YMCA

To the tune of YMCA by the Village People

 

Player, there's no need to feel down

I said, Player, pick yourself off the ground

I said, Player, 'cause you're in a new town 

There's no need to be unhappy

Player, there's a place you can go

I said, player, when you're short on your dough

You can Play there, and I'm sure you will find 

Many ways to have a good time

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for you all to enjoy

You can hang out with all the guys

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

You can get a good dink, you can have a good drive

You can do what about you thrive

Player, are you listening to me? 

I said, Player, what do you want to be? 

I said, Player, you can make real your dreams

But you got to know this one thing

No banger does it all by himself

I said, Player, put your pride on the shelf

And just go there, to the Pickleball Courts

I'm sure they can help you today

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for players to enjoy

You can hang out with all the boys 

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

You can let yourself dink, you can have a good drive 

You can do what about you thrive 

Player, I was once in your shoes

I said, I was down and out with the blues

I felt no one cared if I were alive

I felt the whole world was so tight 

That's when someone came up to me

And said, Player, take a walk up the street

There's a place there called the Pickleball Courts

They can start you back on your way

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for players to enjoy

You can hang out with all the boys 

Pickleball Courts, you'll find it at the Pickleball Courts

Player, Player, there's no need to feel down

Player, Player, pick yourself off the ground

Pickleball Courts, it's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

Player, Player, are you listening to me

Player, Player, what do you wanna be?

Pickleball Courts, you'll find it Pickleball Courts

No banger does it all by himself

Player, Player, put your pride on the shelf

Pickleball Courts, and just go to the Pickleball Courts

The GUP

Let me present another idea that Gregg Whitfield (see links previous post) brought to my attention, the idea that you want your opponent to hit from a low position.  

Let's think about that for a quick moment.  The concept is probably not new to you, think "hit to their feet"  and "a low dink is a good dink."

The power that comes from this is that our friendly opponent has to hit the ball upwards to clear the net.  If they don't do a good job with this shot, then we would smack it back to them on a downward trajectory.  Basically, once more, hitting to their feet.

How is this done on a general basis?  We want to target the depth of our shots to match the opponent's position.  That might be mid court or deep or even at the kitchen line.  We want the ball to bounce near that depth.

If you are like me, that generally means a shorter shot than you are used to hitting.  And it probably means a softer shot with less power than typical.  Gregg might mention another point, and that would be that some back spin would be ideal for its ability to control the shot and how difficult it is to return a back spun ball.  A shot with back spin will have a flatter trajectory than a top spin shot.

Back spin will tend to come off the paddle lower than no spin or a top spin shot.  Frequently a back spin shot is returned into the net.  It will also bounce lower than other spins, which helps with our interest in hitting a low shot.

Any short, soft shot will require our opponent to hit up on the ball.  We, of course, having hit a low shot, have our paddle up and ready to hit the next ball down into the court.

So, bottom line, on any shot, hit it so that the ball will bounce at the same depth or shallower than your opponent and don't worry about pace.  Then be ready to hit a high ball return!

An Informal Blocking Lesson

 As mentioned in an earlier post, I was invited to a drilling/playing session with Gregg Whitfield, the local pro at Cambria, CA.

We were hitting and then played some games with a emphasis of keeping the ball in play.

One of the deficiencies with my game is the tendency to hit the ball, rather than just block it back.  Swinging at a ball from the baseline is fine, but when moving in or at the kitchen line, the block is more controlling and accurate  -- or so I've been told, I've not actually tried it!

The technique is to hit the ball in front of your body, no swing, gentle hand to control power, and use the wrist to change ball direction.  The paddle face has to be open, aka facing the sky a bit, for all shots.  (Gregg mentioned to me was that even on a shot at my ankle, I was starting to roll it.  While a roll is a beautiful thing, it's maybe not proper for all occasions?)  You need to hit the ball very softly here.  The open paddle gets the ball over the net, but if you hit it hard you'll pop it up.  

What this added to my play, there were fewer net balls and fewer popups.  I was hitting dinks that were more difficult to attack, easier to control.  I was very happy with the shots.

I tried hitting blocks as a fifth shot from mid court.  I usually would roll these as deep as the opponents, but I tried to just push the ball back, not much swing and mostly block.  Most of those shots came back, but were not difficult for me to return.  Note that none of these shots went out, which is maybe the entire idea of all of this, keep the ball in play, hit a conservative shot, attack when it's obvious.

As  I read this over, I think the main point here to choose to block rather than to hit out on a lot more shots than I typically would.  The philosophy is to reduce errors of two types.  The first being to avoid hitting an out ball and the second avoiding a long swing that makes it more difficult to return to a ready position.

And second change to my game is to not roll the shots much.  I've played with these changes for three sessions and I've found then quite effective.  I think in the last session I didn't hit any ball hard.  My win rate was as good as I get and didn't lose any game that I shouldn't have.  And if Randy had been on his game...  (Kidding!)

Back at Cambria: As the session proceeded, there were four of us playing and with that style there were some long rallies.  I'd guess one was over 20 shots.  Ah, Gregg could have put a couple of balls away, but that wasn't the point.

Then practice ended and there were a few final games with one of the heavy hitters.  I played with Gregg against an intermediate player and the other advanced player.  I found the game much easier to play when I blocked than with my usual roll shots.  Progress was made!

I appreciate Gregg spending time and knowledge with me.  His YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/@greggwhitfieldpickleballsh8164

His main web site is:

https://www.pickleballshotsandstrategies.com/

Ruby Paddle

 There were a couple of players in Cambria who had the new Ruby paddle.

I am interested in this paddle as it's supposed to be very spinny which fits my "roll every ball at all costs" hitting style.  It also has a modified shape, not elongated, but long with some head spread at the top corners.  I had this shape with a couple of other paddles and liked it.  Rumor has it that this shape provides more sweet spot.  I'll do anything for more sweetspot.

I was able to try out the paddle and it is more spinny than my "illegal" Diadem Vice.

One of the nice parts of the Vice is that it's quite easy on my wrist and arm, both of which are always sore and unhappy.

The Ruby felt pretty nice too.  It wasn't harsh, felt soft enough and was poppy too.  

It wasn't as quiet as the Vice, but it wasn't too loud.  I could play with it.  I would enjoy the extra spin.

The handle was quite a bit thinner than the Vice.  It felt comfortable to me.  It maybe that I'm starting to hold the bat looser -- not sure, but it was noticeable and comfortable.

Gamesmanship or What Would You do?

 An interesting thing happened when I was watching the better players in Cambria.

The server, Mr. S, objected to where the receiver's partner, RP was standing.  RP was standing at the kitchen line with a foot in the service return area.

The Mr. S suggested that this was way to hinder the server from trying to hit the corner by the center of the court.

RP suggested that there was an attempt at a Nasty Nelson!  

The exchange got a bit heated and the receivers walked off the court, quitting the game.

Hmm, well that didn't go well on a number of levels.  Since this was a social game, I would have just moved over the from the T if asked.  But in a tournament setting, I would reserve the right to stand where ever I wanted.  At that point I guess the Nasty Nelson issue comes up.  I would see the NN to be a valid tournament shot and the person at the net needs to be paying attention.

Any thoughts out there?

Cambria Part One, Challenge Court Rules

 Hi All,

I've been in Cambria for the last 10 days and played at the local club four times.

They have six nice courts and if you are a member or pay the drop in fee ($3), you have exclusive use in the morning.  Afternoon is open to the public with no fees.

They have two of the six courts set up for challenge play.  The rules were interesting to me, as the question of what to do about differing skill levels comes up frequently.  On Sundays, all courts are challenge courts, though there is a upper skill versus not so upper set of courts.

Their rule is that the folks on the challenge courts (CC) are expecting a competitive game and no one is expected to take it easy on anyone.  With that in mind, all are welcome to play at any level.   I thought this was a good way to do it.  Folks can find a comfortable level and the good players don't have to be gentle souls if it conflicts with their core beliefs.  :-)

I played with the good players for about four games and found my game was not up to it.  I was invited to play as it was early and they needed a player.  We swapped partners every game and I was never on the winning side.  

The less skilled folks were below the typical Downs levels by a little bit.  I would have been happy to play somewhere between the two levels, but that game didn't exist.  But I was very happy to play with social folks and enjoyed the play level.  I played with a lot of folks across four days and probably three hours a day.  The club has a monthly fee of $10, which is what I paid.

On Wednesday they had a drilling group going and that sucked all the players from the social side.  I was about to go home, when I started to watch the local pro, Gregg Whitfield drilling a bit with his wife.  I had played a few times with Gregg in the advanced side.  He had also remarked on my "need" to roll all my shots and hinted that something better might be in order.

Gregg has a web site up and has some of his videos on YouTube.  His general approach is a defensive one, with control being a big part of how he plays.

I was invited into the drilling session.  Yeah for me!  They were working on blocks as a method for hitting about 80% of shots.  Now, I have long recognized my lacking in this area, so this opportunity was of great interest and value to me.  Which leads us to the next post as this one is long enough and I want to talk about some of technical details in my "lesson."

Cambria is a nice place and the PB makes it a good destination and chance to meet new folks.  I ran into several players around town in the course of the time there and it was nice to have a local connect.

One more point...  So Sundays are when the heavy hitters come from all over the county.  I wandered down to watch a bit.  It was a quiet day and not much action.  While I was hanging about, Rich Rutan and Ada show up!  I watched some of their games and they were quite competitive. 

OK, I'm going to work on the next couple of posts!

Odds and Ends

 I had an hour and was in San Ramon on a Monday morning.   I found the courts off of Alcosta Blvd.  They have four courts with lights and the same kind of fencing as found at the Downs, i.e., the aisles open for balls to run lengthwise.

I was in luck and they needed a fourth.  It was a beginners game and I was happy to bat it around with the folks.  Everyone was wonderfully friendly and we chatted a bit after the games.  They scattered and some of them were off to take lessons.  They had been playing for a year or so.  

They play Monday mornings around nine, so if you are in the area, it's a nice place to play with friendly folks.

I played the other day with a new partner and found it a struggle.  Partner was of reasonable skill level in terms of hitting the ball, but what was difficult for me was that he stayed on his side of the court.  Middle coverage is required by both players as the ball moves around.  I watched a pro match the other day and the players were shifting like little crabs and so quickly that I checked to make sure I was playing the video at normal speed.

There are a couple of PB techniques that I'm trying to incorporate into my game.  The big one is to try to hit balls from a small space around my body.  In other words move enough so that I am not stretching.  If I can get close to the ball there is more time to hit it and the stroke is much shorter.  I'm finding the accuracy and pace control is better with this.  The second item is when hitting drives from the kitchen line do not swing at the ball, just block it back.  My usual practice is to swing at it, which makes for a longer stroke with more difficult timing.  It also makes it more difficult to get back to "ready" if the shot comes back.  More on this in the upcoming Cambria post.

I think that's it.  The weather has been tough to get out and play.  The blog is not dead, but I really don't have much more to say.  Any suggestions, guest posts, etc., are welcome.