A Couple of Quick Tips

 I've taught a bunch of the PB-101 players over the last year and it's a bad teacher who can't learn something from his students.

Usually I've had the "no racquet sport players," but I got some of the tennis and whatever else players the last two times out.  It was better in that I had them playing games in about 15 minutes.  The stuff I had to impart were more oriented to scoring and some of the rules, rather than how to get the paddle on the ball.  It was nice change.

The players this last time, were quite good at stepping into their serves.  If you are right handed, then gather yourself to serve, step forward onto the left leg, then continue that forward motion to impart some momentum into the serve.  

Strangely, this step motion is not universal amongst all you more advanced players.  It is more common with the gals than the guys.  Maybe a strength thing or something.  But it's a very useful habit for a couple of reasons.  One is that you're using some body motion to add speed to the stroke, and secondly, there is a longer, smoother sequence of actions to produce the serve.  This will increase consistency.  Melissa does this quite well and there are others.  I've added this to my service motion for more power with no more effort.

New topic!  Angel came by the other day.  It's always a treat to watch him play.  He was dinking with Randy.  What Angel did was keep his paddle pointing almost fully skyward for the majority of his dinks.  His paddle was also well in front of his body.

Now, one would think that an open paddle face would tend to pop the ball up.  I think this is true, but if you hit the shot softly, you can drop the ball closely over the net.  A high, short, soft shot is a good thing as you don't net as many shots and a soft shot does not bounce much and it gets below the net quickly.  I see most people with a paddle closer to vertical, than pointing to the sky.  That tends to create a flat shot, which is more easily returned as it can't be close to the net and it will usually be higher when hit, thus easier to return.  

And the axiom that a pop up is automatically created with an open face does not seem to be true.  The paddle face and ball interaction is not trivial and with a gritty surface and various spins, the initial angle of the ball coming off the paddle is not simple.  Basically you can hit a ball with an open face and have the ball stay quite low.

Next time you are dinking notice how you use the paddle angle.  Angel's way is more like a shovel and that might help your dinks too.

The Master on How to Play

Hi all,

The blog might be slowly coming to an end.  I'm finding myself writing about the same things over and over.  I'm still noting things, for example elbow positions of awkward shots that might generate some thought and a post.  So if you are impatiently awaiting the next post, there will probably some more, but more infrequently.  Predictions are difficult, particularly about the future as Yogi Berra is purported to have said.  

Ok, we journey back the pickleball monastery as Po gets another bit of advice from the Master.

Bonus content: as I was writing the prior sentence I left the o out of another and the spell checker didn't object!  So "anther" is a word, new to me, and sadly of little future use as its definition is of use to botanists and no others, but it's nice to learn something new.

Rich

------

"Master, I am not winning many games," said Po, a monk in the order of the Shaolin temple, pickleball branch.

"Er?  What is your problem Po?" asked the Master.

"I and my team seem to be better than the opponents, yet we lose more games than we should."

"Do you lose when in the lead, Po?"

After some thought, "Yes that does happen often."

"And does you play style change as you accumulate a lead?"

"I think so.  It seems normal to play carefully in the early game.  And if we get a lead, then it's common to become complacent in the middle or late game."

"What is careful play, Po?"

Po stands tall with shoulders back and recalls some of the lessons from over the years.

"As stated in volume 4, chapter 3, of the sacred text, Early Game Play, careful play is based on ball speed control and shot selection."

"Very good, Po.  And why do you do that?"

"To acclimate to the serves and playing styles of the opponents."

"Yes and how will you play after those items are assessed?"

"If they are bangers, sorry for the loose phrase, Master, then my team would dink more and slow down the game with an emphasis on hitting low soft shots.  If they played a soft game we would play that way too and judge if we can out-dink them.  If we can, then we dink.  Otherwise we would try to speed up more and drive more."

"Good Po.  What is the middle game all about?"

"If we have won the early game, we should be on a lead.  Then we wish to continue what is working.  If we are losing, then we must change something, either speed of shots, or placement, or which opponent we attack.  If the game is even, then we would wish to refine our play to do better."

"What refinements are those, Po?"

"As the Masters have written, always hit shots that can't be attacked.  Thus allowing our team to always gain the net, and to avoid having to defend smashes."

"What are the characteristics of the unattackable shot?"

"Low, soft, and usually to the backhand Master."

"Very good Po.  When do you hit the ball hard?"

"When I have no better shot, Master.  As I have been taught, a smash is low percentage shot, unbeloved of the Gods and worthy of little respect."

"Po, you are perhaps a bit harsh.  Save something for lobs.  Heh, heh.  But, yes, a smash or an attempt to put the ball away is exciting for the novice, but the expert realizes that the shot can easily be missed, either into the net or out of bounds.  When master plays master, there is no ball based solely on speed that will trouble a master.  A shot that cannot be returned is one that is perfectly placed.

"As your journey to understanding of what pickleball is, Po, you may come to realize that the essence of the game is the rally and the goal is to make the rally end in your favor, but more importantly, to craft it so that it is interesting, dynamic, and lengthy.

"A rally is made up of a series of shots, selected to manipulate the opponents in their expectations of speed, direction, and reality.  You demonstrate mastery by knowing where the next shot will land, you arrive to field that shot, and your selection of the next shot is to weaken your opponents' court position or mental condition.  Then deliver the shot that cannot be returned.  Note that this shot does not exist until the opponents are off balance, split, or in error.

"To this philosophy, we at the monastery, emphasis the need for control and stability of paddle and mind.  We are happy to block hard shots with no need to panic or need to speed up the ball.  If the opponents are back and expecting speed, we give them soft and short.  If the middle is fertile ground to plow, we use it, if it's covered, then we hit to split the opponents.  Always making them move and hit a different shot every time.

"Strive to be a Master Po.  Always seek to extend a rally and not to end it.  The end will come soon enough and then careful making of the next rally will begin again.  Enjoy and respect that creation.  If you do it correctly, you will create memorable rallies, and not just another point as you see so often down in the village.  Yes, they can hit the ball hard, but sadly, they think that's the key to a good game.  

"It is a game of control, Po.  Strive to get every shot in.  Forgo the smash unless it's impossible to miss.  Make the opponents guess and move and wonder where the next shot will go.  Be creative so that they cannot find a pattern in your play.  These are marks of the Master.  Yes, we make it look easy, but the true mastery is making your opponents feel out of place and awkward.

"Go Po, and do your best.  Seek simple perfection.  Frills are for the future that should not come.  Be so solid that none can stand before you.  Be the player that everyone wants to play with, and against, and yet, cannot beat."

Pickleball 202 Responsibilities, Shots, and Positions

 Responsibilities, Shots, and Positions

If you think about PB as being a bit of a chess match, then position and positional advantage is worthy of discussion.  Summary at the end of the post.

Case 1, Defending against the Third shot

The usual scenario is that the second shot (service return) is hit deep into the middle (of course) and the guy who hit the second shot moves toward the net.  The servers will usually hit the third ball back to the guy moving toward the net.  (Pro tip, be settled when the third shot is hit.  If you can't get up the net a lot, then hit a more "lobby" second shot to get more time to move forwward.  The pros frequently will be sprinting to get into position.)

The proper/aggressive/unfriendly play here is that the guy already at the net should want to poach that third shot in the worst way.  He should be looking for any shot that's above the net that he can cover.  He feels free to cut across the entire court to get to it, and is prepared to move in front of his partner.  The bad way to do this is to stretch and lean to hit the ball, instead take an extra step or two and be in a good position to hit it.  Keep your feet moving as the third is hit and react to it. 

You want to tell the opponents that any weak shot will be poached.  That adds a lot of pressure to third shots, especially if the second shot is deep and or hard.

If you don't poach the third shot, establish a position in the middle of the court if the second shot is in the middle or on partner's side of the court.  If the shot is coming from your side of the court, then you must cover a lot of the line and forsake the middle a bit.  Not to worry, in that case partner is advancing into the middle position.  From partner's point of view, this is the "run towards the ball" rule of thumb, rather than just moving straight ahead to the net.

Case 2, Third Shot Selection to Avoid the Above!

In Case One we saw that any marginal second should be poached.  What to do about that?  I like drop thirds, but they are difficult.  So let's talk hitting the ball harder.

Hitting to the returner is a good shot usually.  In a rec game the returner might not be getting all the way to the net and or might still be moving, making their fourth shot very difficult.  If the returner wants to stay back, and it happens in the best of families, then absolutely hit the ball that direction and make sure the ball is going over the net and in the court.  You've been handed a huge advantage, so don't do something silly like a net ball or hitting too long.  

If your opponents don't poach, then absolutely hit to the returner and keep the ball well above the net.  

If you can hit a top spin shot, this is the time to do it.  If you can make the ball dip below the net, then it doesn't matter where you hit it.  This is a very strong shot and difficult to attack.  Expect a high shot coming back, so be ready to move into the court and volley the 5th shot.

You and partner will move into the court following all reasonable third shots.  If you can hit a deep return to a non-advancing defender, then expect to move all the way up and own the net.

Typically on driven third shots, the returns are not as hard as the drive, i.e., you've gained some advantage.  You follow the shot in towards the ball as you'd like to volley the fifth.  You don't want it to bounce on your side and you're hoping it's been popped up, and you'll volley down into the court.  Even if it comes out low, a soft volley is good as it will allow you to advance further towards the net.  

Your goal as servers is always to get to the net.  Don't hit a huge aggressive fifth shot unless you get a very weak fourth shot.  If you drove the third, then a dink, or softly angled fifth is a very nice shot.  You will not generally be hitting this ball from the baseline, so you should be more accurate with it.  Hitting this shot hard is usually not the best play, think soft and low.  Again, work to get to the net.

The third shot drive doesn't have to be low to the net.  It's better if it is, but most players can't put away a hard, driven shot.  You usually will get a blocked ball that drops at mid court, you then drop or continue to drive.  

Don't worry about that third shot going out as if it's in reach it's unlikely the opponents will duck it.  (They should be looking for an out shot, but usually you'll get away with them.  A future post will be on "How to Hit Out Balls Successfully."  See more on this below.)

If the fifth is returned, you keep volleying and advancing.  It's fine to hit a soft shot off the volley if it gets your side to the net.  Middle shots at any speed will work well in this scenario.  I prefer soft because I want the ball to be below the net when the opponents hit it.  If that happens the next shot has to come up and those balls are easier to hit down into the opponents' feet, as long as you are up at the net.

Note that with a third shot drive you are very likely to be playing the next shot from the transition area.  This is not a bad thing.  Your goal is to get to the net, so look to hit a soft volley if you've got that shot.  It's usually possible to drop to the outside of the court and someone's backhand.  Transition play is an interesting subject.  I like being there as I advance.  When you are warming up, stay in the transition area for some practice.  Most shots are at the net, second most frequent are those in the transition area.

I see a lot of bangers who hit every ball that is remotely high as hard as possible.   The soft shot dropped to a back hand is harder to return than a high hard shot.  They also usually hit the shots with little top spin.  A lot of these shots are going out, even if hit from the net area.  Watch for them.  Most players will wind up to hit the hard shot, be prepared to duck those shots.  Expecting out balls when you see the wind up is good pickleball.

Case 3 Dinking Play

General setup...  The point has settled into some kind of dinking point.  This usually means that the ball will be going cross court most of the time and there will be two players watching the action most of the time.  

The point will change when a dink is going to the middle, has strayed too close to the middle and is high, or the ball is sped up.  The two players not involved in the cross court hitting should be looking for a ball they can intercept.  That ball is up, over the middle and close enough to reach in and slap it.  Hitting this up the middle will usually end the point.

Another task for the non-hitters is to cover the middle.  You don't want to provide a gap for a hard middle shot.  This requires constant side to side movement as the rally goes on.  Face the ball's position.  Note that protecting the down the line shot is not as important.  That is a hard shot to hit and the ball is not moving fast when it is hit there.  There is usually time to cover this shot, expect it, but don't worry about it more than a middle shot.  

Pro tip: How to know where the shot is going...  Watch the paddle angle as your opponent hits the ball.

A rule of thumb would be to be more in the center of the court than the opponent across the net from you, not a lot, but some.  The middle is the danger area.  You will get speed ups in this area, so be prepared to block shots and not hit them.  If the middle shot is not hard, then just gently hitting it back deep into the middle is effective.

Summary:

OK, there is a lot there and it's sometime difficult to understand a lot of this without some diagrams or pictures.  But the executive summary would look something like this:

    Return serves deeply, keep them high over the net, start moving into the court, expect the third shot to be hit to you.

    Third shots should be hit to the service returner usually, but always if they don't move up.  If the opponents don't poach, then hit the third shot conservatively above the net.  Top spin shots are well suited to this.  Drop shots to the middle are fine.

    Fourth shots should be volleyed if possible, because you were moving into the court to follow up on your great third shot!

    At the net, someone needs to watch the middle, always.  Keep your feet moving, face the ball, watch paddle faces.

A Couple of Observations

 I was playing this morning and saw a couple of useful things to pass along.

First, I'm convinced that the majority of errors are due to paddle ball mishits.  If you want to get the ball over the net, you've got to hit the ball fairly close to the center of the paddle.  I've mentioned it before, the sweet spot of the paddle is a bit north of the geometric center of the paddle, i.e., towards the top edge.  The energy restitution drops off quite quickly as the impact position moves from this sweet spot.  The errors will show up more in dinks than any full stroke.  So, concentrating on good paddle contact will help your dink percentages.

Secondly, I tried not hitting the ball very hard.  I was willing to hit it deep as needed, but I deliberately didn't put a lot of power behind the shots.  This worked for a couple of reasons.  I wasn't hitting many balls out, and shots that are low in velocity, but well placed are difficult to return.  A softer shot requires the returner to provide more power and swing harder than normally.  They didn't always do that, and if the ball seems faster than it is, it affects the timing of the shot and the returner has to move up to the ball more and or wait more to hit the return.  A softer shot does not bounce as high, making the opponents provide more lift to clear the net.  Finally, a softer shot doesn't carry as far into the court, and that requires more foot work from the opponents.  All in all, this worked effectively.

It also led quickly to dinking rallies when we were serving.  Which is the style of play I enjoy.  Points that start with hard shots can easily stay in the bang the ball style, which I find boring.

Finally, let's return to an old topic.  And that is middle coverage. The rule is, if one player has to guard a line, the other player has to cover the middle.  If there is no line to protect, someone should be close to straddling the T in the court center as both players sag towards the middle of the court.  The middle coverage person changes as the ball moves from side to side.  This is true when defending ground strokes or dinks.  

Movement Number Four

Hello all,

I've not been blogging lately as I've not had any things that pique my interest or drive me to new thoughts.  Below is a post I started a while back.  It's a useful concept and I offer as it might be useful to your game.  Not that I think that we should all play the same style.  An interesting point in re pickleball, is that the points are so immemorable.  Why is that?  I suspect that they all start so much alike and only differ in minor details as the point develops.  Uh oh, I seem to be traveling towards a new post.  

Enough of an introduction, read on and hopefully enjoy.

Rich

One of the useful things I've tried to incorporate into my game recently, is to watch where the opponents are.  This is most easily and usefully done when my partner is hitting the ball.

Except for the serve, the positions of all the players are dynamic and should be shifting in anticipation of future events.  

The most dramatic movements for your side are when your side is hitting the third or fifth shots.  

In this layout, partner receives the second shot and will hit the third.  If the third shot is a drive, I want to hang back a little bit.  If it's a drop, I want to be on my way to the kitchen line.  I will move past partner to do this as I want to be stopped and ready for the return.  I'm hoping for a weak return that I can hit hard to win the point.

As part of this forward movement, I want to look at where the opponents are and are moving.  This is vital, because it's not correct to just move stright towards the kitchen line.  I want to position myself to defend the fourth shot.  That usually means I will take over the center of the court, or I will shift towards my sideline.

Partner will be somewhat aware of this as well, but is probably spending more time returning the hit.  If the opponents are out of position, for example, leaving the middle open, or not coming up after the service return, then I know where partner's shot should go.  I will move to block the response from that expected direction.  

If partner's shot goes down the middle, I will be setup on or near the center line.  If a shot goes down a side line, I will cover either the sideline or the middle depending  on to which sideline the ball is hit.

This early movement allows me to be unhurried, stopped, expectant, and ready for any return.  I'm also well placed to put away any weak return.  

There is a downside to this aggressive movement.  It's puts a lot of pressure to produce a good drop shot, as a bad one is easier to hit through me if I'm at the net.  It can be distracting as the hitter to see partner move ahead of the shot.  But it also seems to bother opponents a lot too, and I see a lot of shots that are funneled through a narrow gap to my partner.  They will rarely hit it at me.  That shot is easiest for partner to return as there is no angle to the shot, it's straight back at him.  It's interesting in that I've effectively reduced the available shots by about two thirds.  And I'm very well placed to poach anything that's not well directed.

What are the opponents going to do about this?  They can hit the ball hard.  They can dink, or they can try to hit a perfect shot.  Being ready to return, means that I'm ready to duck too, and big hitters usually telegraph a big hit with a wind up.  Some players are known for it.  If the ball is high, let it go.  Otherwise block it and don't attempt to hit it hard.  

If they dink, I'm happy to dink back, as partner might not be up at the net yet, so I am providing him some time by dinking.  If I hit it back hard, and it comes back that way or harder, partner might be poorly placed to defend.  Dinking to help partner is a nice habit to get into...  If only one of you is at the net, then a dink is a real good play.  Until both of you are there, you are at a disadvantage and can't afford to get too fancy.

All of the above is designed to take advantage of a third shot drop.  If your partner doesn't or won't hit those, then staying back a bit, is a good idea.  We are talking about fielding the fourth shot, so I can volley it, which is what I want to do.  Because of that, I'm happy to be in the transition zone for the fourth shot.  I was doing this the other day and my partner remarked that it was successful because I was stopped when ready to hit the fourth shot.  I wasn't really aware of this, but it makes some sense, i.e., move up as you can, but be ready to defend and that usually means, being stopped.