Transcription
Here's seven pickle ball shortcuts that will 10x your game. I started from the ground up as a 4.0 level player. Did drills and played every day to make it all the way to a 6.0 duper. Now I have two professional tournament wins under my belt. And I'm sharing all of my knowledge with you that I wish I learned earlier.
Number one, the secret to dodging out balls is actually all in your ready position when you're at the kitchen line. So, when I'm here, my paddle should be at about belly button height. This way, if the balls get attacked at me, I can react here. But if they attack me high, I'm not going to react to leave them. Some players make the mistake of being all the way up here, and then they're likely to hit everything.
Now, here's some secret sauce that all the pros know that I bet you haven't heard before. So, at the kitchen line, right about belly button height, and then as we back up on the court, look how my paddle gradually lowers, lowers, lowers. So, when I'm in the middle of the court here, this is my ready position. There's not a time when my ready position should be up here when I'm in the middle of the court. The ball is going out. If it's hit here, okay? Now, obviously, if we're looking to attack, that's different. But assuming we're on defense, I should always be here. I'm a smaller target and it's easier to react than having to jump down.
Shortcut number two is something I wish I learned earlier. And if you're susceptible to making easy errors like hitting the ball into the net, nine times out of ten it comes down to bad or lazy footwork. If you're ever missing simple shots, evaluate your footwork and how lazy they are, per se. If you fix that, you clean up your errors. It is a legit magic trick. So watch whenever hits this ball to me, I get my body behind it. See how active I am? Look at my feet. What I see amateurs do is this. See that? Look, now watch me. Physical. Look at that. I get my pelvis in front of the ball. Not only does this make me more active, but it also adds deception because I can go here, an aggressive dink here. Speed up. I can be much more tricky. When I'm like this, it's like we're playing patty cake as a kindergartener. No, we got to make it physical and be active with the feet. You never miss balls. This goes for third shot drops. This goes for drives. everything physical with the feet. Huge lesson. Super easy. Look.
Number three is this is the most deceptive speed up I have ever seen. I just recently added this to my game and I can tell you I see nobody doing it. This is going to take the pickle ball world by storm when it gets discovered. You heard it here first. So, what it is is when we're dinking uh at the kitchen line, when we get a dead middle ball, meaning a ball that like lands with not much spin in the middle of the court, when we're behind it like this, okay, the opponent can see where we're going to speed up with our paddle face, right? So, what I want to do is actually angle my paddle face this way. And then when I make contact to the ball, I want to hit side spin and hit the ball that way. So, it look like this. So deceptive. Here's what it looks like. Pay close attention to my paddle face and where the ball goes. Super deceptive. So, we got Zach and Ridley here. Let's go, baby. Now, if you do that early in the match, it actually sets up a clean winner through the middle because now they don't know where to cover. So, this is what it would set up. Check this out.
Tip number four is actually a mental tip that completely shifted my way of thinking and the way that I see the game. Now, I have Ridley here because he hasn't heard this advice before and I know he will benefit from it. Um, so what it is is in this new year 2026, you probably set a New Year's resolution of, oh, I'm going to drill more five days a week. Oh, I'm going to go to the gym and lift weights to get in better shape. That's probably great and all and it's only going to last for about a week or two weeks. Instead of adding to your game, we actually just want to subtract from our game. So, let's remove the negatives. So, choose two negatives that you have in your game and try to remove them. Instead of being a partner that rolls their eyes when their partner misses a ball when I play No, no. When I play with him, I definitely do that. >> He rolls. >> I'm not going to do that anymore. Be a positive partner at all times. And then instead of early speedups, subtract that from your game. Yeah. >> So instead of adding just remove negatives and make yourself good. >> Yeah. If I could say one thing, encouragement is huge in this game. I think that's something that I am really good at. It's something that I think you can learn from. Yeah. All right. You don't you know pickable. It's it's only a game to 11, right? And every point matters. So you don't want to berate your partner.
Shortcut number five is how to make yourself dangerous at the kitchen line. This is something I absolutely love, especially because I'm a lefty, but it works for everyone. And what that is is when we're dinking back and forth, if we have time on the ball, instead of me just standing here like this, I would actually run around and try to find my forehand. And the reason is is this allows me to be tricky. Like watch this. Speed up. He can't tell. When I turn my body sideways, he can't tell what's coming. Look at this. Sideways, think that way. Sideways, speed up down the line. This sets up combos. What does that mean? When I run around the dink, check this out. When I go here, he has no clue where I'm speeding this ball up, but I do. So, if I speed this ball up, I can put the triangle theory into full effect. So, I run around the ball here, I know if I speed up there, I know to cover the next ball here. But he's way caught off guard because he doesn't know what I'm doing. So, check this out. See that? He has no idea that I'm doing that. Another combo off that is now instead of me running around it and going that way, stepping here, I'm going to run around it and go straight ahead at him. Cause the triangle effect says if you speed up straight ahead, the ball comes back straight ahead. So, check this out. Super deceptive, super tricky. Look, I want to tell you about this video sponsor, Slam It Hydration. It's a new company that's taking the pickle ball world by storm. These things taste amazing, but most importantly, [music] they're healthier than any other products like this on the market. Here's some focus. All you do is rip it open. Bam. Pour it in. Just like this. Simply close your bottle, shake it up. Boom. And you're ready to rock. I chug these things in between and during matches. It helps me stay refueled, [music] refreshed, and energized. Most importantly, I'm having no brain fog. I am locked in on the task [music] at hand because I'm hydrated. Head on over to slamit.com and use [music] my 10% off discount code 10 or 10 at checkout. Let's get back to the video.
Shortcut number six is if you struggle with consistency in the middle of the court, I'm about to blow your mind. I haven't seen another video on this on the internet. And as you know, I'm a pro trying to pursue it. So, I've spent the hours. I know what works. And what it is is when you're hitting resets in the middle of the court here, you should be hitting a backhand in between your legs like this. Sometimes I'll see amateur players with a forehand. You should never do that. Okay. Secondly, the important thing is if the ball is outside of our legs, our paddle should be sideways like this. It should not be like that. And that's on both sides. So like this, not like this. And the reason is if I'm like this, I only have my wrist. I have nothing behind the ball. So if it hits, it's going to pop up hugely. It's terrible. But if our paddle's sideways, it allows my whole body to be involved and it keeps the ball linear and low for the reset. It is a huge difference. If you're struggling with the reset in general, I'll just give you a few quick tips. So, treat the reset identical to like a catcher in the MLB catching a 100 mph fast ball. When he catches that ball, he's going to absorb like this. We are not going to go out to the ball. Exact same concept here. When I'm resetting, I'm catching. I'm not hitting. Secondly, my wrists are super loose. I am not gripping the paddle tight at all. I'm very loose. So, when that ball hits, it's like a sponge. Boom. And goes out. If we're stiff, it's just going to trampoline to the moon.
Shortcut number seven is what is exactly going through a pro's mind when they're at the kitchen line dinking. I can almost guarantee that if you're a 4.0, know your mind is probably blank and you're just thinking about Caball, hit ball, put it over the net. A pro is thinking two steps ahead, which allows them to have those fast hands and anticipation. What this means is when I'm dinking with Ridley here, I'm not just hitting it and hoping for the best. As the ball comes off of my paddle, I know if it's a good ball, meaning aggressive, and if it is, I'm thinking, "Oh, I hit a good shot. I should lean in after it because he might pop it up. So this is what that would look like. Like I'm in a dink battle with him. Watch me. Second it comes off. Bam. See that? So I knew I hit a good shot. I was here where the pro or where the amateur player is standing here. So let's get a few more examples. So dink with me, Ridley. So I'm doing nothing. I hit a dead ball. Aggressive. I'm leaning in. Attack. Perfect. Let's look again. So watch this. I'm dinking. Dead ball. Nothing. I know nothing. Dead ball. Nothing. I get an aggressive ball. Nice. I lean in. Attack. Bam. That's what I'm talking about. Same thing when we're working our opponent crosscourt. The most vulnerable spot when you're going crosscourt is the opponent's inside foot. So, I'm going to try to move him around and in my brain when I hit an aggressive ball to the middle, I'm going to lean in after it and look for that attack. So, check this out. So, I'm dinking. I'm dinking. Condition him out wide. Aggressive middle. popup douche. Thanks for making it till the end of the video. If you Ridley, get get away. If you [laughter] if you found this video valuable, make sure to comment down below your favorite tip. I will catch you in next week's video. We have Ridley back in action. So, we're pumped on that. Let's go. YouTube thinks you should watch this video next, and so do I. Keep getting better at pickle ball.