Paddle Position and Movement to the KL

Dear Readers,

I'm a big proponent of the proper paddle position (PP) and have written about it frequently.  Let me extend some thoughts for PP when not at the kitchen line.

Let's think about the fifth shot.  The first shot is the serve, the service return is the second, third is by the serving side, the fourth is hit by the service returners, who should be at the net at that point.

In a game with good shots, the serving side should be moving into the transition area or at least want to.  The fifth shot is the first shot that the servers can volley and in most cases you would prefer to volley than let the ball bounce.   

Finally a good team will usually try to keep you deep in the court and not allow you to advance to the kitchen.

We've recognized that a good shot will be low, maybe going out, and usually will be deep.  Where is our paddle at this time?  

A good player will be split stepped, stopped and have the paddle about knee level.  Low balls and foot shots can be fielded with the paddle in this position.  And, as an added bonus, any shot that is above the paddle and has not bounced, is going long.  A knee high paddle is a great rule of thumb for allowing out balls to, well, go out.

The closer to the net that you get, the higher your paddle should be, so gradually raise it up based on position.  When you get to the kitchen line, the paddle should be above the net and protecting your chest.

Pro tip: when you get to the kitchen line you are interested in two things, one is hit a good dink if that is best shot you have based on ball height, or two, you want to hit the ball down into the court, not trying for the base line, but more the foot line of the opponents.  You have to be ready to hit down on a high ball from both forehand and backhand positions.  The usual error I see is a scooping motion with the paddle handle pointing to the body and an upward stroke on the ball.  That results in a pop up and usually the end of the point.  The paddle handle should usually be parallel to your body and to the net.  Usually setting up for a backhand shot is a good ready position for net play.

Below is a link to a good video talking about the paddle positions and few other things.  It's highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oobjlzCSY0c

Hitting the Ball Badly

 I was playing today and an opponent remarked about how they mishit a particular shot.  I think I said that all I hit are mishits and then I lapsed into deep thought.

In a previous post I said that about 40% of sitter shots over the net get missed.  I still think that's true, and I suspect that there are more 40% that don't get hit with the sweet spot of the paddle.  Might be 60% or so.  I would not be surprised.

The one complaint I have about paddles is that the sweet spot is fairly small and any shot that is off towards an edge looses a lot of power.  I think that most dinks and touch type shots are short due to mishits.

So what's the best way to avoid this problem?  Well, adding some lead to the edges of your paddle will help a bit, but fundamentally we are just missing the ball.  There are few common reasons for that...

• Hitting a ball while running
• Stretching for a shot
• Bad bounces or shots with a lot of spin

And that is probably about it.  Let's chat about how to limit errors.

Hitting a ball on the run is often due to not stopping early enough.  If you have split stepped and are ready to go sideways or forward, you are well placed to get to the next shot and hit it.  Often not stopping early will cause to try to reverse direction and deal with your momentum.  It's much easier to move sideways from a stopped ready position than when running in the wrong direction.  I think the fear to doing this is that you won't get to a ball if you stop.  I don't think that is a valid fear.  I think you'll be much less rushed after stopping.  So we want to stop, move to the shot, stop again and then hit while stationary.

Stretching for a shot is due to being at the wrong place when it's ball hitting time.  And this certainly a problem that the above point should address at least partially.  I contend that moving early and stopping early and then reacting to the shot is a very efficient way to play.  Now, on occasion you have to stretch.  Stretching to your sideline is unavoidable on occasion.  Pro tip: don't stretch on a middle shot, let your partner take it.  A good partner will also be ready to hit the middle shot, so take the ones you easily can, but let the others go to partner.  

In a perfect world you will hit all balls with your elbows fairly close to your side, also known as "your bubble."  This will give you the best chance to hit the ball in the middle of the paddle face.  Also, it's easy to think you have to hit the ball hard and/or use a long swing.  This is false and with a little swing you should be able to hit the ball beyond the baseline.  

Timing: The ball weighs less than an ounce, so it slows quickly, and what can seem like a fast shot, will be at a more modest speed when it gets to you.  Don't panic.  I see more swings that are too early in hitting the ball than too late.  When you are warming up pay attention to ball speed, hit them with short swings and practice a "late" hit.  You've got more time than you think.

The third issue is bad bounces.  Some of those are due to the court surface and that's not an easily solved problem.  Some are due to the spin that the opponent puts on the ball.  

There are three types of spin, top, cut, and side spin.  I've not written much about spin, but you have to be aware of what your opponent is doing.  A top spin shot will jump up a bit, the sidespin shot will kick sideways, and the cut spin shot will not bounce as high.  You need to compensate for all of that.  You want to anticipate the bounce off of all shots.  And even if you hit the ball properly, the required trajectory is affected by top and cut spin.  

You need to hit a cut shot higher and a top spin shot lower as the spin is going to react to the paddle face.  I'll write another post about spin returns, but you need to get under a cut shot and on top of a top spin shot.  Watching the spin is a very important part of becoming an advanced player.  Watch your opponent's paddle movement to see the spin.  If they swing low to high, then it's top spin.  High to low, aka a chop swing, then you will get cut spin.

So I think that should take care of all the mishits!  All these changes require a lot of work to incorporate them into how you play.  Knowing what you want to do is the easy part.  Drilling, practicing, or playing games while concentrating on doing a single new thing are approaches that will help.  

Pickleball Theory at the Monastery

It is Spring at the monastery and Po has been been playing a bit in the village down the hill.  There are reasonable players there, but they, like a beginning monk, strive to win points by brut force and not the power of the mind...

Po seeks out the Master as he is confused with play in the village.  The Master was in his room, working on a new manuscript, "Wrist Angles When Applied to Top Spin Dinks."  The Master expects to finish in a couple of years.

 "Master, I have noticed that hitting a shot from the kitchen, that the players in the village call a "sitter," is a shot fraught with peril.  Am I wrong about that?"

The Master looked up from his manuscript where his pen had been scratching along at a furious pace.  

"Eh, what is that, Po?"

"Master, the over head from the kitchen line seems to be more difficult than expected?"

"Ah, Po, it's nice that you have realized that.  All players go through the phase of hitting the ball too hard.  When they finally realize that and turn their attention to a more controlled game, they, like the Spring flower, will grow and blossom.  But they play and still hit over heads too hard.  Thus the final answer is that there is no great success to be had by over hitting any ball, including the so called "sitter," heh, heh."

"But Master, it is fun to hit the ball hard," said Po.

"Yes, Po, but the true satisfaction comes from hitting the correct shot every time.  You are starting to realize that hitting hard overheads is not always profitable."

"Why is it so hard, Master."

"There are several factors Po, as found in the nine volume set, "Play at the Kitchen Line," by Master Jo, blessed be his scholarship.  He has been dead these hundred years, still his knowledge proves to be true.  One difficulty is that a ball, even if it falls close to the net, will have a very vertical path.  Thus the timing is critical to hit the ball.  Too early and you will bruise the net, too late and you are over the baseline.  Secondly, the net itself and the angle to cross the net and stay in bounds is small and gets smaller the harder the ball is hit.  So we find the eager player, awash in emotions and seeing a point ending shot, blasts at the ball and fails.  The current numerology is that close to 40% of such shots will fail.  While that is still profitable in that we will score more points then will be lost, it's much better to choose a different shot."

"Do we then dink the ball back, Master?"

"While that would be more effective and win more points, there are better choices.  Why do we dink at all, Po?"

"Well, Master, dinks provide time to get into position and a good dink can be offensive..."

"Yes, good points, Po, but the end result of a dinking point is that at some point a ball will be popped up and thus we can hit it hard.  We don't dink when we can hit a ball hard.  Speed ups lead to points, Po.  However, like the errant overhead, all shots have their time and place.  A bad speed up or overhead is a major error.  Unless the shot is sure, a dink or push shot is a better choice.  And as I said before, the numbers suggest that a lesser skilled player should be very wary of attempting an overhead."

"So, Master, if the ball is in the position of an overhead, but we decide not to attempt it, what better shots are there?"

"The advanced shots are usually not taught until your tenth year, but since it has come up and scholarship is prized, I will suggest some alternatives.  If the ball is coming straight down and will bounce near the kitchen, then let it bounce.  At its apex, swing more sideways than vertically, hit the ball with an emphasis on taking advantage of your opponents' positions.  If they are covering the middle, then angle the shot to a sideline.  If they have spread out, then aim for the middle.  Note that in an angled path the ball must not be hit too hard.  The sideline looms, and above all we want to hit the ball in.  Our advantage is that we are at the net, and the opponents are not.  A shot that is gentle will prove quite effective."

The Master, continued.  "Of course, the spin on a ball, if for example the ball came off the edge of a paddle, can be quite surprising.  You must watch the spin on all shots, but these shots are frequently extreme examples.  The good player will get very close to the ball and expect a sideways kick.  Paddle ready, heh, heh.

"Also if the opponents are quite deep, then a simple dink will usually win the point.  If the dink is returned, your side is at the net and ready to take advantage of a weak return.  Note that hitting a very short shot on the run is very difficult and you should expect a weak return.  If they manage to actually hit a great shot, that's acceptable.  Remember that we are not hitting 40% of these shots out, so a player who walks the path of softness is well rewarded."

"As we stress in our teachings at monastery, a player who makes few mistakes is rarely beaten."

"You are wise Master and I will seek to walk the soft path," said Po.

"There is much to learn, Po.  Er, perhaps you could find some hot tea for this Master, the room grows cold."

"Of course, Master."

Your Partner Returns the Serve, You have Responsibilities Too!

 I've thought that going over the requirements of a player in a specific situation, might be worth talking about.  If you're new to the game, these are things you are expected to know in a more advanced game.  Some of this is obvious and some is not.  I wish I would have known about such items when I started out.  There is a summary at the end.

The most important position is probably the guy at the net when a point is started.  One should note that there is only one person at the net and there are things that can be done from that position and no other.

First, watch the serve as it comes to partner.  You are allowed and encouraged to call the serve out if it's out.  That allows partner to concentrate on just hitting a return.  Just turn your head for this task as you want to be facing the other side of the net real soon.

Second, your partner returns the serve and you might have to duck to let it go past.  You are now going to change your location on court based on where your partner's service return will land.  There are three cases here.  First is that partner returned down the middle.  This is an excellent choice by partner and is considered to be the classic return location.  In this case you will move very closely to the center T of the court.   The reasons for this will be discussed later.

If the service return goes straight across the net, let's assume to your right, for this explanation.  When the ball is in this corner, you should move even more to the center of court, perhaps getting a foot well to the right of the T.  Partner should cover the side line, so the middle needs additional coverage and you are expected to provide it.

Third case, the service return goes cross court.  In this case you must move to cover the sideline, with the service returner moving to cover the middle.

Those are the basic movements and note that in all cases that some movement is required.  It's rare that your ready position at the net will be perfect for the return.

Let me talk about the ready position.  As mentioned above you want to be able to watch the serve hit into the service area.  Also you usually will be moving towards the center of the court, so you might was well start several steps towards the center of the court.  Hanging out at the side line puts you out of position for most shots and will require more movement as the point develops.  Frequently the third shot will be well over the net.  Be prepared to hit this shot down into the court.  Also, if it's hit hard, high, or has a lot of under spin you want to duck and let it go out.  This happens a lot, please watch for it!

OK, now the point will develop quickly.  You are in position and your team has good coverage of the middle of the court.  Your partner will have joined you at the net after returning the serve -- do I need to mention that?  

Note that the sideline(s) might not be fully covered, but the middle might have coverage from both you and partner.  This is valid and what you want.  You and partner will be shifting side to side as the play goes on, with less coverage to the far cross court sideline.  This is very strong play as the out boundary provides its own protection to the cross court shot.  I'm not saying you won't be beat here, but the cross court shot is technically difficult and can't be hit very hard.  Note that some players can hit this shot and usually you will notice this behavior and you can adjust your play with that knowledge.  That is a discussion for a future post.  As for now, ignore it, and work on middle coverage.

There is one more thing to discuss and it's the most important one.  All middle shots (with the exception of the cross court scenario mentioned above) should be handled by the net guy.  The reasons for this are several.  Firstly he is already there and dancing on the kitchen line and has his paddle up and can easily cover the entire middle of the court even extending well into partner's side.  Secondly partner might not be all the way up to the net so aggressive coverage is a help to partner.  

The net guy must be ready to move into partner's side and thus good foot work is vital.  The big error to move a little bit, then stretch to hit a ball.  Frequently that will result in a miss hit.  Move the feet and get as close to the ball as you can.  I see this a lot and tell partner that I want him to hit this ball, but make sure he's in position to hit a good shot.  

A team really wants that net guy to hit the fourth shot.  This is another reason to avoid a cross court service return.  A center return or somewhat down the line makes it difficult for the third shot to be hit cross court.  That gets more shots to the middle, where the coverage is, by design, very aggressive and you will defend this shot from the net, while the opponents are still at the baseline -- it won't get any better than this and this is the essence of the game of pickleball, if you control the kitchen, you control the point.

Summary, as the initial "at the net guy":

• Watch for service errors
• Move towards the ball, usually move more middle
• Expect to take the fourth shot if it's near the middle
• Be ready to hit this shot down at someone's feet, i.e., paddle up
• Have your feet ready to move in front of partner if required

Why I Lose at Pickleball

This post was originally called, "Why you lose at PB," but I lost a couple of games on Monday in a row to the same team and I'll try not to be a hypocrite and talk about the problems with my game too.  But at the end as I still want to talk about problems with intermediate level games...

Why You Lose at PB

I played the other day at May Nissen with one of my regular partners.  She is very good and we play well together -- warning foreshadowing....

We played a three games against the same pair and they scored, 4, 5, and one points in the games.  

So what was their problem?  They hit the ball harder than we did and they hit some winners up the sideline, which we did not attempt.

They lacked a couple of skills.  Firstly, they were not as consistent and we scored almost all of our points on their errors.  They hit a lot of shots long, i.e., too hard, and they missed on the sidelines while trying to "win" the point.  And in trying to be aggressive, they hit many shots into the net even service returns and serves, which are the two shots where being well over the net is a really good idea.  Note that if you hit the ball too hard, sending it high above the net is not a successful strategy!

They were also not very good at covering the middle of the court.  Most of advanced play and pro level rallies, the middle area is the busy area.  Covering the middle requires that the defenders are not symmetrically placed on the court.  There must always be a bias towards the middle.  This is true of all shots from dinks, to the baseline.  If you and partner "split" the court, there will always be a seam between you.  This particularly true of the middle.  Having both paddles capable of servicing the middle seam is a great idea.  

Next, they were not very good at advancing to the kitchen line.  The KL is the most important characteristic of pickleball -- the two bounce rule was designed to make this happen.  You absolutely have to embrace a keen desire to be there.   The big error is not automatically following a service return with a run up to the kitchen line.  I see that hesitancy from a lot of players at May Nissen, even those who play at a reasonable level.  This is not optional.  I suspect that it feels scary and they feel much more confident that they can return a shot from deeper in the court.  The fallacy in this approach is that the shot they are comfortable hitting will be more difficult than the volley they would have had from the KL.

And that was about it.  Partner and I got all our serves in.  We didn't hit many shots out, we played a lot of balls to the middle.  Our shot selection was conservative, we kept the ball in play and were willing to rally and be patient. 

Teams that don't make many mistakes are incredibly hard to beat.  The opportunities for put away and winning shots are pretty rare, so relying on them as a means to score points, just doesn't work.  Consistency might be boring, but it's effective.

In the prior post about playing against better teams, I mentioned that thinking about why you lost is where the lesson and areas of improvement are found.  I still maintain that this is not a very difficult game and the number of areas that you have to have is small.  We have serves, volleys, dinks, and movement.  I'd add on to that short list, figuring out what your opponents like to do and then play for that -- for example some folks will only hit a cross court dink.

Why I lost at PB

So with a reasonable partner, I took on a good player whom I know from my days at Downs Park and a fairly new player.  It looked like he was mentoring her.  Initially I was in my play gently mode as I didn't want to beat up on the beginner.  As it turned out, the beginner could hit the ball very well.  She also hit everything flat and hard.  These are tough to defend as there is not a lot of extra room above the net for return shots.  

She hit it hard and flat and with that style, she hit a lot of out balls.  We needed to duck and we should have let more go than we did.  The game was very bangy and almost no dinking.  And they beat us I think, 11-5 or so for each of the two games.  

What partner and I didn't get right was that we needed to duck more, and dink more.  Both players had good hitting skills, and if you can't out hit them, then draw them in to a soft game.  We were not successful in doing that.  

Also my side made too many errors.  In a lot of points we had the net advantage and got shots that were high enough to put away.  But when the incoming shots are hard, you want to hit them softer yourself, as the paddle will generate power from the incoming shot.  So we needed to think more control and not power with those shots.  We didn't do a good job with that either.  

So summation of problems was, as usual, too many mistakes, not much power, not enough keeping the ball in play.  Trying to hit winners is a very hazardous business and requires great precision as the difference between and winner and an out or net ball are small.  The higher speed the incoming shot has, the smaller the angles for good return shots.  And finally, recognize and execute the general problem, which was to force the bangers into a dinking game.