Angel and Ozzie Part Two, Compatibility Thoughts or Partnership Synergy

Here is the second point that Angel brought up and it's a framework of how to play together for them.  I'll comment afterwards on this and seek some universality for the rest of us.  Rich

Angel:

 2. Compatibility 

Not sure if you remember the games that Ozzie and I played together at Downs, but I am the “aggressor” while he is the “backboard.” 

During our tournaments, he will set up shots for me as I tend to have stronger put-aways and am more likely to attack first in most situations. 

Although it may be wrong that I typically attack first, people are more likely to hit fewer balls to me and shift more balls over to Ozzie as they would prefer to have longer rallies than getting the ball slapped back at them. For Ozzie and myself, this is a win-win because our opponents either have the choice to get smashed at or play against a backboard.  (Rich: note that with this setup it's likely that Angel will commit more errors in the play.  You have to accept that and not worry about it.  There should be a positive return on that "investment" as their setup should cause the opponents to modify their play.)  

No matter what happens here, both of our strong suits are being used. Ozzie is a great re-setter and can keep a rally going all day, while I love speeding things up to get pop-ups. 

We picked each other for these specific reasons in this partnership. The most famous team that has this exact partnership is Ben and Collin Johns. We are trying to simulate their game as best as possible to get the same results. This was proven to us from our results in the Monterey 5.0 19+ Tournament.

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Rich:

One of the things that is not said here is how they go about making this happen.  Angel mentioned to me that the technical stuff they leave for their drilling, thus the document described above is more of a philosophical thesis.

I find the idea of playing the court lopsided is a good one.  In dink battles I find myself on the T a lot and rarely in the cross court battle.  I think someone needs to be on the T or at least covering it at all times to avoid missing a shot up the middle and also to slap down an errant dink.  Lurk, lunge, and slap -- not a bad motto.

Now how could Angel and Ozzie do this?  The Johns brothers put Collins off to the right side of the court and Ben covers the rest.  I've not watched Angel with Ozzie enough to observe their setup.  But it has to be something like that.  The aggressor becomes the "in your face guy" and Ozzie provides coverage if they don't want to challenge Angel.  You'll see this with other players at the Downs who grab say 60% of the kitchen line and dare you to play to them.  Angel has to move well and have some fast hands for this to work.

How to defend against this?  These folks generally are comfortable with a hard hit ball, so drops to their back hands will generally slow the pace of play and work better.  Or hit away from them to their partner, who is probably on the move after returning the serve.  But you can't float a soft high shot over the middle as that is the shot they are looking for.  Keep it low, lots of top spin, not a lot of speed are good elements in this situation.

Next point, how might you include this court division in your game?  If you have a steady partnership it's something to explore.  What kind of shots you want to hit,  Which would you prefer partner hit/get.   And it comes down to style.  Do you want to play chess or some kind of smash and hit game?  These are good questions for a partner, but it seems out of place at the Downs, when you change partners every 10 minutes.  But if you are going to play in a tournament, it would be a valuable discussion to have...

For me generally, I want my partner to be aggressive.  And by that I want them to actively take shots they they feel good about hitting.  If that brings them into my portion of the court, that's absolutely fine.  If it's their backhand versus my forehand, that's fine too.  I often feel very comfortable about a backhand drop and occasionally that could get in partner's way.  

This view frees up partner to play actively rather than passively waiting for the ball to come to them.  If partner likes to call the ball, that is an added bonus (it's something I don't do enough).  If my partner is hopping all over to take shots I think the team is better off as we are moving more and I think that's the key to playing really well.  

This also keeps me from backing up all the shots that come near me or between me and my partner.  I'd much rather be moving for upcoming shots than being there in case partner delegates to me.  (Pro tip: don't stand there and admire partner's shot, get moving for the return shot.)

I watched the video that was called "Collin Johns says you are playing pickleball all wrong." Or something like that.  There wasn't a lot of technical info there.  The story per Collin is that Ben recognized the need for a backhand sitter position and then the roamer, who would take a lot of shots.  He and Ben have decided which shots belong to whom and they don't deviate from that.  Any ball that comes over the net is recognized as to whom the ball belongs.   They designed the partnership around that philosophy and have embraced it.  It sounds like Angel and Ozzie are happy to play that way too.  

It seemed like such a simple game at one point.. Every now and then I think what would happen if the kitchen was 15 feet instead of 14 or the court was a bit wider.  A post for another time perhpas.

Electrolytes Part 3

 It's been about two and a half weeks of using the electrolyte powder in my water bottle whilst playing PB and visiting the driving range in the afternoons.

I initially saw some weight loss of a couple of pounds, that has not continued, but the missing two pounds has not come back.  I can't really suggest these are related.

I reported some better muscle aches and pains and by better, I suggested that they were cramping less and I was feeling better.  Curious about this one, I didn't have any electrolytes for a couple of day in the middle of last week and then had a pretty achy next day.  I'm suggesting that the powder is still providing some benefit here.

Thanks to Tony in a comment on post two, there are cheaper powders out there on Amazon.  I'm going to try them next.  

Finally, I seem to have better endurance while playing.  When it gets to be 11:15 and I've been playing for three hours, I'm now up for more play.  I think is powder related.  I don't eat breakfast and so this is about as hungry as I get, and yet I'm in no hurry to get lunch.

Bottom line at this point, they seem to be providing some benefit to me.  But I've got a strange diet and it may well be providing things that are missing in what I eat.  

I've never mentioned taste and it is a consideration.  It tastes a bit soapy to me.  It is better when cold.  I've not tried it hot.  It was easy to get used to and I don't find it objectionable anymore.  There is a hint of fruit flavor too, but it is mild at best.  Ice cubes go well with this.  I put a bunch of ice in my water bottle, it's 40 oz., add two and one half scoops of the powder, pour in tap water to fill it up, then do some shaking.  This is  a lot of work in the wee hours before play, but it seems to be worth it.

That's a wrap up on the journey so far.  I've got a couple of weeks of powder left and I'll probably try the other after the Dr. Berg is gone.

Notes From Angel Part 1, Dealing with Frustration

Hello all,

As I've mentioned a time or two, I had a conversation with Angel and he said that he and Ozzie had spent a number of hours going over things that affected play.  He was kind enough to send along some of the details of  his conversation.  

I'm going to break this in chunks and add some commentary from my point of view as a rec player.  

A lot of what they talked about are tournament specific but what I'm interested in is the base knowledge that any advanced player would/should/might be conversant with and trying to extend that knowledge base to the greater Downs' players.  So let's explore what Angel and Ozzie are thinking about and see if that can make us better players...

Angel:

 Below are a few things that Ozzie and I talked about after our first session playing together to start prepping for tournaments. 

1. How to deal with frustration. 

After our first session together, we talked about what to do if either of us were to get frustrated. It is more common that I get frustrated sooner than Ozzie, so we established ground rules/signs to let the other know when frustration starts and how to deal with it. 

We first established that if one gets overwhelmed, the other will take more court. (e.g., as is done in mixed doubles)  If this doesn’t work as much as we hoped, using timeouts was our next step. 

Not only do we slow down our opponents, but Ozzie and I also get to talk about anything, even if it's unrelated, to try to trick our minds into concentrating on something else, even if it's just for a minute. 

Timeouts are probably the complex situation as calling it depends on where we are in the match. The first rule is to call a timeout if our opponents win 3-4 points in a row. But like I said, it depends on where we are in the match. Let’s say if our opponents are up 7-4, if they win 2 points in a row, then we call a timeout.

 

Rich:

I think the above are quite interesting.   Let me comment in turn.  The solution to frustration or bad juju, is to play a more asymmetric court division.  Angel mentions the Johns brothers later in his note about this.  I think it's a topic that deserves more study.  For example if you play with me, you might want to decide to encroach on my forehand, but not on my backhand and particularly at the kitchen line.  There will be more on this point later as Angel talks about Ozzie and his strengths.  But I think that a partnership is a synergy but not always a symmetry.  We all play parts of the game better than others and designing defense and or offense based on those makes sense.   How to go about this hasn't be discussed much in what I've run across.  So a topic that any partnership of length ought to discuss in detail.  Who has the middle?  Who will stand in the middle?  Who will watch the line, the lob, and stacking, which could be a big part of this.  "Partner, you like to hit nothing but forehands, let's keep you near the sideline and I'll sag into the middle?"  Update: a new video hit my YouTube feed by Collin Johns dealing with this topic.  Probably I'll get back to this.  I've not seen the video yet.

Timeouts can be used for a bunch of things, getting some oxygen after a long point, or "let's dink, we can't hit with these guys!"  I would suggest that the first timeout be used to decide to whom the team will play.  Obviously if you are up 8-0, you're doing just fine and keep going, but if it's 0-5, then maybe isolate an opponent and hit to just backhand or something.  If it's is 0-5, then you ought to do something differently for sure, don't continue a losing strategy.

"Get your mind in the game!"  I find that when I'm not moving well or concentrating, moving my feet more is a nice trigger for me to get ready to run, poach, and advance.  Find something that will help you forget the trash talk and joggers and get ready for the next point.

Angel's last point about what part of the game you are at...  Hopefully you use timeouts as early as required and not wait until it is 0-9 for example.  The end of a game is critical.  You have less time to catch up and errors are quite costly.  If you lose at point at 0-1, you lost just 10% of the remaining game points, but do it at 8-9 and you've lost 30% of the rest of the game.  Be a touch more conservative in shot selections and speed ups, and never serve out at the end of the game.  

Angel has more to say and I'll be passing them along soon.

Thanks Angel for sharing your insights!

Keeping the Ball from Going Long When Hitting from the Kitchen Line

 It's time for a bit of calculations.  Let's stroll back to those physics classes in which I wish I'd done better.  

Imagine that you are standing at the kitchen line and you want to hit the hardest shot possible and keep in inside the court.  We will make some assumptions here, one being that you will hit it over the middle of the net, which is the lowest point and thus has the most likelihood of landing in.

I'll bring up gravity and spin in a moment, but consider a ball at top of net height.  If you look at the angles, there is no path for the ball to land in the court unless the ball was hit from a height of 44.8 inches, or 11 inches above the net.   Think of a laser pointer that just clears the net and lands on the base line or just goes long and then you raise the pointer until it hits the baseline.  I used a tangent calculation to get the 44.8 inches -- I have no laser pointer anymore. it's a long sad story.

If you are going to hit the ball hard and spinless and it's not very high above the net, it's unlikely to succeed.

Gravity: I'm guessing a bit on hang time here, but a shot hit from the kitchen line might hang somewhere between 0.25 seconds and 0.5 seconds.  I've noticed that the time for a shot and then a return is about a second.  More time if hit softer, less when smashed, this shortens as players more closer together and/or hit the ball harder..

In 0.25 seconds a ball will drop about 1 feet, and in 0.5 seconds, the drop is about 3 feet.  So the slower you hit the ball, the more likely it will drop in.  One more reason to never overhit a ball.

Spin: top spin will help drag the ball down and a cut spin will cause it to stay in the air longer.  I'm not real sure about how to calculate that and since spin varies a lot, and wind is big deal since the ball is very light, it seems there may be a lot of important variables yet in play.  Where is Bernoulli when you need him?  Actually there are probably equations there, but I'd need a lot more data to figure it out.  Well, I just looked a bit and it seems that no one has calculated the total drop per rpm or something like that.  However, top spin is a great friend to have when trying to keep a ball from going long.

Also the ball is slowing down because it is so light. As we saw above the slower ball will drop more than a faster ball.

So how does this help us play better?  I was surprised by how high you need to have the ball to keep it in.  I tend to speed up balls that are at net height and even a bit below.  This seems to work with my backhand roll better than my forehand.  It is a slow ball with lots of spin, the best of both worlds.  (It also tends to change the pace of the point, but tempo is a subject for another post!)

If you hit the ball from a lower position, you are going to have to do something.   Note that you will need to initially hit the ball up to clear the net and then to keep it in we need spin or gravity.  Adding to that are the opponents who will gladly counter shots that are above the net on their side.  The PB problem in a nut shell: get it up, but not too far up...

If we ran the numbers, I would suggest that marginal shots should be dinked back.  When in doubt, dink.  Get them over the net and reasonably shallow.  Wait for a higher ball to not dink.  (OK, if you want to lob, fine, just go ahead, I don't care...  ;-))  If you hit the marginal shot, you will be fine if you can get it past an opponent or more likely, hit it right at them.  The dominate side hip to shoulder is a traditional target for that shot.  And to keep the ball in at a reasonable pace, you need to hit a top spin shot.  If you are going for a body shot, then hit it hard and flat, don't worry about keeping it in.

There are players who use little top spin and are effective at the net.  They hit the ball very flat and it can be hard to handle.  Top spin shots have more arc to their trajectory and if they are not good shots are easily countered with a block or counter hit.  The flat shots are awkward, but they will go long if not done well.  If you are playing against the flat shot people think about letting some of the shots go by.  

This all seems a bit disjointed, but I'm getting tired of it.  It's been through a number of revisions.  Let's boil it down to these points: Don't speed up a ball that is below the net, Learn to spin your ball, think body shots, when in doubt dink!  Oh, and "Lob if you must."

Electrolyte Report After Week One

 Electrolytes Follow Up After Week Number 1

As mentioned I started using some electrolyte powder in my drinking bottle at the Downs.  The one I bought is Dr. Berg's.  It's a modestly raspberry & lemon flavored powder.  It comes with a cute scoop and the recommended serving size is one scoop per 16 ounces of water.  (Ok, it's fluid ounces of water...)

The jar contains about 50 scoops of powder and it costs close to $50.  My cost is close to $2 a day to spike my water for PB, which is my water intensive activity.

The powder contains Mg, NaCl, K, Ca.  The dietary recommended amounts of these is 29%, 2%, 21%, and 6%. The amounts seem low to me, but reviewers have said that this formula has a lot of content that others have less of.  In theory, you would get all of these and more from your regular food intake.  Clearly you need more NaCl for example.  So what you eat is a big part of this.  Right now I'm eating a fairly restricted diet, so I thought I'd try this just in case I was missing something important.  And my dose is two scoops per cooler full.

Jigsaw, who advertises on the pickleball tournaments has the following for their powders: Na 90 mg, Cl 900, Mg 50, K at 800 mg.  Clever of all these folks to change units!  The Berg Powder has Na 40 mg, Cl 60, Mg 120, K 1200, and Ca at 75, which is not in the Jigsaw powder.  I'm happier with the Berg mix as NaCl I'm going to get when I eat my daily peanuts!  The Ca is an added bonus, but I eat a lot of cheese, so am not too worried about that.  Jigsaw stuff looks to be about 83 cents per serving when you buy the packets.  It's a bit less expensive when you get the jar of powder and scoop your own.  I'm not sure of shipping charges, so the prices are really close.  The Jigsaw powder is also sugarless if that's an issue.

So now we discuss how well this is working in the first week.  There are two muscle issues that are electrolyte driven and that is general muscular weakness, and then muscle cramps after working out.  And I suspected that I was having some of those symptoms.  I get sore in my back and even with a couple of days off, it never seemed to subside.  Also If I clenched my toes, my feet would cramp up easily.  And every now and then a thigh or calf would cramp and actually hurt a bunch.

I think that I'm feeling better.  I'm not thinking about how much my back aches and if I clench the toes, I'm not getting all of the cramping I used to.  There has been no thigh or calf cramps, but those were rare.  So I'll conclude that as far as I've gone with this, I'm feeling better.  So I've got coincidence!  I have also dropped a couple of pounds, which doesn't happen much and while I'm not aware that I'm eating differently, I'm guessing that it's not connected to the powder.

I'm paying $2 a day to not have a sore back.  Which is a bargain I think, and I'm saving some money on Ibuprofen to boot.  

The stuff does seem expensive to me and to others.  There are a lot of homemade recipes out there, you can make your own.  They use lemon or lime juice, some apple cider vinegar, some Himalayan salt and usually a keto friendly sweetener. I'm not sure I have the ingredient list compete, please look one up if you are interested.  Also bullion cubes seem to be popular as well as eating a lot of avocados.

Let's end the update there and I'll return to this in a week or so.  Basically, I think there is something going on and it's positive for me.

Playing with a Partner

• A Text I got about playing when partner is less skilled...
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The biggest challenge that I have these days is playing with different partners and each partner has their own weaknesses and styles.

 

Options: either overpower my partner and take the center stage or practice tough shots that they miss or cannot get to, like defense or drops.

But I repeat myself on a few key topics:

- take the line

- take the T

- when receiving use the X (crisscross) concept

- slow down and dink more

Another interesting phenomenon is that I lose my touch and my way playing and cannot get it back when I play with other 4.0+ players.

This leaves me in an awkward position of either ignore my partner (usually I don't) or suffer as the game becomes less enjoyable as I cannot perform/practice my needed skills.

thoughts?

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There are some interesting points here.  I've touched on some of them as there are a couple of posts about playing with weaker players.  My view on that is to play at the weaker level or a touch above.  That view is trying to make it enjoyable to all playing.  Even if you are a really good player, the challenge of playing perfectly is beyond you.  Even the pros will miss an easy dink and quite frequently at that.  See more of this below.

The next point is that playing the way the game should be played is a good idea, and I think you should do that.  A lot of folks learning the skills, have no idea about grabbing the T or poaching from 20 feet away, for example.  So those actions are to be done as that's the proper way to play, though maybe in moderation, especially the poaching.  Maybe partner will become inspired!

I can remember by own early play where the more experienced player would take a ball just off my ear, rather than leave it to me.  And another who would straddle the T and get in an aggressive crouch while I was pushed off to a sideline.  I was surprised by both of those actions, yet instantly saw the utility of them.

The crisscross (X) strategy is also not known by a lot of beginners.  Yet, it's the best way to decide who will take a shot if you are going to play equal roles on the court.  

Let me diverge for a moment and suggest that playing on equal terms is probably not the most effective.  You can play and most do, that each person has their side of the court and is responsible for it.  But the mixed doubles and the Johns brothers have shown that having one player take a larger portion of the court (and net), and the other looking to put away any pop ups and handling the cross court dinks.  

Now, it might be useful to switch off those roles depending on how the play goes.  So I grab the middle, while you dink cross court, but if I get into a dink rally, them I'm on the side you grab the middle.  

Let me diverge to another level down...  Someone has to be responsible for the middle.  So by my view the roles have to be a bit asymmetrical always and in all games.  This responsibility must switch back and forth as the ball moves from side to side.  Who discusses that before playing?  

We must also consider that there are players out there who just want to play at their level and not get caught up in the technical aspects of a higher level of play.  I would expect that you are not playing with a lot of those folks, but at the Downs, some of the team mixes can be quite divergent in levels.  If you play there, you play with that possibility.  

And finally there is your loss of touch when playing at a lower level...  My reaction to this is that this shouldn't happen with a good player as they should be able to "shift gears" and hit different shots at any time.  The game demands it.  We have smashes and then resets, dinks then drops, then smashes, etc.  Every shot is a separate challenge and whatever shot you are going to hit, it requires the some concentration and I think they all don't get it.  That's when the scenario shows up where you get the five hard shots back, but then then miss the "easy" one.  

The easy ones are still difficult.  You need to manage the net, then the outer boundary lines and also not pop the ball up.  There is a lot going on, even with an "easy" dink.  If you try to hit a winner, then you are shrinking the area that is available in which to land the ball and making the shot harder.  And that would require more thought, and that requires more time and so it goes...

More thought about playing with a weaker player or someone who, for example, rushes the net prematurely.  If you like to speed up the ball during a dink rally, you need a player who can return the counter shot.  If your partner is not up to that, then you shouldn't speed up the ball unless you can hit a very good shot as it is a losing strategy.  So not all of your usual shots will be available when playing with different skills.  Maybe more dinks are a good idea and practice a bit of patience - another good skill.

If your partner is up at the kitchen line without the hands of one of the Waters girls, then your third shot drop has to be perfect, or you need to drive the third to keep your partner from getting involved with something other than a dink.  (Or, you hit a bad shot, partner get turned into a pin cushion, and maybe realizes they were in the wrong place!  :-))

I'm guessing that getting your touch back is the main problem here.  The big difference between the game levels is the speed of the ball.  It is difficult to play in a faster game as there is less time to do things.  Perhaps a different warm up with some fast hands stuff might be a good way to transition back to the faster pace.  And you could always do more dinking until you're back to speed.

There was a lot going on with this post.  For such a simple game, there are a lot of things to think about.  The differences between skill levels can be found in the base knowledge of the game.  Straddling the T, crisscross theory, asymmetric play, who guards the middle, where and when to move is more important than hitting the ball well.  I think back to a comment Angel made about having a multi-hour conversation with his partner...  There is a lot be aware of.  

I watch a lot of pickleball and on occasion they have the good players providing some insight.  Ben Johns did one a few month back and the things he commented upon and saw, were not seen by the other commentators, and I had not been aware of.  And also, you might get a comment like, "great defense from player X" well the important thing was why was player X where she was.  She moved early because she predicted how the play was going to go.  But those topics are rarely addressed.  Another example is the Riley brother sister doubles team.  They get more ball back that are hit at their feet than anyone.  Do we get discussion about how they do it?  Is it their use of two hands, or straddling the shot, or what?  Never explained, always a mystery!

OK, I think this is enough.  Thanks for the questions and topics!

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Thoughts on the Third Shot Lob

 A wise man once said that if you pay attention, you will learn something every day.  I'm not going to argue with that!  Today I was introduced to the third shot lob.  "Eh?  What's that?"  We have the drive, the drop, and I'll write up about the droop down the road, but a third shot lob? Hmm...

As several of you might know I have some strong feelings about lobs.  Perhaps "about" is the wrong word.  I could be called anti-lob and not have a real objection to it.  

This, one must realize, is not a technical argument, but one of aesthetics.  As I wander through this game, I find the soft shots to be of more interest than the lobs and fire fights to me, your feelings may vary widely.  Give me a soft spiny shot to handle and I'm happier than chasing down the top spin lob.

Thus I'd prefer to see a drop shot allow servers access to the kitchen line and not by having pushed net folks back with a lob.  The drop shot provides the opponents with an interesting puzzle to solve.  Should I let it bounce, or lean in and try to volley it, and how will the apex height compare to the 34 inches of barrier between the player and the opponents?  Whereas with a lob, it's just run back and then hit a high, low, or drop shot from the baseline.  

And we can't forget the fourth shot if the opponents managed to handle the third shot drop.  Now we have the opportunity to move in a bit or a lot and if the drop is less than wonderful, we may get the chance to defend from the baseline.  All good stuff, clearly.

So a person with no bias, disinterested, (or as my calculus teacher in high school put it when doing proofs, "entirely obvious to the most casual observer") can clearly see that a third shot drop provides more entertainment for everyone and should be the shot of choice for any player who has moved their feet to allow them to hit said shot.  

I have been known to lob myself solely for intellectual curiosity and to judge the wind properly for later shots of course.  But as a main weapon, I have to draw the line.  I would much prefer to be known as a great dinker, drooper, driver, or dropper than a great lobber.  (Would we call such players lobsters?)

Now I will admit that on occasion, caught in a terrible spot, where panic or a lob seems the only two ways out, well then, go ahead and lob.  It would be polite, but not necessary to apologize to the game for such a shot.  Perhaps a humble, "Sorry, it's all I had" would be sufficient and reasonable.  Actually, I think I heard Larry say that exact thing one time...

I realize that my views on this and many other topics do not conform to much of the world.  Perhaps the world will come around and see the light, but I doubt it.  I also understand that on rare occasion, I might be wrong.  Not a problem, one must be willing to change as the data roll in...  (Family motto: Saepe in errore sed numquam in dubito"

And there are players who lob a lot.  In fact they seem to get a lot of satisfaction from it.  I hear chortles and out right laughs when then drop in effectively.  but rarely do I hear an anguished cries of despair, regret, and depression, when they sail long and if I am to judge it, they do that fairly often.  Perhaps I'll collect some data on that.  Who knows it might change the game for those folks who practice this habit.

So folks do it, pros do it, folks like it, and enjoy it.  There are many reasons to play any game and I can be open enough to accept that.  But it's not my favorite way to play, either win or lose.  I want the mental puzzle.  Chasing down lobs is boring, dinking and out thinking is where my interest lies.  Your views may differ!  And that's all right.  

Update: I'm watching a California PB tournament with the usual pros and by golly one guy is using the famed third shot lob.  He was a hockey player in his hay day, maybe that explains it.  It worked about 40% of the time...

Hitting the Ball Low

***  Make sure you get down to the last couple of paragraphs! ***

 You can do a lot of bad things and get away with them as long as you keep the ball low.  The key concept is that a low ball is not easily attacked by the opponents and frequently has to be hit up to clear the net.  

I've been playing around with low ball trajectory technique (LBTT) and I'm starting to think that hitting a cut shot with an open paddle faced is the answer.  And it seems that a very open face is often needed.

Some terms: open face means the paddle is pointing to a spot above the net; facing the sky a bit, would be another way of thinking of this.

Like most things, a cut or backspin shot is a delicate thing.  Most of the shots you need to keep low are hit around the kitchen line.  We are not talking about a ball struck with a lot of force.  (If you do it hit hard with that paddle and some cut, it can float long.)

How to impart some cut spin: you need to swing from above the ball to below it.  This is not a very vertical swing as you need to drive the ball over the net.  What the open paddle face gives you is a bit of a hop to get the ball on a trajectory to clear the net.  There is a range of good swing paths here from very high to low to almost horizontal.  

Try these when you are warming up.  Usually everyone starts with dinking, so there is a chance to play with it.  Don't be surprised if you pop up a few at first as you figure out how open the paddle must be and how much of stroke you want.  The "above to below ball" stroke doesn't have to be a long one.  We are not interested in a lot of spin, but enough to bunt the ball over the net.  The stroke may be quite close to horizontal and it might even have a bit of lift to it if you are doing this from well below the net.  The stroke and the face angle will influence the trajectory and the amount of spin.  We seek a ball that is pretty close to the top of the net -- and we are less concerned with how much spin it has.

The ball will not dip much after it crosses the net and this is fine.  We are not aiming for feet, we just want a ball that can't be hit down at our feet.

There are two alternative shots to this shot, one being no spin, id est, a flat shot, and then there is a topspin shot.  The flat shot will work well too, but it is harder to get over the net, it requires an open faced paddle too and then a swing that is horizontal to the ball or parallel to the ground.  Maybe a post on that down the road.  

A topspin shot has a problem in that you have to lift the ball further above the net than the others, and if everyone is at the kitchen line, you are likely to pop it up.  The shot has more of an arc to it and usually presents higher to the opponents.  

The three shots have their different uses and you want to understand all of them even if you have a go to shot.

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Ok, if you got this far, thanks for reading... However this is maybe a "truth" that isn't.  I tried to verify the slice shot being the stroke of choice for keeping the ball low.  But the data didn't show up to prove that it was better than other shots.  

I think my fall back position that the slice shot is a good idea for a number of reasons the big one being that a slice shot is harder to return, but the shot does not seem to be a better way to keep the ball low as a general rule.  It will do the job, so it's one more of those things that are worth learning and using..

They are different from you and me.

 Start with a quote from the Great Gatsby, that can't lose...

I've been watching Major League Pickleball, which has been fun.  They are using a modified rally scoring system.  The games move along pretty well and there is a lot of variety in the teams, people are playing whom I've never seen before.

But what I noticed in the play is that there is a huge difference in what they do compared to us rec players.  One thing leaps out and that is moving the feet.

When I'm having a good day of play, I find that I am all over the court, moving well, I get to a lot of shots, I have time to hit the ball.  This looks like it's true for the pros too.  But what they do is move their feet only when they are not hitting the ball.  Move, then hit, then move some more...

And what do we do?  We move too late and end up running through the shots.  Ah, we can get away with it on occasion, but the speed of the running makes distance calibration harder, so long and out balls are more frequent.  This happens quite often with a third shot as a lot of us will move up a bit after the serve, then backpedal furiously to return a deep return.  Or we are surprised by a soft second shot and have to sprint to get to it.  That rarely leaves time to stop.

Watch the pros and see the stability they have for every shot.  Dance, stop, then hit.  They do it for ground strokes and dinks a like.

Electrolytes

 I watched a YouTube video on various electrolytes the other day.  I was interested in the video as it was talking about water consumption during exercise.

One of the issues is that whatever electrolytes you have in your system, you might be diluting them just by drinking water.

I'm a bit skeptical about all of this, but I was wrong about carb consumption and so I don't feel I can condemn it out of hand.  

Part of the video was what the electrolytes are and what they do.  Some of them provide muscle contraction and others muscle relaxation.  An unbalance might cause some muscle cramps.  Others might cause general skeletal muscle soreness.

Without imparting too much personal info, I would be happy to have less muscle soreness and less cramping. I'm not sure I have big problems in these areas, but there are some issues.

So I went to look for some electrolyte powder with the intention of using it in my water bottle that I schlep to the Downs every day.  I can keep adding the powder as I drink it down and this might be a large portion of the water that I drink every day.

About powders, some of the sports drinks have a fair amount of sugar or maltodextrin in them.  As I am trying to avoid carbs, I wanted a powder that didn't have that.  The stuff I found has a touch of Stevia in it to provide a bit of sweetness, but no insulin reaction.

The stuff is not cheap, a touch over $2 per ounce usually.  I bought the stuff from Dr. Berg directly from his web site.  It is available at about the same price on Amazon.  His was the cheapest in price and I liked the Stevia in it.  He has a lot of YouTube videos, if you are curious.

I will try this and see what happens and pass along the results.  

The electrolytes are magnesium, potassium, chloride, sodium and calcium.  There are others, but I think these are the biggies in re muscle issues, etc.

That's the introduction.  I'll start in on the powder when it gets here and maybe check in on a weekly schedule.

Game Parts, Partners, and Signals

 I was musing about what parts of a game I enjoyed.  I have to vote for the end game with a tight score.  

The early points are ok.  If you are playing with a new partner then you have to figure out what shots he will hit and what he likes to hit.  (I'll use the generic "he" as partner's pronoun, feel free to substitute.)  I realize the satisfaction of working out a lot of stuff with a regular partner. And as you would play together, I would hope that the agreements and roles would be altered to match experiences as they occur.  A couple of posts back, I suggested that stretching for a shot in front of your partner is not good policy.  A regular partnership would understand that and perhaps do it more or less based on forehands and what the partners' strengths are.

The drop/drive question is important as you might want to move and be positioned differently on the court if partner is a driver versus a dropper.  My preference is to drop, but I can easily go along with a drive third and then a drop fifth.  What I don't like is third, fifth, seventh all being drives.  I think it's boring pickleball as it lacks elements of touch and control.  But if that's what partner is going to do, you don't want to move much off the baseline until it's a good idea.  

A commentator on one of the pickleball channels suggested that you could call a shot with "Mine" to denote a drop and "I've got it" to tell partner you are going to drive.  If you know your partner is going to drop, you can move well ahead of the ball and get set at the kitchen line.  But if it's a drive, being back to handle a good block is a better play.  Will the partnership remember that kind of signal in the heat of battle?  

In my ideal point the serving side will work hard to get into a dinking battle.  Then the next question is speeding up the ball.  I'm a bit too aggressive in hitting my backhand roller, waiting a bit would be a better percentage play.  Also hitting the ball flat at someone is all well and good, but it depends a lot on to whom you are hitting.  If you can hit the proper hip/shoulder then it probably doesn't depend on the player.  But if you miss and the player is looking for it, you will have lost an advantage.  

Back to partners...  Some are willing to dink, some can't seem to stand it.  I see it as an accomplishment to get to the kitchen line and start dinking, so I think you ought to have a good reason for speeding up or lobbing or trying the body shot.  If the conditions are correct for one of those shots, then by all means.  But doing it because you are nervous or bored, seems wrong.  Learning to dink for a long time is a good skill to have.  Lowers pulse and blood pressure, not a lot of running and you'll be admired by all who watch.  If you learn to dink aggressively and can fluster opponents, then you are on your way to greatness.  A path that we all might want to tread.  To continue our thoughts about a new partner, these tendencies are useful to know as it will help you predict how the play will go and what you might have to do.

Also a big part of the early game is to look at the opponents and think about how the play will go.  (If there is a beginner, then I try not to pick on him or hit hard shots, I'll provide balls that can easily be returned -- I'm happy to have a long rally.  But I also want to not exclude the other player.  Lopsided teams usually exclude one partner for a lot of the play.  This doesn't bother me much when I'm not getting a lot of balls, but others don't share this view.)  Since you are unlikely to talk to partner about how to play and to whom, this is more likely an internal dialog, but one that has value, I think.  Certainly if you are going to play tournaments, then this skill is vital, as would a quick couple of words with partner to suggest strategy.  If things are not going well, use a time out and talk about different ways to play.  Your general play style should have been discussed prior to the tournament, yes?

The middle game can be a bit boring assuming the game is fairly even.  It's kind of a grind to get to the end.  One team might make up ground or move ahead here, usually due to errors accumulating on one side or the other.  Missing serves or netting balls and popping stuff up are what makes the game what it is.  Don't get discouraged if you have a bad couple of shots.  Hang in there and don't try to make up for it by hitting the ball harder.  Nobody really cares about your bad shots but you in a rec game.  We all make the same mistakes.

And then the end game, where each shot becomes more valuable.  So, don't serve out, and be careful about hitting "the winner" if you have a good chance to miss.  Play solidly and be willing to have a long rally.  Make the opponents work for every point.  If you are behind, remember that no lead is safe and comebacks are quite common.  My personal best is to have won from being down 0-9 and 3-10.  It takes steady play and some luck to do it, but never give up.

Ground Strokes Part II

 Zane Navratil is producing some interesting videos on youtube.  His latest was about ground strokes.  He says he sees a lot of folks using just an arm swipe to hit the ball.  What he likes is to use the whole body.

He has a drill for that!  He keeps the non-dominate hand in close contact with the paddle hand.  When the hands are together it will cause you to rotate your shoulders and that will engage the torso and legs and as you go to hit the ball, it should all unwind from the feet up.  I think I mentioned this before, but keeping the hands together when dinking is also a good drill.

This is not a lot different from a good golf swing.

Doing this drill will keep your body pretty compact and not stretched out, which he sees as a good thing.  But if you don't stretch, you'll need to move your feet!

Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sVo62oe35w

Worth a watch.