Here is a situation that occurs often. You are on the serving side and your partner likes to move up to the kitchen line aggressively.
What the early advance from partner does is split your side's defense and will created the dreaded middle diagonal gap.
For example, assume I'm on the left side of the court and I'm going to be hitting from deep transition area, could be third shot or fifth. The ball is not too difficult to return, so targets are selectable. Both opponents are at the kitchen and when their return comes back, your partner will be at the kitchen too. You'll be coming up, if your shot is reasonable.
So, where to hit it? If you hit the ball at the opponent in front of you, you provide access to a cross court shot through the gap. This is very difficult to defend and it's likely the end of the point.
A much better shot for you to choose is to hit cross court to the opponent in front of your partner, or the middle right. I like a drop shot here. A too high shot will let them beat up on your partner. So you need to make a reasonably good shot (unless you don't like your partner, and in that case, a nice high fat, soft one is called for).
But the point here is that the opponents will have to hit to the wall of your defense, and not at the gaps.
If your partner doesn't move up early, then the return target is less critical. With both of you basically back, you can assess the shot and move up or stay back together, which is classical pickleball. If it's a good drop, for example, you will both be sprinting to the kitchen.
I really, really like a third shot drop since it protects partner and allows partner to be forward. If partner knows a drop is coming, he can be at the kitchen and ready for any pop up, dink, or soft return.
This whole early movement thing is important and talking it over with your partner is good idea. If you do it in sync and well it's quite useful, but if done badly, you are at a huge disadvantage.
Interestingly, I've seen a lot of this early, aggressive net rush from players with not a lot of experience. It's as if there is a rule out there that this is the standard play. Someone is teaching it, as it doesn't seem organically obvious to me. But I like it and it's effective with assuming caveats of fast enough hands and a partner with a good drop shot.
With new partners that are still learning (as am I) I suggest when we are serving the player that gets the 3rd shot moves up based on the quality of the shot. Crab walk or more up quickly as appropriate. Knowing the difference is important and is a learning experience. Just moving up on the third shot regardless is a low percentage play in my opinion and experience. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteBasically, I totally agree with your algorithm.
DeleteThe third shot is the pivotal moment, usually. I would add to that, that the entire serving side should be 1) looking to move up, 2) Move together as far forward as possible, 3) Only move up if the third shot looks to be good or OK -- stay back to defend if the third is a drive or a bad drop.
If the 3rd shot looks to be great, then the serving side wants to be as far forward as possible.
One more point, if your partner is going to hit the third and usually does a good job, then it's good play to move up early. Don't be afraid to hog the middle of the court!
One more situation that occurs frequently in a rec game is that the player who hits the second ball stays back. In that case, the third should be hit to that person and both servers advance -- this is a dream start to the point from the servers' point of view. The third shot in that case needs to be a bit deep, but does not have to be hit hard. The more lobby this shot is, the more time you've got to advance.
Hope this helps with your game. It's all my opinion, of course! - Rich