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.

Referee Training Success

There is nothing better than a good, blind referee...

I announced that pickleball referee training was scheduled in July's post Referee Training in Hendersonville. Since then, both sessions have been completed. I am in awe of the response and interest of local players. The first session had 18 attendees and the second had 24 attendees. The total of 42 attendees was awesome.

The attendees with Inga Carr

The sessions were led by Inga Carr, who was charged by the USAPA to boost the referee program in western NC and surrounding areas. The sessions consisted of a small amount of rules discussion but were primarily focused on referee management of the official scoresheet.

Be Unpredictable through Deception

Body language gives away tendencies...

I hope that the previous 2 days of posts have shown that watching your opponent for clues about shot direction can potentially be problematic. Players use their bodies to send false clues and use deception to their advantage. Morgan Shepherd showed 3 different deception techniques in yesterday's post. There are even more that he did not show. Today, we will view a video from pballvids.blogspot.com called Unpredictable that shows deception used in actual play.

The first shot in the video is one shown by Morgan - the hard short off a short backswing.

Poaching

Poaching is the practice of one player moving into his partner's court to return a ball that would normally be taken by the player's partner.  The poach generally takes place at the kitchen line but could occur anywhere on the court.  There are two kinds of poaching - planned and unplanned.  (Some would agree that there are two kinds of poaching but would change the labels to "good" and "bad".)  A poach is shown below.  The player starts in the left service court and returns the shot after crossing into the right court in front of his partner.

Moving as a Team - Let's Stay Together

Everyone has heard the saying "Two heads are better than one". In pickleball, two players are better than one...if they play as a team. Pickleball is a game of quick shots and strategy. A team must be properly positioned to to account for both factors in order to maximize the probability of winning a rally.

Before beginning the discussion of team positioning, let's review the court dimensions.

The Third Shot

The first shot of a game is the serve. It is the easiest shot to execute since the server has complete control of the ball. The second shot of the game is the return of serve. It is the second easiest shot to execute since the opponents on the serving side must stay back to allow the ball to bounce. The third shot is hit by the serving team and follows the return of serve. It is one of the most difficult shots to execute since the shot generally occurs near the baseline and the opponents are likely to be positioned at the kitchen line. There are 3 options for the third shot – a hard low shot, a lob, or a drop shot into the kitchen. The following Deb Harrison video called Third Shot Options discusses these options.

The hard low shot

This shot is a powerful groundstroke hit low over the net in an attempt to hit it past your opponent or cause them to make an error. It is a stroke that is used by beginners and mid-level players due to their comfort with driving the ball. However, it is effective only against low to middle level players who have not yet mastered the volley game. The low hard driving shot typically reaches the opponent above the net and can be easily volleyed at a variety of angles and back to the feet of the serving team.