Wrist Usage

 I was teaching the Skills and Drills class recently and one of my students had trouble hitting her serves hard enough.  

She kept her wrist immobile and was not allowing a wrist's normal action to help produce paddle and ball speed.  Let's discuss the anatomy of the wrist.

We will start with some vocabulary...

Flexion is bending the wrist so that the palm moves toward the inner forearm.

Extension is bending the wrist backward, moving the back of the hand toward the outer forearm.

Radial deviation is moving the wrist toward the thumb side (radius).

Ulnar deviation is moving the wrist toward the pinky side (ulna).

So we have extension and flexion.  We are very interested in extension for this post.  Flexion will show up as needed and in a lot of swing type things will happen automatically -- we usually don't want to try and help it move (heed this, all you golfers!).

The total movement of the wrist in the extension and flexion movement is close to 145 degrees, with a touch more movement on the flexion side than the extension direction.

The total movement available to deviation is about 55 degrees with five degrees more available in the ulnar deviation, i.e., moving towards that pinky finger.  We will revisit this later.

The important concept here is that the wrist can do a lot more movement via extension - flexion than the deviation movement.  And with more movement we can create more speed.

My favorite physical therapist (FPT) also remarked that the wrist/hand has the most strength when the hand is extended about 20 degrees, so just a little wrist break.

So how are these wrist positions used in pickleball?  In dinking, we don't want any wrist movement as any wrist flipping or flopping is going to create a timing issue and lead to less consistency and thus accuracy.  

Hitting volleys is a lot like dinking, less wrist movement is a good thing.  

That leaves us with ground strokes, overheads, and serves where we want to get more power out of our anatomy.  Serves and ground strokes are pretty much the same and let's look more closely there.

Drop serves need to be hit with an upward stroke with the entire paddle below your wrist.  A common beginner error is to swing more sideways than down to up and when doing so allow the edge of the paddle to get above the wrist.  The solution to this is to add some ulnar deviation, i.e., down cock your wrist.  The deviation will put your thumb in line with your forearm and ensure that your paddle is below the wrist.

The most common problem of beginners in the 101 class is that they will not hit the serves hard enough.  This is a learned skill and it's hard for a lot of beginners.  And we want to hit the serve as hard as possible as long as it will stay in.  

Hitting the ball can be done many ways, not all of them efficient.  In a good efficient serve the whole body is going to be involved and we are talking from an initial weight shift and forward body movement to the feet to the torso to the shoulders to arms and finally to the paddle.  It's rare to see the full body serve in the rec area.  And it's not needed much at DUPR levels below 4 something.  (Having a serve that no one can return leads to really boring points and should be avoided as a common courtesy to all the other players.)

Let's look at a reasonable serve.  Maybe there is a forward step with the foot closest to the net, then some body rotation and then the arm will swing in a circular motion impacting the ball as the swing path is on its upward path.

And what is the wrist doing?  Well to make the most of this energy you want to place your wrist in extension before you start the circular swing path.  There is no need to try and help the wrist get from extension to flexion as that may happen due to the physics of the swing.  I will return to this in a moment as the wrist position at impact is important for spin generation.

You'd like to swing the arm fairly quickly.  A fast serve is a happy serve.  But we are most concerned with hitting the ball in the court.  I had this nightmare recently where I served out in a game with the score 10 to 11.  I woke up in a cold sweat on that one.

Let's talk service misses.  How about long?  One variable is how hard you hit the ball, the next is what trajectory the ball has, and finally what spin is on the ball.

For every speed of the service ball there is an ideal trajectory.  The serve is one of two shots where the height above the net is not important.  The proper height when crossing the net should be a couple of feet above net height - leave some room for error.  So basically about head high at the net for a short player.  On the circular swing path there is an area where you will hit the ball on this trajectory without having to make hand or arm compensations.  You want to find this area.  Most of the time you'll find it by trial and error.  It's fairly close to your forward knee -- so a bit in front of you, but not much and fairly low.

Lastly let's talk spin.  The path of the paddle and the face angle of the paddle determine spin.  If the paddle face is 90 degrees to the path there will be no additional spin created on the ball.  Note that if you're returning a shot, there may be some residual spin from the shot you are returning.

The most useful spin when hitting a serve or a deep ground stroke is top spin.  The spin is clockwise if you were observing the ball from a net post as it crossed the net.  This spin is best as it will cause the ball to curve downwards as it slows, thus keeping it in the court.  The more spin you can create, the harder you can hit the ball and keep it in.  Also with the ball curving downwards, you can use a trajectory that is well above the net for fewer service and service return errors.  

Wonderfully, there is an easy way to create top spin.  You put your wrist into extension and then keep it there as you hit the serve.  The paddle is no longer 90 degrees to the path, but maybe 45 or so.  That change in angle creates a brushing of the ball and so some of the energy of the swing goes into producing spin rather than propelling the ball forward.  Just set your wrist and hit your normal serve.  You may have to adjust the impact area of the ball and you might have to hit the ball harder.  This is an important tool in playing PB, you must get serves in and this is an easy way to increase consistency and safety with the benefit of more speed.

My FPT also mentioned that tennis elbow is due to too much flexion when hitting a backhand.  In the flexed position the impact forces will strain the flexed muscular system and eventually create some aches and pains near the elbow.  I suffer from this on occasion and it comes and goes with little explanation as to why.  Well, the flexion information is new to me and when I hit my famous backhand roll, I put my wrist into full flexion always.  See the video below for how the pros hit backhands.  They use more body and arm motion than I do and while there is usually some flexion, it's not a lot. 

Here is a link to a YouTube video of pros hitting shots in slow motion.  Note that their wrists are in extension for almost all shots.  Also they use ulnar deviation for most shots  -- their thumbs are straight down the arm path.  Finally, you might notice how frequently the pros are not hitting the center of the paddle -- there are a lot of balls coming off the edges -- I found this quite unexpected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7LFGzcM5F0

Blogging Fears and Drop Shots

 The main fear I have is that I'll spew some "technical" advice in a post and find out later that it's wrong and my true believers out there will be doing worse than had I not "helped."

I did ask a pro about the technical quality of the blog, and he was a reader and had no problems with the content from a technical perspective.

What a relief.

However there is an issue that I wanted to bring up for those who are trying to apply some of my thoughts to their own game.

I like to hit soft third shots and then aggressively move to the net when I'm on the serving side.  I have always stressed that the player who returns the serve has to move to the kitchen line without exception -- this is accepted in the PB world and you will not find pros who don't do this.  Is the game "King of Kitchen?"  I think it is.

I believe in those "rules" and think they are fully valid.  Now, it came to me the other day that my stressing being at the net requires a couple of skills and not many beginners have them immediately.  Those skills being the ability to hit a soft shot and be able to blocking shots at the net.

I see a lot of beginning and intermediate players who hang at the baseline after returning a serve.  I've asked about that and the reasons boil down to a lack of confidence in hitting shots at the net, or a fear of getting hit, and if we were to look deep into the intermediate skill space we will find a lot of players who have no soft game.  They hit all the shots hard and hope for good results.  Note that the style of hitting the ball hard at all times will work wonderfully for a while, then it won't work at all.  As the skill level approaches 4, most players have no problem with a hard shot and are quite comfortable with it.

I noticed in my early days at Downs that the people coming from racquet ball are more than comfortable with a hard shot.  To beat them you can't feed them hard shots.

The point is that if you are going to adopt the style I advocate, then you need to drop some shots, not be afraid to dink, and be able to hit a block shot or two.  Yah, you need to stop worrying about getting hit, another real good reason to keep your paddle in front of you.  <Insert standard safety glasses reminder here!>

Drop shots can be more effective than a hard shot in scoring points, they will give you more time to get into a good position for the next shot, and a lot of people are not used to hitting soft shots or returning them.  Many a drop shot will win the point outright.  

What a drop shot does is block your opponents from hitting an attacking shot.  By hitting a short ball you are using the net as your third partner.  The opponent's next shot has to be lifted above the net.  If they hit it hard, it may well go long -- prepare to duck.  If they hit a good dink, then you dink back.  If they dink poorly, then you whack it and try to end the point, or at least put them under pressure with an aggressive shot.  

One of the interesting aspects of PB is that trying to win points usually is not as effective as just hitting good shots.  I see many balls going long or wide or both by a player who thought he could hit a great shot and end the point.  A better philosophy is to try to make your opponents hit more and more difficult shots as a rally plays out.  You want to make them move their feet, hit low shots, keep the ball in play, and make your opponents contend with the net.  Longer rallies are also more funner for sure.

Pickleball 202

 The question came up as I was teaching at the TVPBC PB-101 class last Saturday, what the Skills and Drills class was all about.  That question morphed into what might be the syllabus for a class that players would take after they've taken the 101 and then have played for a while.

Let's talk a bit about what the 101 class is in reality.  It's an introduction to the game.  There is little technical instruction, at least from me, as I think in the short time of the class that students should be deciding if the game is worth pursuing, rather than how to volley a top spin backhand.  There is a real limit to what can be absorbed in the hour and a half that the class lasts.  Indeed, the original class used to be dinks, volleys, ground strokes, serves, and then some play.  It was recognized that that was too much to retain.  The current instruction is try some dinks, learn to serve and I will work with each student individually for that skill, then we play games.  

With the serves comes scoring and setup for a point.  Setting up for a point implies movement by the receiving team -- see the previous blog post.  And I'll repeat here that no student will advance to the net after they return a serve.  It's just impossible at their level of understanding of the game.

Back to the topic.  So what is the syllabus for the next class?  Note that we've not really taught any hard skills.  We've placed them in the court and we've given them some goals, e.g., hit the serve towards the blue dot, try and understand the scoring.

So the goal for the second class would be to take the players and move them to say, 2.5.  We would like to see them serve well, i.e., get the ball in, automatically setup for both serving and returning of serves, know the scoring well.

And the last little bit is to get the ball back more consistently. 

Thus we spend some time on hitting serves and aligning feet for the serve and then should turns and some weight shift and then ball whacking.  

Setting up for points should be well known to them if they've been playing at all.  The same would be for the scoring.  So I would expect that no real time need be spent on that.

Which leaves us with more consistent ball striking.  In my humble opinion, hitting the ball well is merely a function of getting to the ball.  Since the ball is less than an ounce in weight, and the paddles about 8 ounces, there is little strength required to hit the ball.  But there is a real problem if the ball is too far away from you when you go to hit it.  

So, the big topic is movement.  I've written close to 250 posts in this blog and I suspect that a full 100 of them mention moving to the proper place.  And if I have a super power in this game, it is probably in being well placed most of the time.  I don't see this skill as being difficult, but it is for almost all players at the intermediate and beginner levels.

If I were to design the next class I would invent or look up drills to make people get to the correct position.  For example, if someone serves and steps into the court, they lose the point.  If someone returns a serve and does not advance, they lose the point.  If there is no middle coverage, they lose the point.  If the players get too far apart, they lose the point.  

I think these are the fundamental skills to play pretty good PB without needing to hit 40 MPH serves and volleys.  I see these skills as the fastest route to a high 3+ DUPR skill level.  And I would design a course around these points.

It was Five to Two and No One was Feeling It

   I was playing the other day and the teams were uneven, though not deliberately.  I hadn't played with any of the players.  In a couple of minutes the score was five to two and the outcome of the game really wasn't in doubt.  

And everyone knew it.  So there was this let down and it would be easy to grind out the rest of the game while thinking about the next game.  I was pondering this and it looked like the other team decided that the rest of the game wasn't going to be a lot of fun either.

As I thought about this, I thought that there was not guarantee that the next game was going to be better and then I thought, well how can I make the most of this game?  The players were nice and the game was friendly and there was no reason that we couldn't try to make the most of the game we had.  

There is an adage in golf that is, "every shot is a separate contest."  Well, that is pretty much what PB is too.  A nicely struck forehand is a joy forever and sometimes every backhand is a challenge.  And I would suggest that to make any game more interesting that we seek to hit every shot well.  It is incredibly common to not hit balls in the sweet spot of the paddle and just playing attention to that and seek to improve it will provide challenge in any game situation where you are winning or getting killed.

With some of that in mind, I played out the rest of the game and enjoyed the opportunity to just play well and control the ball.  

I've often written about at what level to play when skill levels are uneven and in my opinion you want to play close to the skill levels of the other players.  All of the above is what to do with your excessive skills as you play in any situation.  You can choose to hit the perfect shot to a place where your opponents can easily return the shot and thus extending the rally or just bang it away, which will bring satisfaction to no one.   Longer rallies are fun, I think and make the game more interesting for everyone.

Comfort Zones, Oh My

 One of things that I see in the PB-101 class is where the students feel comfortable standing.  And that position is about 4 feet into the court from the baseline, not quite to the middle of the transition area, but a couple of steps into the court.  

After you've played a bit, you will realize that that location is the absolute worst position from which to play.  I'll return to this in a moment.

A good player will seek to spend 10% of her time behind the baseline, 80% at the kitchenline and the remaining time trying to get to the kitchenline by moving through the transition area.  You might also have to retreat into the transition area as a point develops, but you don't want to be there.  The difficulty is that your feet are most exposed when in the transition area.  (Pro tip: in the transition area, keep your paddle positioned near your feet!)  An opponent can try to hit them with no fear of hitting long and you are too far away from the net, so you'll get no help from the net.  Net help?  Yes, that's why dinks and drops are so powerful, a low ball close to the net requires a very good shot to get the ball up and over the net, but not too high to create a sitter.

Beginners don't like the kitchen as it's probably scary and they are not used to the speed of the ball and there also seems to be an occasional fear of being lobbed.   And that's fine.  When teaching a class I push for them to get to the line and stay there, but it doesn't affect what they usually do.  I hope that as they become players that those words will come back to them and produce a better player.

And they don't like to be behind the baseline.  I think the fear here is that they are too far from the action and they won't get to the ball when it's hit towards them.

So they find their comfort area and while it's comfortable, and maybe a good place for a true beginner in a beginner game, as soon as you start playing regularly, you have to learn to face your fears and become comfortable with being behind the baseline and being at the net.  And you must learn to want to be at these two positions.  They are powerful and give you maximum control of the next shot.  If you are not where you should be, you empower your opponents.

I frequently see a service returner refuse to move up when they hit the service return.  This is very common even with pretty good players who have played for a couple of years, and it's the worst play in pickleball.  By staying back, you will allow the serving side to return deep to you and then move up to the line.  Your side will be split and you will have turned an advantage to a deficit.  The big difference between PB and tennis is the two bounce rule.  The service return has to bounce and this rule is there for the sole purpose of allowing the service returner to advance.  It's a huge deal.  If you don't come up, you are not playing pickleball.  You can still have fun and be comfortable by staying back, but in a intermediate game, you will be expected to be moving up every time you return a serve.  Watch a pro match on YouTube and see what they do.  They will sprint to the kitchenline every time.  Now in rec play, the sprint is not needed, but at least try to trot a bit!

Let's talk about staying behind the baseline after your side has hit a serve.  The error here is to move into the court and then find the service return is so deep that they have to run backwards to field it.  Had you stayed behind the baseline, you won't have to move much for a deep return, and you'll only have to move forward for a shorter return.  You will, of course, be keeping a sharp eye on how your opponent hits the serve and if they hit a short one or a soft one, then you can move forward to deal with it efficiently.  Don't worry about a service return that is so short you can't get to it.  It does happen and usually from a mishit but it won't happen often.  Worry about and be prepared for deep shots!

These are the two things that really separate beginners from a true intermediate player.  Being in the proper position is the most important part of the game.  Good positioning allows more time to hit better shots, less stretching to the side, and less hitting a ball while moving.  Make sure these two items are part of your play -- they are the most important things to learn about this game.