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.