Asymmetry

The sun rose with evil intent and flooded the sunken park with rays that reflected like an oiled arm on a beach determined to get an early tan off the bedewed playing field.  The basketball courts sat lonely with just a sheen of dust and motes to mark their areas and promises of future play.

A harsh set of plonk, plonk, plonks came from the pickleball courts as the early morning crowd of players determined to beat the temperature rise like antelope getting to the water hole before the lion wakes up.  Dressed for heat and sweat, the players struck the warmup balls with scant attention to technique or direction.  Muscles tried to warm as feet moved sluggishly in the preheat cool air.  Joints, not quite ready for the stresses of the day's play, pushed out chemicals that warned of yesterday's stresses not yet healed. Comments crossed the net as a mixture of friendship and humor, roiling in the early sun.  Plonk, plonk, plonk.  Finally, modest patience burned off like park mist, the call to play a game was uttered as the desire or need to eat once more at the chemical soup that derives from competition was upon the players...

In the chaotic model of life one might suggest there is very little symmetry.  Ben John's brother, Colin, suggests that doubles pickleball court setup should not be symmetrical due to angles.

I've been stumbling into this view for a while and it was a nice memory jog to read of Colin's comments.  Shall we explore this topic?

For example, you receive the serve which landed in the left hand court.  Your partner is at the kitchen and on your right.  Where do you want to return the serve?

The position of the return is going to present an angle for their third shot and you can force your opponent to either hit through your partner or around him.  

Let's assume that you put the ball on the right side of the court, which places it where your partner controls most of the angle of the third shot.

Partner has been to a couple of rodeos and knows to slide to his right and cover the sideline and sets up to cover the right side of his half of the court.  He should be looking for the sideline shot as highly probable.  Be ready to hit it before it comes at him.  Where to return it depends on how the opponents have moved to hit the third shot.

You must cover the rest of the court.  If you move to the center of the court, that will allow you to cover the large portion of the rest of the court.  You are not in a great position to cover an extreme shot to your left, but that shot is very difficult as it must cross close to the net and the sideline is not very deep there and it is easy for any ball with speed to sail long.

Notice that your team has abandoned twenty to thirty percent of the court.  But you have the sideline and middle well covered, which I see as a net benefit.

Let's try for the other side of the court.  You decide to return the ball, mostly straight forward as the second shot of the point.  You must move up the court and a bit towards the left sideline.  Your partner needs to sag in a lot towards the middle.  And now you leave the right sideline open deliberately.

Final case is if you return the second shot right up the middle.  The expected return is back up your middle.  Someone needs to look for the center shot.  Maybe the forehand, maybe the player who is already at the kitchen line, but it needs to be clear to both players who is going to take the expected shot.  I've been taught that the person already up at the kitchen is responsible for the middle shot.  I think this is reasonable.  

I would add some nuance to this.  If the second shot has some side spin, then a more angled return is more likely.  Also, know your opponents, as they usually like certain shots -- be careful of those.

John, the Canadian engineer, likes to straddle the middle of the court when his partner is returning the serve.  I've never seen him at a disadvantage in doing this.  I suspect that he shades to one side or the other depending on the location of the service return.  When this is done, the partner who returns the serve and then moves up to the kitchen line will have a very small area to cover.  With little to do, look for out balls and try to warn partner.  :-)

 Middle control and setup is done during dink rallies too, especially when there is cross court repetitive dinking going on.  The non-involved partners on both side, should be stationed pretty close to the center of the court.  You'd like to reach in and slap any poor dink that you can reach.  You'll also have to shuffle back and forth a bit as the ball crosses in front of you, as you have to cover a dink that doesn't go cross court.  This seems to be fairly hard to do and doesn't come up much.  In any case, the side to side movement is good practice to get used to.  Is there a Latin motto about moving before you need to?  Well, there ought to be...

Third Shot Drop Model

 Zane Navratil, in one of his YouTube videos, describes the third shot drop as a dink.  This makes sense as you are trying to drop the ball in the kitchen like any other dink.

What he adds to this is that the swing motion is identical regardless of how far you are back from the kitchen line.  The way Zane suggests you moderate the length of the shot is by the follow through length.  A dink follow through will leave your paddle in the ready position.  But a dink/third from the baseline might require a follow through wherein the paddle ends up head high.

I was using this today and found it worked quite well.  So give that a try if your third shot drops are not what you want.

Here is the link to Zane's video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIkAK3Ch1WY

More Thoughts on Style

 I wanted to add some thoughts in re style inspired a bit by thinking about the last post, which described some of the elements of Bryan and Lori's usual game.

To summarize their style we could call it conservative in that they don't try to out hit opponents, but to out dink them.  There is a lot to like about this style as it lends itself to few errors.  The points tend to be longer with a mixture of soft shots and few of hard ones.  Since missing shots is a major downer, this style looks like it maximizes happiness, which ain't half bad...

Others, like one of the Pauls, tries to hit winners off of a lot of shots.  You'll get either a down the line or cross court short ball.  He hits them quite well due to his tennis background, but it leads to very short points will little rally time.  And it requires a lot of stretching on an opponent's part (which is fine except for the first game of the day!).

Those are the two extreme styles.  There is a large middle ground where the style is a mixture of the above.  Hitting the ball hard shortens points and soft shots lengthen them.  The good player will use the appropriate shot for the conditions.  And the conditions are not as simple as pure pickleball game theory might suggest...

We are all out here to have a good time and lunging for the extreme passing shot might not be at the top of the list of fun things to do.  (I'd put in a cheeky reference to chasing down lobs too, but I'm trying not to overly prejudicial on that point and I've actually hit a couple of lobs that were successful recently.  Perhaps I'll welcome the dark side one day.) 

Back to conditions...  As Jason has put it, "Partners matter."  There are styles that you and/or your partner can't handle.  For example, if you like to rush the net early, that requires your partner to hit perfect drops shots.   And if your partner won't follow shots to the net, that makes it awkward as well.  Expectation of fundamental pickleball movement is a bit part of the game.

Also speeding up a shot at the kitchen is fine, except if your partner can't handle the counter shot -- and there usually will be a lot of counter hits.  If that's the case, then speed up less and wait for exceptional opportunities only.  Shots you may want to take may only be appropriate with the proper partner.

If you're playing against beginners, hitting hard shots won't be sporting and won't help the beginners improve quickly.

The circle of posts has come around and we can see that with whom we play and against whom we play affect which style we use for a particular game.  The end goal being to have a good time for everyone.  (Exceptions below.)

As Strunk and White, said, it's all about the elements of style.  Ah, a literary joke there, but I think it's useful to look at some of the choices to be made in re how to play in all circumstances.  

These choices are more varied for recreation play versus tournaments, but I think it's worthy of discussion for both.

Broadly speaking we have drives and drops, dinks and lobs, and we can place those shots either in the middle of the court, deep, and/or to the sidelines.  (Lobs are best done over certain shoulders, maybe a different post on that one.)

If you are playing a rec game with less skilled players, then playing gently up the middle or right at the opponents will generate the longer points and let everyone hit the ball more -- kind of what we are there for.  And playing with a less skilled partner, softer shots tend to come back soft, which your partner can handle better than hard shots at extreme angles.   Play the shots that your side can best handle and don't be an oaf and beat up on lesser opponents.

I've wanted to write about how to play tournament PB for a while, but I've not gotten around to it and since I've not played in any, it's been put off.  But let me extend some of the thoughts from this post to that venue as it seems useful and it's raining, and you're herec reading, so more content is better than less.

You've got the same choices in a tournament.  But now the gloves come off and you are interested in the most efficient way to score points and win.  Shot selections, depth, speed, angles are chosen to provide your opponents with problems to solve.  You hope they can't manage that and you get a ball you can put away.

It's also important that you take into account the ability of the partnership and if you seek to out dink or out hit the opponents, you have to consider how well your team plays with that style.  Speed up a lot if you both have fast hands and like a fire fight, or be more careful and patient if you don't, for example.

Also the opponents might be great hitters and lousy dinkers, so even if your side is not great at dinking, you may gain an advantage with that style.  With a single game match, you want to figure out the winning style very quickly.  

If I were to embark on a partnership for serious play, I would have detailed discussions with partner about style, shot selection, and placement.  I'd also know what partner expects to do or cover, when balls are at extreme sides of the court and also, most importantly, the middle shots.  If that is all understood, then you could have deliberate plays to push one or the other or both of the opponents off the court, modify coverage and seek to gain an advantage.  Some of that might work best if the opponent is left handed and which sideline you use might be vital too.

When the game begins, evaluate each opponent quickly and figure out how to play to them.  The answer might be to never play to a specific player -- unlike rec play you don't care if they don't have a good time.  :-)  And your partnership needs to agree on whom to attack and how and do that efficiently.  So there is an additional element here, that looks complex and rewarding to figure out.  "How to beat up on Strangers!"  Might be a good book to read or write.  

This has turned out more interesting than I thought it would be, at least for me.  :-)  I can see a checklist for partnerships, either on paper or mentally.  And a quick evaluation of partner's abilities ought to influence shot selection to allow partner to play at the top of their game.  

Style Notes Part 1, Bryan and Lori

 I was watching Bryan and Lori perform their magic on the challenge court yesterday.

There were a couple of style points that I found interesting in their game and I thought that passing them along on a rainy day might inspire others to try new things for their pickleball arsenal.

When you watch these two you will notice a couple of things.  The first is that Bryan has pogo sticks for legs and can hop all over the place.  The second point is not about anyone else's legs, but the lack of a third shot drive by either of them.

They drop all third shots, and try to initiate a dinking point.  You don't get this much at Downs.  It is easier to whack a ball than to caress it into a small target area.  If you are playing against them, you will not have to worry about a high speed block,  but you want to be able to hit a good shot off of a drop shot.  Think about volleys versus stepping back and hitting off of a bounce.  I'm not saying which is better, but some pre-thought will be useful against all opponents.

They dink quite well.  Lori likes cross court and Bryan likes to push right back at you, usually to your sideline hand.

They rarely will speed up unless it's a glaring pop up.  So you don't need to hit the perfect dink, and it need not be a net skimmer, depth is usually the overriding issue on the quality of a dink in any case (shorter being safer than deeper!).  But your dink is going to come back, so make sure you stop and are ready to move for the next one.

What they both do very well is drop thirds and return serves.  They take backswings that usually do not place the paddle behind their body.  The paddle will be held at the side and then there is a short hit to engage the ball.  They typically don't hit the ball very hard, nor are the hits very low.  There are large margins over the net and inside the sidelines for miss hits and such.  This very good as it eliminates a lot of in the net errors.

The shot is close to being a push and is certainly not a tennis type swing.  The stroke is short, and leaves the paddle close to the ready position for the next shot -- very tidy.   I don't know what their sports backgrounds are, but if it's tennis, they've converted over to short strokes very nicely.  And most of these short shots have a touch of slice spin on them, for depth and bounce control -- well done!

The only shots I saw that were struck with force were put aways due to getting pop ups at the kitchen line.

I really like their game.  There are others at Downs that have that "hit it softly for the most part" game.  This style keeps you in the points for a long time.  They score by out dinking opponents and taking advantage of errors, rather than trying to hit it through or past opponents.  What they rarely will do is hit the ball out and provide an easy point.

Now add all of that to first class friendliness and B & L are some of my favorite opponents.  I've played with both of them and that's quite the treat too.

Take some time and watch them play.  There is much to learn there. 

Dinking Song

 I published this on the wrong blog!  But here it is:

-------

We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band.

On the right side of dinking we now take our stand.

We like to hit high lobs because we do think

That the people who chase them aren't able to Dink!

 Away, away with dinks, by gum, with dinks, by gum, with dinks, by gum,

 Away, away with dinks, by gum, the song of the Non-Dinking Army.

We never eat granola because we do think.  

That gals with oats in their teeth are liable to dink!

 Away, away with dinks, by gum.....

We never hit soft thirds because we do think,

that soft shots will often lead people to dink.

 Away, away with dinks, by gum.....

We never eat cookies because they have yeast,

And one little crumb makes a man dink like a beast.

Now can you imagine a greater disgrace

Than a man at the kitchen with crumbs on his face?

    

 Away, away with dinks, by gum.....

----

I remember this song from long ago.  It was about the demon alcohol as I remembered it, but it lent itself to a bit of a brush up.  The source where I found it, stated that the author is unknown.  It became popular with Teton Tea Parties in the 1960s.  There are other verses, but I think what we have here ought to be enough!  Dink on!

The Serving Stroke

 I helped Kirby with a beginners' and intermediates' pickleball introduction recently in San Ramon.  I offered to help by passing on some instruction in re serving.  

I wanted to talk about serving rather than dinking or volleying or ground strokes as I feel it's probably the most important portion of the game.  That is, in some ways and not so much in others. 

My current belief is that serving is important as it is the one chance to win a point, and if your side has the ball, the game is not lost.  Thus getting the serve in is the important part.  Hitting a non-returnable serve is wonderful, but don't do it if you miss some of them too.

The topic I wanted to discuss, is that of the serve stroke itself.  I borrowed deeply from my golf swing knowledge to promote some shoulder rotation into the students' strokes.  

Since the paddle weighs little and the ball weight much less, you can get away with just an arm swing or if you come from racquet ball, you can just flip your hand at it.

But if you golf, or bowl, or play tennis, then you should have some shoulder turn already.  This is useful to PB as it promotes the use of the large muscles of the body, which will be less prone to error when tired or when the pressure is on, e.g., playing a tight match in a tournament.

Basics:

We stand in the middle of the serve side (assuming doubles).

Feet should be facing towards the center of area into which you are serving.  Think 45 degrees or so.  Your aim is to hit the ball into the center of the service area.  (When you can do that all the time, then worry about getting it deeper and/or playing deliberately to a backhand or forehand side.)

Now with left hand holding the ball out in front of you, you want to rotate the shoulders to move the paddle behind you.  This doesn't have to be far, if you are from tennis, you probably have a longish wind up and that's fine, but it's more movement than you need.  

The vision of our wound up position might be that the left arm is extended in front, and the right arm is behind you (maybe a lot, and maybe a little, your right arm might be bent a bit, more stylistic than of issue).  Your weight should be on your back foot.

At the wound up position your right shoulder should be higher your than the left - there should be a bit of turn via the torso or legs.  For this to happen, you need to be a bit bent over.  You are not standing straight up.  It is an inclined plane as is the golf swing.  The shoulders are not level to the ground.

Next is to step or shift your weight to the front foot.  Then the swing starts.  You drop the ball from your left hand and now we rotate the shoulders.  

The shoulder rotation will do a couple of wonderful things, one is that if will pull your left hand out of the way of the paddle, secondly it will bring the paddle up to hit the ball.  I see some new players who hold the ball in front of them near the impact position and then make an arm swing and let go of the ball microseconds before impact.  They don't look comfortable and it seems they are worried about bruised fingers.  Drop the ball early and higher and let the shoulder rotation move the left arm out of the way, but...

An important point here is the height from which you drop the ball.  I'd suggest about neck high, with the intention of hitting it after it has dropped below the waist.  And per the rules, you have to hit the ball from below your navel.  It's wonderful how that all works out.  

There is a lot of time to do this.  The ball will not fall very quickly and you can use your shoulders in a very leisurely pace.  (Let me see, 32 feet/second^2 is the acceleration assuming we are on Earth and the wind is not blowing too badly.  We have a drop of about 3 feet, the ball starts at zero feet per second.  Hmm, "Google how fast does it take a ball to drop three feet?"  ...And that would be 0.43 seconds.  Plenty of time to swing at it.)

The shoulders rotate in place, with the right going down / forward and up and the left moving up a bit, then back a bit.  Your spine will straighten out and you should be close to standing upright when the smoke clears.

If you do it correctly your chest will be facing your target before the ball is hit.  

Let the momentum of the swing stand you up and face you forward.  Your paddle will be up in the air and you are ready to face the service return.  

Also note that your weight has shifted to the front foot, but your body stays behind the baseline.  Please don't move forward until you judge the service return will be short.  (Pet peeve number two.)

Let me emphasize a number of points:

• Wait for the weight shift (feel free to actually step forward) before swinging
• You have a lot of time, don't feel the need to hurry the shoulder  turn
• There is not a lot of hand/paddle manipulation in this, the swing will do that.
• Drop the ball above the impact area
• The location where you strike the ball will determine its height over the net.  There is a lot of subtle adjustments happening here, all automatic, as our bodies are really good at making things happen.  In any case don't worry about it, if the serves are long or too high, you will quickly adjust.
• Don't worry about trying to hit a hard serve, just get them in.  

There is a nice drill for this weight shift.  A lot of the students had trouble with this.  There were swings off of the back foot and such.  This is important for all the ground strokes too.  You want your weight forward to hit a sufficiently powerful shot.

Start with both feet together, take a modest back swing, step forward with your left foot, then drop the ball and swing.  It's the step part that is useful as it will quickly let you feel where your weight is and keep you from swinging too early/quickly.  You can do this without a ball or into the fence.  (Community service tip:  this is true for golf too, so this drill serves several masters.)

I wanted to talk about spinning the serve.  I've addressed it before in an earlier post.  But I've got a new analogy to try on you all.  But next post!

Stages of Understanding

 "Master, when will I understand the game?" asked Po, the acolyte.

The Master was busy with pumice stones and assorted sandpapers.  Not only did his favorite paddle need some maintenance, but the callus on his right foot was getting too advanced.  An advanced callus will slow even a Master.

"What did you say, Po, as you can see I'm a bit busy here?" replied the Master.

"I'm wondering about understanding the game, Master.  Sometimes it seems simple and then it seems complex.  What is it?"

"Oh, Po, I thought you knew this.  The game is both simple and complex.  As a player you must make the complex become simple.  Hand me that nail file please."

The warm air in the Master's study and beams of light from the narrow window were awash with the callus' and paddle's airborne sandings.  

"But Master, that seems to be little help?  How can I make a difficult thing simple?"

"Oh, that.  Of course you simplify the game by movement."

"Could you provide an example Master?"

"What?  I'm very busy, but oh well.  It is my destiny to provide enlightenment, I suppose.

"Remember back when you started to play Po?  You just stood there and were surprised when the ball came to you?"

"Yes, those were scary times."

"Harrumph, and then later you expected some balls to come to you.  And you became better at returning them.  Then you expected that any ball might come to you and were even better at returning them as you more ready to move or block.

"Now Po we seek the final chapter of this short book.  What is next?"

"Hmm, nothing comes to mind Master."

"Yes, I know.  How sad, but the next step is to understand where the ball will go and to go there before the ball does.  Understand, move, and strike like they teach at the Cobra Kai, down in the village."

"Master, I've never heard you say anything good about the Cobra Kai?"

"Yes, and you will not.  Recognizing that they do something well is not high praise, it is what any capable player must do, even the "Leg Sweepers.

"So let me finish the progression of a proper player.  One is that they are surprised at the location of the ball, then two they are ready if it comes to them and finally, three you move to where the ball will be.  Thus the complex becomes simple.

"So Po, recognize the flow of the game, and the mental flow of your opponents, then move to interrupt the flow and create time and space pressure to defeat the enemy.  The blessed Erne is such a move as is the proper poach.  Do both when they are right.  And further Po, since your partner is doing this as well, when they Erne or Poach, you must also move as the court coverage for your side has been disturbed.  If/when the ball comes back, you must in position.

"Only trees should grow roots, keep you feet and mind moving at all times.  Now where is my foot lotion?  I got some new Henua lotion around here.  Po, it provides twelve important healing ingredients.  So I'll have that going for me..."

----

Editor's note.  If you watch the YouTube video that Angel put up you will see him move to where the ball is going on a number of points.  This is usually in a poaching situation.  He moves well and he moves early.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

 ... that you are in the right place, at the right time, properly balanced between order and chaos, where everything lines up as best it can at that moment. 

Those wise words are from Jordan Peterson, who is a psychiatrist.  I don't know if he plays pickleball, but one has to admire the succinct turn of phrase in this paragraph.  Jordan's area is that of human mental stability, but I think it plays to our corner of the sports world too.

One of the great strengths of the game is that the pace is fast, but not too fast.  Sometimes you've got a full second to get ready for the next shot.  How generous is that? 

Of course the amount of time you have and the court size has to be in balance.  If the court is too big for the time, then it becomes a game of put aways.  PB singles is close to that particularly in re the ladies singles.

----

"I keep popping the ball up!"

"Well, if you are not holding the paddle too tightly, the experts suggest about 30% of maximum, then make sure your wrist is  straight (when held, the paddle should form a ninety degree angle to your arm).  You want to move your hand (and the paddle) independently of the arm swing.  That allows you to control paddle angle and thus height of the shots.  The arm provides the power and spin and the hand and wrist provide elevation and direction.  Dinking tip: don't use much if any active wrist movement when hitting a dink, the shot is a short arm swing, which should bring the paddle back up in front of you.

----

I'm taking a couple of days off from playing games, but I still want to hit a bit.  A goal when hitting it gently back and fourth is try to hit the ball on the sweet spot every time.  It's easier said than done.  The skidding line shots are no help in this and the paddles smallish sweet spot is an added complication.  They do sell a paddle that is much smaller in the head area used as a practice aide.  I would have bought a couple but they are not inexpensive.  I may sacrifice an old paddle to mimic this.

Sand Bagging

 Sandbagging has a long tradition.  Not being a tournament player, I'm not really affected by it in PB.  However in past activities I've seen various solutions.

The problem in finding a PB solution is that there is no real way to score a player in an absolute sense.  In bowling or golf you have scores that don't reflect people playing defense and it's easy to place a handicap on someone based only on the scores.  This does not always work and some golf organizations will only use competitive scores as a measure of ability.  But wait, if you are interested in sandbagging and are playing in a competition that you can't win, it would be easy to miss a couple of putts or hit a couple shots out of bounds to fatten your score.

I watched some of the 3.0 PB play up in Concord the other week.  In the title match I saw only one player whom I would call 3.0.  The rest looked closer to 4.0 to me.  The 3.0 player was frequently in the wrong position, couldn't or wouldn't volley a dink.  However, she was very consistent at returning dinks - her super power.  Her partner was pretty strong and highly active and they blended well together.  But 3.0 as a team?  I don't think so.

I have no solution and if I were a tournament player, the category that I played in would be an important decision.  Now, if everyone does it, then sandbag away!

The tournament directors might make a rule that if you are first or second in your category, then you get an automatic bump into the next level.  Which makes a lot of sense in the lower ranks.  If you keep winning, you keep going up.  Pretty soon everyone is at 5.0!  This has some problems, so maybe you have to win twice to go to 4.5 and three times to go to 5.0.  It's not clear how well that would work, but it would clear out the lower brackets of the sandbaggers.

I guess we need the actual players to chime in here...

Short Term v. Long Term -- Goals, Rewards, etc.

 Win the game or try to learn something...

Todd suggested this topic.  There are posts already written about how to play when the skill levels are uneven, the enthusiastic reader can go back and look for those.  But basically, it is my opinion that everyone should play to the top of the lowest level player's skill level.  Doing that should increase the enjoyment of everyone and by playing at the top or a smidge beyond the lowest skill level, provide a challenging environment to the player with the most to learn.

Now, Todd accused me of beating up on the weaker player in order to win the game at all costs.  Now, I don't remember this the way Todd does.  Actually, I don't remember the game at all.  If I did beat up the weaker player, I'll apologize now.  And by "beating up" Todd may actually mean, that I didn't hit the ball to Todd as much as I could have.  Let me pass on a thought on that point.  The less skilled player, the more likely they are in the wrong place.  Either they don't follow a service return to the net, or they get caught in the middle, or they advance too soon, or don't back peddle in panic often enough...  If I see this, I usually will play to this position because that shot is my best selection, but I'm not going to try to just put the ball away.  It is the same with serves, I'll cut back on spin, speed, and depth so that there are fewer service return errors from the other player.

OK, but let's get to the topic.  And I've had this discussion with Robo, who gets less than his share of balls hit to him in a match, usually because he is the stronger player.  There are others in this same boat and I deliberately will play to them (recently) so they don't feel excluded.  Feelings matter!

But what I experienced with Robo two years ago, is that if I hit to him, I usually got a very hard shot right back at me.  It only took a couple deflecting off the top of the net and face bound to make me 1) a bit fearful of my life, 2) thinking that it was a silly thing to have done.  The returns from Robo were rarely returnable, and watching a ball zoom by my face was not improving my game or blood pressure much either.  So I quickly saw no point to doing that.

Times have changed and I've gotten better and played a lot with Robo and against him and I'm not too worried about a ball in face or my life at this point, so I am happy to hit to Robo -- and I am hitting a better shot, so he can't just whack them past me.  So there was a learning process there that worked for me.  But balls in the face all day long was not where progress (and/or fun) was made.  I've written about learning before, but if I were to sum it up, you need motivation, practice, feedback, and some of that needs to be in appropriate doses.  Tossing a beginner into a 5.0 game is not going to pass on as much knowledge as some time in front of a ball machine or a bang wall.

There is an old tradition that you have to (should) play with better players to improve.  That there is no "boot strap" method.  I disagree with that.  I think that you will get better faster with better players - probably due to feedback and providing insights to what just happened.  But you can do it yourself.  This is not a game of strength or esoteric skills.  There is a lot of "don't panic," "be conservative with shot selection," "don't hit the ball when you are running," and other tips of that ilk.  I would also suggest that playing in a game where you are competitive will provide more practical experience and more actual shots to make and feedback, than getting beat up in a game well beyond your level, where if you don't hit it effectively, the points will be short and lacking joy.

Case History:

Mr. Y and I had a brief discussion the other day and he mentioned that he'd played three games that morning with player X, who continually made the same mistakes as he had since he started playing a couple of years ago.  Y found it difficult to watch after three games and sought other players.

So what to do about X?  It is a bit rude to provide coaching unsolicited and not everyone cares about getting better or does not care if they win or lose the game.  I can't say any of those attitudes are "wrong."  But if you and your partner are not at the same level, skill, interest, or attitude, it can make for a game that one partner didn't want to play or repeat.  I'm not sure X cares or is capable of improving.  And just playing may not be enough to get better.  There is something to drilling and lessons...  But it may come down to self reflection and interest.

There is another complication.  In my two years playing with Downs crowd, it seems to me that there is a lot of improvement and the average skill level has risen a lot.  The success of the Downs' players in outside tournaments provides some objective evidence to back that up.  If you are not improving, then the field is rising past you.  

Hmm, this is getting long and I'm worried about upsetting players.  And all of this is just my opinion anyways...

One of the things I hope that the Tri-Valley Pickleball Club might do is to provide workshops for intermediates and advanced players.  It is great that they have started a beginners workshop.  I would be excited about attending more advanced classes.

I'm playing a point and when it is over, it's time to reflect... Did I do something wrong?   Was this judgement, execution, or understanding?  

Judgement: I chose a stupid shot - too hard or bad serve, or off the back fence, or trying to be too clever?  

Execution: I chose a good shot, but dumped it into the net or hit it just wide, or popped it up turning my partner into a pin cushion.  (A shot that just misses might have been a bad shot choice.)

Understanding: I was caught in the wrong place (I think), my partner and I were split (what's that mean?), when we served we never got to the kitchen (why?).

You can add more detail to all of those categories and see where the problems lie.  There is a lot of instruction on YouTube for all areas of pickleball.  It's a great resource and if you want to get better, it's a great start.

Hang in there loyal readers, another couple of topics have appeared.  

Why are beginners difficult to play with?  

What makes a game fun?  Which brings us back around to why we are playing.  If winning is everything, then yes, playing with a beginner is unfun depending on your competition and whether the game will take into account the level of the weaker players.  Also, as Robo has mentioned, the ball is going to go to the weaker player and he might be just standing around being bored.

Secondly, playing in a highly competitive game will test your game more efficiently.  You might get none of that with beginners.  Or their shot selection is so strange that you spend the game chasing down lobs or stretching for down the line shots, rather than getting some dinking or blocking in.  Also you may not get any reward for a good shot.  You hit it, they return it to partner who can't handle the speed or pops it up.  Unless you can enjoy the shots you make and how well you contact the ball and don't mind getting beat eleven to two, then you can still have a fun time, but it may not be the game you would really like to play.  Finally, playing with beginners is an investment in their skills.  Down the road hopefully their skills will make them good players.

Why would I want to play in a game where I'm well over my head?  Let's look at this from the beginner's point of view.  Downs is very good at including people regardless of abilities.  There is the view that everyone should get access to the courts and have the same play time.  However when there are a lot of players, groups will form and play amongst the same four players all morning.  I don't have a lot of problem with that.  People should be allowed to play with whomever they want.  And if I were a beginner, there are a lot of games I would not want to play in.  I've noticed that players with less skill will often defer to more skilled foursomes and wait for another game.  I have no problem with that either and I wouldn't want to get crushed - what fun is that?  I think the best game for everyone is where the level of skills is pretty even.  

So, have I addressed Todd's question?  Have I upset everyone?  Well, then my job is done!  But seriously, I think that the skill levels is important to take into account for all players when a game is played.  I think the good players should play to a lower skill level.  If you are going to ask to play in a game, be a bit sensitive to the skill levels and maybe watching a good game would be more of a learning experience than playing in it.  Particularly if you were to discuss aspects of the game with one of the players after the game.  I don't think anyone would refuse that discussion. 

This is long, thanks for hanging in there.  Feedback is appreciated and this is probably a topic that will never resolve itself.  I understand that there are other courts where there is some strict ability level segregation.  That has its pluses and minuses, I guess.  Maybe the beginners ought to wade in here.  Maybe I should have talked to a few of them too.  They might be more sensitive to this than the advanced folk.  Ok, time to publish and perhaps perish.  :-)