Player Profile: Jimmy!

 One of the joys of this game is that it is fun to watch.  If you are interested in getting better than doing some watching is useful.  I thought I would talk about some of the players at the Downs and point out the good shots they have, comment a bit on how they work and what to look for if you get to watch them play.  I'm going to start with Jimmy.  He has a very good all around game and is a joy to watch and play with.  He is a bit difficult to play against however, but that's not his problem!  Here is my take on Jimmy's game.

I wanted to talk about Jimmy's game for a moment.  He plays quite well and in my opinion plays four shots with extremely well.  I wanted to talk about his shots and why I think they work well.

The shots are overheads, third shot drops, service returns, and fly swatter hits at the net.

Jimmy's background is in badminton, and that has provided him with a great overhead.  I've seen few misses and he delivers then with accuracy and power.  I have no comments on how he does it.  I'm comfortable with my overheads, so I've not spent a lot of time analyzing his.  But they are worth the watch if you are struggling.

Third shot drops are a particular strength.  He hits the ball well above the net and here is a key point, the spin he uses is more side spin than top or slice spin.  The shots are very effective and consistent.  I'm finding the use of a side spin shot to be more useful than I thought before.  Note also that the paddle is not used to scoop the ball, but there is a nice angle between arm and paddle.  I think this is very important for shot control.

Service returns look a lot like Jimmy's drop shots.  They clear the net easily and carry fairly deep into the court.  They usually have some slice spin on them.  He doesn't hit this shot hard.  A softer, higher shot gives him more time to get to the kitchen line.  His depth and modest slice spin provides a more difficult shot to return.  Jimmy looks unhurried as he advances, which is true, since he has the additional time to advance.

At the net Jimmy has very fast hands and can hit an accurate put away.  His stroke on those is more of a fly swatter hit than a swing and there is usually some of the side spin on the shots.  The side spin makes the ball fly flat and he doesn't need to lift the ball as much as a top spin shot would require.  A slap shot instead of a swing takes less time to hit and creates a ball fast enough to be effective.

Jimmy and I have talked about his game and he would like to hit serves harder.  I don't think that's necessary, as good players are going to return a faster serve just as well as a softer one.  I think it's more important that the serves be somewhat deep and land in the court.   I'd rather have a partner get the serves in than miss 10% and have some outright winners.

If you get a chance spend some time watching Jimmy.  He plays a very nice game, oriented to rallies and net points.  Have I mentioned he is fast on his feet?  Well, he has that going for him too.

Thanks Jimmy, for permission to talk about your game.

Paddles, Thoughts from the Dark Side

 One of the problems with pickleball is that the sport is so cheap to play.  If you don't think so, I can tell you stories of other hobbies that would raise the hair on the back of the proverbial neck.

And the problem with this inexpensive sport, is that I don't see paddles as being particularly expensive.  An expensive paddle is about the cost of a single golf club and I've got a bag of those.

The next problem is then to find the "proper" paddle.  One that allows the bearer to exceed his ability and strike fear and wonder into the hearts and minds of his opponents, respectively, of course.

My early paddles, still in residence for the most part, started at a modest $130 or so.  I then thought it would be a good idea to pick up another one in case I wanted to introduce someone to the game.  Back then, there were only three players at the Downs.  We'd play two on one and just keep swapping teams.  Then break for the Costco hotdog, what a nice morning that made!  

I found a retuned paddle at PickleballCentral.com, for about $15.  That might have included postage too, I can't remember.  

After some testing, I realized that I couldn't tell the difference between the $15 model and the $130 one.  Hmm, well that might slow down a normal person, but not one with the bit between the teeth.

I watched reviews and ran into John, the Canadian engineer, who comes out to play on occasion.  He is a member of the "Paddle of the month club."  I bought another paddle from him.  Tried it, no real benefit, passed it on to Whitney as it was supposed to be good for tennis elbow.

I followed that up with a Gearbox Model.  Light weight and the control mode.  No real difference either.  Then I tried the elongated version of the paddle I got from John.  No real difference and it didn't improve my game much.  I actually returned that one.  Not something I tend to do

Then I tried the TMPR Oculus.

Well, hmm, I say.  Now I felt more power and more spin.  Yes!  I knew there was magic out there for sale, one just had to find it!  It was rated as a paddle shape that was comforting to a tennis or other racquet player.  I think that was accurate.  My background is tennis with a lot of table tennis too.

The Oculus didn't last a long time and I moved on to the Blockbuster of paddles, aka, the Hellbender.  My thinking is that any increase in sweet spot is worth paying for.  I'm not the most obsessive player, so hitting the ball in the middle of the paddle is more a happy accident than through mind numbing hours of practice.

The Hellbender is slightly longer and more of a tear drop shape than other paddles.  It had the pop and spin of the Oculus, but maybe just a touch more of each.  I liked the longer shape as it's a valuable feature when lurching for a short ball at the kitchen.  That seems to happen a lot.  I feel the sweet spot is also a touch better than the Oculus.

Alas the Hellbender started to crack and then there was a middle ball multiple paddle collision and a couple of square inches of the face lifted and the edge guard did some splitting and cracking.  I glued down the skin with super glue and then welded the edge guard back in place.  It seems to be holding, but...

Then I purchased the Diadem Warrior.  It's a bit longer than the Hellbender, got good reviews, supposed to be good for dinking and control.  It's too early to tell, but it has a lot of the play characteristics of the Hellbender, which is good, and I'm not sure about the better dinking aspects or sweet spot area.  The Warrior is the heaviest paddle I've used at 8.5 ounces.  I really don't notice the additional weight when I first got it and even when switching back and forth.

I swapped paddles with another player for a game.  He had a Selkirk, I'm not sure of the model.  It had a nice feel too.  I like a subdued impact sound.  

There is my story.  It looks like the paddle technology is still young.  New things should be coming out.  I hope it is not like the golf world where it's more hype than reality.  

If I were to design a paddle, I would want it to be a multilayer construction so that soft hits would play differently than smashes.  I think the rules do not allow for moving parts on the paddles; is compression part of that?  I think of table tennis bats where the outer layer provides spin and a foam rubber layer provides power.  Since PB is such a soft then hard kind of game, a paddle that plays differently based on the strike makes some sense to me.

If you are looking for your first or second paddle.  Try as many as you can and then see if something resonates with you.  Weighting on the perimeter may also be significant, and that leads to a lot of experimentation and thinking about what type of game you want to play.

And I still think this is a really cheap sport.  :-)

X Factor Part II

 While resting the back after a busy morning of PB, or maybe it was the acorns in the driveway that needed sweeping?  Doesn't matter, I ran across this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItFZ5JWm_hw

From the In2Pickle channel.  They have some pretty good stuff.  Ah, I can quibble in re style, but we are here for improvement!

In this video Tony talks about the X factor.  I think this is important and valid.  Basically, the person to whom the ball is heading should take the shot.  Don't reach in (too much), let your partner do her thing.  

Tony mentions three reasons why poaching on your partner at the baseline is a bad idea.  It tends to open a court, pinches the partner who should have taken the ball, and makes for a more difficult shot as reaching for a shot can make the shot more difficult.

Tony mentions some exceptions to this, so watch the video.  

What I wanted to discuss is when all the players are at the net.  Does the X factor still apply?  Tony says yes, and I think I agree with him.  Basically let the ball go to the partner whose in line to hit it, don't reach in to try and hit a winner unless the ball is really high and close enough to avoid too much reaching.

In my own play, I tend to reach in too much and take balls from my partners.  Well, all that stops now!  Partner, you are on your own to hit the ball heading for you.

I have recognized this lately as a problem.  I move towards partner's side too much and when partner takes it, as he/she should, I'm out of position and trying to regain footing and position.

The final point is that use of the X factor will resolve almost all problems of who hits the ball.  If you like to call the shots, that's fine, but just adhering to the X factor will remove almost all ambiguity.

2021 Posts are available as a pdf file

 If you want a copy of the "book" just send me an email and I'll send it to you.  No charge!

Rich_hume@yahoo.com

Down's Pickleball

 

Sung to the tune of "Yellow Submarine"

In Livermore where I was born
Lived a man who played at Downs
And he told us of his life
In the land of Pickleball

 Go to the end of the Paseo,

Where you'll find the courts of blue
And we play beneath the trees
 At our Down's Pickleball

 
We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball, Down's Pickleball

We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball, Down's Pickleball

And our friends all play there
Many more of them play indoors
And the ball begins to bounce,

We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball, Down's Pickleball

We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball,Down's Pickleball

As we play the game with ease (game of ease)
Everyone of us (everyone of us) has all we need (has all we need)

Bats of blue (bats of blue) and balls of green (balls of green)
In our Downs (in our Downs) Pickleball (Pickleball, ah-ha)

We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball, Down's Pickleball

We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball, Down's Pickleball

 

We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball, Down's Pickleball

We all play at Down's Pickleball
Down's Pickleball, Down's Pickleball

To Lob or Not to Lob...

 Scott has promised a post on the glories of lobbing.  I must confess I find them uninteresting and I usually am not interested in chasing them done.  Which brings us to a new, third perspective.  Pickleball is a lot older than you might imagine.  Here is a short essay I found that lays out a position, no unalike my own.  This is from a guy named Bill, who was quite the player in his day.  Oh, things were different then, but here is some wisdom that has passed through ancient times and now to us.  Behold mortals!

 

To lob, or not to lob, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous dinks,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing, lob them. To poach—to push,

No more; and by a point to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To dink, to drop;

To chip, perchance to slam—ay, there's the rub:

For in that slap of death what nets may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal court,

Must give us pause—there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long a rally.

Skill Timing, What You Need and When

 I had a conversation with a player on the rise and he was thinking about the topics in this post.  I'd written this awhile back and hadn't finished it.  So think of this a bit of a request, a bit of a revisit.  :-)

The question before all beginning players are which skills do they need?  I think there is a timing aspect in play, as you would like to have all these skills, but some are more important than others based on what level you are at.

An interesting part about PB is that once you've acquired all the skills, you will be making the same mistakes you made in the beginning.  OK, not as often, but you and the pros make the same mistakes. 

Let me lay out a plan of skill acquisition that will let you play with better players as soon as possible.  I'm also going assume that you have some prior skills from some racket sport.  This will be more of a list and if I add why and how, it's going to be a book.  So this will be terse.

In my humble opinion, a basic skill set to play pretty well are the skills from 1 to 5.  Once those are integrated into your game, you're on the way to becoming a player, feared by opponents and welcomed as a partner!

1) Grip, start with a handshake with the paddle, so that your forehand and backhand both have the paddle facing a bit skyward at all times.

2) Learn to hit a simple serve that you get in all of the time.  Deep is great, but wide and short are no good.

3) Ground strokes.  Hit a forehand and a backhand moderately well.  I have data that show that about 25 to 30% of all points are ended with a ground stroke error.  So work on hitting shots from the baseline and middle of the court, have a good setup, stop before you hit them, etc.  See prior posts for more details.  I'll include volleys here too, since the technique is not much different.

3a) Block shots, you are at the KL and a hard ball is right at you, you want to be able to hit this back with minimal paddle action and control the ball, not speed it up.

3b) Second shot play when at the kitchen line.  If you are the up person, then you are responsible for the balls that come down the middle when the opponents hit their third shot.  So be careful where you are setup for the second shot, you should be biased towards the middle of the court.  Now, if the ball is down one of the sidelines, then one partner needs to cover down the line, and one must sag in towards the middle.  In almost all points, there is implied middle coverage.  Good players hit the ball down the middle, someone needs to be there to defend.

3c) Poaching - this is a volley when you've moved into partner's side of the court.  I have much to say on this, so we'll put this off for another post, but since you were watching the middle, a ball that comes close to the middle deserves your attention.  Try to hit it down if you are in a good position to do so, if it's marginal let it go to your partner.  If you don't do this, that is fine.  It's a skill that is not needed immediately.

4) Movement - learn when to move from the baseline to the kitchen line.  a) After you return a serve, get up there, no excuses. b) in all other cases go up when you have an opportunity to do so. Don't just rush up there, basically move with your partner, create a "wall."  Don't move into the court after serving unless it's appropriate!   

The movement skill is very important.  Know where you should be at all times, that will make all of the other shots easier.

5) Now that we've gotten to the kitchen line, we need to learn how to dink.  There are two dinking shots, a lift and a push.  No strength involved, but some touch.  There are YouTube videos about this and there are prior posts about dinking.

------  On to the next level! --------------- 

6) Third and other odd numbered shots, or shots that help you get to the kitchen.  This is the first skill that is difficult as you are hitting a soft shot to folks who want to pound it away.  There is a fine line between greatness and disaster.  So as you acquire this skill, you are going to get beaten up for a time.  But hang in there and keep trying, this does not come easy.

7) If you've "mastered" all of the above, you will be playing a bunch at the kitchen.  A couple of shots besides dinks are hit from there.  Play at the kitchen is a waiting game looking for errors from the opponents.  An error is a shot that you don't have to dink back.  Let's simplify this, if the ball is a few inches above the net or more, you want to whack it.  And you want to whack in a downward direction.  If the ball is a bit low and/or the opponents are good, then just dink back.  If you are not going to dink, then we would like to hit the ball down, at someone's body, or through the middle.  Think fly swatter action, not tennis stroke.

8) You've attacked a dink and hit it with pace.  Whoops, back it comes.  Now you'd like to be able to return the point to dink battle, so we'd like to hit a reset.  Hard to do as the adrenaline is flowing.  This skill is also part of "always expect the ball to be returned - be ready even if you don't think you'll have to."

9) Lobs...  I'm not a big fan of them, but they usually produce moments of anguish and humor, so we'll not be rid of them.  Hitting them from the kitchen line is a useful shot.  Chasing them down and lobbing back is a useful shot. But it is not a pressing skill.

10) if there are lobs, then there will be lobs that are too short, so being able to hit an overhead is useful.  Tennis and badminton players know how to do this.  Worse case you can let them bounce and then apply a variation of a ground stroke.

 OK, you've moved across all 10+ skills!  Congrats!  Now, start over at the beginning and refine your skills.  Get more consistent!  Move better!  Stop before you hit the ball!  Don't admire the hit, just move for the next one.

Wisdom From Prime Time Pickleball Updated 1/12/22 with some contact info from PrimetimePickleball

 I'm on an email list from Prime Time Pickleball.  I'm not sure how I got on the list, but there is useful stuff in my mailbox on occasion.

I got such a one today and I'll share parts of it with you.  It covers some of the stuff that Scott has emphasized in his guest posts.   Here we go:

Myth #1 Pros swing hard

Pros don’t swing “hard”, they swing fast and loose. They know how to transfer energy onto the ball with the right mechanics so that even though they hit it “hard” and it travels quickly through the court, it does not feel “hard” on their body.

When players try to simulate this and hit “hard”, they tend to tense up their whole body and swing stiffly. Incorrectly emulating the pros here is a fast way to get injured.

Myth #2 Pros go for winners

When you think back to matches that you watched or your own matches, what are the shots you remember most vividly? If you’re like most people, usually it’s those flashy winners.

What doesn’t get remembered is all those fundamental shots that were the setup for the flashy winner.

Pros don’t go for winning shots until they have earned that shot. And even then, they’re not usually going for a “winner”.

They are hitting it to a spot where they think their opponent will be in a very compromised position as they hit should they get to it. They are always ready for the next shot should that ball come back.

Sometimes it ends up being unreachable by the opponent and it becomes a winner.

They are actually “going” for a winner far less often than people realize. They mostly go for strong and well placed shots that end up being winners at times.

Unfortunately, far too many players are too quick to pull the trigger and go for a high risk shot without a strong setup.

They end up overhitting and the ball sails out.

Myth #3 Pros have perfect technique

This one is a biggy and more tricky to understand.

There is no such thing as perfect technique, there is only the most efficient swing path and proper use of the kinetic chain relative to your body position, the type of ball you have received and the type of ball you want to send.

I know that was a mouthful but it boils down to this….

…are there certain checkpoints that most players with good strokes achieve on each stroke? Yes, they typically have a strong shoulder turn, no excessive backswing, contact point in front, get through the ball well etc…

And, they make micro adjustments on the fly depending on the ball they receive and what type of ball they want to send back.

They learned the proper basic “form” early in their playing career based on receiving gently fed or hit balls right in their strike zone and at a gentle speed.

Once they had that core form pretty much locked in, they adapted their technique as needed to be able to deal with a ball in any scenario.

And they did that incrementally over time, not all at once.

They ramped up the difficulty of the incoming shot as their skill improved and they worked on it and worked on it until they could deal with even the most difficult of incoming shots.

If you look around at the pros and their shots, yes there are key similarities but they all have different style to their shot that is unique to them. It’s their interpretation of “perfect technique”.

If you struggle with a certain type of ball, such as one coming in: too deep, too hard, too low, with too much spin or whatever, then you need to dial those conditions down a bit and figure out your technique in a less pressing scenario before you can move on to a more pressing scenario.

Many players want to practice at top speeds, top spins etc…. That makes no sense if you’re missing every other ball or your technique is very forced and breaking down.

“Perfect Technique” is achieved when you can achieve the desired output you want on the ball as far as speed, spin, depth etc… with the least amount of effort.

You have to learn how to FEEL your shots and that is different for everyone so there is only the perfect technique for you. There is no universally perfect technique. 

----

I don't have anything to add to the above.  All good stuff and I pass it along.  Again that is from Prime Time Pickleball and it seems they are in San Leandro!    The email came from Nicole Havlicek at primetimepickleball.com - give them a look!

The GUP

 My father, who never heard of pickleball, nonetheless passed on the term "GUP" as part of the oral history of the family.  There are a lot of items in our oral history.  Not all of them unique to our family: "No free lunch," "Rich or poor, money is good," "Frequently wrong, never in doubt." But I digress.  

The GUP is short for [the] Great Unifying Principle.  As I've wandered through life, I've looked for the GUP in the various activities that I've attempted to master.  And I would say that many activities can be divided into areas that you must seek to master to ascend the stairway to glory.

A wag suggested that golf had five separate games in its structure.  Putting, iron play, driver, sand shots, woods, etc., well you get the idea.  Does each game of golf have its own GUP and problems to solve?  Well, there is a large amount of overlap, but there is subtlety there, which makes golf interesting in the long run even if you only want a "walk spoiled."

Let's return to the sport du jour, our beloved PB.  In my estimation we have rather simple game compared to others.  And there are a couple of GUPs that I'd like to comment on as being really, really, good things to practice.  I don't think any of these items require much in the way of physical strength or speed and are well within the abilities of any who've taken up the sport, even casually.  However, I don't see people doing a lot of this, myself included, which is why the post is here.

Let me digress for just one moment before I climb the pulpit to preach, I've run out of things to say about PB.  The topics below will be found in the earlier posts, if you're a careful reader.  One could look at this post as guide to the important basics in the game.  Let me get to the writing and we'll see if that bares out...

- Grip - it must allow you to deliver a strike to the ball with a paddle face pointing a bit towards the sky.  Smashes are not included in this.

- If you return a serve, start running to the kitchen line.  Your partner is there, join her!

- If you are serving a ball, stay behind the service line after the serve, only start to move up as the point develops.

- Move (up) with your partner.  If the second shot is short, then expect/make a soft third shot and move to the KL.  (Let's talk about this some more below...)  Otherwise, evaluate the third shot and move appropriately together.

- How to hit a ball...  1) You are stopped and balanced and have evaluated the incoming ball, 2) Move to the ball, 3) STOP, 4) hit the ball with weight moving into the hit, 5) maybe move and get ready to stop and get balanced before the opponents hit the next shot.  This is true for ground strokes, dinks, half volleys, etc. 

- When in doubt, dink.   

 That's about it!  Oh, there are a couple of more topics of which to be aware.  For example, where should you hit the ball?  What spins are best?  How to hit various spins?  But if you do all of the above most of the time you will do quite well in the game of pickleball.

------

A couple more points about third shot choices.  You have two traditional styles, those being drive or drop.  A rule of thumb would be to drop if the second shot is deep, but drive if the second shot is short.  But those same folks would say that after a third shot drive, you would then drop the fifth as you should be a softer/short ball to hit.  Which might lead a shrewd reader to suggest just drop when the second is short.  If the main goal by the serving side is to get to the kitchen, then any drop shot would be more constructive than a drive.  And in my opinion, a dinking point is more interesting than a hitters' dual, so I like the drop third for any position.

A Dubious Stroke Pattern

 I've seen at least three people who have this stroke.  And it ain't the best for a couple of reasons.  The players are solid players, not just beginners. 

Let me describe the stroke.

They hit the ball with little spin and the paddle moves parallel to the ground.  It's close to an inside out spin, but they usually do not spin the ball.  It's more of a flat jab, push, or swipe.

The problem is that the ball is not lifted or hit in any upward direction.  The trajectory is very flat and the amount of lift on the ball is minimal.

 While that might be a great thing in a few cases, it doesn't work for many cases.

For example, if you are hitting a dink and you hit the  ball with the flat stroke, it passes over the net with little space to spare and thus more prone to catch the net.  I agree that it's hard to return, but the error rate makes it a bad choice in my mind.  Better to swing up on the ball, hit it more softly to get more of an arc to the ball flight.  That creates a better safety zone over the net.  It also allows the ball to be closer to the feet of the opponents when they hit it back.

I've also seen this shot from just off the kitchen line as an attempt to win the point.  Again the ball goes into the net more often than it should.  When it does clear the net, it is hard to return, but again, it does not seem to be a high probability shot.

You can dink with it, but it has the same issues, no margin for error, lots of net balls.

The game of pickleball requires many things and graceful, arcing ball flight is one of them!  As Scott might say, "hit less winners and droop the ball into the court."