A Couple of Items for a Better Hit

A Couple of Tips:  When you swing at a serve you can do it a number of ways.  If you move your paddle horizontally into the ball you are not using the best method if you want to create some speed.

If you swing your arm in a circular path to strike the ball, you have more time to accelerate the paddle and will end up with more ball speed for probably less effort.  The arm path is a long arc and the further you have the paddle behind you when you start the swing, the more you will be moving the paddle away from the ball initially and then along the arc to the ball.  Eventually you get back to the ball on a nice upward path with good speed.  It's worth trying if you'd like to hit the ball harder.

I played a couple of game with Ron today.  He is a 6.0 rated singles player and has the creamy nice strokes that a life time in tennis provides.  What I stole from his game today is that in a lot of shots his paddle will not swipe or swing, but remains pointing to the target during and after a stroke.  It's my observation that a lot of shots fail as the paddle gets to the ball too early or too late.  If the paddle face is accurately aimed and remains in a proper orientation, then it's much harder to pull or push a shot due to timing.  

This is easy to do for shots where you don't have to supply a lot of power to make the shot.  For example, when blocking or hitting shots from the mid court, just a gentle hit is all that is needed and a steady paddle face will be useful.  I've found myself swinging through those shots and it's not good.  I used this technique of a steady paddle today and found it easy and accurate.  Give it a try!

In the works: I've been working on a couple of longer posts.  One about serving and the other a different kind of post that I'll keep under wraps for the moment.  The serving post got really long and it covered topics that I've discussed before and it was becoming a book if I did the job thoroughly.  I recognized my problem and I've shelved it for the moment.  But that's what's happening in my pickleball world.  

Return to Downs:  I've decided to return to Downs on Tuesday and Thursday.  The  bangers seem to have moved on and the group that is left is a lot of the original crew when I was starting out.  It was "old home week" to see them and it's fun to play with them again.  Sadly, the Downs is short on courts as I'm getting spoiled with the May Nissen and Muirwood layouts.  I've made friends and enjoyed the play at May Nissen and I'm going to still hang out there for the social aspects and more relaxed play.