Spin Generation and Paddle Control

 If you watch Angel or Jose Marie, they have a smooth and efficient service motion.  The paddle seems not to be controlled as for a hit, but more like a swing.

If you play golf for example, the club is designed to hit the ball as long as you don't interfere with it much.  This, the physicists tell me, is due to the weight and length of the club.  A baseball bat will not swing in this automatic fashion and the forearms have to rotate to help the hitting motion by "squaring the bat."  You might notice that baseball players have big forearms.

Also, long drive golfers have the same problem and can't swing like a normal player.  They have longer clubs, or at least they did, there are new rules to limit length, but once upon a time they were quite long and also required some forearm "work" to square the club.

How does this affect us students of the game of pickleball?  The racquetball player has this flipping motion.  If this is to create more speed or is required to square the racquet, I don't know.  

I've been playing with this with a pickleball paddle and I think that the less wristy you are with the paddle, the more speed you will get out of it as you get a snap to propel the ball.  I find it difficult to trust this swing, so it's an effort, but it seems to work.

Spin...

One of the things I've noticed in dinking is that when I expect to see topspin on a ball hit with my forehand, it comes out as a sidespin to the left.  Which means I'm closing the paddle and wrapping it around the ball -- the paddle is pointing a bit to the left of the target line.  So my forehand dink is a lot like the above topic in that I'm getting in my own way by closing the face of the paddle.  I'm fighting this tendency.  I would like to have a forehand roll and the sidespin instead of the topspin is a problem.

I can see this when dinking but not so much with ground strokes, however I'm sure I'm doing there too.  Today I hit a bunch of ground strokes where I was able to properly produce topspin.  As a third shot, a medium speed top spin shot is quite effective as it will dip below the net level.

So watch the spin you are producing when dinking.  Make sure you are producing what you want to and change wrist/paddle angles and strokes to make it so.

Dink Issues? Here is a New Way to Think of Them...

 In this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0InHucmYYEA

John Cincola talks about catching the ball then throwing it as a dinking method.  He extrapolates to the full swing and it looks quite useful.

I'm going to try this as I struggle to get the old ball back over the net on occasion...

Also I've been drilling a bit and one of the things practiced is to get in a bad position and encourage folks to hit the ball hard at me.  It's to simulate the defense against a smash.  The practice is quite useful and I managed to get a couple back yesterday that I ordinarily would have thought a lost cause.

With this new ability, I am less fearful of a too high third shot drop.  Hey, if they hit it hard, I'll get some of those back, so no big deal.

I looked a pro match, men's doubles and they hit poorish drops about 10% of the time.  We rec players should probably be fairly happy with 30 or 40 percent or so.  Obviously more is better, but you've got to hit some bad ones before you can hit 90% in.

A Learning Experience

The other day I played with the same four people for three and a half hours.  We mixed up partnerships, but for five games the players were fixed.

There were a couple of things that came out of this.  It was possible to adjust to the shot speed of the game.  The propensities of the players became better known.  There was enough repetition in the point patterns that I could improve my consistency and also I could change my shot selections.  

One of my faults is in swinging at the ball instead of blocking or pushing it.  This shot comes up when at the kitchen  line and you get a drive or medium speed shot from the baseline or middle court.  Swinging at it is ok, but if the timing is a bit off then a net ball or out ball is common.  A block or push provides more control and results in a shorter shot.  

Shorter, softer shots have their own appeal.  Good opponents are used to fast balls, ones where they have to move their feet and generate their own power can cause them problems.  And, of course, a shot that lands in the court is highly preferable to one that misses.

After a lot of play, it morphed into some cat and mouse play.  If you did the same thing every time, or you were expected to do the same thing every time, defenses were created and it became essential to vary shots.

And finally there was a fair amount of dinking and soft play, which I enjoy and don't see much of usually.  

One of the joys of this game is finding compatible levels and playing for an extended time.  It's a different game.

I've been thinking about what happens when all the new courts come on line in Livermore and other local towns.  Will certain levels move to May Nissan and others remain at Downs?  Another scenario is that the drop in games dry up as the people scatter.  Then getting a game up might be a task to arrange and schedule four players.  It's not clear what will happen and I'm curious.  And how long could a group of four have a court?  One game, an hour, a morning?  

But whatever happens it should cut down on waiting for a court.  But it might change to waiting for a player to show up.  

That is the tradeoff; as it is now, you can always find a game to play in, but the competition might not be perfect and there may be some waiting.  I'm very happy with how it works now, with the waiting being the main problem.  Mixing of skill levels is less of an issue.  I see playing with newer players as an investment in future players, so I'm willing to spend some of my playing time doing it.  The pickleball players are wonderful regardless of ability and it's been a joy to know and play with this community.

Third Shot Drops

I was watching some of the pro women playing and I was keeping track of how many third shot drops actually bounced in the kitchen.  I was surprised to note that about 60% of the drops actually bounced.  The others were volleyed.

When the drop shot is volleyed then the point becomes one of "keeping people at their own baseline" as much as possible.  

The point I would like to make for us folk trying to get better, is that most drop shots are not going to be perfect.  Maybe what we should be expecting from our drops shots is that they are good enough.  I would say that if you get a chance to hit a fifth shot then your third shot drop was a success.  Add bonus points if you managed to advance into the court by a step or two.  You need to be brave with third shots and not worry about hitting a too high/deep one.  I've found that the follow through has to be quite high, if not I'll drop them into the net almost every time.  I played a game with Angel and when he hit a shot that might come back hard from a less than perfect drop, he would say "Look Out."  And indeed, he said it a number of times.  This is nothing unusual regardless of your level.  Get rid of the angst and try to drop.

I was playing a point today and my partner scampered up to the net and put away the fifth shot.  All good, of course.  He remarked that he felt empowered to do so as he expected a good third shot drop from me.  Well, he got one that time and was able to end the point.  It might have been different if I didn't deliver.

A number of players have the view that advancing to the kitchen is always a good thing if their partner is going to hit the third shot.  I am of mixed mind on this one; no, I take it back, I don't think this is a good thing.  It's a great idea if the third shot is going to be good.  But it's a bit tough to see into the future as Yogi Berra mentioned one time.  And if the pros miss 40% of the drop shots, what is the percentage at the Downs?  So we have amateurs who are venturing where pros fear to tread...

As a general philosophy I would argue to 1) be ready to advance if your partner hits a good third, 2) be ready to retreat if the third is bad, 3) or step into the court a bit if the third looks reasonable but expect to defend a volley.  Bottom line, wait close to or behind the baseline until you can evaluate the third shot.

I would "play" this point differently depending on a couple of things.  Let's say the serve was really good and the return was not, then the third shot will be easier and access to the kitchen should be available.  With a weak/short second shot, you ought to be able to aggressively move from the baseline to the kitchen most of the time.  I would suggest that your goal ought to be to move to the kitchen and not try to win the point outright.  

Frequently the person who hits weak second shot will stay back, a bad error in my estimation, and they usually can be punished for this by returning a deep shot to their side of the court.  If you can keep them off the kitchen and your side can get there, you've done well.  Again, don't try to win the point, just get up and keep them back if possible.

When the chance to advance comes, both of you must advance and do it quickly.  If you are not hitting the ball, then you can move up ahead of partner and get ready (balance, paddle position, court position, middle coverage, etc.) for the fourth shot to come back assuming partner is on the same page in re shot selection.  The shot selection should be to make things awkward for opponents, hit something that can't be attacked, but rarely trying to win the point.  Think placement over power.

If you adopt this framework it will make the fifth shots easier to handle and you and partner will be moving to the kitchen more easily.

One last point is what that third shot should be.  Is it drive or drop?  It shouldn't matter much.  Because partner should be waiting to see what you will do and how successful it is before moving.  I think if you drop always, it's easier for partner to get ready and you'll usually be able to advance to the kitchen more quickly.  You don't want a hitting battle when you are at the baseline and the opponents are at the kitchen.

A Bit More on Dinks

One of the topics I've not talked about in re dinking is keeping the arms and elbows close to the body.

This is part of the theory that you don't want to stretch for any shot.  Either be in position, or let it go to your partner.  

So we are in the ready position, relaxed, paddle up, and elbows at our side.  The ball comes and we scuttle crab like to a position where we can extend an arm in front of us and return the shot.  The pros are great at this, they move, they extend the paddle and then there is a hit that provides the energy for the shot.  The paddle looks to be within a few inches of the ball when the stroke is started.  It's not long, but it's there.  Watch Bryan for this, he does it great.  (He was by today and I had a chance to marvel...)

We let the paddle follow through back to the ready position and we scuttle to get back to a stopped position where we are ready for a possible returned ball.

I took part in the Drills and Skills today with the TriValley PB Club and I didn't think about all of this until late in the day.  There was a lot of dinking involved, but technique was not discussed.  When I thought of this and tried it, I was very consistent.  Now, I didn't hit a lot of shots with this nor in a game, so my fear is that good cross court shots might be out of reach.  But if I am better balanced by a good position, it might just take some effort to get used to the movement needed to cover the wide shots.  Dinks that are in the middle and easily in reach were not a problem.  Being more ready provides more time to return the shots.  I liked the shots I hit with this.  They were easily controlled and calmer with the additional time I had.

I mentioned this to the other Rich today and he pointed out that I'd have to move my feet more -- so there are probably problems right off the bat -- sad, so sad.

I hit some ground strokes with this too.  Keep close to the ball and use more torso rotation instead of an arm swing or a wrist flip.  A short swing is important if you are going to rotate as it is easy to hit the ball out -- personal experience speaking.  :-)

Top of The Pyramid

 I was hitting golf balls the other day, my other problem in life beside pickleball, and it struck me how much getting the club head on the golf ball properly was a big part of the whole thing.

Then my mind wandered to PB and I recognized early the importance of a paddle with a large sweet spot.  I would say that my paddle quest has been looking for a larger sweet spot with spin production and touch second and third.  I'll toss sound in there somewhere too, I like the paddle to be quiet.

From the driving range to the pickleball court is a short drive, but the need to hit either ball correctly seems interwoven.

It is frightening how often I miss-hit a pickleball.  Edges, throat, top of the paddle are all in a day's work.  It is nice when they work out, but I think I'd be better served to hit the ball better.

I played a game with a new guy.   "I hope you don't mind a beginner," he said.  "How much of a beginner?" I asked.  "I've played 10 games," he said.  Well, hmm, that is a real specific number.  I don't know anyone outside of Randy, who tracks that kind of thing.

And a beginner he was.  After the game, it looked like he was going to have the first sit out and I suggested he take a ball and practice bouncing it up and down.  There is feel, wrist control, concentration, watching the ball, and paddle attitude to learn with this.  And he went off to do that.  He played in some other games later.  I hoped the practice helped.

It is probably a good exercise for all of us to do that on occasion.  

I was also thinking that I ought to judge all shots on just how well I hit them, rather than their point generation characteristics.  If I remember I'll spend a day and work just on that.  I have the TVPC dinking school tomorrow and I'm thinking that solid hits pays big dividends there too.  

The class was on drills and skills.  I thought about the sweet spot for a bit, but then got caught up in the drilling.  I did mention it to one of my drilling partners and he agreed with it.  

The question is how to hit the ball better.  The golf way is to make sure I accelerate through the hitting area.  This will stabilize the club head and you'll get better results.  I've seen video where they stressed hitting through a pickleball.  Another way to think about this, is to not manipulate the paddle as it contacts the ball.  Set the wrist angle and maybe the shoulder joint and rotate your body to bring the paddle to the ball.  You certainly don't stop as you make contact.    This implies that there is a momentum transfer towards the target and if that helps you move to the next place on the court, then this is a good thing.  

A final point, as I'm leading into the next post which is going to tie this stuff to dinking, you need to be the right place for all this to happen as you would like it to happen.  Doing at a full lunge is not what you want.  Movement and anticipation once more shows up.  

So more exploration needs to be done here, but I'm thinking this is important and useful.  I would think that racquet ball players would be very good at this as they don't worry about hitting a ball too hard - so no last minute "yipes" thoughts, which show up in golf and in PB. 

Beginner to Something Else

 When you start out there is a lot to learn.  Let's talk about service returns for a moment.  Where should you hit the service return?

Well, over the net is a real good start - not always easy to do.  The step after that is to know where to hit it.  If you look up this question as I did on YouTube a couple of years ago, the answer you will find is "up the middle."

Two years later I still embrace this suggestion.  Return up the middle, slightly cross court if you can and as deep as you can without going out --  better shallow than too deep.  And it's still a good idea to clear the net by a bunch.  The opposition has to let it bounce and you should take full advantage of that.  The higher you hit it, the more time you will have to run up to the kitchen line -- you were going to do that, of course!?

Let's talk third shots - you've served, the ball has come back and now you get to hit it again.  Where o' where?  How about the middle?  Yes, it's a fine location for third shots too.

I could ramble on and on here, but hitting the ball up the middle is a great place to hit it.  Like a good joke, it never gets old.

I guess I wouldn't extend it as a blanket suggestion for dinks, but for all the other shots, you will not see a raised eyebrow if you choose the middle of the court.

This post is a bit short, so I'll expound about what happens when you decide to hit for a sideline.  If you do that, you will need to control two things with your shot.  You have to hit it in, which means its velocity has to be high enough to clear the net and low enough not to go out.  The sidelines are running at an angle to your shot and too much heat and you are the loser.  PB, as in life, if curves cross there is an event.

Now hitting to the corners gives you a bit more length for your shot, but it also provides your opponents with more angle to play with when they return it and the point may change in texture rather quickly.  Thus, prepare for up the line shots, cross courts and if they are reading this, shots up the middle -- still effective when a ball has come to a corner.

If your opponents are at the net, then the direction of your shot is less important than how low you shot is.  You want the opps to be hitting from below the net.  Worry less about direction and more about how much droop the ball has.  I was playing on court four today and watching a bit of what was happening on court three, the most effective shots I noticed on both courts were the softest as they had to be returned from below the net.

Final word...  Your opponents from the Downs are all reading this and they will be hitting the ball up the middle to you.  The next really important thing you want to understand is middle coverage.  There are a number of posts about that.  Someone on your side has to have responsibility for the middle at all times.  When you are moving up the kitchen line, it's usually a good idea to run up the middle stripe or angle towards it.  And if you were returning a serve, your partner should be stepping towards the middle of the court too.  

Control the middle and control the kitchen!  It's such an easy game!

Ground Stroke Technique

 I was watching the women's golf medal match for the Beer City open (link below).  The opening scene was the gals warming up.  They are both ex-pro tennis players.  What caught my eye was the technique used for hitting ground strokes.

The technique is not not use your arm as the means to create the swing.  The gals' arms stayed directly in front of them as if reaching to shake hands.  The stroke was performed by rotating the shoulders and probably the torso and hips to get about a 90 degree rotation of the shoulders.  The paddle didn't get behind the body except for the wrist cock.  Then as appropriate to the hit, the body rotates back, starting with the legs and walking up the rest of the body and the arm just comes along with the shoulders.  That leaves the arm in a very stable position, the elbow is close to the side -- think of hanging naturally down from the shoulder.  The elbow is bent with the arm in front and the paddle back in the ready position.

The power created was just fine.  They were hitting the balls back and forth with no attempts to put a shot away, but they were not hitting soft lobs to each other.

I was wondering if they were actually using this during the game and I took another look at the video.  They were indeed using a body swing during play.  This is most easily seen during the serves and service returns.  Certainly if you can get into the proper location to hit a ground stroke, then you would like to do it with your body for a number of reasons - easy on the elbow, less body distortion and less recovery to get back to the ready position.

Note that there is a bit of loose wrist as the paddle gets into a position where to provide a hit or snap as they rotate through the shot  - there is probably no attempt to help the paddle close to the ball.  (Added Bonus: If you are a golfer, this is basically the golf swing too.  You want arms to move with the body too, the club hinges back to provide more energy.  The two swings are very consistent with each other.)

Next time out, think about a turn and not just sticking your arms or hands out to hit the ball.  We might not be able to be pros, but at least we can try to look like them!  It's on the top of my list for Monday.

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5_y9ABkC08

Another Bit of Tony Wisdom

 I've talked a bit before about what to do when things don't go well.  It's easy to feel discouraged when you don't win much on the day.  Tony had a couple of comments on this.  I think he was talking to Brandon and I was near by, eavesdropping...

There were three things that come into play with this.  One is how good the opponents are - in other words you might have played well, but you still got beat badly.  The contrapositive to this is if you were the better or best player in the game, it's easy to feel good about what happens.  You don't get punished for all your mistakes and you might not get a lot of balls hit to you, so you had less chance for error.

The final point is you might be having an off hour or day and reacting to that.  I think the :first game warmup" theory is well founded.  You need to warm your body and get your head in the game.  Don't judge the day by that first game.  I think the first game I played with Tony last year, I had three quick errors.  I said, "Don't worry, it will get better."  And it did and if I recall it properly, it was a pretty good game.

But back to playing poorly...  The game is one of mistakes and the difference between a good or great shot and an error is quite small.  The more you strive to hit a winner, the more likely you are going to err.  If you want to look like a great player, hit nothing but high percentage shots and don't pop anything up!  All easier said than done, of course.  Proper shot selection is the path to greatness.

I wanted to pass along what Tony said about this situation, and that was "you have to play through the tough patch."  Never give up and expect the next shot to be better.  One of the problems is that we humans see patterns in everything and if we have a series of mistakes, assume that more will follow.  What we want to do is to think of each shot attempt to be an independent event.  Don't let bad shots create more bad shots.  Some compensation of technique is unavoidable, but over compensation is equally bad.  Better to be loose, relaxed, and optimistic.  Not always easy to do.    

I played a point recently and my partner hit a bad shot.  Then he hit one more or was just looking pensive and remarked, "I was thinking about the last point."  A chill went up my spine, the sky clouded over a bit, the sun dimmed, the earth shook, and my vision blurred.  I was scared and stammered out a reply along the lines, we'll get the next one!  Hopefully in an upbeat manner.

And thinking about the last shot got in the way of playing the next point.  It's best to go with the goldfish model of memory retention - only save the last eight seconds or so.  In pickleball that might be a lot of shots, and it seems that eight second stuff was wrong actually, but only think about the next shot, never the last.  

This is why great players have trouble remembering the score and who is serving -- that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Oh Boy, Lots to be Done

 I've been interested in getting some instruction to improve my PB game.  I spent a half an hour with Tony from Mexico.  Tony is related to a couple of the Down's players, Jeff and Brandon, and he was gracious and invited me to a half hour drilling and practice session.

It was an eye opener.  I was happy to get some criticism of my game, there are a bunch of weak spots, and some idea of a path forward.

There was also a comment that Tony reported twice during the session about dinking that resonated with me and I had not heard it before.  Let me pass on the comments and some of the collateral thoughts that might stumble behind in its wake.

The idea is that when dinking you don't ever want to dink directly as someone.  Always make them move to one side or the other.  

There are a couple of reasons for this.  This first is that if the dink is well placed you might get a weak return that you could attack just because they might overextend and lean rather than move their feet.

Secondly, one of the goals for all PB shots is to create some separation between the opponents that you could exploit.  So dink cross, dink to the middle, make them move and wait for a middle shot or pop up to win the point.

Now, this is all great but it requires that you can dink a bunch without popping up yourself or dumping one into the net.  A modicum of consistency is required, which leads us to another point.

Tony mentioned that before he serves he the first three shots all decided.  Serve there, return here, and (plan A) a drop to this position, usually the middle.  That gives you the first five or so seconds of a point already figured out and all you have to do is execute it.  What you also don't get with this sort planning is the issue of "I changed my mind," which is heard occasionally after dumped shot.

Tony has some additional plans based on the opponents doing some thing wrong, for example a weak service return which could change the third shot drop into a drive, or the service returner doesn't advance to the kitchen line, and then the plan would be to keep them back and maintain the gap between the opponents, which could be exploited later in the point.

All of the time at this training session was spent at the kitchen line.  Blocks were the item of the day.  And I'd noticed that I don't block or even push much as I like to roll the backhand.  It is a gap in my game and needs fixing.

If we look at a shot from the kitchen line we have a progression of shots.  Let's put them in order of how far the ball will travel usually.  We have dink, block, push, roll, and hit/swing.  All of these have their uses and well rounded player should be able to pick and choose as required.

My general tendency is to roll or swing, which are effective unless they are not the best shot.  Then the ball comes back more awkwardly than I would like.  I have the bruises to prove it.

Dink is a gentle push or lift to move the ball into an awkward spot or to reset if out of position.

Block is an attempt to take a ground stroke from the opponents and drop it into the kitchen.  It takes a soft grip and you don't want to attempt to speed up the ball.  So no pushing or swinging at it.  It is also vital as a reset when the ball is sped up.  We all know the players who dislike dinking and love to hit.

Push is like a block, but you will add to its speed with a pushing motion where the paddle stays on the line to the target.

The roll is where a lot of top spin is applied the ball, its trajectory might be fairly deep to kitchen line in depth.   It's nice to have as the ball rarely goes long and it will dip a lot so if you can find your opponent's feet, it is difficult to return.

Swing -- you have time and the space and a great ball position to give it a whack.  You will usually have to hit down on this shot as it's generally a fairly high ball and will be moving quickly after being hit, so it's not going to drop, you'll need to drive it down into the court.

I'm going to work on the blocks for a while.  Tony passes along the image of a baseball catcher, waiting for the ball to come to him.  Loose grip, no effort to speed up the ball.  Good for resets and frustrating the drives from the baseline.

Finally, he mentioned the other day that my paddle position was a bit low when at the net.  I've been working on that and it has gotten better and it looks like I have faster hands.  All good.

Thanks Tony for sharing your knowledge and insights.

It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity

 I got a Garmin golf watch a couple of years ago and it also does some body monitoring things.  One is heart rate and another is steps.

There is an app for it.  If you input your weight and age it can calculate calories burned and bodily stress.  

I find watching the heart beat chart to be quite interesting.  My maximum rate for pickleball is dependent on the heat and humidity.  Basically a cooling function rather than a circulatory muscle oxygenation thing, or so it seems.

Pickleball is the most strenuous activity I have going.  It's not unusual to play three hours or so with little break.  Usually a maximum rate of the mid 120 is about all I can reach.

However today I hit 153 as the maximum rate.  I found this surprising as it wasn't that hot this morning, but it was muggy.  I wasn't the only one affected, another player was talking about being dizzy and another retreated to the shade to cool off.  This is the highest rate I've ever seen.

Other than the heart rate, which I didn't notice while playing, I felt fine with the heat.  It is a curious thing that the closer the game, the higher the heart rate.  Perhaps concentration requires more blood to the brain than an easy, relaxed game.

The watch also tracks strenuous exercise minutes.  I'm supposed to get 150 per week.  But today... I got to 79 minutes that are considered to be moderate and 68 strenuous and I get double minutes for those.  So all told today was 215.  Done for the week all in one day.  Not sure that's a good thing.

It's about 8:30 and I'm not feeling any effects of day's workout.  I also hit a bucket at the golf driving range and had a late afternoon pickleball game too.  A busy day and I've drunk some fluids, but all in all ready to do it again tomorrow.  I didn't use any of the electrolyte powders today.  The jury is still out as to my needs along those lines.

See you all on the courts!