Thinking and Dinking

 The Tri Valley Pickleball Club put on their second Pickleball 101 class today.  This is in cahoots with the Livermore Park District.

I selected dinking as my topic of teaching.  I had been the serving instructor the last two times out.  

I taught five or six groups of four students.  And to my surprise each bit of teaching came out totally differently.  This was based on the skill level of the students for the most part.  While all were beginners, the dinking ability was varied in success.  The ones who got it, were able to do it after very little exposure to the art and science.  I was impressed in the improvement in just minutes, and by minutes, let me guess two or so.

If the group got it, then we played the dinking game, where it was straight PB, but you had to hit the ball in the kitchen.  This was good for the dinking and also as an introduction to the scoring and to switching places after a point had been won.  

There is research about drilling versus playing "a game."  The game scenario has been found to be a better teacher than drilling.  The skills are picked up faster and the retention is also better.  Basically, get them playing something as soon as you can.  

When I thought about how to teach dinking, I was expecting to talk about the lift dink and the push dink, but as it played out there wasn't time to get into it.  What I did pass along was: a quick grip check, then a simplified arm stroke, a target of hitting the ball about six inches above the net.  After that I turned them loose and kept two balls going at all times.  We did cross court, then straight ahead dinks and then basically, the horn sounded to move on to the next skill.

One of the errors that seemed popular is to use the venerable wrist flip at the ball instead of an arm or arm/body movement.  I think that little kids might be more inclined to flail their whole body at the ball.  Perhaps we adults, having used a mouse and keyboard as solutions to things, are apt to be more hand oriented.  Interesting to golfers, this is a common problem in that sport as well.  Trunk and arm movement is easier and more consistent than hand and wrist, but it does not seem to a universal starting point.  Curious.

If one were to teach dinking for an hour or so, how would it be different?  When some of the students were really struggling, I stole an exercise I've seen Kirby use and I had the folks just lob the ball over the net without the paddles.  I think this is a great way for a student to feel the motion and get some idea of the effort required to dink.  This went over well and I think is useful.  Not everyone needed it.

For an hour's lesson, I think I would spend more time to make sure of grips.  Some people's grips deteriorated as they played.  Then I would work on keeping the wrist neutral so that the paddle stayed at an angle to the arm.  Then work more on a ready position and hitting the ball in front of them and being in more of a crouch rather than standing fairly straight.

Keeping the paddle up with a modest follow through would be stressed.  Most of the beginners let the paddle stay low.  Also if you wrist flip, then your arm isn't moving, so a follow through to a ready position is not natural.

Finally, I think putting out some cones to aim for would be useful, one across from the student, then middle, then cross court.  

I enjoyed the challenge of teaching a new topic.  But the lack of time was a frustration.  I don't know what the students will retain.  Perhaps that is every teacher's cross to bare...

An item that I noticed that might be a problem with my own game is to break the wrist when hitting a dink that is coming at your body.  I think I tend to have the wrist flat and I want to present a paddle face that is close to parallel to the net.  Not exactly parallel as I do want the paddle to be pointing to the sky just a bit.  I'll play with this in mind on Monday and see how it goes.  I'm hoping this will eliminate some pop ups.

That's all I know for now.  Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've not had much to say this past week.  

Electrolytes Part 3

 I've done the electrolyte powders for a couple of months.  The first month with Dr. Berg's and the second with Keppi which was pointed out to me by a comment in a prior blog -- again thanks for that!

What's next you might ask and wonder if the stuff actually worked.  And worked, I must emphasis, is for me.

I've got a strange diet going and there is not a lot of veggies, carbs, and fruit in it.  Some some of the electrolytes might be in short supply.

And did it work?  I'm not sure.  What I'm going to do next is take a month off and see how I feel.  If there seems to be no difference, I might do it anyways and I can't see that it hurts to use the stuff, other than expense.

So I leave you hanging once again.

There was a question put to me if I used the powder other places than when playing.  I have somewhat.  If I drink some water before I play, I'll usually add the powder.  I also have used it occasionally after a morning's play.  Since those can be three hours in length and in hot weather, I can see that I might be running low.  Once of the uses of the electrolytes is to help avoid muscle cramps, so I can see that during and post exercise might both be useful.

I have no physical symptoms to pass on.  I've been feeling pretty good lately and that's one of the things I want to watch for deterioration.  I get some hip muscle pain on occasion, and that might be a sign of something or other, so I'm paying attention to it.

That's all I have.  Note that if you order from Dr. Berg, you'll get at least one email a day.  I guess he cares and keeps checking up on me.  It's not all bad, he offers 15% off usually.   :-)  The Keppi product is still cheaper and it's on Amazon.

It's a Fickle Game

 Take a recent pro match, deep into the tournament, mixed doubles I think.  The first game goes 11 to 8 to team A.  It was close and the lead was exchanged occasionally.  It could have gone either way.

The second game goes 11 to 0 for team B.  Team A comes back to win the third is a somewhat close game, but the lead was held by A through out.

Let's talk about the second game.  Or think about it.  How is it possible for a pro team playing well after winning the first game lose so lopsidedly (is that really a word?)?

Meanwhile back at the Downs: 

"How is it going?" I asked.

"Horribly, I just want to go home," said one of many players.  

I've had this same conversation with more than one player.  One day you are 4.0, the next 2.5 and you're wondering where that 1.5 points of ability went to.

My data point from the pro game proves that this happens at all levels of the game and happens in a very short span of time.

I don't know what causes it.  I suspect that the game itself is to blame.  There is so little difference between a great shot and one that hits the top of the net, or between a good shot and one that goes long.

When the gods conspire and you miss a couple of "easy" balls and the opponents decide not to hit any out, the game collapses and you seek the comfort of a sofa and a self help book.  (Sadly, no one has written one about pickleball... "Pickleball for Idiots," "A Pickleball Guide for those who are Lost,"  "The Inner Game of Pickleball,"  "The PB Players Guide to Reclaiming Greatness,"  "How to find your Mojo")

The next problem we human have, if something is not working we try something else.  Making broad changes to adjust for tiny problems is a fool's errand.  The ball that hits the tape and comes back is half an inch from toppling over for a point.  What change can you make that will give you that extra half inch?  If you work it out, please let the rest of us know.  Toss in some wind, a different ball, a bad bounce, some more wind, an opponent you'd live to beat, the skip off the line, and it's a strange game to try for perfection.

So what should you do when you are running too cold for comfort?  I'd suggest that you ignore it and play your game.  This is difficult as our brains are not setup to do the same thing and expect different results, but every shot is pretty much unique, so even if you try to do the same thing, it's likely that you can't.  Trying random things is not a good strategy.  Stick to your usual game and hope your shots start coming over, and the opponent's start hitting the tape and going long.

---

Having said all of that, it still might be that your game has issues.  There are shots that are safer than others, have larger margins of error and you don't want to cause yourself silly unforced errors.  The first one is a serve.  Not too many have serves that can't be returned, but all of us serve out on occasion.  There is no excuse for netting a serve.  There is no need not to give yourself lots of room over the net, so use it.  Learn to hit a bit of top spin and never miss a serve short again.

The next shot that requires less than prefect technique is the second shot.  You would like to hit a screamer deep down the middle, but since the ball must bounce, here again is a lot of room over the net, so never hit the second shot into the net.  A high floating return is just fine and it gives you more time to get up to the kitchen line.

The first and second shots are special and kind and gentle; try not to lose points by doing silly things with them,  Get them in and back and worry about the rest of the shots, which do require more care and net flirtation.  Embrace these shots as bit of breather, hit them with safety in mind and not out right performance.  

Grip Pressure

 So I'm watching this golf video and the guy, John Erickson, is talking about grip pressure.

The old saw in golf and pickleball is that it's a loose grip that sails the ship and if you're clutching the grip, it won't work.

Now John thinks this is wrong.  While the gentle grip might be correct if you hit the middle of the golf club face, it doesn't work very well if you miss the sweet spot, aka in the real world.  He has video to prove his point.  I could run on and on for a couple of paragraphs about the the club twisting and the ball angle being much worse with a loose grip.  John is on YouTube and you can look it up if you are inclined, but the differences are dramatic.

I was thinking about this and wondered if PB paddles would match some of this phenomenon.  One of the things I don't like about PB paddles is the size of the sweet spot.  Shots that are out at the edge of the paddle will cause it to twist and the energy transfer goes way down.  Might this be the reason for a lot of netted shots?  Quite possibly, a short dink with a small swing, and top it off with a miss-hit and then have a loose grip and we are talking about an "in the net error!"  I don't know about you all, but I hit the fringes of the paddle quite often.

I mentioned this to Tony, who is visiting the Downs from Mexico and he pointed out that a loose grip was good for softening up shots and let me talk about that for a moment.  If you are blocking a hard shot and want to hit it back deep into the court, then a firm grip will provide more speed and thus depth.  But loosen the grip and now you kill the shot and can turn your opponent's drive into a drop.  This is a useful tool.  Hand pressure thus acts like a pressure moderator for a hit.

I haven't played with this too much, but I'm thinking that a firm grip might be useful for a lot of shots and might save an error or two.  So give it a try and see what works for you.

Allen and I Disagree

 Allen and I have a philosophical difference.  The question is when hitting the second shot, AKA the service return, if you should always move to join your partner at the kitchen line.

I am of the opinion that you should always go forward regardless of the quality of your return as the positional advantage is too great to pass up even if the service return is not good.  Since the service side must let the ball bounce, I feel this provides enough protection and time to allow an advance.  

Allen's view is that if you return a deep shot advance, but on shorter balls stay back so that you can more easily deal with the third shot.

Let us explore the various cases and see if we can resolve this question...

Deep Returns:

1) No one disagrees that if you hit a good service return you should move up to the kitchen line. 

Middle Returns:

2) How about a mid court return that is spiny and doesn't bounce high?  We would still want to be up at the KL since a low ball must be hit up to clear the net, it also can't be hit too hard as it would carry past the back line.  If we can get to the KL, the net protects our feet from attack.

3) Mid court top spin shot?  These shots tend to bounce a bit higher and are more easily returned.  However they also tend to bounce aggressively towards the baseline, so in effect a mid court shot with top spin will tend to push the servers back a bit and if that happens, we again want to be up at the KL.

Short Returns:

4) We are left with short second shots.  If the second shot is low, then we get net protection and we still want to be up to punish any high thirds.  

5) If the second shot is short and with cut spin we are still in better shape than if we stay back.  

6) If the second shot is mishit and and is very high and looks like a lob gone bad, you can make a case that you'd prefer to return it from further back.  A shot that goes off the edge of a paddle usually is spinning a lot and is a tough shot to return.  I'd still rather be up than back.

Second Shot Lobs (and bad ones at that):

In fact the only shot where you would like to field from the baseline is an over head.  So if a second shot resembles a bad lob and is going to bounce quite high (more on this later), then sure, stay back.  

Things that Happen and Most are Not Good:

More generally let me comment on what happens if you stay back.  Note that your partner is at the KL and you've chosen to contest a point with the partners split.  This provides a nice corridor for the opponents to hit at, splitting the defense.  Even when you manage to return the third ball, you must return a good shot that doesn't imperil partner, not does it allow the shot up the open slot. The response in this case would be a fourth shot that drops in front of your partner.  If you manage that, I think you need to quickly get to the KL and expect a dink shot back.

If you stay back to return a third shot, good opponents will always try to keep you back on the baseline by hitting only to you and as deep as they safely can.  And what does that allow them to do?  Hmm?  Perhaps they will move to the KL while you are working from the back line?  Then your partner is up, you are back and both opponents are at the KL.  How many points are you going to win from there?  

Is it Possible, an Overhead Third?

Here are my comments on hitting a second shot that ends up providing opponents with an overhead.   Since the opponents have to let ball bounce, I think it might be impossible to hit a ball that will bounce over say seven feet in the air.  I don't think it's possible.  I'll test this soon.  If I'm correct on this, worst case is some kind of drive from a short position.  You might be able to block it from the KL, and it might be dinked back, or it may well go long.  

Let's flip this around some more.  If you had to defend a ground stroke, would you prefer to be at the KL and block the shot or at the backline and then try to keep the opponents from advancing?

Advice From an Expert:

Finally, I looked at the video called 

Doubles Pickleball Strategy 101-How to Play Smart Pickleball, Ten Tips

The link will be below.  Let me quote a bit, "Tip 3, after returning the serve, advance to the non-volley zone...  

There are no exceptions to this rule."

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ceh-7DI1Y

I'm open to any discussion...

Zane's Point About Center Coverage

 Zane Navratil has a series of good PB videos on YouTube.  He gets to the point, doesn't cover too much, they're quick, and not very repetitive.

The last post I saw was on covering the middle, which is a topic close to all players' hearts.  

The situation that he covers is one where the ball will be hit from off center.  The player in front of the hitter must move over to cover most of the down the line shot - but not all of it.  More on that in a moment.  and the other player has to shift over to avoid the center coverage gap.

The big point that Zane makes that I had not heard before, is that your team should cover most of the shots that the hitter can hit with a hard shot.  We have most of down the line covered and the middle.  We will allow Paul, oops, the opponent to hit the one in ten shot down the line and reward him for his fine shot.  In exchange for giving up on that shot we take away the other nine shots that are on our alley.

The same for the middle.  Due to the angles involved there may be some double coverage between the defenders, and we are willing to give up a wide shot.  Why that shot?  Because the ball can't be hit hard cross court as the side line comes into play.  If the hitter goes for it, we can watch it go wide and if it's soft we might be able to run it down.

I might suggest that the center defended faces the hitter a bit and might want to take a step backward to get more time to defend.  Zane doesn't mention that, but I think it's a strategy worth trying.  I have no data to back it up, but it seems to provide a better defensive setup.

Here is the link to the post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC44JwoyudU