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...

The Jerry Drill

Expanding your mind from the standard programming...

After playing 4 years of pickleball, several principles have been embedded in my mind and, therefore, in my play. Some actions have become almost automatic...like dink low balls and attack high balls. One other action that is ingrained is to move to the net after a drive to an opponent at the baseline. The Jerry Drill is primarily a groundstroke drill but I found the mental challenge to be equally enlightening.

The Jerry Drill has one rule - every ball must bounce before it is hit. Instead of the 2-bounce rule, it is the always-bounce rule. Players can position themselves anywhere on the court, but, much like the positioning for the serving team, it only makes sense for all players to position themselves at the baseline so a ball can bounce in front of them.

Unconscious Excellence

Get your mind out of the way...

Last week we learned how to reach Nirvana. This week DJ Howard teaches us that Nirvana is not the last step of the journey. 

DJ's Weekly tip:

Last week I described the levels of development for skill sets-

1. Unconscious Incompetence
2. Conscious Incompetence
3. Conscious Competence
4. Unconscious Competence

These are very important to understand.

But there is one level I did not mention or describe. There is one more level of development and is reserved for the highest levels of performers.

You ready? The next level of development is...

Unconscious Excellence

Ever watch a concert pianist or other top musician play their instruments? Or an artist draw or paint? Their fingers seem to move perfectly without any thought to the process. Their timing, balance, and rhythm are perfect. They make a decision of which song to play or what piece or artwork to put on paper, but their body takes over and simply performs. They simply "feel" their way thru. Sounds a bit like a top athlete too, does it not? They display perfect timing, balance, and rhythm, all while appearing seemingly effortless.

Simple Skill Level Chart

Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level...

I get questions about skill levels a lot. There are many ways to evaluate skills, including USAPA and IPTPA skill checklists. Pickleball Central recently posted a very simple chart that provides a pretty good idea for players to judge themselves.

Backhand Slice

Getting the fundamentals right...

This week, the Jordan Briones Primetime video series again works from the baseline. Instead of the servers, though, this post focuses on the return of serve and, in particular, the backhand slice by viewing his video Backhand Slice Success | How To Hit A Great Pickleball Backhand Slice. We will follow along through Jordan's presentation as he breaks the shot mechanics down and then puts it all together at the end.

But first, why even bother with a slice? Why isn't a regular backhand good enough? Simply put, the slice puts additional pressure on your opponent. It has a couple of benefits.

Central Virginia Classis

Virginia is for lovers...

Registration is now open for the Central Virginia Classic Pickleball Tournament to be held on May 25-27 in Charlottesville, VA. The tournament will include Mixed Doubles, Women's Doubles, and Men's Doubles. The Boar's Head Resort is a great indoor venue with DecoTurf surface and 20-24 pickleball courts.

Recycle Sunday - Communicating with a Partner - Changing the Game

A blast from the past...

I have started a series called Recycle Sunday in which I repeat some old articles. This article was originally published January 8, 2016.

***

We have discussed a couple of partner communication essentials – off-the-court and during a rally. There remain 2 periods of time that have yet to be discussed. These are the breaks between rallies, including time-outs, and post-match. Let’s first focus on the between-rally breaks.

Most play allows very short time periods between rallies, necessitating very brief communications. Generally, these should be limited to one of two quick statements:

1. A player informing their partner of a very specific shot or tactic that may be attempted
2. Encouragement and compliments 

If Player A has noticed a weakness or tendency that was not discussed pre-match, he might choose to try something outside his normal style of play, such as a lob, poach, or alternate third-shot. Player A should communicate this intent to his partner so he can be properly prepared. This type of communication will likely be rare during a match.

Treatment of Pickleball Injuries

Pain is just a state of mind...

An interesting post from the Pickleball Forum.

How much time should you take off for various injuries:

1. Bruise from getting hit by opponent’s shot — call them a nasty name and keep playing

2. Slightly twisted ankle from opponent moving you around — Call them a nasty name and keep playing

3. Slight muscle pull from chasing opponent’s lobs — call them a nasty name and keep playing

4. Broken finger — tape it up and keep playing

5. Sprained ankle — doctor says take a month off — laugh at the doctor, and play the next day.

6. Pulled hamstring, doctor says take 6 weeks off — call him a nasty name, take one day off and then keep playing

Powerade State Games of North Carolina

Camel City...

Registration is now open for the Powerade Games of North Carolina Pickleball Tournament to be held on June 8-10 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.  

Unconscious Competence

Enlightenment is earned in stages...

Nirvana is the ultimate state of enlightenment in Buddhism. It is attained by passing through 4 stages of realization. I am woefully inadequate to explain these stages. But I found it interesting that attaining the Nirvana of Buddhism correlates with attaining nirvana in pickleball. You will see what I mean when your read today's post from DJ Howard.  

Weekly tip: Understand your level of consciousness and competence.

There are four stages of development that everyone must go thru when learning an athletic skill. They are as follows:

1. Unconscious incompetence. Basically, you don't know what you don't know. There is so much to learn and you don't even know where or how to begin. This person often looks at pro athletes on tv and thinks, "that's not that difficult" simply because the pro athletes make it look so easy. He doesn't understand all that went into making it look that easy.

United Way of Kershaw County Pickleball Tournament

Steeplechase Capital of the World...

Registration is now open for the United Way of Kershaw County Pickleball Tournament to be held on June 9-10 at a new pickleball complex in Camden, SC. The tournament will include Mixed Doubles, Women's Doubles, and Men's Doubles. 

Third Shot Footwork

Getting the fundamentals right...

The Jordan Briones Primetime video series continues from a different position - the baseline. Today's post uses his video Pickleball | Essential 3rd Shot Footwork to show how proper positioning will help to make your third shot drop more consistent. 

The fundamentals of any consistent shot, especially the third shot drop, consist of hitting the ball in the same place every time. I talked about this extensively in the December 16, 2017 post Positioning and the Natural Swing. I stated:

I believe that everyone has a natural swing. The swing that you took the first time you touched a paddle was likely your natural swing. You performed it without thought and used what felt comfortable. Ever since that day, your swing has been influenced by your mind as it adjusts your swing to fix mishits and misplays and to add others' technical advice...

The principle of a natural swing is simple. It is all about comfort zones - something I have talked a lot about in this blog, especially when targeting spots to take your opponents out of their comfort zone. The same theory can be reversed when thinking of yourself. Getting yourself into a position to take your natural swing is the ultimate comfort zone. That's a place you want to be.

Jordan talks about hitting the drop shot in your comfort zone, i.e., not reaching and not allowing the ball to get too close to your body. It is the area when you are balanced and most in control. In order to always contact the ball at the same point, it is imperative that you move your body to the proper position. This takes anticipating the ball's path and and getting your feet positioned early.

Don't Coach Your Partner

Just between us...

Yesterday's Recycle Sunday post was about the right kind of communication between partners. Today's post is a bonus DJ Howard post about the wrong kind of communication.

DJ's Weekly Tip: Do not "coach" your teammate during matches!

Your teammate is your teammate, not your student (unless, of course, you are a real pickleball instructor and your teammate IS your student, but that is rare and you get my point, so please go with me here). You are peers with your teammate. This is true whether you are a guy playing men's doubles, a gal playing women's doubles, or you're playing mixed doubles.

You ought not be TELLING your teammate what to do. If they ask for advice, you may give it. Exception: if you have a longstanding relationship in which you are the boss and they are a mouse who is willing to do the bidding of whatever the boss says, then I guess I'm not speaking to you. But my guess is that is a very small minority.

Recycle Sunday - Communicating with a Partner - Off the Court

A blast from the past...

I have started a series called Recycle Sunday in which I repeat some old articles. This article was originally published January 6, 2016.

***

All of us have relationships with other people - like spouses, children, co-workers, or friends. As a result, we all know how important good communication is to maintaining a healthy relationship. A pickleball partnership is no different, regardless of whether the partnership lasts only one game or extends for years. Good communication strengthens the team and leads to better results.

On-court communication seems obvious and will be discussed in a separate post. But good communication starts off the court with pre-match discussions about what will happen on the court. This is true for all competitive matches and especially true if the partnership is new or in its early stages.

Greenville Pickleball Spring Smash

The hottest city in America...

Registration is now open for the Greenville Pickleball Spring Smash Pickleball Tournament to be held on April 6-7 in Greenville, SC. The tournament will include Mixed Doubles, Women's Doubles, and Men's Doubles. Players can register online at https://goo.gl/WrJN98 or they can use the attached form and mail in their registration. (The tournament is also listed with registration links on PickleballTournaments.com). Registration closes soon.

Rally Scoring

Change the rules, change the game...

There seems to be a lot of chatter about rally scoring among some groups of pickleball players. I even heard that one of the rules sessions at the recent ambassador retreat featured an enthusiastic ambassador pushing to allow rally scoring. I did not hear what the USAPA response was but I would guess (and hope) that it was a big "NO".

So what is rally scoring, why do some want to see it implemented, and why do others want to see it die a fast death?

Rally scoring differs from regular scoring by awarding a point after every rally instead of only when the serving team wins the rally. In other words, the non-serving team can also score points. Proponents of the change like that the games are faster and more predictable as a result. Some think it will make the game more appealing to television audiences. They cite the 1999 change to rally scoring for volleyball as a success.

Space

I need more space...

Daniel Joseph (DJ) Howard is an IPTPA instructor in Michigan. He is also a member of the Pickleball Forum where he offers a weekly tip. DJ has kindly agreed to allow me to include his Forum tips on this blog. This week's tip talks about influence.

When receiving a ball, you want to think about creating or maintaining space between yourself and the ball.

Adequate spacing allows you to perform the shot more efficiently and effectively. Don't allow yourself to get jammed by a ball too close to your stance. On the other hand, don't allow a ball to get too far away so you lose balance leaning over for it.

The goal is to maintain as strong of a posture as possible so you may send the ball back with as much control and accuracy as you're able. Proper spacing is the best way to ensure this.

Land of the Sky Sponsor - Paddletek

It takes real planning to organize this kind of chaos...

As I mentioned Monday, we at the Land of the Sky tournament have been working hard to develop some relationships with sponsors hoping that they will continue into the future. Our second Gold Level sponsor is Paddletek.

Volley Dink

Getting the fundamentals right...

The Jordan Briones Primetime video series continues with work at the non-volley zone line. Today's post uses his video Volley Dink Success | Pickleball to discuss why hitting a dink out of the air is important. Better yet, it discusses how to learn the skill and decision-making that enables the shot.

Jordan opens the video with a discussion of both court and body positioning at the NVZ line. These techniques were covered in the past 2 weeks in our Tuesday series. Therefore, I will not repeat them here.

The first new material discusses a topic we have talked about before - what are the advantages of volleying a dink rather than hitting it after it bounces.

Land of the Sky Sponsor - Selkirk

It takes real planning to organize this kind of chaos...

We at the Land of the Sky tournament have been working hard to develop some relationships with sponsors hoping that they will continue into the future. Our first Gold Level sponsor is Selkirk Sport.

Recycle Sunday - Why Play in a Tournament

A blast from the past...

I have been posting Offbeat Sunday content for a long time. While it will continue as new material becomes available, I have started a series called Recycle Sunday in which I repeat some old articles. This article was originally published December 23, 2015.

***

There have been many posts that discuss tournament results or future tournaments. But we have yet to discuss why anyone should choose to play in pickleball tournaments. Let’s first review why anyone should play pickleball at all.

Pickleball is first and foremost FUN. It takes only as much time and effort as you want to expend in order to play at the level you choose. It is a very social sport with a small court allowing verbal interplay among the players. The short games allow players to gather on the sidelines while waiting their turns to play. These gatherings also provide opportunities for social interaction.

Pickleball Performance Training

It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you're properly trained...

Why do you play pickleball? Most of us do it for fun. Some do it for the exercise (in addition to the fun). Others do it to satisfy their competitive nature (in addition to the fun). For those and other reasons we all want to play pickleball as often as we can, as many years as we can, and as well as we can. So what limits us from more play, more years, and better quality play? More importantly, what can each of us do to overcome those limits?

Before I answer those questions, we need to agree on one basic truth. Pickleball is a game of movement. Players must move to get properly positioned to make the right shot. Sure, there are other important elements - understanding options, executing the shot, etc. But little of that matters if a player is not properly positioned to hit the ball.

More on USAPA Membership

Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate...

Yesterday's post was mostly about the personal benefits of a USAPA membership, which is a requirement for playing in a sanctioned tournament like the Land of the Sky Pickleball Tournament. There was a brief mention of the activities of the USAPA but I would like to go a little deeper into these in the hopes that those doubting the value of a membership can better appreciate what the USAPA does for them. Yesterday's mention is shown first below.

The primary reason to join the USAPA is to be a part of something bigger than your usual gym. The USAPA is the body that maintains the standards for equipment and rules as well develops outreach programs to grow the game.  

Rosemary Reese, Assistant Regional Director of the Southwest Region wrote an article that very eloquently explains why pickleball players should become members. A portion of the article is shown below.

Why Join the USAPA for the Land of the Sky

Why join the Navy if you can be a pirate...

When we were kicking around the idea of the Land of the Sky Pickleball Tournament, one of the topics was the sanctioning question. There are lots of good reasons to sanction a tournament but there are also some downsides. One of the downsides is that players must be members of the USAPA in order to register to play. That's not a downside in itself. But because there have been so few sanctioned tournaments in the eastern US there are lots of non-members. Playing in one tournament is hardly reason enough to join for some. Luckily, there are plenty of other reasons. Some of those are shown in this post. The slides shown below are from a presentation given at the Ambassador Retreat. The comments are mine.

The primary reason to join the USAPA is to be a part of something bigger than your usual gym. The USAPA is the body that maintains the standards for equipment and rules as well develops outreach programs to grow the game.  

Influencing your Opponent

Strategy is thinking about choice...

Daniel Joseph (DJ) Howard is an IPTPA instructor in Michigan. He is also a member of the Pickleball Forum where he offers a weekly tip. DJ has kindly agreed to allow me to include his Forum tips on this blog. This week's tip talks about influence.

That is really great term that correlates to what I have called "constructing the point". For example, in my post The Most Important Shot, I stated:

There are preferred next shots that should be used to gain advantages. These have been discussed extensively in many posts and are too numerous to mention here. General guidelines are to keep the opponents deep and exploit their weaknesses, such as a backhand. Hit the shot that would allow the ball to get to opponents' feet, i.e., use soft shots when hitting up and use hard shots when hitting down. Ensure that you know these preferred shots and targets and focus on hitting them on the next shot in order to improve your chance of winning.

Check out DJ's tip below to see how much we agree.

It's all about influence!

Pickleball is an exchange in which you are trying to gain an advantage over your opponent. You should not feel badly about doing so. It is what competition is all about.

But HOW do you gain an advantage over your opponent?

More on Positioning at the NVZ Line

Getting the fundamentals right...

The next video in Jordan Briones Primetime video series follows up on the post from 2 weeks ago called Fundamental Positioning at the NVZ Line. That video discussed "depth", meaning distance from the NVZ line. This video literally changes direction to discuss positioning and footwork side-to-side at the Non-Volley Zone line. The video is titled Pickleball Footwork | Winning Footwork At The Net

Jordan's main point on positioning is that players should be in the middle of their half of the court, i.e., nearly equidistant from the center line and the sideline.