Transcription
If you're a beginner pickleball player, I'm going to give you a free private lesson so you don't have to spend money on one. I've given over 250 private lessons, so I know exactly what the common tendencies are for newer players.
We're going to start off with dinking, which is when we gently hit the ball back and forth to one another. The key things to remember to start: we want to have a super loose grip on the paddle. We don't want to be death gripping it, so super loose.
The next thing is, notice where I'm standing. I'm right behind the kitchen line. A lot of players tend to stand back here when they're first dinking, which is not correct. We want to pretend this kitchen line is a magnet and it's pulling us to it, so we're always like an inch right behind that line.
Now, I want you to see for all of my shots, I'm catching everything super far out in front with my paddle, like this. I'm not going to wind up. The way, way to think of it is, pretend there's a brick wall behind you and you can't go back into the wall. You have to catch everything out in front.
The last key thing to remember with dinking is we always want to think of us striking through three balls. So if I have three balls stacked on my paddle, I don't want to hit. I'm only going to hit one ball. I want to push through. This is really important for keeping our balls low. Notice I'm not accelerating, I'm just pushing through as opposed to smacking it like that. That's the number one thing beginners do.
It's commonly taught to think of our feet like cement when we're dinking, which is not true at all. This is lower-level teachers teaching the wrong way. You should not be playing like this. You always want to take a slight step wherever the ball is, and that's going to help you get you on your toes. So look, slight step. Watch my feet. Slight step. It's all right to back off the line a little bit. Slight step as opposed to this. Always be on your toes. Step.
A good tip to implement when you're dinking: after you hit the ball, you should reach in after it and try to get the next one out of the air. So I'm reaching in, trying to get it out of the air. I got it. I'm hit it. I'm reaching in, trying to get it out of the air. Nope. Reaching in. Got it out of the air. What this is going to do is, if I get it out of the air, it's gonna take time away from my opponent to react. This is what it's going to look like in action. It allows me to control him.
Moving on to third shot drops. This is intimidating for a lot of newer players. I'm going to break it down so it's really easy to understand. The trick to mastering and learning the third shot drop is to treat it just like a dink, but from farther away. So how I start with my beginners: we start on the kitchen line like this, and then every time they hit a ball, we take one step back. And what this does: A) it allows us to calibrate the drop in from all distances on the court, as well as it shows them that just because we're farther away, we shouldn't be taking a massive swing. We're catching it out in front, we have a loose grip.
If you're struggling, a way to think about it is if you're throwing a beanbag. When we throw a beanbag, there's no acceleration. It's just gentle, even speed the entire time. Exact same concept with our drops.
Now, moving on to our resets. The first thing to note: the center of the court is called the transition area. We often will find ourselves here after we hit a drop. So I hit a third shot drop, I'm following it in. My opponent hits it hard, I'm stuck here. I need to reset it into the kitchen so I can continue up to the net. This is an example of a reset. So I'm hitting my third shot drop. Let's just pretend I hit my drop, I'm following it in, right there. That's the reset. So when I hit this soft, in an actual game, it allows me to follow it in.
When I hit it soft, the reason we don't hit the ball hard from the midcourt is since our opponent's at the kitchen line, all of the angles to get the ball to his feet are cut off. Can't get it to his feet. However, I'm back here, so he has all this room to work with to hit down on my feet. And the feet are the most dangerous spot on the pickleball court. Here's an example of it.
The key to a successful reset is a very loose grip. As soon as you grip it tight, the ball's going to fly. Hold it super soft. Notice I'm letting the ball come to me. I'm not reaching for it like that. I'm simply letting it get in in my area. I like to pretend that I'm standing in a hula hoop and I don't want to outstretch the hula hoop. I want to just stay in it and let the ball come to me.
The analogy that I use for my students to understand: pretend I'm a pitcher in the MLB. When I throw a 100 mph fastball to the catcher, the catcher is not going to stand there with his elbow locked out to catch the ball. He's going to absorb when it hits his glove. Exact same concept with our reset.
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Moving on to volleys. We want to keep our feet completely still. Look at my feet. I'm not picking them up at all. The number one thing I see beginners do is this. They try to move around with it. Keep your feet like cement. We want our arm to be really relaxed. The main thing beginners do is they like to go like this, and this gets them in trouble. If the ball comes over here, we want to have a relaxed arm.
A good little drill: place a ball under your armpit and volley back and forth this way. This is going to force you to have that elbow down and controlled. If the ball comes out, it means you're doing it wrong.
When beginners first learn volleys, they hit the ball like this. Look at my wrist. My paddle is not moving at all. The way we hit this shot hard is we want to let our wrists snap whenever we hit the ball. So I track the ball, wrist snap. Track the ball, wrist snap. The way we do this is by keeping a very loose grip on the paddle. We also will increase our reaction time by being really loose.
A good drill to try at home: make a clenched fist and try to move it back and forth fast. Not very. Have a loose hand, move it back and forth really fast. This allows you to react, react quicker and snap to balls.
Moving on to the serve. The number one piece of advice I can give you is have your hips and shoulders pointing to where you want the ball to go. The most common thing I see when beginners play: their hips and shoulders are facing this way, and they serve across their body. For where we hold the ball when we hit it, I see a lot of people up here, or I see a lot of people way down here. The trick to this is to just put your arm by your side, and this is the height where you want to hit it. So my arm is naturally here, so I let it go here, and then I simply reach out in front. You always want to be reaching for your serve. I shouldn't be like this.
Now, we want to take the paddle and draw a line back from the ball this way. It's a straight path, and we're not going to miss wide. I see a lot of people wind up like this, and it causes them to have to come around their body to the ball. You're going to miss, just like that.
Now, when we hit the ball, I'm going to carry my back foot through the shot. So watch it in slow motion. As soon as I strike the ball, I'm going to use this back foot as momentum to carry me onto the court. This is going to help me serve hard.
Where should I be standing when I hit the ball? Should I be out here? Should I be right on this center line? The trick is to stand about three feet from the center line on both sides. The reason is, when we stand here, it gives the illusion to our opponent that we can go down the T or out wide with our serve, so we can trick them. If we're standing way out here, it's basically telegraphing to our opponents that we can only go out wide.
For the return of serve, a lot of people think that you should give it your all and kill the shot like a tennis shot. Not the case at all. It's okay to hit this shot not as hard and with a little bit of loft because it'll give us more time to get up to the kitchen. Notice when I hit this shot, I did not take a backswing. My power was generated from my body and my momentum going forward. That's a very good tip to get you up to that line faster with more accurate returns.
Now we're going to cover how to hit a successful drive. This is the number one thing people struggle with if they don't have a tennis background. When we mention drives, the first thing everybody thinks of is topspin. With this form I'm about to show you, you'll always be hitting topspin.
Whenever we hit the ball, we need to strike underneath of it. Meaning, pretend my hands, the ball when it comes in, I need to start my swing from down here. I cannot be on the same level. I'm not going to have any topspin. Ball comes in, paddle should be down here.
Now, this is the tip you haven't heard before. We're underneath the ball, we have to drop our paddle head. Notice how I'm striking the ball with my paddle gently down. It's not sideways. It has to be dropped, or you're going to struggle with topspin. That minor detail.
When we strike the ball, we hit it, bam. We want to finish over our shoulder like we're answering the phone. Hello. We want to finish here. We do not want to go like this. This is what everybody does. Finish up here. When the ball comes in, we want to point at it with our off hand and make this arm a part of the shot. A lot of people just swing with this one limb, which isn't going to do anything. When we point at that ball and we swing, this arm is going to get our hips and our shoulders turned into the shot, generating way more power because we're using our body.
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