Pickleball 101 Instruction Thoughts

 I helped with a beginners' class a while back.  The format of the teaching has been simplified.  There used to be four or five skills being taught then some play.  This has been altered to dinking, serving, and play.

Dinking is a skill that is not required when starting out, but it's a good introduction to just hitting the ball, using a paddle, using a continental grip, and feeling what it's like to hit a pickleball.  This is  taught first as it should be.  Get them acquainted to trying to hit the ball a short distance with a modicum of control.  Drills that are useful are having them just bounce a ball on their paddle with their forehand, then backhand, then alternate.  Tossing the ball back and forth makes sense as they gain knowledge of the weight of the ball and how little effort it takes to move it.

The serve is a good second skill as it's needed right away and it's a good model for all the ground strokes.  With someone serving, you need a returner and that seemed to work as an implied ground stroke lesson.  

I don't see the need (usually) to get more technical then that.  Everyone has used paddle like things and the conversion to hitting pickleballs is not a large leap.  There are no unique skills in PB that you find in other sports, so letting people play quickly seems to work.  (The case for more technical instruction seems to be the student who has no paddle sport background (or a lot of it, then talk about wrists and spins seems on point).  Then talking about the basic swing and arm position and stuff might be useful.  Most students can hit the ball a bit pretty quickly and getting technical seems to not help.)

I like the idea of teaching just a few things and then letting them play.  After my group all got to serve a couple of times, I had them play and that worked out well.  They got in two and a fraction games, each side winning one.  There were even some rallies.  

As they played we went over the scoring and the serve rotations and basic setup and some movement for a point.  And this was just enough instruction and they got to play longer.  I see this class as means for people to try the game and see if they want to pursue it.  I don't need to talk about keeping dinks less than six inches above the net and the wrist angles for a shot or what a drop is all about.  Those topics are for the people who want to continue.  And a lot of those topics are not useful early on as long as they are playing with other beginners.  

The big problem that all of the players had, was not physically getting to the ball early enough.  The ball is strange compared to tennis, for example, and we don't see a lot of Wiffle balls late in life.  The next skill needed is just getting to the ball.  I see no need to teach it as it's not difficult and players will see the need for it immediately.  

I think the instructional agendum as modified is an improvement.  I think we got them the introduction they wanted, didn't overwhelm with vocabulary or picky details or esoteric skills.  

A Useful Observation or Two or Three

 So I'm playing a couple of days ago, when the courts were dry and God was in his heaven and the bodily heat rose as energy was expended in diligent play.  Ah, what a memory.

I'm play with the other Rich and we are up against some younger, more active, and, er, more bangy players.

We were holding our own and we played two games and split on scores.  Both game went beyond 11 as I recall.  So it's tight and the scoring and points went back and forth.  It was tougher to score than to return and win points on their service.  That's a built in feature of the game and the two bounce rule and I find that a feature.

As mentioned the others were more bangy that we were and when they could hit the hard shots, they were effective.

A lot of points got all parties to the net.  Pop ups were dealt with quickly and precision was the name of the game.

There were two items that presented themselves to me while playing and the first was when the others banged the ball, they were hitting a lot of them out.  A lot of them.  It might easily been 50% or so.  But the problem is that when you are  defending from the kitchen line, letting balls go that are coming in very hard but not necessarily high above the net, is difficult to do.  Your paddle is up and you are trying to return everything.  However a better "ready mode" is one that evaluates any hard ball and decides to let it go.   (You may need to duck too!)

When someone is about to hit it hard, they almost always will telegraph the bigger swing.  Watch the windups and length of backswing for these tells.  

Another important parameter in judging an out ball, is from where was it hit?  It they hit it below the net level, there is a much better chance it's going long.  Any ground strokes where the paddle is below the waist is another clue.  Finally, watch the spin.  If the ball has little top spin and is hit hard, it's probably going long.

I've mentioned in prior posts that looking and expecting out balls is a useful skill.  You can get a good feel for this frequency by watching other matches and see how many were going out and yet were played.

There was one more error that Rich and I were making and I didn't recognize it until the third game.  And that was center coverage.  In the third game, I was deliberate in spending a lot of time straddling the center line.  If not on it, then certainly shifted up to it.  Even with a very good partner, the center of the court needs to be covered thoroughly and I would suggest the even division or symmetrical positioning of defensive coverage is not the best way to play.  

Having one player squeezed towards a sideline and the other on the center is, IMHO, the way to play.  The players will alternate the center coverage based on from where the next ball is coming.  Another advantage of this coverage is that the down the line shot is fully defended.  (Random thought, you might not know where the next ball is going, but you know for sure, where it's coming from...)

This coverage is easily done if when you advance to the kitchen, usually after a service return, you move up and towards the ball, with the moving towards the ball being the important part.  Both defenders of the third shot will shift as required.  There should be a full overlap in the area between the players.  And thus effectively the down the line and the middle shot have been fully armored against attack.  Yes, the far sideline is deliberately left open for the perfect, semi-soft shot, but that's a more than reasonable price to pay.  If they can beat you there, you were not beating them with conventional defense.

Another Illegal Paddle!

 I've been playing the Diadem Vice for a month or so.  I like its quietness and the touch and soft game attributes.  

There is another paddle out there, Ronbus EVA1, that is made of EVA foam and is also not approved for sanctioned tournament play.  I guess the big word there is sanctioned.  If you're interested in these paddles, and they have a lot to recommend them, it's a question of your playing in sanctioned tournaments.  I don't know if the usual tournaments are sanctioned or not.  So caveat emptor.  But you'll feel good with every hit that you're helping with the pickleball noise problem.  :-)

Here is the review of the Ronbus paddle with this construction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbG9knEh1Kc

If you want to try mine, catch me at the courts.  The price of the Vice in the video was $220 or so, it can be had for less than $200.  Get in touch if you want to know how.  

A Discussion about Spin Generation, a Video Link and some Thoughts

 It looks like the rain is almost here on this cool and windy Saturday.  A good time to write.  I guess I need a brandy and a roaring fire to properly set the mood...

John Cincola is a PB pro and has created some good videos, in my view.  He created one on spin generation recently.  I'll link to it here.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjzvVrFy7kA

He didn't get into a lot of depth.  In his view we:

Create top spin with a swing path that is low to high and the paddle is basically parallel to the net (flat face).

Create topspin by swinging parallel to the ground, with the paddle face being open (pointing to the sky).

Basically: we have the difference in paddle face angle and the swing path that imparts the spin to the ball.

My PB game uses a lot of spin.  I come from table tennis, where spin is required on all shots.  I would add some detail to what John has said.  I don't know if he would disagree with me as his video was aimed at beginners.

Firstly he discourages a backspin creation shot that moves high to low.  He called it choppy.  This is my usual production method of hitting a backspin or side spin shot.  I've recently been playing around with his method of swinging flat with an open face.  I like what I'm seeing with the non-chop swing.  I think it's maybe easier to do.  The spin production seems good.  I'm not quite sure about controlling a marginal shot, as it's going to create a pop up.  I've been surprised that the ball doesn't want to pop up be default.  I'm not sure what's happening at impact, but maybe it's like hitting a low shot with a lofted golf club, or the paddle face is grabbing the ball and you're not getting the high bounce off of it.  In any case, the angle of the paddle face is the important variable.  And can a good chop shot create more spin than the flat swing?  I don't know.  It might be useful to have both shots.

His top spin algorithm is fine with me, though I tend to have the paddle face open a touch to get a better lift over the net.  The paddle face angle must be altered based on how high the ball is when you hit it.  The lower it is, the more open the paddle needs to be.  The higher the ball, you'll need to have a flatter paddle and of course, when hitting down on the ball, the paddle face must be closed, and you might still want to hit those shots with topspin, so it's still a high to low swing.  Face angle is crucial.

Final thoughts in swing length.  John while demoing his shots is using almost all wrist to hit the ball.  I ran across a video by the Pickleball Pirates (YouTube) where there was the claim that if you hit the ball with just your wrist, you'll improve your play by four years of experience.  Well, that seems a bit too wonderful, but we've all seen players who come from tennis who have really exaggerated arm and body swings.  

I have some of that, and it's not the best use of my time.  I want the paddle back to ready as soon as possible and a big backswing and follow through take time and effort to get the paddle back.  I like the idea of just fencing with outstretched hands and quick wrist movement.

So those are the two things I'm exploring right now, the flat spin stroke and more of a wristy, in front of me, swing pattern.  Oh, and moving my feet a lot more.