Errors and Winners

 It is generally reported that PB is a game of errors.  And that the team with the lesser errors will win most games.

I wanted to try to confirm this so I watched and counted all the errors in a 4.0 men's double game to 15 that I found on YouTube.  There were 12 put aways and 45 errors.  In this match, points were about four times more likely to end in an error than in a put away.  My experience is that this is fairly representative of rec play at most levels.  Few of us are at the 4.0 level and that would mean more errors. 

These guys were not seniors, but they were not 20 either.  Many points were classical pickleball with some dinking.  Most of the shots were not very hard.  This was not a banger game.  There was some driving and blocking, but for the most part, it was drops and strategic play and dinking.

What can be learned from this?  It was a slower and more controlled game than one would see normally at the various parks around the local valleys, and still the big problem was the lack of control on shots.  Most of the errors were into the net with probably long shots the next most frequent error.  There were some wide shots, but not too many.

In this game, where there are four errors to any winning shot, the prudent player might strive to avoid errors.  There is little need to hit winners, if three quarters of the points are decided by errors.  

The lesson here is to get the ball back and in play.  Don't speed it up unless you are hitting a sitter.  If the shot is difficult at all, then hit a conservative shot or dink or something up the middle and give the opponents a chance to fail.