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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