Re-learning Movement at the NVZ

Learning something new pushes something old out of my brain...

When I started this blog, one objective was to chronicle my path of learning the game. I have tried to do that even as the learning has slowed. Today is another one of those educational experiences. 

I have been working with a friend to help become more consistent at dinking. I am fairly good at dinking balls that have a normal bounce and dinking balls that I can take in the air. (That is a secret I will discuss on another day.) I can also hold my own on harder, penetrating dinks at my feet or to my paddle hand side. My struggles are with the hard and low crosscourt dink to my backhand side, especially when forced to move a couple steps from near the centerline.

The first training videos I watched to learn the game were from Coach Mo. He had a video about moving at the NVZ line in which he showed a crossover step to extend a player's reach. A screen capture from his video is shown below.

Fix Your Back Pain...and Your Game

Back pain is youth leaving the body...

I was drilling on dinks several weeks ago when my back started to tighten up. A friend who often gives me advice told me I was bending from the waist. Instead, I needed to get lower in my stance while keeping my head up. Another friend commented that the proper position would be felt with soreness in my legs and glutes. To make a long story short, I needed to lower my butt.

A couple of experts have some similar advice. Let's start with Sarah Ansboury and the RV Picklers in the article Pickleball Posture: Oh My Aching Back! Here is an excerpt:

STOP BENDING AT YOUR BACK!

I see poor pickleball postures at many levels of play. Often people crouch over, making themselves seem smaller. This is really bad for your body, putting stress on your back, hips, hamstrings, quads and more. Not only is bending at your back bad for your body, but it affects your ability to play at your best.

Targeting: The Experts on Third Shot Options

Be sure to positively identify your target before hitting the ball...

Last week I reinforced the return of serve concepts in my articles with advice from experts. Today's post will do the same with the options for the third shot. 

Deb Harrison has a video - Pickleball TipBit: Third Shot Options - in which she discusses alternatives to the drop shot, including the drive and the lob.

Targeting: The Experts on Depth

Be sure to positively identify your target before hitting the ball...

The past 2 Mondays have covered targeting strategies for the serve and the return of serve. Today would ordinarily be reserved for the third shot since this series is written to coincide with the topic of my skills & drills clinic held on Tuesdays. However, tomorrow's clinic has been deferred to next week. Therefore, I want to spend today reinforcing my articles with advice from experts. The targeting strategies for the third shot will be covered next Monday. 

Before I get to the experts, let me reiterate the strategies and their priority order:

1. Get it in-bounds.
2. Get it deep.
3. Get it to the backhand or weaker player.

One of the most important factors to keep in mind is the limit of your skills. Move down the priority list only as your skills allow. That means practice and drilling to move down the list.

NVZ Footwork

The kitchen is not for dancing...

Let's continue our series on court movement. Last week we covered moving through no man's land to get to the NVZ line. The need to move does not end when the NVZ line court position goal is attained. It just changes. Instead of long strides and moving forward, NVZ line movement becomes side to side or quick steps forward and backward. This another topic that has been covered extensively and past articles can be found in Chapter 6: NVZ Play - The Dink. We will try to bring some new ideas to the discussion.

Mark Renneson's video Advanced Footwork at the NVZ provides his thoughts on the perpetual motion machine that players should become. He demonstrates a string of dinks while keeping his feet constantly moving through hops and shifts. Mark's theory is sound. It aligns with the science discussed by the Auburn softball team in Optimal Reaction. Movement quickens the reaction to move to the next shot and allows for getting the body positioned for consistent shots by being balanced. Images cannot capture the dynamism of Mark's presentation. Watch the video before we move on.

Change Mechanics to Fix the Yips?

Pickleball is 100% mental and 50% physical...

Experts who advise on fixing the yips generally discuss 2 things - focus and simplicity. Both are centered on correcting the mental aspect. Increased focus is intended to eliminate all thoughts from the mind except the hitting the ball. Simplifying the motion is also intended to eliminate many of the thoughts that complicate the serve, such as target, speed, spin, etc.

One example of this advice is from Deb Harrison in her video Losing the Serve. Deb discusses getting a rhythm to the serve starting with a consistent pre-shot routine. Then, make it simple - get the ball from point A to point B.

Another example is changing the mechanics of the serve as discussed by Jeff Napier in Recovering From a Serving Problem:

Hitting the Offensive Lob

When "over your head" is a good thing...

A couple of posts last week discussed the 2 primary situations for a lob - the offensive lob from the NVZ line and the defensive lob when needed to buy time. 

Note that an offensive lob from mid-court or the baseline is not among the best strategy options. There are a couple of reasons for that omission. First, it is extremely hard to hit a lob to the other baseline from that distance. A short lob generally results in an opponent's overhead smash. Second, the distance the lob travels also gives the opponents plenty of time to react and get into position for a good return. In short, the risk vs. reward relationship does not make this a smart shot.

But today's post is not about strategies. It is about the lob technique. Some of this was covered last year in my post The Lob. We will cover it in more detail today, using Deb Harrison's video How to Hit a Lob that illustrates the offensive lob. The video shows 2 distinct lobs - the regular lob and the topspin lob. 

The regular lob is the simpler of the 2 options. The paddle face is open and angled to establish the desired trajectory of the ball. The paddle face must not be too flat or the ball will be high and short. Nor should the paddle face be too steep or the lob will be too low and more like a groundstroke. Much like Goldilocks’ taste for porridge, the paddle face must be just right.

Drop Volley Against Bangers

Deception is a tactic...

The past couple of posts have described the basic volleys used to defend against bangers. After those volleys are learned, it would be a great idea to add a little deception. Bangers typically feel most comfortable hitting low hard balls from the baseline. Because they can overwhelm many players with their power, they have not developed a complete game - including the ability to anticipate shots nor to hit balls on the move. 

When opposing players are on the baseline, one strategy is to hit a drop shot that they will struggle to reach if they even try. Deb Harrison has another video called Pickleball: Drop the Ball Against Bangers that describes the drop volley techniques  we will review in this article.

The drop volley is hit from the same body position as the block and punch volleys. The difference is in the paddle position and movement. Deb discusses 2 different drop shots defined by amount of paddle movement. The first is called the feather drop because it is hit lightly and with slight backspin. The paddle slices under the ball, making contact with the bottom. The paddle position extremely open with forward movement.

Adding to the Block Volley Against Bangers

Throw the first punch for a win...

A Deb Harrison video described the basic block volley in yesterday's post. She noted that 80% of banger's shots will be at torso height requiring a flat paddle face, meaning that the paddle must be parallel to the net. But what about the other 20% of shots - those below the waist or above the shoulder? Those volleys require some adjustments to the basic technique. Deb Harrison has a video that describes these shots, Pickleball Punch Block: Deb Harrison, Defending Against Bangers Part 2. This video also adds a new volley - the punch volley - as a weapon.

One part of the block volley technique never changes regardless of where it is hit - there is no paddle movement forward. The shot is a simple deflection back at the opponents. This means that the angle of the paddle face must change as the height of the shot being defended changes. A high shot requires the deflection to go downward, meaning the paddle face must be tilted down. If the high ball is blocked with a flat paddle face, the opponents will have an opportunity for a winning smash.

Block Volley Against Bangers

Keep calm and volley on...

Sarah Ansboury and the RV Picklers taught us yesterday that the best defense against bangers was to reset the point. This is most easily accomplished through a simple block volley. But there are other options available - such as a punch volley or a drop volley. Deb Harrison has videos explaining the techniques of each of these shots that we will review over the next several days, beginning with the block volley.

The block volley is hit with the paddle parallel to to the net to simply deflect the ball straight back to the opponents. A prerequisite is that the player is positioned to hit the volley as described in my earlier post The Ready Position at the Kitchen Line. The position is also described in the first Deb Harrison video Pickleball Ready Position at the Non Volley Zone, Defending against Bangers, Part 1 that also discusses the block volley. The 3 key elements of the ready position are:

Dink Options on the Middle Drop

The typical return hit after a drop shot is a dink because a good drop shot will require the ball to be hit upward. But we have seen in the last several posts that more aggressive volleys can be hit from the odd and even court positions. The same is true of a middle drop shot. Deb Harrison has a video describing a high-risk option of hitting to the sideline in a video called Middle Ball Options. The intent of this shot is to attack a player charging toward the net by hitting the ball outside his comfort zone.

With the forehand shot, the paddle is cupped around the ball and rolled toward the sideline while keeping the ball low.

Defending the Drop Shot from the Odd and Even Courts

In yesterday's post, we discussed the technique of returning a third-shot drop with a topspin volley. Deb Harrison has 2 more videos showing the strategies of defending the drop shot from specific spots on the court - the odd (left) side and the even (right) side of the court. The concepts of these are similar so they will be discussed together. The videos are called 3rd Shot Drop Defense from Odd Court and 3rd Shot Drop Defense from Even Court.

The general concept of these shots is to hit to space, at feet, or the line of doubt. The shots can be made with a volley when the ball is in the air or with a groundstroke when the ball bounces. They can also be made with either a backhand or a forehand. In all cases, the targets remain the same, but the techniques vary. The 3 targets consist of the crosscourt front corner, down the middle, and down the sideline.

Crosscourt Front Corner

Defending the Drop Shot

We spent last week reviewing the drop shot. The next logical step is to understand how to play the drop shot when it is hit by an opponent. A video from Deb Harrison called Returning the Third Shot Drop will be used to discuss this skill.

Deb's focus on this shot is a volley of a third shot drop that is hit below the level of the net but has not yet bounced. Her objective is to hit a return that keeps the serving opponents deep. Her choice of volley to accomplish that is a topspin shot and this video explains how it is hit.

As always, the first step in any shot is preparation. Getting ready for this shot means moving the paddle down to be prepared to take the ball in the air or on a short-hop if necessary.

Drop Shot Drill from Deb

We have seen that the drop shot is very important. We also know that the shot is hard to execute, especially as it gets deeper in the court. So how does a player learn the shot and get better at it. Learning is hard but there have been several posts on the subject (see Chapter 4 - The Third Shot along the left column of the blog). Getting better isn't hard but takes time and practice. A good practice routine is shown by Deb Harrison in her video Don't Stop the Drop.

The Half Volley

The importance of getting to the kitchen has been emphasized to the point where I don't need to reiterate that point. Instead, today's post will discuss a shot needed to to overcome the disadvantage of being in no-man's land as progress toward the net is made. 

The subject shot is called a half volley. The name is a bit of a misnomer, though, as it is actually a groundstroke. The shot is defined as "A groundstroke shot where the paddle contacts the ball immediately after it bounces from the court and before the ball rises to its potential height." A half volley is needed when an opponent hits a shot to a player's feet, thus requiring a return made on the "short-hop". The most likely area where this occurs is in the mid-court as players earn their way to the net.

Let's start the discussion with a video from Deb Harrison called Half-Volley Pick Up.

Deb's Drop Block

The post Deaden the Volley included an article from Prem Carnot about taking pace off of a hard-hit ball when volleying. This post will use a video from Deb Harrison called Block Drop When You Don't Get to Net to illustrate her version of the shot.

Dink like the Pros

We earlier discussed the beginner's basic dinking method in Basic Dink Technique. Then we learned about targeting the dink in The Dink Game. While the basic method and targeting is a great start, a more effective dink is "pushing" the ball toward the target low and with spin. Deb Harrison describes this technique in her video Dink Like the Pros.

The Dink Game - Anything Goes

We introduced the dink game in the post Dinking Drills. Deb Harrison took the game to next level by identifying dinking targets in her video The Dink Game Pt 1. Now Deb takes the game to its natural conclusion - playing it out without limits - in the video The Dink Game Pt 2: Recognizing the High Ball.

The Dink Game

I have previously written about the dink game in the post Dinking Drills. A simple description of the dink game is that it is played just like a regular game except that all play occurs with players positioned at the non-volley zone line. All shots, including the serve, are dinks and scoring is identical to a regular game. Deb Harrison takes the game to the next level in her video The Dink Game Pt 1.

Triangulation in the Dinking Phase

Since dinking comprises such a large part of the game, it is essential that players understand where they should be positioned during the play. We talked about team movement while at the kitchen line in the post Moving as a Team Part 1 - At the Kitchen Line. In that post, I talked about forming a wall in order to cover the 2/3 of the court that opponents could most easily exploit. Deb Harrison talks about the same concept in her video Tipbit: Triangulation.