Ready Position of Your Paddle

 There are a number of YouTube videos out there that discuss how to get from a low level to a 5.0 in a matter on months.  I haven't watched many of these, but I ran across one that had some content that I wasn't aware of.  

The guy's name is Albert Wan and I'll link to the video below.  In the video he had five tips that he found vital in getting to 5.0, the one I want to talk about is paddle position to get faster hands.

He discusses where your paddle should be in the normal three scenarios of court coverage, that being the ball is in front of you, or coming from center court, or coming from cross court.

In video he uses the example of when he is on the left side of the court and he is right handed.  Note that his partner is covering the middle of the court, but you all figured that out already, yes?  Let's run through the scenarios...

In the first scenario, the ball is directly in front of you, your responsibility is down the line and your body,  Anything that is going right of your body, i.e., towards the middle of the court, is your partner's ball.  So don't stretch in front of her!  Since we want to cover our body and the down the line shot, the paddle is held in a backhand position.  Not in a neutral position, backhand only.    Note that this makes it easy to hit shots towards the middle of the court and straight ahead, we are not interested in hitting anything to our left.

Second scenario, we are again on the left, but expecting a ball from center court.  Now we set up fully forehand.  We are ignoring any shots that would be to our backhand side as they are not likely to land in the court.  Again, we are somewhat left of center.  No team can cover the full court, so we allow opponents a miracle shot if they want to try for it and we trade off better overage on the rest of the shots.

Finally we are again left, but are the ball is coming cross court.  Now there is more room to our left and so we have to cover a backhand as well as a forehand shot.  It's more likely that a backhand shot will cause us trouble as our partner should be covering the middle.  So now we set up for a backhand shot.

That covers the case if you are on the left side and let's try and generalize the expected shots and how we want to ready our paddles.

I'm either right, left, or center and the ball that the opponents will hit is in front, a bit to the side, or full cross court.  You want to know before it happens which ball would go out, go to partner, or to you.  If it comes to you, is it more likely to be a forehand or backhand shot?  And knowing that, get your paddle ready to hit the expected shot.   

Sure you will be surprised and beaten on occasion but mostly you're very ready to return to return the usual shot.  You will not have to move your paddle much.  You will be known as the player with the fast hands!  And an added bonus is not causing partner any complicated shots if you try to cover a shot that is hers.  

Let me drop in a thought about where you are going to hit the next shot.  Albert doesn't mention it, but if you are readying your paddle as he suggests, then you can most easily hit a ball back to the center of the court.  This is a good if not great thing.  Middle shots are never a bad shot.  I've expounded about them at length in other posts, and another way to think about readying your paddle is, "How do I setup to hit a shot to the middle."  

Here is the video link, he describes the fast hands stuff towards the end of the video.  The video is short, about 5:30 minutes.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg6xa2caG-I

A Tasty Tidbit

 I played this morning and I beat an opponent up the sideline about three times in row.  This was the third shot for my side, we were serving.  Normally I will drop this shot, but this opponent was hitting the ball directly at me and not cross court and she was not moving properly after hitting the shot.

She would advance, as is correct, and then I hit the ball down the line and it was out of her reach.  This happened enough to really bother her and she and I talked about it after the game.

This is the second/third shot situation.  She hits a ball and I have to let it bounce, and she must take advantage of the two bounce rule to move up.  

The harder she hits the serve, the less time she will have to move up.  So she needs to move faster with that pace of service return.  

Her other problem was that when she moved up, she veered just little bit towards the center of the court, which exposed the small path on the sideline.  When it came time to hit the ball she could only do it at full stretch and it just didn't work.

What's the solution?  In perfect play she should have been at the NVZL and stopped and split stepped before I returned her shot,  So she needs more time or speed to do that.  I caught her still moving probably every time.  If she can't get to the NVZ, then she needs to stop earlier and get ready to return.

The next problem is that she is not protecting that sideline enough.  A reasonable rule of thumb when moving to the NVZ is to run towards the ball, not just forward and not just to the middle.  

Her main responsibility is to block the down the side line shot and anything hit directly back at her.  Her partner should have shifted and angled to cover all of the middle shots, all of them.

That is the answer to that scenario, run early, fast, and protect the sideline.

Let's talk about the two other cases.  Assume that she had hit cross court.  I think this is a good play, as it puts the ball in front of her partner, so it's the full team against the opponents for the next shot.  In this case, she has duties too...  She still needs to get up to the NVZL and she needs to cover all middle shots.  Her partner has shifted to cover the sideline, the rest is hers.  Note that the ball is going to travel further cross court, so there is more time to do all this.  But she must move to the middle of the court, probably moving over the center line a bit.  

Third case is a service return that goes up the middle of the court.  This is the traditional target for a service return.  If you look up, "Where do I return a serve?"  The answer is up the middle.  

What must happen now is that both players will cover the middle, their paddles at stretch should overlap.  They should not worry too much about the sidelines.  A shot from center baseline towards a sideline is difficult as the outer boundary comes into play.  So if the opponent can hit that shot, good for them.  You should be happy to trade those shots for good center coverage.

In all cases as you move up with a service return, always move toward the origin of the next shot.  Think of it as cutting down the angle and the closer you get to the NVZ, the bigger/better your coverage of the shot.  

Note that the middle is covered in all cases.  You can't leave the center open ever.  If I am the guy hitting the third shot, I love to hit into the middle.  If I do that, I can't go wide of the court, my opponents frequently will both expect the other to hit it, and a ball in the middle does not present an angle shot to the opponents for the next ball.  I will follow my shot in, if possible, and be in a good position for the rest of the rally.  

The second shot is the most important shot for the receivers, the third shot is the most important for the servers.  Moving correctly in these scenarios is the essence of pickleball.

Two Things That Seem to Work Well

This post is dedicated to John, who said today that the Jill Braverman tips below he figured out by himself after only three and a half years of play.  Well done, John, and let's look forward to the next three and a half years!

 

A couple of the recent posts have talked about Jill Braverman's style of playing.  I find these to be accurate and useful.  I've been trying a couple of the techniques that she advocates.

First one is to have broad stance at the kitchen line.  Feet wider than my shoulders.  This does the following:  My head is closer to the net top and it's easier to return shots that skim the net; while it didn't come up today, that wide stance is good if you want to duck a shot.

Secondly, the stance provides very good balance if I need to rotate my torso to one side.  The problem I imagined with this stance is that I would not be able to move sideways for a cross court dink.  But what it made me do is to shuffle my feet since it was impossible to cross them to move to the side.  I've been told this is a good thing.

The other habit that I'm trying to ingrain, and this was in the last post, is to run through the service return to get to the kitchen line.  While it might have caused me to hit a couple returns long, the advantage to be at the net and ready was a great tradeoff.  

So there are a couple of very simple techniques that anyone can adopt without any effort.

A Quick Tip, But it Requires New Thinking!

 I've written about the YouTube content of Jill Braverman and I like what she has to say and how she says it.  

She had a short video the other day that suggested a new way of thinking in re the service return.

She makes a couple of points, in that a service return error is a real killer as it provides an easy point for the opponents.  No easy points, as she says, is a good mantra to follow.

But the interesting point she make is that the entire goal/use of the service return is to allow you to get to the kitchen line.  It doesn't matter if you hit a great return or a horrible one, use the shot to get up to the kitchen.

She likes to think of the shot itself, as a "flowing event" where she will run through the stroke as she moves all the way up.  

Let me add a couple of thoughts on how to make this easier for us rec players.  One is to start several paces behind the service line - if you are up against the fence, that's fine.  Better too far back than too close to the base line.  

Two, watch the server's swing and paddle like a hawk, they will frequently telegraph what serve they are going to hit and where.  If you start very deep, you are going to have to run up for a short serve.  If you watch for that, then it will not be a problem.  

We've all been told not to run through a shot.  I would agree with that mostly.  Obviously some times you have to, but if you are blocking or not trying to hit a killer shot, and most service returns can be hit with minimal energy, as keeping it in and having time to move forward is more important than winning the point.  So if the shot is not complex, then run or glide through it, hit it in the middle and get up to the kitchen.  

And when you get to the kitchen, get your paddle up and your arms extended away from your body.  Face the ball and get ready for the third shot.

Here is the link to Jill's video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mfZeFD_6PAo

Thoughts from The Harvest Crush Tournament

I wanted to pass along an observation I had at the Harvest Crush 2025 tournament.

I was a volunteer runner on Saturday morning and that put me on the courts, looking for things to run.  It gave me a close up look at the action on the 4+ DUPR level courts.

There were some really interesting points.  And while there was not much dinking, there was a lot of fire fights and some points where one team had the kitchen line and the other was defending overheads from the baseline and transition areas.

I was impressed how well the defenders were able to get shots back without over hitting the ball.  I'm thinking about a recent post where I talked about a push shot and how that was inherently consistent and accurate because the paddle stayed on a path for the ball strike for a long period of time.  And that made the timing of the shot much easier.

The situation as the tournament was different in that the defenders were not trying to hit winners or be aggressive, but just wanted to keep the ball in play until they could get back to the kitchen line.

And they used a variation of a push shot.  The paddle was placed to hit the ball and not swung or pushed much.  Since the overheads carried a lot of speed, there was no need to add much speed to the ball with any kind of swing or push.  You could see this as a bunt in baseball, where there is no attempt to add energy to the incoming shot.

This shot was universal at the upper skill levels.  In the women's game at least!  I didn't see any of the men play and I would have been curious if highly skilled guys would be willing to block a ball back without trying to smack a winner.  Maybe I'll be able to report back next year.

Let me talk about the full scenario for a moment, as this is not just an overhead defense kind of point.  It also applies to a lot of other scenarios as points develop.  There are three states that each team is in any moment in a point.  You are either in trouble, in control, or you're tied with the other team.  

If you are in control, then hit an aggressive shot that...  goes in.  Don't throw a point away when you were ahead.  Use your advantage to make the next shot harder for the opponents.  Winning points is often a cumulation of errors until a winner can be hit (this is very rare in a pro game), or the opponents miss a shot because they were attempting difficult shots.

Second case, you are in trouble. Now you want to hit shots that give you a chance to get back to even.  It's my opinion that trying to win a point from a disadvantaged position is largely unsuccessful.  I'd rather see a dink or lob to get more time for your team to get into position.

Third case, which is usually when everyone is at the kitchen and the ball is low.  This is no time for heroics.  You want to wait for a good opportunity to strike, usually some kind of pop up, and then use a combination of shots to win the point.  Moving the opponents side to side, or back off the kitchen line are good tactics.  Be careful of speed ups in a good game, as they are frequently returned faster than the speedup.

If you side is serving, you are going to be in a defensive mode as soon as the serve is returned because the other side will be at the kitchen.  "They won't be there in my games," I hear you say...  Well, one day they will and I'd suggest that you should play as if you are in a good game.  In this case, you have to be careful and your goal is to get to the kitchen line where you can achieve parity in the point.  Yes, you can win a point from the baseline, but one day that won't work.

If your side is returning the serve, you have the opportunity to gain a significant advantage by hitting the return and then, always, always, join your partner at the net.  The servers have to let the ball bounce and you have to use that rule to get to the net.  If you don't do it, your side is split, your side will soon be on the defensive as the servers will be at the net before you are there.  And worst of all, you are not playing pickleball.  There is no game beyond the beginners where getting up the net is not expected.  You have to do it.  Yah, I know at first it's scary and you might get hit or look clumsy, but gird your loins and whatever else and get up there.  Get your paddle up and watch the ball closely.  Shots from the kitchen are usually easier than the baseline, you have to get used to it and learn to love it!

When does parity occur?  Well, it kind of depends on the third shot.  If it's a drop and the servers advance successfully, then that is the first time in a point that it happens.  When there is a dinking battle, then advantages, and trouble, and neutrality will occur frequently.  A good play needs to be aware what state their side is in and choose their shot appropriately.  "Why didn't you smack that last shot?"  "I hit a dink because you, my dear partner, were not in position yet and if a speed up were returned, we would lose the point."  "Oh."

That's it, that's classical pickleball.  Get out there and enjoy it!

Wrist Rotation and Why it Might be a Good Thing

 Hi all.  I spend a lot of time working on my golf swing.  The golf swing has a lot of similarities to a pickleball swing, particularly when serves and baseline shots are considered.

One of the fundamentals of the golf swing is that the right forearm will rotate clockwise for the right handed player.  And this might be true in some fashion for the pickleball player.

In golf you want to maintain this rotation position as you start the swing towards the ball.  

How about pickleball?  Well, if you were to do that, you would be bringing the paddle edge on towards the impact area of the ball.  What happens at impact is the big question.

If you maintain a lot of this rotation with a serve for example, you will get a low shot with a lot of clockwise spin.  The ball will skim the net, curve left to right, and skip to the right as it bounces.  You might very well want this.

Also in swinging the paddle edge on, there is less wind resistance, though how that will increase swing speed, I have no idea, but it has to be something.  

So if you do this edge on swing, you'll get more speed, some curve, more spin, and a lower shot.  Some of you might want that in a bad way and if you are interested, then try it out.

I think though, that the general case is that we all have some rotation taking the paddle back and then maybe rotate back automatically as we hit the ball.  

(Though a lot of beginner players have no rotation.  I'm not going to call that "bad' or inefficient, I'd be more concerned if the elbow is not extended, as that would shorten the arm and you'd get less paddle speed for the effort you're putting into the swing.  Actually, the elbow position is critical to a good swing.  The elbow should stay close to the torso and not move away from the body to move the paddle towards the body.  The arm needs to lag behind the elbow position to swing efficiently for longer shots.  Watch a video of a major league baseball pitcher and you'll see a lot of elbow lead.  Maybe more in a future post.)

If we alter the paddle parameters, we are going to get some interesting effects.  Let's consider a baseline shot where we are hitting the ball about waist high.  Now if we come in edge on and don't fully rotate the paddle to "square," then we may create a ball trajectory that is a bit high, but it will have cut spin on the ball.  Again, you might well want this effect.

There are a couple of caveats.  One is that the paddle is going to present to the ball a smaller shape and if you have problems with miss hits, and that would be all of us, you might get more of them.  Also, although you ought to get more paddle speed out of this swing, you might get less ball speed as the ball paddle impact is at an angle and some of the energy is going be used to create spin and a higher trajectory than a flat hit.  In certain circumstances you might want all of this or some of it.  You could think of it as a different tool

The edge on swing is also compatible to a backhand shot.  I remember watching a match where Lauren Stratman hit three consecutive backhand shots with an edge on paddle position.  Lauren comes from tennis and the stroke might be from that sport.  Again, play around with it if it might help your game.

In prior posts I talked about extending or breaking the wrist for almost all shots.  I don't think this edge on stuff is incompatible with that, I still like it for power and efficiency.  

I was a runner at the Harvest Crush tournament this morning and I've got some observations about paddle technique that I'll pass on in another post.