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!