The Erne Strategy

As you pounce on a mouse, I pounce on your dink...

The Erne shot fascinates me - probably because I have never done it. But I'm going to give a shot after writing the next 2 day's posts. I previously wrote about the Erne in The Erne Shot and More on the Erne Shot. But they did not go into the detail I needed to gather enough knowledge to try the shot. After tomorrow, I think I will.

But first, let's view a Mark Renneson video titled Pickleball Strategy: Erne in which Mark discusses the effectiveness of the shot.

Picking a Paddle

The right tool for the job...

The growth of of pickleball means new players are always joining. Inevitably, a new player will ask about buying a new paddle and what they should look for.  I have found that a paddle is very personal choice. Some friend play well with - and love - paddles that either feel like bricks or sponges to me. One good thing about the growth of pickleball is that the selection of paddles has also grown. Despite the number of paddle styles, there are some basics that a player can consider and Mark Renneson has a new video to explain these titled How to Choose a Pickleball Paddle

This is not Mark's aid to buying paddles. Nor is it the first time I have discussed the topic here. Check out Chapter 14 on the left for more articles about picking a paddle. While Mark hits the basics including paddle shape, face material, and weight, there are other aspects such as grip length and circumference that are discussed in those articles.

Mark Renneson In Asheville

Experts start as beginners...

Mark Renneson will be in Asheville next week to provide instruction opportunities to all levels of players. Intermediate and advanced players will have group drill and training sessions and all players can sign up for private lessons. This is a great opportunity to work with of the best instructors in the game. The sessions will be held at Stephens-Lee Recreation Ctr.,  30 George Washington Carver Ave, Asheville. Click here or the image below to go to the website.

Rules Clarification - Reaching Across the Net

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

The Senior Games started on Thursday in my county. I wanted to get some referee practice so, instead of playing, I reffed 5 matches. Nothing of note came up in my games, but a separate unofficiated singles game had a play that often raises questions. It was a ball hit with enough spin that it crossed back over the net from the receiver's side to the hitter's side. The receiver reached across the net and the ball without touching the net.

Mark Renneson has a good video titled Pickleball Rules: Over and Back explaining the shot.

Deep, Deep, Deep

Depth creates pressure...

We all learned that the deeper the water, the greater the pressure. This is simply because more depth means more weight from above. It may be a poor analogy but the same is true of deep returns in pickleball - the deeper your returns, the more pressure on your opponent. Mark Renneson discusses the importance of deep returnes in his recent video Pickleball: Awesome Returning. 

Mark's focus is on the return of serve, likely because both opponents will be at the baseline at the time of the return. The importance of depth comes down to 2 factors:

5 Intermediate Mistakes

Learn the basics first, then discover the subtleties...

I briefly mentioned yesterday that some principles get embedded into players' minds as they learn the game. Many times principles represent the safest action in a given situation. That does not mean that the principle represents the only option. My favorite contrarian, Mark Rennesson, discusses some mistakes that mid-level players make, including the exposure of some of the principles as myths, in his article 5 Intermediate Mistakes. An excerpt is shown below.

Pickleball is considered an 'open-skilled' sport because it requires wide-ranging and varied skills and the circumstances are always changing. The height, speed, spin, distance and direction a ball is hit is never quite the same as the ones before it. The fact that players are standing at (or moving through) different places on the court, that wind or sun conditions change throughout a game, means that pickleball is an activity full of variability and change. 

That said, as someone who works with a lot of pickleball players, I can say that for all the variability in the sport, there are quite a few mistakes and habits that are common to intermediate players. Here are a few of them...

A Contrarian View of the Drop Shot

Everything has a purpose...

Yesterday post was my view of what an effective third shot should be. As you might guess from the title of this post, Mark Renneson also has a strong opinion on he topic. In this case, his is pretty closely aligned with mine. Below is an excerpt from his article It's Not What You Think: Myth-busting the Drop, which can be read in its entirety at the link.

..when we are all together in the gym or on the court, everyone knows exactly what is meant by a third shot drop: a slow-moving reply to the return-of-serve. A shot that lands in or near the kitchen when the opponents are near the net. This is not big news. But then I ask them: “Why, exactly, would we hit this shot? What is the point of a drop?”. This is where things get interesting.

The 3rd Shot Drop is a response to a return of serve, used when opponents are at the NVZ.

Offbeat Sunday - Winter Pickleball Review

Some things are not made to go together...

Mark Renneson has entertained us with winter pickleball - played on ice. His recent winter pickleball review video - Pickleball Ball Review: Winter Edition - seems appropriate for the bitter cold weather we have been experiencing in the eastern US.

Is the Middle the Right Target for the Return of Serve?

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

Back in September, I had a series on targeting. One part of that series was the proper target for the return of serve - in the article Targeting: Where and Why - The Return of Serve. 

First, it should be noted that the return of serve should be a relatively easy shot since no opponent is waiting for your ball at the NVZ line. Therefore, targeting for a return of serve can get very specific. 

In that article, I identified the primary target as deep down-the middle for 3 reasons:

1. It could create a hit by a weaker backhand if placed properly.
2. It draws the opponent to the middle and exposes the sideline for the next shot.
3. It holds the potential for an easy point if the opponents get confused about who should hit the ball.

Options: Step Back or in the Air

You can't judge my choices without knowing my reasoning...

Pickleball is a series of choices. Players have options about how to approach a shot - backhand or forehand. They have a choice of type of shot - drive, drop, or lob. They have a choice of targets - crosscourt or down the line. These are only some examples. Depending on the advice followed by the player, some choices are minimized. Such is the lure of experts whose advice adheres to what worked for them or the most technically correct strategy. This post is the first of a series offering options to traditional thoughts. It can either make your pickleball life either easier or harder. The choice is yours.

One of my earlier posts, Dinking Secrets to Success, discussed 3 techniques to win the dink game. Two elements had similar reasoning - reduce the time for your opponent to react. The first technique discussed in the video is the one for which an alternative will be presented. In the video (shown below), top player and coach Steve Dawson explains that taking the ball in the air when possible is the best choice.

Hitting a Wall with Mark

The wall never loses...

Much like Chris Wolfe showed us in yesterday's post, Mark Renneson also has a wall practice. His video perspective is...let's just say, different. So different that image captures can't do it justice. Just enjoy the video on this Thanksgiving weekend. Oh the video is called Practicing your pickleball game without a partner.

Offbeat Sunday - Tweener

Always protect the family jewels...

Every once in a while I run across some pickleball material that file away and wonder how I can use it. Such was the case with a video from Mark Renneson, How To Hit The Tweener. This is a video showing a shot I would teach and, most definitely, would never use. The agony of defeat cannot compete with pain of failure.

Training for Better Third Shot Decisions

Muscle has memory: the body knows things the mind will not admit...

I cannot calculate how many times I have said (or thought) "I was thinking too much on that shot" after a poor hit. While more options are generally a good thing, there are times when too much of a good thing can be detrimental. One benefit of a targeting strategy is that options are reduced. Targeting eliminates entire sections of the court and focuses on only a limited number of areas. This allows fewer thoughts to complicate the decision-making and also allows muscle memory to take over. 

But targeting does not eliminate all important decisions. One that remains is the drop versus drive decision on the third shot. But Mark Renneson has a training method to create the memory necessary to make the decision more instinctive and less of a coin-flip.

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.

Disguise through Consistency

Body language gives away tendencies...

I recently wrote a series of articles about using body language to deceive your opponent. Shortly thereafter, Mark Renneson releases a video on the same topic. I want to work it in while the concept remains on readers' minds.

Mark's video, Pickleball Strategy: Disguise Your Dink, shows the deception that a consistent set-up provides when hitting either a dink or a drive. This is similar to one of the shots discussed by Morgan Evans in Disguise Your Shot. But Mark has some pretty good video to support the discussion.

Faking

Body language gives away tendencies...

Deception is not limited to shot-making. Body language and reading it applies to all parts of the game. For example, reading the body language of your partner may tell you what your next move should be. Can you see that he is going to poach? Then move to cover for his being out of position. Can you see that he is going to take the down-the-middle ball? Then move to cover your court.

The same principles apply to watching your opponents' body language. But this also can be used to your advantage. Faking a poach but returning to your position can cause a bad shot. This is similar to the situation described by Mark Renneson in his video How to Be Tricky.

The Key to Shot Direction

Body language gives away tendencies...

Last week's series was about watching your opponent to get clues from his body and paddle language to determine where his shot was going. Some of the suggestions included watching the direction of the lead shoulder, watching the toes, or watching the paddle face. Today's post will be a short one to show some of the myths of shot-making in order to set a base from which to grow our discussion.

The topic today is the element of the shot-making that determines direction - the angle of the paddle face. I will use a Mark Renneson video called Controlling the direction of groundstrokes in Pickleball to illustrate that concept.

Offbeat Sunday - Pickleball on Ice II

Some things are not made to go together...

In the winter of 2015-16, I posted a video of Mark Renneson playing pickleball on ice. We have had a very warm summer this year in the Southeast and playing on ice actually is appealing to me. Here is Mark's follow-up video Pickleball on Ice: Volume 2.

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.

Split Step Timing

Its not the situation. Its your reaction to the situation...

We have been talking about movement and, more specifically, about movement from the baseline toward the NVZ line. A fundamental of this movement is the split step. This technique transitions a player from forward movement to the ready position and then toward his next return. 

We certainly have not ignored the split step in our discussions. It is highlighted in Chapter 5 - Earn the Net and mentioned frequently in many other posts. Many of those posts were written early in my playing and learning experience and relied on some old-school advice about the timing. Generally, players were taught to stop and split step just prior to the instant when the opponent was striking the ball.