Is Anything "Good Enough"?

Excellence is an attitude...

First, I'M BACK!. It has always been my intention to provide a new post every day (with the exception of Recycle Sunday, of course). But I was a co-tournament director of the Land of the Sky tournament this past weekend. The tournament work and following recovery were too overwhelming to allow blogging. I have finally recovered enough to have a new post, although not an original one. It is Thursday and that means it is DJ Howard's turn.

DJ's tip this week is all about attitude.

DJ's weekly tip:

Good enough isn't good enough.

Wanna move up a level? You have to get better and be better more consistently.

A philosophy that says, "just get it in and that's good enough" is NOT good enough! 

The higher you go in level, the better you have to be at each aspect of the game.

Recycle Sunday - Analysis of a Single Point

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published March 4, 2016.

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Pickleball is a game with lots of action compacted into a short time. Sometimes a single rally contains a ton of information. Such is the case with the championship point at the recent Grand Canyon State Games as shown in the below video from Pickleball Channel's Facebook page. 

The team on the near court consists of Jennifer Lucore and Alex Hamner, generally considered one of the best, if not the best, women's doubles teams in the world. Lucore is in the white shirt and Hamner is in the pink shirt. Let's go through some of the play:

Volleys Defined

Know your options...

DJ Howard's tip this week is all about volleys.

DJ's weekly pickleball tip:

There are three main types of volleys: blocks, punches, and swings.

Before I go further, you must first understand the difference betweeen a "volley" and "rally". A volley is a shot hit out of the air, whereas a rally is a series of shots hit back and forth. Got it? I am talking about volleys, not rallies.

Use BLOCK volleys when:

• The ball is coming toward you very fast
• You are trying to control the ball
• You are trying to hit a drop
• You want to avoid popping the ball up to your opponent
• You don't know what else to do - note, this should be rare!

A block volley is used more as a "reset" type of shot most of the time.

Recycle Sunday - The 80% Rule

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 20, 2016.

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As you might imagine, I watch a lot of pickleball. I watch videos of players of all levels. I watch live games while waiting for recreational play. I watch live games during tournaments. I watch to get ideas to write about. But mostly I watch to learn.

Many games have extended periods of dinking during which I have questioned why opportunities to make an aggressive play passed without avail. After reading the statistical analysis about Conversions, I wondered even more. The author wrote "that a team strong in offensively executed conversions would see a forced error in their opponent or score a point within two hits of their executed conversions". There is no more offensive conversion than turning a dink into an aggressive smash. So why wasn't it done?

Several weeks ago, I had my question answered in a conversation with Jerry Peterson, a multi-gold medal winner in national tournaments in 2015. Jerry told me that the best players do not jump on the first opportunity just because it may create a win. These players wait for an opportunity that presents an 80% chance for a winning shot.  They will not take the shot if it is 50/50 or even 75/25. They wait for a near certain winning shot.

Jerry Peterson

Setting up Erne

Getting the fundamentals right...

It is Tuesday and w all know what that means - it is Jordan Briones time! This week's video is an interesting one for me since it is about a shot I have never even tried - the Erne. Let's describe the Erne first. It is a shot that is hit by a player standing outside the court beside the net post. It is usually a surprise shot. I wrote 2 articles about it in June 2017 - The Erne Shot and More on the Erne Shot.

What was left unsaid in those articles was the specifics of setting up the Erne for success. Jordan does that in his video How To Setup The Erne In Pickleball.

The not-so-secret part of hitting the Erne is that it must be off a down-the-line shot. Otherwise, the ball would out of the reach of the player attempting the Erne. So the secret part is setting up the opponent to hit the ball down the line.

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.

Recycle Sunday - Pickleball Statistical Analysis - Honest Self-Awareness

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 16, 2016.

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We have spent more than a week discussing the statistical analysis of pickleball play as performed by Noel White. Noel offered one last observation from his research and I will present it below without comment.  From Noel:

The Palm Creek pickleball players who know me, are aware that I spend my pickleball time, when not playing, observing the play of others and primarily asking these observed others how they think they just played. Another variation is asking other game watchers what they are seeing going on in the playing in front of them.

When I can be diplomatic, rather than nosy, I am soliciting people’s perceptions and estimates of what is and is not working for them. I compare what they tell me with what I have previously witnessed.

Practice the Mental Side

Plan to win...

The theme of this week's posts has turned out to be how to respond under pressure. The theme continues today with an article from Sarah Ansboury about developing the mental part of the game. Her thought is that pressure can be overcome by planning and practice...and not necessarily with a paddle. Excerpts from her article Pickleball Challenges: The Mental Side of the Game are shown below.

We often practice our shots…thinking that perfecting our strokes is the key to winning. But if we don’t control the mental side of the game we will often come up short. Today, we’ll focus on preparing yourself mentally before a tournament.

Play the Point, Not the Pressure

Stay on track...

DJ Howard's tip this week kind of ties into the Reset and Rescue Shot posts of the last 2 days. His post discusses play when under pressure. This could include play when under attack or out of position.

DJ's weekly tip:

Play the point, not the pressure.

Utilize high percentage plays. Don't take unnecessary risks. Exploit your opponent's weaknesses. Angles create angles. All good advice here. But if you forget all this good advice when under pressure, guess what? You lose.

You cannot afford to alter your game so much that you fail to simply play smart pickleball. If you succumb to the pressure of the situation, you will likely fail to play quality points consistently. And that gets you beat.

Rescue Shots

Get me out of this mess...

We have all been there - out of position, on the defensive, fighting to keep the point alive. We talked about one situation in yesterday's post about resetting the point after a bad third shot puts you under attack. But there are other game scenarios where we need to find a "rescue" shot, i.e., a shot to get us out of trouble. Sarah Ansboury has article at the RV Picklers' site titled What Should I do When I’m Out of Position on the Pickleball Court in which she gives us some advice. An excerpt is shown below.

Don’t Panic

Often players find themselves in a defensive position and panic. Out of panic, players try to go straight from defense to offense.  This is the equivalent to a pickleball hail Mary…it only works one out of 100 times.  Instead, your goal should be to move from a defensive to a neutral position.  To do that, consider these three things.

Recycle Sunday - Pickleball Statistical Analysis - Conversions

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 14, 2016.

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Noel White analyzed 5 areas of pickleball as listed in my post Pickleball Statistical Analysis. We have covered the first four of those areas over the past week and will now discuss the last area of his work. The subject is conversions, a term with which I was not previously familiar. Before we define it, let's see how important it was found to be. The conclusion (Results Nutshell) reached by Noel was:

90% of the time winning teams have the most total number of successful conversions. I have some rough estimates that teams using the most offensive type conversions win a high % of the time and teams that have the most defensive type of conversion shots lose a majority of their games

A 90% factor in winning seems to be pretty important, at least important enough to understand how to use it to our advantage.

Noel has described a conversion as "any change-up in hitting or playing the game that breaks the previous pattern of hitting or play. For example, a lob out of a dinking pattern, soft hitting to hard hitting, a cross-court shot during a pattern of straight line volleying….)"

Recycle Sunday - Pickleball Statistical Analysis - Getting to the Net

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 13, 2016.

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My post on Pickleball Statistical Analysis mentioned 5 areas of the game that were observed and evaluated by Noel White. The fourth of these 5 areas was the service team getting to the net. The conclusion (Results Nutshell) reached by Noel was:

100% of the teams that take a conservative approach to getting to the net never make it to the medal rounds. Approximately 20% of the playing teams take a conservative approach to coming- to-the-net, while in the serving mode. This low-risk approach to the net (waiting for the perfect drop shot, etc.) results in playing defense from the back 1/3 of the court over 50% of their serving time.

90% of the time conservative getting-to-the-net teams (while serving) lose to equal or better competitive teams. A few conservative net-approach teams played defensively from the back 1/3 of the court over 60% of their playing hits when serving.

Yet again, the data is overwhelming.  Teams win games by getting to the kitchen line. Staying back is a huge disadvantage.  In my earlier post You. Must. Get. To. The. (No-Volley) Line, Prem Carnot stated:

Recycle Sunday - Pickleball Statistical Analysis - Return of Serve

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 12, 2016.

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Following up on the statistical analysis discussions of the posts on Unforced Errors and the Drop Shot, we will now cover the third area of play listed in my post on Pickleball Statistical Analysis - the return of serve. The conclusion (Results Nutshell) reached by Noel White regarding the return of serve was:

The return of serve (the 2nd hit) significantly effects which team initially gets to play more of a serving round offensively and which team plays more of the serving round defensively. Approximately 50% of the time the return of serve makes it easy for the servers to get off a good 3rd hit. The other 50% of the time the return of serve is hit in such a manner that the serving team gets off a poor 3rd hit that is predominately a defensive hit.

Aggressive Play versus Banging

I need an aggressive, but smart, attitude...

This week, DJ explains why it is important to be aggressive in your play. But aggressive does not mean hitting every ball hard. Yet another reinforcement of percentage pickleball!

DJ's weekly tip:

Understand the difference between being a banger and playing aggressively. There IS a difference!

A "banger" is a player who hits the ball hard because he or she can't do anything else or simply doesn't want to do anything else. They rip the ball and hope that the pace of the ball can make the opponent make a mistake or hit a weak reply. They rarely hit drop shots or lobs or use much in the way of strategy. This type of player is typically impatient and will get frustrated if too many of their hard hit shots are returned.

Recycle Sunday - Pickleball Statistical Analysis - Drop Shots

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 11, 2016.

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I have discussed several options for the third shot, including the drive, the lob, and the drop shot. In my post on The Third Shot, I stated that the drop shot is the best option. I based that recommendation on observations, discussions with 4.0+ players, as well as personal play. Now, I have statistics that support the recommendation. My post on Pickleball Statistical Analysis mentioned 5 areas of the game that were analyzed by Noel White. One of these 5 areas was drop shots. The conclusion (Results Nutshell) reached by Noel was:

In the 2013 research sample, 73% of the time the winning teams hit a majority of the successful drop shots. In the 2012 research sample, approximately 90% of the time the winning teams hit a majority of the successful drop shots.

Recycle Sunday - Pickleball Statistical Analysis - Unforced Errors

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 10, 2016.

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I have watched a lot of movies in my time. I can honestly say that my favorite movie line is Clint Eastwood's "A man's got to know his limitations" from a Dirty Harry movie. Nothing could more accurately describe the first strategy recommendation from Noel Whites' pickleball study mentioned in my post on Pickleball Statistical Analysis. The first conclusion listed by Noel was:

70% of the time winning teams have less unforced errors (many times significantly less) than the losing teams.

Overcoming Psychological Barriers

Don't let failure limit your game...

Yesterday's post - titled Psychological Barriers - was an article written for a farm's newsletter written by my nephew (in-law), John-Scott. The article used the analogy of a string fence's ability to contain massive animals to the human predilection for using past failures to psychologically bar future risk-taking.

John-Scott's article was similar to a post I recently wrote titled Learn to Overcome Adversity in which I discussed using experience and discipline to overcome mental lapses due to distractions from past failures. I want to briefly discuss an item in his article with which I disagree by showing my reply to his article:

Just 5 days ago, I wrote an article for my blog titled Learn to Overcome Adversity. The point of the article is that past failures can easily (and negatively) impact peak performance.

Psychological Barriers

Don't let failure limit your game...

Today's post might be the most unusual topic and source I have ever included. It is an article written for a farm's newsletter. But not just any farm or author. It was written by my nephew (in-law) who, together with his father, uncle, and other family raise beef cattle in Pennsylvania. John-Scott and I have some mind-melds that amaze me and this falls into that category.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Learn to Overcome Adversity. The topic was about using experience and discipline to overcome mental lapses due to distractions from past failures. Only 5 days later, John-Scott wrote the following article discussing the psychological in a whole 'nother world from pickleball. He is a better writer than I am and I want to use it to make the same point. I will follow up with more thoughts tomorrow.

John-Scott's Thoughts

A collection of all things marketing, grass farming, and living.

The bull was standing not fifteen feet in front of us.  He’s a solid chunk of grass powered muscle and I was chattering away about the fact, rattling off pedigree information and reporting on previous calf crops sired by the beast currently subjected to our scrutiny.

Despite the proximity to such an awesome animal and my enthusiastic and unending descriptions, my guest seemed distracted.  He came to look at our herd bull, but, as we stood in the pasture to accomplish that objective, the guy couldn’t keep his eyes off the fence.

When I finally realized the cattleman wasn’t listening, I stopped talking and allowed the silence to settle in between us.  I was interested to learn what had him so preoccupied.  After a brief intermission he acknowledged the void in conversation and asked, in total disbelief, ‘Is THAT all you use to hold him in?’

‘THAT’ was in reference to a single strand of braided nylon rope interspersed with thin metal filaments and hanging delicately on small fiberglass posts.  From any angle it is viewed, the perimeter does not look substantial enough to stop a poodle, let alone 1,800 pounds of testosterone fueled Hereford.

Recycle Sunday - Pickleball Statistical Analysis

A blast from the past...

This week's Recycle Sunday article was originally published February 8, 2016.

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I am a big fan of statistical analysis. I believe that mathematics is unbiased and reveals the reality that mythology sometimes hides. It was with some disappointment that I mentioned in several posts that I have never seen any statistical analysis of pickleball play. I am happy to now say that particular void has been filled. I recently stumbled across an extensive analysis developed by Noel White, Club Statistician, Palm Creek Pickleball Club. I am also happy to say that the conclusions confirm the preponderance of observed play and my strategy recommendations. But, while the conclusions shouldn't surprise anyone who watches high level matches, the numbers supporting these conclusions just might.

When to Use a Timeout (Part 1)

When you can't play, stop...

DJ Howard has written a couple of tips about the use of timeouts. Last week, I posted his second tip and promised to come back to the first. His first tip is shown below.

DJ's weekly tip:

Use your timeouts wisely.

There are a number of reasons why you may want to use a timeout. The main thing is that you actually THINK about using your timeouts because you really want to use them wisely, not carelessly.

P.S. I will be discussing many of these options in the coming weeks, so I kindly ask that you not inundate this post with all kinds of ideas as to when to use a timeout. That isn't the point. I'm sure y'all have great ideas. But since this is my post, you just calm yo'self down and comment only on this particular situation. Thanks! Y'all are too kind.