Transcription
Pickleball is easy, and most players make it way harder than it needs to be. And that's just simply because they're making the same exact mistakes over and over and over again. And these aren't the same mistakes that you've heard a hundred times. What I'm going to share with you in this video is different. And if you watch the entire video and apply what I teach, you will see real improvement in your game.
Number one is that you're hitting the ball way harder than you need to. The most common thing that I see is players are trying to hit a drive to win the point, or they're trying to hit a volley to win the point. A lot of the time when we're hitting these shots in pickleball, since it's a whiffle ball, it's going to be a setup shot for then an overhead that we can probably put away. And chances are they might even get that back. And so I see so many players hit as hard as they can on their drives and on their volleys to only have the ball come back just as hard. The most important thing as a beginner and even an intermediate player is to focus on placing the shot consistently in the location that you're aiming for over and over and over again. And if you're trying to hit your drives at 100% power, you're not going to be able to do that.
So, here's a quick tip of something that you can do to instantly increase the consistency of your drives and win more points. And that is to hit your drives at 70% power. When you hit your drives at 70% power, it puts the ball on your opponent's extremely fast still. And the thing is, you're probably hitting the ball faster hitting 70% power than you were at 100% power. And the reason for that is because when we're trying to hit 100% power, we get extremely stiff and tense. And so if you're extremely stiff and tense as you're trying to hit the ball as hard as you can, you lose out on a ton of power. Whereas instead, if you hit at 70% power, you're extremely relaxed throughout the motion and you can keep that ball in consistently time and time again.
And another thing that you can do with your drives to increase the consistency is to stop aiming for the sideline. This is a huge mistake that players make. They'll hit the ball as hard as they can and they're actually aiming for the line on the court. You need to stop aiming for the line and instead do what an awesome coach that I had in tennis taught me and aim a foot to two feet in from the line. If you do that, you might still hit the line sometimes, but it will instantly increase your consistency. Whereas, if you try to hit the actual line, you're going to hit the ball wide over and over and over again.
Now, like I said, it's the same exact thing with volleys. People will overhit their volleys to try to put the ball away when really it should be a setup shot to then get an overhead and put the ball away. The vast majority of points at the amateur level end prior to anybody ever making it up to the kitchen line. And when they do make it up to the kitchen line, the points are instantly finished because players are hitting way too hard to keep the ball in. So, the best way to overcome this is to view your drives and your volleys as your setup shots. You're not trying to put the ball away. You're trying to set yourself up for either an easy drop that you can transition with your drive or for a popup that you can hit an overhead on. As soon as the ball goes over your head, that's when you can hit it as hard as you want because that's going to be a really consistent shot and even then you'll still sometimes miss. So it might make more sense to go at 70, 80, and even 90%. The main thing is is to stop trying to hit your volleys as hard as you can. And why people do this is because they see pros do it. But the thing is is pros have perfect placement even when they hit with tons of power. And that's because they've gotten reps in hitting the shot over and over and over again. So unless you're a pro, focus more on placement first. Then you can slowly increase your power as time goes on. So it's super simple, but you're going to start winning way more points by hitting these balls as setup shots in comparison to putaways.
Mistake number two is that you're failing to bend your knees. And before you skip over this, this is extremely important because when we bend our knees, it actually sends signals to our brain of consistency and accuracy. Just that simple knee bend automatically sends those signals to our brain so that we can be more consistent at hitting the sweet spot over and over again. We're going to win way more points just from simply doing that.
Another massive benefit to bending our knees is that it makes it way harder for our opponents to put the ball away. When we bend our knees and we get low in this position, especially when we're in a hands battle, our opponents have a way harder time hitting down on the ball because put simply, our paddle is now down low where they're trying to aim their putaways. And so if we accidentally pop up the ball, we're going to be stepping back and putting our paddle low. The way that we put our paddle low isn't by bringing our paddle down. It's actually just by simply bending our knees. Now we're covering all this area. We have a way greater chance of not only staying in the point but turning that defense into offense.
Another huge benefit to bending your knees is that you get way more reach. So specifically if you're at the kitchen line, you can reach in and if the ball is slightly high, you can hit a speed up down at your opponent's feet from bending your knees. So check this out. If I'm standing straight up and down and I'm not bending my knees, which a lot of players actually stand like this. If you go watch pickleball, you'll see the vast majority of amateur pickleball players stand exactly like this. If you're standing like this, this is how far you can reach. You can obviously bend over and get a little bit more reach. But watch what happens when I bend my knees. Instantly, I'm able to get another like two to three inches just from simply bending my knees. And then I can get even more reach by simply taking my non-dominant arm and pushing it behind me. So, if I push it behind me, it counterbalances me and allows me to be able to get further reach by getting this shoulder forward into the court. With that added reach, you're able to apply way more pressure on your opponents. So, if you're standing straight up and down, first of all, you're not sending the signals to your brain of accuracy and consistency. You're going to shank the ball a whole lot more often, and you're not going to be able to apply the amount of pressure that you can if you're just simply bending your knees. So bend your knees, get that arm behind you. You'll be able to apply way more pressure and stay in way more points in hands battles. Even if your opponents are hitting the ball at your feet, it's a massive advantage. Especially if I'm focused on that while I'm in a hands battle, they just can't find your feet when you bend your knees.
The third mistake is that your backswing is way too big. So, especially if you come from a sport like tennis, you've been taught to have these big, huge backswings. You create this massive C motion. In pickleball, you just simply don't have the time. Even when you're on the baseline, whether you're hitting a volley from the kitchen line or a drive from the baseline, you just don't have time to have these big swings and keep the ball in play. First of all, you're going to be extremely late making contact with the ball. And second of all, you're creating way too much power with that added backswing that you don't need. That's probably going to send your ball super long. If you make late contact, you're going to hit the ball into the net.
And so the way to combat this is that if you're at the baseline or up at the kitchen is to just simply grab the throat of your paddle with your non-dominant hand. What this does is if you turn to the side, it doesn't allow you to go beyond your peripheral vision. Doesn't allow you to go beyond your shoulder here. And so if you're grabbing on here now, you're just going down, out, and up. It's taking away that back motion, helping you to be able to hit the ball faster. And it's the same exact thing on the kitchen line. If I'm here on the kitchen and I'm grabbing onto the throat of my paddle, I'm not able to go beyond that shoulder. Now, I can react faster in these hands battles by keeping the ball out in front of me and I'm not going to be sending these balls long because my backswing isn't coming clear back here.
So, this is another one of those things. Next time that you go out, I give you a challenge to just look at the people around you that are playing on different courts. Watch how massive their backswings are when they get into hands battles and when they're hitting drives from the baseline. The key is to just hold on to the throat of your paddle throughout that backswing. That way, you can keep it super compact. You're going to be way faster reacting to the ball. And something that I challenge you to do is actually put a camera right at the back of the baseline behind where you're hitting drives and see where your paddle goes in your loadup. It's going to be something that you probably have to change because a lot of players come way back here where you can see the paddle behind my head, but you don't even notice as the player that's hitting these drives that you have that big of a backswing that it's coming all the way behind you. So, put that camera behind yourself so that you can see. And the goal is to keep it all on this side of your body or this side of your body depending on what stroke you're hitting. So, I'm coming back. I don't want to see my paddle behind myself. If that's happening, you have way too big of a motion. It's going to be really hard for you to ever have a consistent drive in pickleball. So again, that's a super simple fix. Grab onto the throat of your paddle.
Number four is super controversial, but it's not talked about enough, and that is that you're playing with a bad paddle. So, the reason that this isn't talked about very much is because players will a lot of the time make a joke about it, like, "I lost because of my paddle." and they'll just be joking around. Other players will be dead serious like, "No, my paddle just sucked." The truth of the matter is, your paddle does play a huge part in how you perform out on the court. I recently actually drilled with a wooden paddle, and it is crazy the amount of spin that you can create with these newer paddles in comparison to a wooden paddle. And I'm not saying that everybody out there is playing with a wooden paddle, but players are still playing with fiberglass paddles and with Gen One paddles, okay? There's a huge difference between the amount of power and especially the amount of spin that you can create with a $299 paddle and a $100 paddle. And I'll be dead honest, I think paddles are way overpriced. They probably cost the company somewhere around $15 to make, yet they're selling them for like $300. But that said, you have a massive advantage if you're playing with a paddle that's $300 in comparison to a paddle that's $100. And that's just simply because paddle technology has become so much more spinny, so much more consistent and fast as time has gone on and especially as of the last few years. So, can you play with a $100 paddle and win a tournament? Absolutely. But you'll have a greater advantage playing with a more expensive paddle, even though that is quite annoying. And that's the reason that I use this paddle. So, this paddle is $279, but it makes a huge difference in my game because I can hit anywhere around here. And since it has gel all the way around the edge, I can hit anywhere around here and I'm still going to get a consistent shot going into the court. It'll only be slightly different than if I actually hit the sweet spot. Whereas, if you play with these cheaper paddles and you hit anywhere on the edge, the ball is instantly dead. So, to say it's not an advantage to play with a more expensive paddle would be an absolute lie. And that's why I think it's a really important thing to talk about. So, yes, my recommendation would literally be to play with a more expensive paddle. Just bite the bullet. It'll pay off because you'll be able to play just that little bit better. And if you're anything like me, you don't want to pay full price for a paddle. So, you can actually go to lockerroompickleball.com, use code playbook at checkout, and you'll get 15% off this paddle. So, instead of it being 279, it's actually 238. And they have a wide selection of all the top paddles in the game. Like I said, this is the one I use. I'm not affiliated with Yola in any way. So, you can just choose between those paddles, figure out which one is best for your game. Get your discounts.
Mistake number five is by far the most common mistake in all of pickleball, and that is that you jump at contact. A lot of players get scared of their opponents speeding up the ball, and this is where it happens most often is either their opponents are driving the ball or they're speeding it up from the kitchen line and it causes the opponent to jump or it causes you and me to jump. I jump all the time, always working on my game, right? Trying to not jump. But when you jump, it automatically takes your eyes out of focus. And if your eyes are out of focus and they can't focus on the ball, you're going to shank the ball way more often and you're going to pop it up way more often. If you want to be extremely consistent, first of all, you have to have that knee bend like we talked about before. And so if you jump, you're taking that knee bend away. No longer can you send those signals to your brain of accuracy and consistency. And secondly, it's taking your eyes out of focus. And so if your eyes aren't focused and still at contact, you aren't going to be able to hit an effective counter or reset. And this is definitely one of those things that's easier said than done. It's scary when someone speeds up the ball to us. So it's definitely something that has to be drilled over and over and over again so that you can just stay still. And I don't mean that we're not shifting to the side with little small movements to be able to get the ball in a more optimal position. Sometimes our opponents will speed it up to the chicken wing position here and it's our job to shift over so that we can get it in a more optimal position at the center of our body or maybe we even shift over this way and hit a forehand. It's going to make more sense to shift instead of just suffer the chicken wing position and stay completely still. Yes, you'll make clean contact, but your paddle face is going to be directly open just like this. Whereas, if you can shift, you can get that paddle face downwards. And here's why you can't jump and you can shift is because when you shift, you can keep your knees bent. When you jump, you can't keep your knees bent because your knees are going to be fully extended. And so since you can keep your knees bent, you have a way better ability to track the ball and make solid contact every single time.
By the way, really quick, if you're realizing that you've made a few of these mistakes and you actually want to fix them, I've got an awesome training tool just for you, and that is the Pickleball Drills app. The Pickleball Drills app has hundreds of different drill tutorials that teach you specific strategies and tactics all while you're getting your reps in. And I use it all the time to improve my pickleball game. And if you use it just a couple of times a week, it will be impossible for you to not take your pickleball game to the next level. And that's our guarantee that if you don't see a change in your pickleball game after using it for 30 days, we will give you your money back, no questions asked. And the best part about it is that you can start absolutely free. So go to pickleballdrillsapp.com, try the app free. You will not regret it. You will see real improvement in your game. And honestly, this is the best value that I can possibly give you. Obviously, you can watch these videos all you want, but until you go through those tutorials and actually get out and drill using the app, you won't see the kind of improvement that you're looking for. And the reason that I can say that is because of the impact that drilling has had on my game. And the drills inside this app are the exact drills that I did to get from the 4.0 level to the 5.0 level in 3 months. And I honestly can't guarantee that it'll be that fast for you. But what I can guarantee is that you will see improvement in a very short period of time. So give it a shot. You'll improve your pickleball game. Again, that is pickleballdrillsapp.com.
Mistake number six is that players love blindly going up to the net without assessing the situation. And an acronym that I like to use to be able to get up to the kitchen line effectively every single time is move forward with confidence. So MFWC. And the way that you move forward with confidence is first you monitor. So if I'm back on the baseline with my partner, I'm going to monitor where their shot is headed. I know this by the trajectory of their ball, the height of their ball. If they're hitting a drop and the height of the ball is way above my opponent's shoulders, it's not going to make any sense for me to run forward. So I'm monitoring this and figuring out, okay, where is this ball going to land? Because if it's going to land near my opponent's knees, it's going to be worth it to probably move forward. And so then I'll take a couple of steps forward. So step number one is monitor. Step number two is to flow. And that just means that I'm simply making small steps into the court. A nice gentle flow as I'm still assessing the situation. Because you're not going to know 100% where your opponent's ball is going to go or if your opponents are going to jump over the kitchen line and hit an Ernie. You don't know exactly what's going to happen. So you want to kind of move forward in a flowy state. Nice small steps. Don't charge forward yet until you have a full grasp on the situation. So now you've made it to about midcourt. Maybe you're in between midcourt and the baseline. And now we focus on the W, which is we're going to now watch our opponents. What exactly are they doing? Are they taking a step back? If they're taking a step back, then obviously I can continue to move forward. If they're leaning in and I see them have this huge motion and the ball is slightly high, I'm going to take a step back. So, I'm just simply watching my opponents. Now, I went from watching my partner to slowly moving and smoothly moving forward to now I'm watching my opponents. And then the last step is close. And when we close, we want to close as fast as possible. So, I like to think about it as as fast as you are getting up to the kitchen line. And so if I notice that my opponent is either taking a step back or they're reaching in the kitchen, they can barely reach the ball. They're in a defensive position, I am closing the net as fast as possible. And since it's my partner that made contact with the ball, I'm covering part of his side, too. Since they're in a defensive position, they're trying to keep the ball in and not pop it up. I'm going to apply that pressure and apply it as fast as possible. So I'm closing into the court. And so let's review it. At the baseline, we are going to monitor what our partner is doing. Sometimes we're monitoring what we're doing because we're hitting the third shot. Okay, maybe my third is slightly high. I'm going to stay back. It's it's low. I know that it's going to be penetrating going near their knees or near their feet. I'm moving forward into the court. Next step, we're in that flow state. Nice small steps forward. Nice and smooth. Okay. Next step, we're watching our opponents, figuring out, are they on defense? Are they on offense? If they're on offense, I'm taking a step back. I'm getting low. I'm bending my knees, ready to hit that next shot. If they're on defense, I'm moving forward a little bit further until step number four, which is close. I'm coming into the net as fast as possible, closing it, hopefully getting a pop-up. And the higher up levels you go, the less pop-ups you're going to get because they're going to concede the kitchen. They're going to allow you to come forward because they don't see a good opportunity to speed up the ball just simply because your partner's drop or drive was just that effective. And so because of that, you have to be able to go from that, oh, close. I'm ready to smash the ball to now, oh, I have to hit the ball nice and soft. Now we're in this dink exchange. I'm moving my opponents around trying to create havoc. So again, this is the biggest mistake that I see. Players just simply move forward absolutely blindly, not watching their partners, not watching their opponents, and they're missing out on so many closing opportunities as well as so many points that could be started up at the kitchen line that are ended early just simply because they're standing here while their opponents are hitting overheads. So remember, move forward with confidence. Monitor what your partner's doing. Flow forward nice and slow. Watch what your opponents are doing. And then close whenever they're in that defensive position. Apply that pressure, win more points.
Mistake number seven is that you're hitting the wrong third for the specific situation that you're in. So many players will drive the ball at the wrong time and drop the ball at the wrong time. There's a specific criteria that you can follow every single time so that you know when to drop and when to drive. And the reason that you want to know is if you end up driving a ball that you should have dropped, your opponents can easily put the ball at your feet. Or vice versa. If you drop a ball that you should have driven, you're probably going to hit that ball into the net or pop it up.
And so, here's a saying that I came up with that really helps me to remember what to do depending on what my opponent's shot looks like. So, what it is is if the ball is short and high, let it fly. We're going to be swinging away on that ball. If the ball is short and low, keep it slow. Biggest mistake the players make is the ball is short and low and they drive from this position. And typically they try to hit that drive at 100 miles per hour. And so when they drive from this position, they're hitting the ball up. That ball has to go out. And a lot of players at lower levels will hit the ball and keep them in the point. And sometimes they'll make a mistake. But as soon as you get to even the 4.0 and 4.5 level, all of a sudden these balls that you've been driving from this low position, your opponents just simply get out of the way and watch it hit the back fence. It's really hard to keep the ball in. If you do keep the ball in from this position, you're hitting it up. And so since you're hitting it up, it's going up to your opponent. Whenever the ball comes up to me, I hit down. It's the same exact thing with your opponents. Same exact thing with you. So, if you get a ball that's short and low, keep it slow with a drop. If you get a ball that's short and high, let it fly.
And so, you're probably asking yourself, well, what about balls that are beyond the baseline or balls that are coming in deep and high or deep and low? What it comes down to is you should only be dropping the ball if you have at least one foot inside the baseline. That's the rule of thumb to use. Drop the ball if you have one foot inside the baseline. But if you can create offense and the ball is high, it's going to make way more sense to drive that ball. But if the ball is low and you have one foot inside the baseline, it's probably going to make way more sense to drop the ball. Now, if both feet are behind the baseline, I would say 99% of the time, hit a drive, get the ball on your opponent as quickly as possible so that you can set yourself up for an easier drop. So, typically, if the ball is short and low, we're going to be dropping. And if we have one foot inside the kitchen and the ball is low, when the ball is low, we're going to be dropping the ball. And then the last time that we're going to be dropping is on the fifth shot of the rally where we set ourselves up with a big drive. And now we can drop that fifth. And then you're going to be driving everything that's behind the baseline. If you're on defense, if you're scrambling, if you're way beyond the baseline with a high ball or with a low ball, you're going to be driving the ball, setting yourself up for that fifth shot drop.
Mistake number eight is that you're not moving as a unit. So, something that I like to do is act like a string is connected to me, my partner, and the ball. Wherever the ball goes, me and my partner follow in unison together. So, if the ball goes to the right, we both move to the right. If the ball goes to the left, we both move to the left. And you've probably heard of this, and maybe you haven't, but respecting the X. The reason that you want to act like a string is connected to you and your partner is so that you're covering the correct positions. Because if the string becomes disconnected, I'm no longer covering the middle or I'm no longer covering my sideline. Because if the string becomes disconnected, now our opponents have a ton of openings that they can speed up the ball through. So for instance, if I dink the ball crosscourt, I'm going to be closing towards the middle. My partner's going to be closing towards the sideline. And then if they dink that ball back up the line to my partner and my partner dinks it crosscourt. Now I'm going over towards the sideline and that string is still attached because we're following where the ball is. My partner's also following me and the ball and that string stays attached. And that's just simply because since they dink crosscourt, they have to cover the crosscourt speed up. I have to cover the line. If I dink crosscourt, now I have to cover the middle and they have to cover the line. So, all you and your partner have to do is act like a string is connected to you guys and the ball and you'll be in the correct position to cover the right shots and make the court feel extremely small for your opponents.
Mistake number nine is one of the more basic ones and you probably have heard this even though I told you in the beginning of the video that you haven't heard of any of these. This is one that's so important that it needs to be mentioned again, but that is that you're continuing points because you're hitting an out ball. And the reason that I'm telling you this is because many people don't know the golden rule for not hitting out balls. And that is that if it's shoulder high, you're going to let that ball fly. So if it's going shoulder high, get out of the way. Chances are that ball is going out. Again, what that's going to come down to is your personal height. And so you have to figure out for yourself, is it shoulder high that's going out, or is it maybe waist high if you're really tall or maybe it's head high and it's going out if you're really short. The way that you can figure that out is obviously by drilling this over and over again. Let out balls go out and maybe some of them will land. That'll teach you for the next one. Always view it as an opportunity to learn unless you're playing in a tournament. When you're playing in the tournament, you go to that tournament obviously with what you have and what you've learned. It's no longer a time to practice. So, it wouldn't make any sense to be like, "Maybe this ball's going out. Let's look." And then it's 2 feet in. And you're like, "Oh." What you need to obviously do is drill and practice that prior to where you've had a thousand repetitions of figuring out where exactly on your body the ball is and if you should get out of the way. And so for the average person, it's going to be shoulder high, let it fly, just simply get out of the way. But again, you need to figure out the specific height for you. So, it's a super simple mistake, but players constantly are hitting out balls and extending the point doesn't make any sense. If you can end the point instantly, you might as well do that.
Mistake number 10 is that you bang your way up to the kitchen. And the reason that this is a mistake is because you're never actually making it up to the kitchen and you're making way more mistakes than you would if you just played smart pickleball. This is another one of those things that if you go watch any pickleball match below the 4.5 level, you'll see that players are just constantly banging their way up and they're hitting the ball hard here in transition. They're never hitting resets. They're never hitting drops. And they spend the vast majority of their time on the court in between the baseline and the kitchen line. At the pro level, they spend the vast majority of their time at the kitchen line. But at the amateur level, it's happening in this transition zone. And this is the zone that you really don't want to be in. And the only way that you can get out of this zone is if you perfect the reset. So, it's super overlooked, but the big mistake that players make is they never practice the mid-court reset. This is one of the most pivotal shots to take you from that 4.0 level to the 4.5 level is perfecting your reset. Because if you have a perfect reset where you can consistently get the ball into the kitchen over and over and over again while you're in the transition zone, you don't need a perfect drop. You don't even need a perfect drive. Because if you pop your drop slightly high and you come in and you're in that flow that we talked about before in the acronym, you're in that flow and you hit a reset in this position. Now you can totally crash the net because your reset is perfect. Obviously, nobody has a perfect reset, but the more that you drill it, the more perfect it can become.
So, that's everything for this video. So again, if you want help leveling up your pickleball game, if you want access to reset drills, drop drills, drive drills, volley drills, and much much more, go to pickleballdrillsapp.com. You can try the app absolutely free and you will see real improvement in your game. Other than that, if you want to continue learning these different strategies, tactics, and techniques, be sure to subscribe because we upload a new video every single Monday. And if you want to learn the new spin serve that is taking over pickleball, you can watch this video right here and I'll see you over there.
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