Transcription
If you're looking to become a 5.0 level player in just 90 days, this is the video for you. I put together a list of the seven must-have skills you need in order to do so.
Becoming a 5.0 has nothing to do with you being super athletic or fast or have super tricky shots. It has everything to do with decision-making and understanding why we hit our shots when we do. Let's get right into it.
Tip number one is all about applying pressure to our opponent when we're at the kitchen line. We want him to feel our presence every time we hit the shot. We do this by being really active with our feet and always getting our body behind the ball. Look how active I am. What I see amateur players do is this. Watch my feet. So, if I do this, my opponent knows I'm no threat at all. Now, watch. When I get my body behind it, I'm applying pressure and what it does is I could speed up because I'm being active. He doesn't know what's coming.
Tip number two is we have to be getting to the kitchen line at a super high percentage every game. If we don't make our way to the kitchen line, we are not going to win points. And we do that by focusing on one thing. What that is is the reset in the middle of the court. The reason so many amateur players struggle with getting a grasp on hitting a good reset is because they lack confidence. So what they do is they don't like to spend time in the middle of the court. So they actually run through it. This is what I see all the time. So they hit their drop, they follow it in. Look at my feet. And they try to hit the reset while moving. Of course, I'm going to miss that ball. What I want to do instead is actually something super subtle, but goes such a long way in upping your consistency. So, what it is is after I hit my drop, I want to follow it in and take as much ground as possible as my ball is traveling through the air. The second my ball reaches the net. So, right here, this is when I want to be completely still and stop moving. That way, when he hits it, I'm here ready to handle it. Hitting a reset is actually not difficult at all. We just want to make sure we're completely still and we're actually absorbing the ball like this as opposed to reset like this.
Tip number three is actually for our third shot drops. Most players actually have a pretty good third shot drop, but where they lack is where to actually aim this ball. Nine times out of ten, this player hits their third shot drop with no thought. They just put it over the net instead of thinking logically where we should go. The golden rule we should follow is we want to target the player who's running in. We want to avoid the player who's stationary at the kitchen line for obvious reasons. So, here's what it would look like. Okay, I want to go to Zach. Good. Perfect. So, since he wasn't at the kitchen line yet, I have more space to actually hit that drop than if I were to aim to Ridley. He's stationary, so he has more reach. The only time there's an exception to this strategy is if you see the player at the net get really big in the middle like that, then we would obviously try and drop behind him since he's leaving space open.
Tip number four is actually some IQ knowledge. When we're dinking at the kitchen line, what most players do is they just aimlessly hit the ball over. I actually have a little recipe for success for what you should be thinking every time you hit the ball. If this happens, then that should happen. What this is is understanding the angles of the court. So basically, if I have a ball I can't be aggressive on and I can just push it like this, there's not much on that ball. So I want to avoid going wide because he has angles like you just saw. If I ever have to push a ball, I always want to push it to the middle of the court because then he has no angles. Look like this. Bam. He can only come back to the middle. If I ever go out wide, it's only going to be a ball that I'm hitting aggressive on that he has to play defense. So, it'll look like this. Aggressive. And see, I got a soft ball in return. He wasn't really able to create. On top of that, when I hit that aggressive dink out wide, I'm not standing here and looking at it. I'm actually going to hit that shot, step over, and lean into the kitchen. I'm putting the pressure on him. I'm looking to take that next ball out of the air. So, this is what it would look like. So, let's say we're in a dink battle. I'm with Ridley. If I go soft, it's to the middle. I roll out wide. Watch me. I step, lean in, out of the air. That's the combo that all the pros are working through every single point. They try to hit an aggressive shot and then followed up by leaning and attacking.
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Tip number five is how to hit a strong backhand counter punch. This shot is so important because if you don't establish early in the match that you have a good backhand counter, people are going to speed up at you all game. And on the flip side, if you show that you will punish people with a good backhand counter, then they won't speed up on you. So, this shot is crucial to have. There's three super important things we need to know about this shot. Number one is how our paddle ready position should be. So, notice my paddle is not straight on. I actually have it cheating slightly toward my backhand. And the reason is is I can cover the majority of my body with the backhand, probably like 70%. With our forehand, we can really only cover out here or we get jammed up. So, we want to just get rid of that decision-making of having to think forehand or backhand and just commit to that backhand side. Number two, this is where most people go wrong, and it's where should their paddle actually be? Should it be out here? Should it be here? Should it be here? They don't know. The optimal spot to have your paddle is actually a slight crease in your elbow like this. Look, there's a windstorm. Okay, slight crease in your elbow like this. This way, when the ball comes, I can attack forward or come back for defense. And when I attack forward, I'm hinging at the elbow, extending, and then using my wrist to bat the ball down. So, this is how my hand actually looks. It always stays cocked. And when I hit the ball, it's like this. A lot of people get confused on this. Number three is wherever the ball bounces on our opponent's side, we want to try and get our chest in front of that ball. So, if the ball is there bouncing, I want to step here to have my chest in front of it because this is where I can produce the most amount of power. It's very difficult to produce power on my wings. My chest gives me the most punch. On top of that, we want to confidently have our body weight and chest behind the ball like this. I see so many players try to counter like this and they wonder why it's no good. Here's what I'm talking about. So, I'll see this. They lean backwards because they're a little scared. Now, check out the difference. Okay, look at my body. I'm leaning in. Leaning in. I have the mindset of I want that ball.
Tip number six is fourth ball pressure. This one is huge. Every single player struggles with this until they learn how to actually do it. This is what I always see. So, Ridley's hitting his third shot drop. I'm trying to keep him back, but I just give him a free ride to the kitchen. That happened so many times. Look. So, I hit it, but it wasn't hard. I didn't have any power behind it. There's one thing we want to do with our form on this shot that will be a literal cheat code. Here's the shot, and then I'll explain to you how we do it. So, now watch the difference. When a ball is low to my forehand, look what happens. The trick to this shot is we actually don't want to use our wrist at all. That was the mistake I was always making. I was trying to finesse it with my wrist. You get no power. It's too small of a muscle. Instead, we actually want to lock our wrist and only use our shoulder to swipe up the back of the ball. Now, notice I'm swiping from low to high. And I'm staying on the same plane of my body. So, I'm not crossing. And this is going to give us much more topspin. So, I'm here, not here. This shot also has a ton of deception. Since we're using our shoulder to make contact to the ball, at the very last second, I can simply turn my wrist slightly inward and send the ball that way or turn my wrist slightly outward and send the ball that way on a split-second notice.
Tip number seven, my personal favorite of them all, is how to hit successful speed ups. So many times all amateur players do is they see a ball, there's no thought, their head's down, and they just rifle it. There is zero thought process. I'm going to explain to you a slight little secret that will completely expand your horizon of what is really out there when it comes to speed ups. What we really want to focus on is these three things. We want to make sure we have variety in the speed of the ball, so fast and slow. The spin of the ball, more spin keeping it in, and the location of the shot. Where is our opponent sitting so we speed up the other way? When I start out a match, I like to throw all different types of shots at my opponent so I can see what his strengths are and his weaknesses. So, when I first start the game, I like to go hard right at his chest because this is the easiest speed up. So, I want to see how he handles it. So, if I'm dinking with him, start out the match. Bam. Hard high. He handled that very well. He countered. So now I know he's on the fast ball. So now the next ball I get, check out what I do. I didn't tell Ridley just let's just see what I do. Okay, look. Big wind up. Good. Look at that. So big wind up making it look like I'm going hard. I actually went soft and high. So now he's on that fast ball, but it's coming in slow. So it's throwing off his timing. That is what we're trying to focus on. The last thing we're going to look at is the location of my speed up. So, there's one thing that I do that tells me where to speed it up. I never speed up a ball blind. Amateur players do. What I'll do is if I get a ball that I like that I could speed up, I'm actually going to hold and then dink it back. But as I do that, I'm actually going to be looking at Ridley to see where he's looking to cover the speed up. So, watch Ridley on this. Okay, so let's see. Okay, Ridley. So, let's dink. Okay. So, good. So, I saw him now obviously really exaggerated it, but you saw him slightly flinch forehand. So, this tells me that when I get a ball that he doesn't know, he has to guess. He's going to guess forehand. So, watch what I do. Okay, so check this out. So, big fake it forehand. I don't even think I go across his body cuz he's over here. I'm hitting to the furthest distance. That is how the pros speed up. You do not get taught this by your in-person coaches.
Thanks for making it till the end of the video. Woohoo. Make sure to comment down below which tip has helped you the most. I read and respond to all the comments. So, if you have any questions, just comment. I will literally respond in like one or two days. YouTube thinks [music] you should watch this video next. And so do I. Keep getting better at pickleball.