  

Ok, on to the understandings...

 

1) Which side will you do the most damage on?  I think this is most useful if you are stacking.  But maybe if you have a partner who has a preference, then you should stack.  If no one cares, then this question is moot.  But if partner has a great forehand and not much backhand, then stacking to minimize the weak backhand in the middle might be a good idea. 

2) Who will take your lobs?  The question boils down to which shot you will be hitting when you get to the lob.  If you are forced to hit a weak backhand, it might be a good agreement that partner will chase down lobs over your head and you get partner's.  When you are on different sides of the court, then it makes sense for each player to get their own.  This is an interesting discussion point and I'll confess I've never talked about it with a partner.  Pro Tip, always get a young, fast partner and let them get everything!

3) How can I set you up for your best shot? - seems a bit advanced to me.  If I knew how to setup for partner's kill shot, I'd do it every time.

4) Pet peeves... For example: partner displaying unhappiness with your play, sighs, eye rolls that are too loud, etc.  Basically anything you do that causes partner to think about the last point or two, will detract from future performance.  Don't do it.  Always encourage.  Most points will have something good about them.  For example, partner hits a sitter into the net, well, you were winning the point to get the sitter, so comment on that.  Pros miss the easy shots too.  If partner misses shots and it bothers you , you're playing the wrong game.

5) Disagreements on out calls -- tell partner if you have any problem with them over ruling your call.  And I'd comment that we are in a rec environment, so err on the side of calling the balls in if it's really, really close.  In a tournament setting it's a bit different.  Also, even the pros, used to very fast play, often call the balls incorrectly.  I think the last thing you want is to become known as is someone who never calls a close shot in.  Whether a shot is in or out, they can look very different from the other side of the net, too.  This is particularly true of serves that "hit the kitchen line."  So be a good opponent and get tighter when you are playing in a tournament.

6) Calling who will hit the shots particularly at the net.  I've not done this much with partners.   I think the crisscross understanding resolves 90% of all responsibility, but if someone likes/wants/needs to call the shots, I've got no problem.  Again, go along to make partner happy.

7) Standing at or near the T when partner is returning the serve - ask if it bothers partner to be that close to the center.  If it does, start off to the side and then close after partner's shot has been hit.  No comments on my part on this on.  I've never been hit by partner on a service return, though I think it's been close a couple of times.  :-)

8) Make partner happy!  A good general philosophy.  A happy partner plays better.

9) The ladies in the video didn't mention about the partnership getting to the net.  Maybe this is more resolved in upper circles than I've seen with my partners.  But here are a couple of rules...  A) if you return the serve, always follow it in to the kitchen line.  B) If we are serving then we rush the net after we have hit a good short shot - don't rush it when your partner is about to hit the third shot.  

OK, that is about it.  Five rules did seem a bit restrictive, but we kept it out of double digits!  Below is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqoNeRpEDhY&t=252s

Their errors, My errors, Our Errors

Editor's note: I wrote the post below a week ago or so.  Then I had a couple of conversations today with my fellow players and some of these themes came up.  I'm not inspired to write anything else today, so I'll pass this post along.  It seems a bit disjointed as I read it over, but I'm too tired to punch it up a lot.  

 

"Are you going to write in your blog all the things we do wrong?" she asked with a grin.  

"yes, but not for the reason you think," I replied.

This pickleball is an interesting sport with its mixture of moderate speed, minimal strength, soft shots and hard, and all the timing to put it together.

I think that there are only a very few differences between the  very good and the intermediates.  I'll spell them out in a moment, but for the run of the mill point, the errors committed by both groups are basically the same.  If you watch pro matches, you will see that all points are ended due to an error.  And the errors are same as in your game, gentle reader.  A ball gets hit into the net, long, or wide, or there is a popup and a ball gets smacked away.

One could make the case that winning a fire fight at the net might be an exception to this, where someone gets surprised with a lobette or takes one to the body.  But mostly the dink battles end with someone getting too exuberant or too careful.

There are differences between us and the pros, of course.  The big one in my opinion is that the pros are always trying to get to a good position for the next shot.  There is no "stand and then react," it's "I hit it, it's going to come back over here, and I'm moving to head it off."

Once you are in the proper position, you have a lot of time to deal with the next shot.  You look like you have faster reflexes than you do, your partner will admire your nonchalance, your opponents will hate you for it. "That shot was for Bill!"  "Sorry, I was there and felt I should hit it."

The recognition of the proper position is derived from a number of things.  Most people at our level have shots that they are comfortable with.  They use them so often that they become recognizable patterns.  If you look for the patterns and trust them, you can be moving well before the opponent hits the ball. It's an easy game if you know where the ball is going to be.  

The pros are also much more consistent then we are.  Well, golly, they do it for a living, they had better be.  How good would we be if we did for eight hours a day?  

But they make the same mistakes we do.  I saw a video with Ben Johns, arguably the best player on the planet, miss two soft forehands in a row.  He was just caressing a soft ball and was trying to just dump over the net.  He netted them both.  I think I'm not alone, when I take some comfort in that.

 So the route to greatness, in my opinion, is to move early and correctly, keep the ball in play (be consistent) -- no hero shots, look for patterns.  It's a game of not making errors.  One more point is that making errors late in the game is very costly.  As the scores get tighter, try for a more conservative style, let the opponents make the mistakes.

How to Get Better

 One of the intermediate players suggested a post on getting better.

I find that an interesting topic and I'm happy to spew a few words on it.

Let me start with a reasonable way to go about it.

Firstly, I think you need to collect some data.  We want to know where to put our efforts in improvement.  So, we have the 72 shots of pickleball, see the prior post and we want to know which of those are a problem.

I'm joking a bit, but let's just simplify for a moment.  We have backhand and forehand ground strokes.  I would include serves in that category.  I'd guess that most people have weaker backhands than forehands.  I'll pass on a tip here.  The backhand in pickleball is not too difficult, but it does require more of a setup than the forehand.  You want to turn your shoulders a bit and use them to produce the power for the shot.  Since the ball and paddle don't weigh much, the strength required is not a lot, but you need to make the shoulder turn and thus it takes more time to hit a backhand, so you need to prepare earlier.  A bit of attention/drilling/practice would show immediate results.

Most people smash the ball just fine.  I'd say they try to smash it too often, but shot selection is a topic for another day.  But don't spend much time trying to improve the smash, it doesn't come up that often.

Dinking...  The better you get the more important these shots get, but play at the net is most common in better play, so when you play with less skilled opponents, you don't have the chance to practice it.  When you play in a better game, it's typically a problem area.  To get ahead of that work on the dinks.  There is a post about it and if you can get reasonable with the lift and push dinks, you are in good shape.  It's primarily a touch shot; it's easy to net the ball.  I'd suggest using more lift dinks initially, before trying to push or hit winners.  There are a lot of drills and dinking games.  I think this is a skill that is not too difficult and improvement will come rapidly.  It is just the rarity at less skilled levels that keeps this skill from being more universal earlier in a player's evolution.

Alright, on to the hard skill...  Getting to the net.  Two parts, one is when you return the serve, this is easy, hit the ball and sprint to the net.  You want to volley the next ball.  It is too easy to saunter up and find the ball at your feet.  If you sprint only the very best drop shots will be any trouble.  Don't admire your return or worry about if it's in, just get to the net.

Secondly, if you're on the serving side, getting to the net is a huge priority and we have to talk about third shot drops.  They are not easy.  They are a touch shot, so there is a fine line between a net ball and a sitter.  If your opponent does not sprint up to the kitchen line, then you don't have to be great at it to be effective and that allows you to return deep, use this extra time to sprint to the KL.  

You can/should err on the high side for the third shot drop -- actually for most shots in the game, strive to cross the net too high rather than too low.  Obviously low is better in all cases, but we want to avoid the dreaded net ball.

When playing today, I was in a reasonable game and on several occasions partner and I were closing on the net while serving.  The ball, probably our fifth shot, was nearly at the kitchen and it was an easy hit.  But a bit too easy.  Partner chose to hit it hard, rather than to dink and get our team fully up to the kitchen.  Some of his shots went into the net.  Some came back harder than he hit them.  Some were points.  But we would have been much better off on average if partner had just dinked to get us to the kitchen line and solidly in the point.

But I digress...  Third shots are the pivotal skill in pickleball.  Nothing is as hard nor as valuable.  If you can't get to the kitchen line on your serve, you won't score and that makes it really tough to win.  Practice that shot whenever you can.  There are lots of YouTube videos on this skill.  

The problem is that you don't need this shot against weak players, but it's vital against strong ones.  Due to that, it's a skill that is suddenly in demand and you've not gotten good at it yet.  You need to have it to move up.  Think of it as a future skill or a long term investment.  Also, don't expect to get perfect at it. Many a pro point develops into servers defending overheads from their baseline because the third shot drops was too deep.

I just watched a Jordan Briones video. His list of shots needed to get to 4.0 is: consistent serves, returns in and deep,  third shot drops, resets from the transition area and solid volleys.  So he and I differ a bit. 

All of the above is a bit of what and how.  I think spending some time on these skills is useful.  It's tough to get practice time, since almost everyone just wants to play games and there is a lack of an extra court or two.  I'd suggest finding a like minded player and meet up at an off time to work on things.  How people learn things is a topic all on its own.  But there is a limited amount of new skills any session can ingrain, I'd suggest work on only one or two skills at a time.  Good luck!

Scoring Points

 "Master, I've been beaten up lately at the weekly temple tournament!" said the young disciple.

"Yes, I've seen the scores in the bulletin.  You are not scoring many points," said the master.

"Help me, master, for I am lost."

"Grasshopper, when do you score points?" asked the master.

"Only when we serve, master.  Is that not right?"

"It is close enough for now, grasshopper.  Tell me, when you serve, are you hitting good serves?"

"Oh yes, master.  My new triple spin, kick serve is working very well," said the disciple with touch of pride.

"Yes, and how many points did you win with this new 'super' serve?  Did the opponents have trouble getting them back?"

"Er, no, they returned all of them."

"Did you miss any serves?"

"Only a few master.  I've found," talking rapidly with passion only the youth can muster, "that I need to get the serve close to the baseline to be effective."

"Yes, so it is.  When we consider that, is it not true your opponents returned all the serves you hit in and didn't need to return the ones you missed?"

"Yes master."

"So all in all, the fancy serve served only no purpose?" said the master with sly chuckle.  He was fond of a nice turn of phrase.

"Well, we didn't score any points and we lost several.  I guess it wasn't worth the missed shots."

"Correct grasshopper.  But your errors lie not there entirely."

"Where else master?"

"Let's talk of the points you won.  How did they go?"

"We served in, hit the third back and if they didn't miss the third shot, we got to the net and played pretty well there."

"But you didn't get to the kitchen line very often, did you?"

"No master, we couldn't get into the points."

"Let us be blunt, 'getting into the point' is way of saying that you couldn't get off the baseline, yes grasshopper?"

"Now that I think of it, we made errors from there.  We hit a lot into the net, some long and some that the opponents were able to put away."

"Ah, just so...  What kind of third shots do you hit?"

"Mostly drives.  Drops are so hard."

"And what kind of shots do your opponents like?"

"They were converted racketball players.  They liked to hit the ball hard and they didn't mind hard shots.  Oh, and their backhands were pretty good."

"If you play them again, what should you do differently?"

"Well, against those kind of players, I need to hit third hand drops.  Try not to get into a banging game."

"Excellent, grasshopper.  Practice your drops!  Oh, and if you don't mind, give my feet a nice rub, would you?  I spent the afternoon drilling the beginners and my toes are quite sore."

Paddle Grips, Spin, A Case History Part 3

 I've mentioned in a past post that the position of the paddle relative to the forearm is an angle.  The angle is ranges from about 90 degrees to maybe 20 or so.  There wasn't a good explanation for why this was recommended.  I modified that post to put in something about less wrist strain, but upon reflection, there are more basic reasons for that kind of a grip...  Let's explore.

I see a lot of folks who are holding the paddle where the paddle wrist angle is close to zero degrees, in other words, it's inline with forearm.

With no angle you can more easily hit a top spin shot and some dink shots are easier.  But you are giving up a lot when using  this paddle attitude.

If we have an angle closer to 90 degrees we get a number of benefits.   The force of the paddle comes from the arm swing and the attitude or trajectory of the ball is controlled by the wrist rotation/position.  Think of the paddle as a golf club and the loft of the paddle is the club face.  This is an important function and it's quite valuable to have it separate from the mechanism that creates the paddle speed.  Direction is another part of this and there are a couple of cases.

If you push the shot, then the paddle is always moving in the direction the shot will go as long as the paddle face is pointing along the push direction.  If you swing at it, then at the moment of impact the direction of the paddle face may or may not be facing where you want the ball to go.  A personal issue is that I tend to swing too early and I'll pull a forehand shot (it will go to my left) and if it's on the backhand side, it goes right.  I have a theory that I'm swinging and not pushing as a swing will allow for a bit more reach.  Moving my feet might be one solution, but then there is the kitchen line as a hard boundary...  In summary, with a swing, there is a timing issue that is important.

Next we have to talk about spin.  There are top, side, and back spins available.  This is a function of the paddle swing and the paddle face angle.  When they don't match a slippage is created and that creates the spin.  So, swing up on the ball and you get a top spin.  Go a bit sideways and you get side spin and move downwards with the stroke and you get a back spin.

If you have that 90 degree angle it is easy to create any spin you want.  But if the paddle is closer to the zero angle, you get tons of back spin, some side spin is available, and you will not be able to create any back spin.  Think of a serve, the paddle is supposed to be moving up and it's considered impossible to create a backspin serve.  A note to you backhand servers, if you are getting backspin you might take a critical look at the paddle path at impact.  I suspect a lot of them are moving down and are illegal!

Spin, what is it good for?  Absolutely everything!

Everything is an exaggeration, but I'll share my view of what the spins are good for.

Top spin is an easy one, helps keep the ball inside the baseline and when used in third shot drive/drop scenario allows the ball to be below the net when the opponents try to return it.  Probably the most useful spin to get good at.  There are also folks who like it for dinks.  I've not found it very valuable for that and I mention it only for completeness.

Side spin...  Not used much, but I have some from tennis and I can hit it with enough of this spin to jump out of a player's reach.  What is more useful is a combination of side and top spin.  Think of a spin that is about 45 degree to vertical, it will slide right and also sink pretty well.  It tends to kick right when it bounces.

Back spin.  This is most useful when returning serves.  This idea is to return the ball fairly low and with the back spin, it won't bounce very high.  

You need to add more lift if you are returning a ball with back spin on it.  Frequently less experienced players will dump these shots into the net.  A low spinny shot, even if it's short, can't be easily be attacked, adding to its usefulness.  Watch a pro match and see how often the return of service is a cut stroke.

Case History...

I played the other day with a player who said she was a beginner.  She played pretty well and had some good strokes, moved well, got to the kitchen line; all the elements you want from a partner.  But she had one glaring problem.  Every shot she hit was flat.  None had any spin.  So if she was at the net, the ball was coming up.  All ground strokes were low to the net and that reduced her ability to safely play over the net without worry of being long.  Service returns were a problem since she could not cut them back.  She needed the top and cut spin shots and it would make a large difference in her ability.

To sum it up, there are a lot of reasons to make sure you're  holding the paddle more like a beer mug than a screwdriver.  Spin is king and the more control and separation of speed and spin, the better it is. 

Dinking, Some Additional Thoughts

 I saw a video on the two types of dinks.  I think it was called "Why you lose at dinking" or something of that ilk.  There was some good info there and I pass it along below.  Below that discussion I've provided some modest thoughts on how to win points at the kitchen line.

Per the video we have the lift dink and the push dink.

The lift dink attempts to bring the ball over the net with a high trajectory, lots of room for error.  What keeps this shot from being a disaster is that the ball does not / cannot land deep in the kitchen.  Think of it as being a lob over the net with no attempt at being long. There is no attempt to win the rally with this shot.  You are just keeping the ball in play.  Use it when you can't hit a push dink, or are out of position, out of breath and you want a bit of recovery time.

Push dink...  Now we are trying to score points or trying to make the opponents uncomfortable and setup a kill shot a couple of hits in the future.  This shot clears the net without a lot of space.  It also travels deeper into the kitchen and may well land beyond the kitchen line.  You can't hit this at any time, you need to have a ball that is up a touch and/or back from the net a bit so you have room to get over  the net with a flat arc.  The danger with this shot is putting it into the net, or hitting it too hard, or giving the opponents a high ball.  This is frequently hit cross court.  Though hitting it into the middle is pretty effective if you are hitting it from a kitchen corner.

Both these shots are hit with an arm swing.  Don't use your wrist to pop the ball if you can.  A controlled arm swing is preferred.

Here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iO_CiTUGzE

 

How to win points...

Ok, you've mastered the two dink types and you are happy to dink and your opponents fear you.  How can we win points with all of this?  There are a couple of scenarios worth thinking about:

• Just keep dinking until they dump one in the net or they
  
• get bored and speed it up or
• they hit it hard and hit it long or
• they get clever and hit it too wide or
  
• out comes the lob, aka "the devil's shot"
•  If you want to be more proactive, you want to move your opponents around, side to side, use the middle of the court to reset, dink towards feet and finally...
• Wait for the pop up and smash it or roll it down the middle.

Basically it is a waiting game.  You are looking for an error.  Try to avoid trying for the hero shot -- yes we all do it, but less is more in this case.  We're all rec players and the errors will arrive.  It's your job to be ready to exploit them. 

I had a lot of dinking points this week and it made for a lot of fun points, imho.  Hard to run out of breath doing that, but also hard to get your steps in. 

Drill Baby, Drill

 I did some dink drilling with Robo the other day.  The drill is simple, stand in front of each other and dink the ball back and forth.  Use half the court and a point is scored if the ball does not land in the kitchen - it's bad if it's wide, long, or in the net.

The drill is not as easy as you might think.  If I'm dinking for real, I'm happy to hit it a bit beyond the kitchen line (KL), but in the drill that was a loss of a point.

I've looked into athletic training and the current theory is that drilling is not preferred to a more random, game like scenario.  If you need to learn a basic skill, for example a wrist position while dinking, then the drill is probably a good idea.  But the more the activity matches a real game, and is a more random in nature, you will improve faster and you''ll remember it better when you are back playing.  Retention of the skill is a major problem.  Things learned during drills have proven elusive to long term behavior habits.

This theory seems to have been born out as time has passed.  Having said that, my pickleball skills are such that learning a wrist position for a dink, is still a good idea.  And since I'm happy to hit dinks that get past the KL, I don't mind crediting Robo with those points, I'm hopefully picking up the experience.  I appreciate his willingness to pass on knowledge and time.  "You're trying to win the points!  Just get them back and don't be wimpy!"

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The above was written a while back.  I was talking to one of the up and coming players today and he was talking about getting better and I brought up some of the stuff above.  An approach that I'm going to try is to concentrate on a single thing while I play a game.  For example if I'm trying to use a looser grip, I'll play an entire game and judge every shot based on how my grip was rather than the usual successful measurements of a shot.  I think this approach may provide a way to incorporate a new skill.  One requires an understanding partner as I can see it being a bit unproductive in the short run.  We'll see what tomorrow will bring.

If you are interested in the research behind learning physical skills, there are posts by researchers on YouTube and I'd also point you to Tim Gallwey, who has written a couple of "Inner Game of" books, one on skiing, one on golf.  He suggests ways to use your mind to provide feedback and make changes.  I've got the golf books and they are different and interesting and I think quite useful.  They are worth a read.