Backboard Drills Part 2

The wall never loses...

Yesterday's post discussed some basic wall drills for beginner through advanced players as resented by Joe Baker. Joe has a second video for several very specific shots that we highlight today. Joe's second video is Backboard Wall Drills for Pickleball Volume 2.

Again, Joe emphasizes the importance of drilling to improve your game. He states that practice time is at least 10 times more efficient and effective than playing time.

Third Shot Practice

Backboard Drills Part 1

The wall never loses...

Pickleball progress is incremental, accomplished by finding a weakness and working to correct it...or even make it a strength. One method to make that happen is to drill. But drill partners are hard to find. There is, however, an exception. It is not too hard to find a wall. Having said that, what are some effective wall drills? We will let Joe Baker lead us through some in his video Backboard Wall Drills for Pickleball.

Before getting into the drills, Joe makes some great points worth highlighting:

1. To improve in almost any sport, you must increase practice time rather than playing time.
2. When hitting against a wall, you will hit 7-10 times more balls per minute than playing a doubles game.
3. You can focus on specific shots repetitively.

Drills for Beginners

Targeting: The Experts on Defending 3rd Shot Drops

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

I would like to again reinforce the concepts in my article with advice from experts. Today's post will discuss the experts view of targeting options after a 3rd shot drop.

Prem Carnot's article When to Hit a Hard Ball Soft in Pickleball, while not about 3rd shot drops, explains the strategy of choices depending on the opponents' positions.

I often suggest that you hit the ball hard when you want to keep your opponents at the back and on the defense. So when you are receiving a hard shot, it’s the same thing.  If they are hitting to you from the back of the court, keep hitting the ball hard at them.  This will help you keep them on the back line and on on the defense.

When your opponents are UP at the non-volley line though, and hitting the ball hard at you, this is when you want to return with a soft shot.  This is the case when it’s time for you to soften that ball so that you can actually take control of the point.

So remember, hit a hard ball hard when your opponents are back and soft when they’re up front.

How to Win a Rally Without a Swing Part 3

Are you here to play or to watch...

The topic of not hitting balls that are out is interesting. The first article on Tuesday covered the mental part of the concept - recognizing players and body language that give an indication that those balls are likely to go out. The second article on Wednesday covered the physical part of the concept - slow down and keep your paddle up. Today, we will conclude with an idea briefly mentioned by Coach Mo - training our brains to recognize balls that will go out.

One of Coach Mo's tips in the first article sates "Play some points with your friends and don’t keep score; let some questionable balls go, so you can learn to recognize out balls. If you recognize just two balls a game, your game will improve about 20%." We will dive deeper into that using a video from Joe Baker called Pickleball Strategy 301 - Six Rules of the Fast Game. This video covers a lot of topics and the relevant part - Rule 6 - starts at about 10:56.

Dinking Strategy - Part 3

We have previously discussed advanced dinking strategies as presented by Joe Baker in his video called Doubles Pickleball Strategy 201 - Dinking Strategy. This post will pick up with a discussion of several individual shots that can help offensive or defensive execution.

Dinking Strategy - Part 2 ended with a discussion of well-disguised defensive lob. But disguising a shot is not limited to that situation. It is an important part of advanced net play.

Dinking Strategy - Part 2

Dinking Strategy - Part 1 started the discussion of advanced dinking strategies as presented by Joe Baker in his video called Doubles Pickleball Strategy 201 - Dinking Strategy. This post will pick up with a discussion of where to avoid hitting the ball and how to defend against players using the same tactics.

Advanced players avoid hitting to the opponent directly in front of them, especially to that player's forehand. Such a shot sets up an opportunity for your opponent to attack with a hit to your body. In addition, an opponent can more easily execute a lob when given a forehand dink. As stated yesterday, it always a better strategy to make an opponent reach, move, or scramble.

Dinking Strategy - Part 1

Several recent posts have addressed how to dink and how to defend the dink. But technique skills alone won't allow optimal play. Understanding how to use the dink through advanced strategies is just as important. As usual, the most comprehensive video that discusses strategies is by Joe Baker. This video is called Doubles Pickleball Strategy 201 - Dinking Strategy.

Beginning dinkers playing comparable opponents will have success using a dink that stays low and challenges players to hit a string of shots up and over the net. But as players advance, their goal should be to increase the stress on their opponents. One aspect of this is pushing the ball toward specific targets as described in Dink like the Pros. Another aspect is when to aim at these targets. That strategy, as well as how to defend against it, are the topics of this post.

Six Rules of the Fast Game - Part 3

Today's post will conclude discussion of Joe Baker's pickleball strategy video Pickleball Strategy 301 - Six Rules of the Fast Game. We will cover rules 5 and 6. In case you haven't already done so, it might be helpful to review our discussion on the fast play section of his earlier video in the post the Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 4. Here is the video that is the subject of today's discussion of rules 5 and 6.

Six Rules of the Fast Game - Part 2

Today's post will continue yesterday's discussion of Joe Baker's pickleball strategy video Pickleball Strategy 301 - Six Rules of the Fast Game. We will cover rules 3 and 4 today and conclude with rules 5 and 6 tomorrow. In case you didn't do so yesterday, it might be helpful to review our discussion on the fast play section of his earlier video in the post the Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 4. Here is the video that is the subject of today's discussion of rules 3 and 4.

Six Rules of the Fast Game - Part 1

I love Joe Baker's pickleball strategy videos, mostly because he goes into such depth and explains things so clearly. His most recent video - Pickleball Strategy 301 - Six Rules of the Fast Game - is no different. As usual with his videos, the depth requires spreading the summary over several posts so we will begin here with the first 2 rules he discusses. But prior to that, it might be helpful to review our discussion on the fast play section of his earlier video in the post the Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 4.

That post was one of a series that described the 4 phases of a rally played by advanced players. The 4 phases are:

1. The formality phase, consisting of the serve, the return of serve, and the capture of the net by service return team.
2. The serving team's struggle to move to the net to gain parity with the service return team.
3. The soft game of dinking.
4. The fast game that starts with an errant high shot.

In advanced play, about 1/2 of all rallies progress to the fast game, Therefore, it is imperative that fast game strategies are developed and used. Joe has done that and presented 6 strategies to assist players in this video.

Power Vs Control - Under-use of Power

Yesterday, I introduced a video from Joe Baker called Doubles Pickleball Strategy 102 - Smart Pickleball Vol. 2, Power in my post Power Vs Control - Over-use of Power. If you have not read that post, I would recommend doing so before going further. As can be deduced from the titles, yesterday's post discussed the misuse of hard shots when soft shots would be a better option. Today's post covers the opposite type of shot - the times when a shot must be hit hard.

The time for powerful shots is when the "fast shots" phase is entered (see The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 4 and series). The fast shots phase begins with a mistake, a shot that is high enough for a player swing downward and pound the ball. When this phase starts, a hard shot should be so hard that it ends the rally by defeating reaction time. Under-powering these shots allows the ball to come back, often harder than it was sent. A player should never provide an opponent with a ball in the air unless it is a lob or a high-power shot.

Power Vs Control - Over-use of Power

Many, if not most, players misuse power when playing pickleball. This is especially true of beginning and intermediate level players who get enamored with power, likely because they are able to overwhelm equal or lower level teams. The reality is that advancing skill players use less power. There is one simple reason for playing a softer game - it provides more control...and more control helps to prevent the # 1 reason for losing a rally - an unforced error.

Joe Baker has a video (Doubles Pickleball Strategy 102 - Smart Pickleball Vol. 2, Power) to explain the proper use of power. Joe provides some of the best pickleball instructional videos I have seen, mainly because he goes further into the depths of strategy than most. I have used 2 of his videos in my posts - Doubles Strategy and The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles. The Doubles Strategy post includes Joe's video Doubles Pickleball Strategy 101-How to Play Smart Pickleball, Ten Tips that is recommended viewing before proceeding through this post on power. I will cover the over-use of power portion in today's post and the under-use of power in tomorrow's post.

The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Wrap-up

A video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy, served as the theme this week. The goal of the video was to help newcomers and spectators understand the "whats and whys" about play in a typical high-level game. While it is a great video that meets its goal, it is probably a little hard for a newcomer - or even an intermediate level player - to relate to all the concepts. We will attempt to bridge that gap by going through the overall strategy and phases of a rally as described in the video and compare them to our real life play as closer-to-average players.

The video first states the overriding strategy of early play in a rally is related to the singular goal of controlling the net. This means that players use tactics to get to the net while simultaneously preventing their opponents from doing so. Experience and statistics show that this is the single most important action to win a rally. The team that controls the net will win 7 out of 10 points. This is true of all levels of play. Therefore, the tactics used in early phases apply equally to newcomers and professionals. The good news is that some of these are easy. The bad news is that some are the hardest shots in the game.

The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 4

A previous post mentioned that this is a theme week focused on understanding what is happening on the court. The centerpiece is a video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy. That initial post introduced and emphasized the overriding strategy of getting to the net. The next several posts moved on to the first phase of most points which the video calls "The Formality Phase", followed by a post about phase 2 named "The Service Team Struggle to the Net", and a post about phase 3 named "Dinking". This post discusses phase 4 of most points - "Fast Play".

Fast Play begins as soon as the ball gets high. Dinking lasts only until a shot gets high enough to invite an aggressive shot. Fast Play starts with the first smash to the body of an opponent or toward an open area. One item of note is discussed in this section. Many players at lower levels believe it is a breach of etiquette to hit at an opponent. The unwritten rules of tournament make this shot not only acceptable, but expected.

The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 3

A previous post mentioned that this is a theme week focused on understanding what is happening on the court. The centerpiece is a video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy. That initial post introduced and emphasized the overriding strategy of getting to the net. The next post moved on to the first phase of most points which the video calls "The Formality Phase", followed by a post about phase 2 named "The Service Team Struggle to the Net". This post discusses phase 3 of most points - "Dinking".

The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 2

A previous post mentioned that this is a theme week focused on understanding what is happening on the court. The centerpiece is a video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy. That initial post introduced and emphasized the overriding strategy of getting to the net. The next post moved on to the first phase of most points which the video calls "The Formality Phase". This post advances to phase 2 of most points - "The Service Team Struggle to the Net".

Phase 2 is when the service team tries to advance to the net in order to level the playing field. Remember that phase 1 concluded with the non-serving team positioned at the net. They have a tactical advantage because the service team had to stay back waiting for the return of serve to bounce. The service team must overcome their disadvantage by gaining the net through a third shot strategy.

The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 1

A previous post mentioned that this is a theme week focused on understanding what is happening on the court. The centerpiece is a video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy. That initial post introduced and emphasized the overriding strategy of getting to the net. This post moves on to the first phase of most points which the video calls "The Formality Phase".

The Formality Phase consists of the serve, the return of serve, and the capture of the net by the service return team. This phase is appropriately named because these actions occur in nearly every point of tournament play. The serve initiates play and the return of serve has the goal of allowing the team to get to the net.

The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles

This week will be themed around the specific topic in the title. A very good Joe Baker video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy, explains what is going on in a pickleball game. The video's stated intent is to provide spectators and newcomers with an understanding of what pickleball players are doing and why they are doing it. Unlike most videos I include on this site, it is not about the how-to's of pickleball, but about the why's.

The video breaks a rally down into 4 phases, each of which will be covered in a separate article. The video is long - over 16 minutes - and contains way too much information for a single post.

Doubles Strategy

I have been focused on lots of teamwork mechanics and strategies in recent posts. The following Joe Baker video called Doubles Pickleball Strategy 101-How to Play Smart Pickleball, Ten Tips highlights the ten main strategies of winning doubles.

The video discusses specific points based on the overarching theme that a team should get to the kitchen line as quickly as possible and do everything possible to keep the other team from doing so.

Tip # 1 - The Serve:  Avoid service faults.  Aim for the middle of the service box.

Tip # 2 - The Return of Serve:  Avoid service return faults.  Aim for a specific spot just left of the center line and back 1/3 of the court.

Tip # 3 - Return the Serve and Charge:  Immediately after returning the serve, the returner should charge to the kitchen line to join his partner.