Downs, the Abandoned Park

 Back in the day, I used to play at Downs park four to five times a week.  But I've dropped the park visits for a couple of reasons.  A few friends have asked why and while my personal decisions are probably not of interest to a lot of, there are some universal topics that others may have to face and perhaps a discussion would be useful to them.

Firstly, let's ask why we play.  The universal answer might be to have fun.  And, as the devil is in the details, how does one extract fun from pickleball?

I found fun in learning to play better and to play more interesting rallies.  

That is not universal.  The other part of any game that holds deep meaning for many, is winning.  

Secondly, the play level at Downs has increased significantly from years past.  A lot of that is from younger players from other racquet sports coming to pickleball.  They have good eyes and move better than us folks north of 70.

Thirdly, it's been my experience that almost all players from the 2.5 to the 4.0 arena hit the ball too hard.  They love the drive and that is a useful tool up to a certain skill level.  When your opponent easily handles all your drives, then the soft game becomes important.  But a lot of players never realize that.  I dropped by Downs a couple of weeks ago to say hello to friends.  All four courts were in play and there was banging games on three of the courts.  The one court where the dinking was happening (and required) was the 4.5+ group who had realized that banging was not the ultimate answer to better pickleball.

So, with all this in mind, I came to the conclusion that the Downs was longer the place for me to play.  I don't like a banging game, I don't mind some blocking, but when a game is nothing but banging, it's boring.  I also found some of shots to be very hard to see.  I think there are lighting conditions at the park can hide a ball for that vital fraction of a second, it would then usually appear in front of my face.  Not a lot of fun.  

I'm not a 4.5 player and I'm not interested in trying to get to that level, my level is sufficient to play socially with my friends in somewhat competitive games and that's just fine.

I'm spending a lot of time at May Nissen.  The skill level is rising there and it's a lot like the Downs was a few years ago.  It's an older crowd, learning to play better, moving better, and more social.  Those are good things and the enjoyment is rising as the players get better and make the transition from opponents to friends.

So farewell to Downs.  Thanks for all the good times and good friends.  

Opportunity Lost

 I played a game the other day and one opponent after the game said that it was no fun as the teams were very unequal.  There was detail in that comment and he went on to state that my side had a lot more control than his.

I've written a lot of posts about playing when there are differing abilities.  Generally, my opinion is that the better players should adjust their game to their competition or just a touch above.

I've personally used that guideline as I've transitioned from play at the Downs to May Nissen and Muirwood.  

If you are on the lower skill level and your opponent is better, but not just hitting winners all game, then you've got a useful (wonderful?) opportunity to enjoy.

Let's take the case I've just mentioned.  One team is more consistent than the other.  My suggestion would be to not try to hit winners yourself.  You want to strive to have longer rallies too.  Keep the ball in play at all costs.

How do you do that?  The easy answer is to hit more dinks and drops.  Hit a dink any time you are out of position, or your partner is.  If you have not gotten to the net (which means you are the serving side), then work on third or fifth shot drops.  If your skilled opponents are reasonable people, they will not punish you for these attempts, but will just try to keep you in the back court.  This will usually allow you to hit additional soft shots as you try to move in.

What normally happens in a lot of intermediate play is that the longer the rally, the harder the ball is hit.  You can be very successful by hitting all shots hard, but better players will block, let you hit into the net, and duck a lot of long shots.  

In my opinion, longer points are much more interesting than short ones and I find the soft shot features of a classic pickleball style to be a fun way to play.  

I think it's fine and appropriate to suggest at the start of game, that all players play "friendly" and see what happens.  You might find new skills, a closer score and different way to control the ball.   Think of this kind of game as a practice rally session with a better player.

So much for my soap box...

There was a Reddit comment about pickleball while watching a 4.5 5.0 game.  What the Redditor found to be strange is that when a pop up occurred, the ball was not put away but was returned as a solid shot that allowed the point to continue.  I would point out that winning a point or the game is secondary to social enjoyment, skill development, and interesting points.  I fully understand why the question was asked, but perhaps the simple answer is that there is more to the game than winning.

A Serving Side Technique, is it Good or Bad?

 TLDR: don't rush the net automatically when partner is about to hit the third shot.  

As people improve they realize the importance of getting to the kitchen line (KL).  What I want to talk about is how you want to get there if your side is serving.

Specifically, your partner is going to hit the third shot.  What should you be thinking about doing in this situation?

I see a number of people who will always rush the KL while partner hits the third ball.  This doesn't always work.  Let's look at some of the shots that partner will hit and what else we might want to do.

If partner is going to hit a good third shot drop, then you do want to rush to the KL and be ready to put away a weak return.  Keep your paddle up!

If partner is going to hit a bad drop, then you will be an easy target if you are at the KL.  It is better to be back then too close in this case.

If your partner drives the ball, you don't want to be at the KL, but you would like to have moved into the transition area.

There is one more case and that's where the service returner has not come to the KL.  In this case the third shot should be returned deep into the court to the returner and both players on the serving side will immediately move to the KL.  This is the best case as your side will own the net and the opponents are separated in depth.  The goal is to hit the fifth shot behind the player at the net.  If that is not possible then just keeping the opponents separated and look to exploit the net ownership.

Back to main topic.  So the rule is to move to the KL if partner is going to hit a good drop.  If partner drives we move a bit, otherwise we hang back.  So the best play is to move in a touch and watch partner's shot.  If it's a drop, keep moving in.  Otherwise, stay back a bit and see what the opponents will/can do.  If they look awkward or don't hit a good fourth shot, then seek to exploit that and keep moving in.

I'm assuming that your opponents are reasonable players.  If they are weak, then you can more aggressively move up.  If they are strong, then caution is a good idea.

The serving side should see a point as successful if they can manage to get to the net and start a dinking rally.  This requires that the third shot be done well.  A bad third probably will end the point.  This is not an unusual or bad occurrence, as even at the pro levels, there is  large percentage of the time that the servers never achieve parity in a point.  The advantage of controlling the KL is huge.

What does a point look like if the third shot is not a good drop?  The opponents are at the net and probably have hit a shot that lands somewhere into the middle of the court.  I think it's best to then hit a soft fifth shot and try to get your side to the net.

There are a lot of folks who feel that hitting the ball hard is what the game is all about.  So the fourth shot comes back and they will hit the fifth harder and typically the ball speed will keep increasing until someone thinks about ducking or the net gets in the way or an angled shot ends the point.  While that is exciting play, the points can be short and they lack the Zen of pickleball, which was designed to be all about the rally.    It is well known that the inventors of the game were deep into Zen as there was a Zen master on the island and they were all devoted students.  It is a disturbance in the force to fight the Zen undercurrents of PB or life itself.  One seeks to become one with the game and that is why the satisfaction of a good drop shot is so rewarding.

As the Master has said many times, "Why hit the ball hard, when softer works better?"  Be like the Master!  The balls and paddles will last longer too!

Serving Part Zero

 I've promised this post to my readers and also to myself.  It's one of those subjects that I had something to say and, from observations, it's useful to many a player.

There are a couple of things that you have to do to serve consistently.  However like a lot of PB play, you can get away with a lot of less efficient strokes.  If the paddles and ball were heavier, you couldn't, but we are happy to play with what we have.  So, strange play will work frequently.

OK, enough with over long introduction.  What we need is a stroke that is an upswing and therefore the ball must be hit from a fairly low position.

If you drop or bounce the serve, the ball must be hit at a level below the knee.  Did I say below the knee?  Good, because that's important.

The next vital point is that the ball must also be aligned with the center of the body.  The feet/toes should be on a line to the middle of the target service area.  You need to be bent a bit from the hips as your arm should be pretty close to vertical as you swing at the ball.

So we drop the ball, it's in line with the navel and below the knee and underneath your shoulders.  The swing comes from below and strikes the ball with an upward strike.  You have to hit it up to get it over the net.  A reasonable target in re height above the net is perhaps 6 or 7 feet above the ground.  

There is little need to skim the net as we seek not to win the point with the serve, but to start the rally.  If the serve is deep into the service area, fine, but in no case do you want to strive to hit the serve deep if in doing so, you serve long.  

A survey was done of a senior pros' game and the impact of all the serves were recorded.  The average impact point was the center of the service area, not deep or on the edges of the area, but dead in the middle.  Seek to play like a professional!  Seek the middle!

Now...  Let's say that you have mastered the simple stance and the ball drop and the upward strike and now you hit every serve in and you don't need to hit any warmup serves and all is well.  Yet, you seek more adventure!  More thrills and perhaps a hit of envy from your fellow players.  This is easily done.  We will now discuss the wrist.

I didn't mention it above and I assumed you were keeping the wrist joint fairly straight in relationship to the arm.  This is fine and the serve it produces will be gentle and not very spinny.  (BTW spinny is not a word.  It seems there is no word that describes something that spins.  You read it here first.)

How to create some useful spin...  This is all done with the wrist position at impact.  The more you increase the angle of the wrist to the forearm by bending the wrist back (extension), keep it in that position, and then strike the ball, you will create top spin with the ball.  You are brushing the ball and the angle of the paddle face does not match the swing path of the paddle.  This creates an imbalance in the universe and from this action, spin is created.  Ah, there is some heat there too, but not worth of discussion.

The more the wrist angle, the more the spin.  With this paddle position at the strike, you may have to hit the ball from a touch higher position and you have to hit the ball harder.  If you like the whack the ball, this is a tool you'll want.

With this, we have more pace, and with the spin, it is easier to keep the ball from going long.  You will also find the ball will be less affected by wind.  Again, height above the net is not a problem, in fact you can now hit the ball higher over the net as the top spin will cause the ball to arc more vertically into the court.

Alrighty, next variation and actually about the last one.  I've stated that the paddle has a straight path into the ball.  Well, maybe I just hinted at that, but it is the basic stroke.  Then we have wrist angle and now we mention not swinging straight through the ball, but we introduce a side angle.  Typically you will swing the paddle across the ball with the paddle moving towards your body.  If your feet and shoulders define a line to the service target, the paddle will now be from outside this line, across it, and finishes left of the line.  

How much of this deviation is another variable to play with.  Add in bending or not bending the wrist and you have many serves to choose from.  

And that's about all I know about serving...  Point your feet, drop the ball, cock your wrist, keep the wrist stationary, and hit the ball from below your knee.  

I had a group students in the PB 101 class and they were all tennis players.  They all liked to step with their lead foot as they hit the ball.  I like this as it is a useful motion and gets the entire body into the shot.  If you do this, you will create more speed with less effort.  I recommend it, but it's not critical.  To do this, your feet start pretty close together and then step towards the target.

Let me touch briefly and what errors I normally see.  The big error is that people drop the ball too far away from their body.  When that happens the ball is typically struck from too high a position and the moon ball is the result.  If it drops in, ok, but not what we want in the long run.  Drop it close and low and you can hardly go wrong.

Serving Part One

 Hello Readers,

I've wanted to do a post or two on serving.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  I've taught it in a lot of beginner classes, and beginners struggle with it.   Also some very nice intermediate plus players struggle with it too.  And then there are the yips -- when you have lost your serve and wonder where it went.  It was around here Monday, but today it has vanished.

Let's talk yips first.  I had a friend who lost her serve and I offered to help.  Now, I'm no authority, but if I have a consistent part of my game, it's serving.  One a good/God week playing playing four or more times at three hours per outing, I usually would miss one serve.  And that's one per week.  

I looked up the yips a bit, it occurs in a couple of my other sports.  I was surprised to learn that major league baseball pitchers get them too.  And they lock up so badly, they can't pitch much at all.  I had never heard of that and you can imagine the expensive issues for clubs and players when it happens.

It also shows in golf, usually with putting.

Solutions...  There are solutions.  There is a guy out there who claims to be able to fix baseball pitchers over the phone.  He doesn't say how and it's a trade secret, he wants some money for his consultation and cure, obviously worth it to save a million dollar career.

The golf problem is not as simple as far as I know.  Bernard Langer famously got the yips three times in his career and fixed it each time.

OK, back to PB...  

When I teach beginners I just tell them where they should hit the ball, middle of the service box, but then you knew that!  And have them try it.  This works reasonably well for most of them.  I don't like to pass on much technical information as it would be hard to remember it, and I think the purpose of the beginner lessons should be to give the players just the skills to enable them to join a beginner game know the mechanics of what to do and where to stand/be and that's about it.

Some of the issues I see with them is that they don't hit the ball hard enough, don't hit it close enough to their knee, and their feet are not aligned with the target.

I had one group of beginners and they were all tennis players.  They all made a nice step forward before swinging at the ball.  While this is not essential, I like it for several reasons.  It gets the entire body moving into the shot, the legs have to be reasonably aligned or it will feel awkward and with this, there is some inherent timing for the arm swing.  

Back to the yips...  Firstly, this is mostly a mental problem, but it's a good idea to make sure of the above fundamentals.  So, make sure the stance is angled towards the middle of the service box, feet close together, a step towards the target, ball drop, and hit the ball from near the front knee and obviously drive it up, well over the net.

Beginners, by the way, rarely hit the ball hard enough.  "Hit the back fence," I tell them.  Sometimes that works.

If you are intermediate player with the yips, then you should be doing all of the above.  The error I see with this is the contact point of the ball.  People want to hit it when it's very high -- thigh or waist!  And they don't drop the ball close enough to their body.  When that combination happens, we get really ugly, high serves with no pace.  

Let me mention bounce serves here.  The bounced ball does not bounce very high and if you are going to hit it at all, you have hit it from a very low location.  I like that.  The timing of the drop, step, and swing are a bit different, but it inherently has good things going for it.  I think mostly the timing is easier for a beginner.  If you haven't played a lot of tennis, then the drop serve might seem difficult as it can be imagined that there is not a lot of time in which to actually hit the ball.  This is not true, gravity is not that "fast" and you have a large part of a second to hit the ball.  

If the mechanics are sound, then also make sure of the grip and paddle presentation to the ball.  I'm happy with the continental or shake hands grip, though I think a western grip makes a lot of sense for serves only because it's an efficient way to generate more top spin.

The above techniques have to be trusted by the server.  If they are not, then we are creating doubt and angst.  Bitte, keine Angst!

If the mechanics are all correct and the serves are still yippy, then we have to calm the mind.  A routine of bouncing the ball a couple of times before each serve or touching the back net are examples of getting ready by creating a comfortable routine.  This is common in many sports.

If all of the above is fine and the serves are still a mess, then the fine motor skills are letting us down and there is some paddle position that wrong.  Make sure that your paddle hand, paddle, forearm, upper arm, etc., are pointing to above the net at impact.  The paddle face should be square to this swing path.  If the ball is not going in the correct direction, then the wrist/hand have to be the problem.

How do we correct that?  There are two techniques for this.  In the Inner Game of Golf by Gallwey, he suggests just paying attention to the hand position and grading it from 1 to 5, 5 being where you want it to be.  Gallwey and found that this is a feedback loop and will create the proper position after some repetition.  You swing, score the position, say it's a 2.  Then do it again and you should see things moving towards 5 as the brain is a wonderful thing.  Gallwey's books are quite interesting and if you are in to sport performance, I recommend them.

The other means, and I don't know where I got it, is to give your hand (or arm, or anything) a task to do.  And we want it to be a positive task, i.e., "do X" we don't want to try to, "Don't do Y."  The thinking on this is that the task will help the mind properly do the right thing, rather than what it's doing to make a bad serve.  A good task would be point to the top of the back fence when hitting the ball, or, wrist firm, as I will cut across the ball.  This is some basic conscious attempts at control, but note that is all of this we are dwelling on specific technique.  Your body will respond and improve things as you request better outcomes.

OK, that's probably enough for this.  I think I'm going to go over more of the basic structure in another post for beginners.

YMCA

To the tune of YMCA by the Village People

 

Player, there's no need to feel down

I said, Player, pick yourself off the ground

I said, Player, 'cause you're in a new town 

There's no need to be unhappy

Player, there's a place you can go

I said, player, when you're short on your dough

You can Play there, and I'm sure you will find 

Many ways to have a good time

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for you all to enjoy

You can hang out with all the guys

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

You can get a good dink, you can have a good drive

You can do what about you thrive

Player, are you listening to me? 

I said, Player, what do you want to be? 

I said, Player, you can make real your dreams

But you got to know this one thing

No banger does it all by himself

I said, Player, put your pride on the shelf

And just go there, to the Pickleball Courts

I'm sure they can help you today

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for players to enjoy

You can hang out with all the boys 

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

You can let yourself dink, you can have a good drive 

You can do what about you thrive 

Player, I was once in your shoes

I said, I was down and out with the blues

I felt no one cared if I were alive

I felt the whole world was so tight 

That's when someone came up to me

And said, Player, take a walk up the street

There's a place there called the Pickleball Courts

They can start you back on your way

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

It's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

They have everything for players to enjoy

You can hang out with all the boys 

Pickleball Courts, you'll find it at the Pickleball Courts

Player, Player, there's no need to feel down

Player, Player, pick yourself off the ground

Pickleball Courts, it's fun to play at the Pickleball Courts

Player, Player, are you listening to me

Player, Player, what do you wanna be?

Pickleball Courts, you'll find it Pickleball Courts

No banger does it all by himself

Player, Player, put your pride on the shelf

Pickleball Courts, and just go to the Pickleball Courts

The GUP

Let me present another idea that Gregg Whitfield (see links previous post) brought to my attention, the idea that you want your opponent to hit from a low position.  

Let's think about that for a quick moment.  The concept is probably not new to you, think "hit to their feet"  and "a low dink is a good dink."

The power that comes from this is that our friendly opponent has to hit the ball upwards to clear the net.  If they don't do a good job with this shot, then we would smack it back to them on a downward trajectory.  Basically, once more, hitting to their feet.

How is this done on a general basis?  We want to target the depth of our shots to match the opponent's position.  That might be mid court or deep or even at the kitchen line.  We want the ball to bounce near that depth.

If you are like me, that generally means a shorter shot than you are used to hitting.  And it probably means a softer shot with less power than typical.  Gregg might mention another point, and that would be that some back spin would be ideal for its ability to control the shot and how difficult it is to return a back spun ball.  A shot with back spin will have a flatter trajectory than a top spin shot.

Back spin will tend to come off the paddle lower than no spin or a top spin shot.  Frequently a back spin shot is returned into the net.  It will also bounce lower than other spins, which helps with our interest in hitting a low shot.

Any short, soft shot will require our opponent to hit up on the ball.  We, of course, having hit a low shot, have our paddle up and ready to hit the next ball down into the court.

So, bottom line, on any shot, hit it so that the ball will bounce at the same depth or shallower than your opponent and don't worry about pace.  Then be ready to hit a high ball return!

An Informal Blocking Lesson

 As mentioned in an earlier post, I was invited to a drilling/playing session with Gregg Whitfield, the local pro at Cambria, CA.

We were hitting and then played some games with a emphasis of keeping the ball in play.

One of the deficiencies with my game is the tendency to hit the ball, rather than just block it back.  Swinging at a ball from the baseline is fine, but when moving in or at the kitchen line, the block is more controlling and accurate  -- or so I've been told, I've not actually tried it!

The technique is to hit the ball in front of your body, no swing, gentle hand to control power, and use the wrist to change ball direction.  The paddle face has to be open, aka facing the sky a bit, for all shots.  (Gregg mentioned to me was that even on a shot at my ankle, I was starting to roll it.  While a roll is a beautiful thing, it's maybe not proper for all occasions?)  You need to hit the ball very softly here.  The open paddle gets the ball over the net, but if you hit it hard you'll pop it up.  

What this added to my play, there were fewer net balls and fewer popups.  I was hitting dinks that were more difficult to attack, easier to control.  I was very happy with the shots.

I tried hitting blocks as a fifth shot from mid court.  I usually would roll these as deep as the opponents, but I tried to just push the ball back, not much swing and mostly block.  Most of those shots came back, but were not difficult for me to return.  Note that none of these shots went out, which is maybe the entire idea of all of this, keep the ball in play, hit a conservative shot, attack when it's obvious.

As  I read this over, I think the main point here to choose to block rather than to hit out on a lot more shots than I typically would.  The philosophy is to reduce errors of two types.  The first being to avoid hitting an out ball and the second avoiding a long swing that makes it more difficult to return to a ready position.

And second change to my game is to not roll the shots much.  I've played with these changes for three sessions and I've found then quite effective.  I think in the last session I didn't hit any ball hard.  My win rate was as good as I get and didn't lose any game that I shouldn't have.  And if Randy had been on his game...  (Kidding!)

Back at Cambria: As the session proceeded, there were four of us playing and with that style there were some long rallies.  I'd guess one was over 20 shots.  Ah, Gregg could have put a couple of balls away, but that wasn't the point.

Then practice ended and there were a few final games with one of the heavy hitters.  I played with Gregg against an intermediate player and the other advanced player.  I found the game much easier to play when I blocked than with my usual roll shots.  Progress was made!

I appreciate Gregg spending time and knowledge with me.  His YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/@greggwhitfieldpickleballsh8164

His main web site is:

https://www.pickleballshotsandstrategies.com/

Ruby Paddle

 There were a couple of players in Cambria who had the new Ruby paddle.

I am interested in this paddle as it's supposed to be very spinny which fits my "roll every ball at all costs" hitting style.  It also has a modified shape, not elongated, but long with some head spread at the top corners.  I had this shape with a couple of other paddles and liked it.  Rumor has it that this shape provides more sweet spot.  I'll do anything for more sweetspot.

I was able to try out the paddle and it is more spinny than my "illegal" Diadem Vice.

One of the nice parts of the Vice is that it's quite easy on my wrist and arm, both of which are always sore and unhappy.

The Ruby felt pretty nice too.  It wasn't harsh, felt soft enough and was poppy too.  

It wasn't as quiet as the Vice, but it wasn't too loud.  I could play with it.  I would enjoy the extra spin.

The handle was quite a bit thinner than the Vice.  It felt comfortable to me.  It maybe that I'm starting to hold the bat looser -- not sure, but it was noticeable and comfortable.

Gamesmanship or What Would You do?

 An interesting thing happened when I was watching the better players in Cambria.

The server, Mr. S, objected to where the receiver's partner, RP was standing.  RP was standing at the kitchen line with a foot in the service return area.

The Mr. S suggested that this was way to hinder the server from trying to hit the corner by the center of the court.

RP suggested that there was an attempt at a Nasty Nelson!  

The exchange got a bit heated and the receivers walked off the court, quitting the game.

Hmm, well that didn't go well on a number of levels.  Since this was a social game, I would have just moved over the from the T if asked.  But in a tournament setting, I would reserve the right to stand where ever I wanted.  At that point I guess the Nasty Nelson issue comes up.  I would see the NN to be a valid tournament shot and the person at the net needs to be paying attention.

Any thoughts out there?

Cambria Part One, Challenge Court Rules

 Hi All,

I've been in Cambria for the last 10 days and played at the local club four times.

They have six nice courts and if you are a member or pay the drop in fee ($3), you have exclusive use in the morning.  Afternoon is open to the public with no fees.

They have two of the six courts set up for challenge play.  The rules were interesting to me, as the question of what to do about differing skill levels comes up frequently.  On Sundays, all courts are challenge courts, though there is a upper skill versus not so upper set of courts.

Their rule is that the folks on the challenge courts (CC) are expecting a competitive game and no one is expected to take it easy on anyone.  With that in mind, all are welcome to play at any level.   I thought this was a good way to do it.  Folks can find a comfortable level and the good players don't have to be gentle souls if it conflicts with their core beliefs.  :-)

I played with the good players for about four games and found my game was not up to it.  I was invited to play as it was early and they needed a player.  We swapped partners every game and I was never on the winning side.  

The less skilled folks were below the typical Downs levels by a little bit.  I would have been happy to play somewhere between the two levels, but that game didn't exist.  But I was very happy to play with social folks and enjoyed the play level.  I played with a lot of folks across four days and probably three hours a day.  The club has a monthly fee of $10, which is what I paid.

On Wednesday they had a drilling group going and that sucked all the players from the social side.  I was about to go home, when I started to watch the local pro, Gregg Whitfield drilling a bit with his wife.  I had played a few times with Gregg in the advanced side.  He had also remarked on my "need" to roll all my shots and hinted that something better might be in order.

Gregg has a web site up and has some of his videos on YouTube.  His general approach is a defensive one, with control being a big part of how he plays.

I was invited into the drilling session.  Yeah for me!  They were working on blocks as a method for hitting about 80% of shots.  Now, I have long recognized my lacking in this area, so this opportunity was of great interest and value to me.  Which leads us to the next post as this one is long enough and I want to talk about some of technical details in my "lesson."

Cambria is a nice place and the PB makes it a good destination and chance to meet new folks.  I ran into several players around town in the course of the time there and it was nice to have a local connect.

One more point...  So Sundays are when the heavy hitters come from all over the county.  I wandered down to watch a bit.  It was a quiet day and not much action.  While I was hanging about, Rich Rutan and Ada show up!  I watched some of their games and they were quite competitive. 

OK, I'm going to work on the next couple of posts!

Odds and Ends

 I had an hour and was in San Ramon on a Monday morning.   I found the courts off of Alcosta Blvd.  They have four courts with lights and the same kind of fencing as found at the Downs, i.e., the aisles open for balls to run lengthwise.

I was in luck and they needed a fourth.  It was a beginners game and I was happy to bat it around with the folks.  Everyone was wonderfully friendly and we chatted a bit after the games.  They scattered and some of them were off to take lessons.  They had been playing for a year or so.  

They play Monday mornings around nine, so if you are in the area, it's a nice place to play with friendly folks.

I played the other day with a new partner and found it a struggle.  Partner was of reasonable skill level in terms of hitting the ball, but what was difficult for me was that he stayed on his side of the court.  Middle coverage is required by both players as the ball moves around.  I watched a pro match the other day and the players were shifting like little crabs and so quickly that I checked to make sure I was playing the video at normal speed.

There are a couple of PB techniques that I'm trying to incorporate into my game.  The big one is to try to hit balls from a small space around my body.  In other words move enough so that I am not stretching.  If I can get close to the ball there is more time to hit it and the stroke is much shorter.  I'm finding the accuracy and pace control is better with this.  The second item is when hitting drives from the kitchen line do not swing at the ball, just block it back.  My usual practice is to swing at it, which makes for a longer stroke with more difficult timing.  It also makes it more difficult to get back to "ready" if the shot comes back.  More on this in the upcoming Cambria post.

I think that's it.  The weather has been tough to get out and play.  The blog is not dead, but I really don't have much more to say.  Any suggestions, guest posts, etc., are welcome.

Grips - Both of them

 When we teach beginners, we suggest that the continental grip is the way to go.  Frequently I've seen players who come from tennis and have a stronger grip.

The continental grip (it used to be call "English" back in my tennis days, when rackets were wood and Jack Purcell shoes ruled.) -- think of shaking hands with the paddle.  Your first knuckle should be pretty much on the first flat area "down" from the top of the paddle.  When you hold the paddle out in front of you, its face will be perpendicular to the ground.

When you take the paddle back to hit a forehand, you will see that the face is now pointing skyward a bit, or open.  When you hit a ball, you'll need that openness to get the ball back at a good height to clear the net.

When you swivel around to hit a backhand, you'll find that the backhand paddle position is also open a bit.  Welcome and required for almost all shots.

And that is the magic of the continental grip, you don't have to adjust your grip as you go from forehand to backhand shots.  Where this is very evident and important is at the net when you get into a volley battle or speed up.  You don't have time to shift your grip.

Now, there is an advantage to having a western grip.  You can produce top spin more easily with it.  Top spin is a wonderful thing and I can understand the lust for more of it.  But let's talk about net play with this grip.

There are  a couple of good players with this grip who play at the Downs.

They hit a lot of net shots with a forehand because of the grip.  In fact they will attempt to hit all of the shots with the forehand.  You will see the forehand move from their right, to their shoulder, to above their head and then down to the left shoulder.  

If you use the "Normal" grip you would have changed over to a backhand when the ball gets to your backhand side.

But the strong gripper can't do it.  So there a point where they must switch, and it's low on the backhand side.  And they then have a paddle attitude problem, usually the paddle very open and if they don't hit the ball well, they will pop it up.

If you use a strong grip, you need to spend some time hitting backhands with it to avoid disasters.

Tip!  If you are playing in a tournament, you are of course looking for left handed players, but it's also useful to look at the grips they use.  If it's strong, expect a heavy top spin serve and ground strokes.  You'll want to play to their backhands and evaluate from there. 

Dinking Paddle Attitude

 I've gotten to practice dinking with Robo the last couple of weeks.  He has some back issues that preclude play, but dinking and such is fine.

Robo has a very nice dinking motion and he has a very open paddle face at impact.  Being of open mind and always willing to experiment a bit, I've adopted this style.

When I say "open face" that means the paddle face faces the sky.  A neutral face would be parallel to the net and closed would face the court surface.  Obviously if you are hitting a high shot towards someone's feet, the paddle is closed.  Most other shots require that the face be open.  This is due to having to lift the ball over the net.  A lot of shots are hit from below the net level, and this is when the open face is required.

Getting back to dinking...  Of course it is easy to get the ball over the net and hit it up to do that, but the big fear is hitting a pop up.  Surprisingly,  a face that is opened 45 degrees or more will produce less pop ups than expected.  I tend to put some cut on these shots, which reduces the efficiency of the strike, and out comes a soft, arcing shot, that doesn't carry very far.  Since it arcs quite high, it's very easy to get over the net.

Give this a try, it's made a large difference in my dinking game.  

Poaching The Third Shot Part II

 Let me finish up with describing a common scenario of the passing shot on your alley.

Let's assume that you took the last post to heart and you are now spending more time in the center of the court.  You are also providing a passing lane for your opponents.  

My solution to this is to play/hog/prioritize the center of the court until my opponent starts to hit passing shots.  When this starts to happen, the important question is how well can they do it?  It is not a large angle and they have to hit it with some pace or you can move back to the outside and defend it.

If they hit one in four attempts, I'm not going to move off the center.  I'm happy to take three points for every one I lose.  

But if the opponent is a tennis player and can hit that shot better than 50% of the time, then it's a bit more complex.

You can still move to the center and then move back when Op's head goes down - or at least be very expectant of the alley shot.

Most Ops will wind up when they are going to hit a hard third.  When you see this and you should be looking for it, you get into the ready position and get ready to... Duck!  Look for shots that will not stay in.  Unless the shot has top spin or hit close to the net, it's quite likely to go long.

The alley shot also requires some pace, so the wind up is your signal to cover the line a bit more.  About one less step the center is all that is required.  What is going to make you react quickly is that you are expecting a hard ball and it's likely it's coming down your alley.

The alley shots and the middle coverage thing can evolve into a cat and mouse type of battle.  You know, the Op knows, and the Op knows that you know, so there are some guesses and feinting going on as to who will do what.  These are fun points I think, and with the added middle coverage, make the game more interesting.

Thoughts on Poaching the Third Shot

Let's talk poaching of the third shot.  

A simple definition of a poach is a shot where you step in front of partner to intercept a ball.

Poaches are usually quite effective as they do three things.  They change the timing of a point.  A poacher will be taking time from the other team, though he is also taking time from his side too.

Secondly, a poach is usually done close to the kitchen line and if the ball is high enough, it's easy to sharply angle the shot.

Thirdly, if you poach, you provide your partner with some time to continue to the KL.  

The typical situations where poaches are expected are to hit the third shot, in dinking battles, any time the ball gets lofted and you and partner are separated in the net to baseline direction.

 I was going to go on at some length, but let me concentrate on the third shot poach.  This scenario is a frequent and important part of playing at any level.  I would make the case that Ernies and excessive poaching might not belong in rec games below 4+, but the third shot poach is fine, neh, required and expected at all levels.

So, assume you are at the net and partner is returning the serve.  If you look up "really good places to place the second shot" you will see that the "book" location is to the center side of the server.  If the server is right handed this will be his backhand.

There are good reasons to return to this area. it doesn't provide an easily angled third shot, it's usually to the server's backhand, and there is a good amount of court depth there to either hit the ball deep or low and soft.  Of course, the opponents may have trouble deciding who will return that shot, an added bonus.

The service ball is going back to the middle of the court and you, at the net, are looking something to do.  In my life philosophy, the guy at the net is responsible for middle shots.  It doesn't matter if they will have to hit it with a backhand, they are up there and don't have to move much to return any middle shot.  So they should be looking for it and they should be moving towards or onto the center line.

The key to hit this shot well, is to move your feet and be in a good stable position when the ball comes over the net.  The big problem I see is that the poacher will take one step and then stretch to hit the ball.  This leads to missed shots and bad hits.  It's important to understand that this shot is yours and you need to fully move to hit it.

I've had this conversation with a lot of partners and my line has been, "I have no problem with you taking that shot, but you need to fully step over and hit it."  I would probably change that to, "That's your shot, I'm expected you to hit it, move  all the way over and do it justice!"  

Where should the poach be hit?  I don't have any wisdom to pass on in re that topic.  I don't think it matters much.  Obviously if you can keep the opponents deep in the court while your side rules the net, that's the traditional strategy.  But angling the ball off or hitting a dink or angled shot is probably also effective.  But what you want to avoid is a middle ball getting to the service returner or, worse, hitting the third shot into the net.

This poach is most effective against a hard shot from the servers.  It is not as important if they drop the third shot.  

A lot of what happens at the third shot and what I'm describing here assumes that your partner was on the way to the kitchen line, as they should be regardless of the quality of their second shot.

There are other poaching scenarios, but for the sake of keeping this shortish, I'll forego that for time being.  I've been negligent in writing at all for a while and I'm trying to recover some enthusiasm!