Transcription
As a player and a coach, I see so many questionable decisions and shots being made, and I'd like to talk about how easy it is to fix them. In this video, [music] I'm going to talk about the five most common mistakes that I see out there when I go watch amateur play.
So, the first one, for some reason, people think they should hit the drive as hard as they possibly can. Do you know how hard it is to keep the ball in if I full swing at a drive? I'm going to try right now. Let's see how it goes. Not in. I will say again. All right. I almost hit the fence on that one. So, that is a full like I'm putting everything I have into it drive. I'm not going to be able to keep it in. Okay? And you probably won't either. So, this is an easy fix. Instead of hitting it at 100%, why don't we try 70 to 75%. Okay? Instead of going full out, I'm going to try to hit a low drive that's that would hit about their hip level and take a little bit of pace off so it would stay in. Here we go. That's in one more. Good. 70% is still not slow, right? Those balls are coming out of my paddle pretty well, but they're going in. There's a huge difference there. So, that's mistake number one.
Going to go up here. We're at the kitchen line for the rest of the mistakes that I'm going to talk about. Okay, first one. I've already talked about this in another video, but when I'm pulled off the court and I'm off balance, stop it with the speedups. We've got to stop doing that. That's such an easy mistake to fix. So, maybe he's going to feed me a wide ball. Look at this. If I speed this up, look at how look at my stance right now. I am completely off the court. Why do I think I'm going to be able to get back and win this point? Because I think my speed up is going to be excellent. Right? That's what I when I usually ask my students, "Why'd you do that?" They're like, "Well, I didn't have another option." Yeah, you do. Here's the fix. I'm pulled out wide. I'm going to dead dink it back to the center of the court. That way, I can just come back. So, I'm still going to get there. Dead dink it back. I'm back in the point. Stop with excuses. Stop speeding up balls when you're off balance. Dead dink it back to the middle and get back into the point. That's mistake and fix number two.
Mistake and fix number three. I don't know why people now find this something that they they've started doing more recently. I think the pro game has kind of evolved and we're attacking crosscourt a little bit more. But what I'm seeing in amateur play is full-on crosscourt attacks from low to high. That's the key there. From low to high. Okay. So, if I'm attacking AB and she feeds me a high ball and I do this crosscourt, great. I don't think she can hurt me there. But here's the problem. She feeds me a low one and I attack like that from low to high crosscourt. She's ready. She's going to counter it where? And my poor partner. My partner has nothing to do with my bad decision and they're probably going to get hit. Okay, so we need to stop with the crosscourt low to high attacks. The fix for this one is just to stop doing it. Okay, [laughter] it's nothing else that goes into it. Just stop doing it. All right, perfect.
Mistake number four, trying to do too much with your fourth shot when your opponent hits a good third shot drop. Why do I say this? Sometimes, I mean, AB has great thirds, okay? So, she hits a great drop on me and I am overly aggressive. I like to hit balls out of the air if possible, but sometimes her drop is just too good. So, if I try to flick it out of the air, I might be missing it in the net or making bad contact and it's flying out. Sometimes you just have to accept that your opponent hit a great third and that you're not going to be able to hurt them on the fourth. Just agree that they're going to make their way in. Okay, so you hit a good one. I'm going to hit a bad bad example here. Oh, wow. I got nowhere near that. That's just too good. One more. Here we go. Look at that. I'm going to end up hitting it in the net because I don't have enough space. So, instead of doing that, I should just commit to backing up and hitting a fourth. That just makes it bounce within the kitchen line. And we start the point out. Give me one more. Back up. Make them dink it. We're back in the point. That's the fix.
Last mistake that I'm going to be talking about, and no one wants to hear this one, that's why I saved it for last. Hopefully, you're still watching, but lack of patience. That is a really big problem in pickle ball. We kind of have a timer, right? I like to say I'm on a timer. I don't like to dink more than three balls without attacking. I get it. Trust me. But there are times when your opponents are too good at dinking or too good at countering that you're going to have to wait. Okay. Fabe and I are in a dink rally here and I'm hitting good dinks and she's hitting good dinks and she's got a partner with great hands right next to her. I need to wait for an opportunity. So, I like to call them the red lights, yellow lights, and green lights. Wait for either a high yellow light, which would be between your knee and your hip, or green light, which is above your hip for you to attack. If you're taking attacks as red lights, you're likely going to have a disadvantage in that point. So really the fix for this one is to be a little bit more patient, hit a little bit better dinks to set yourself up for success.
Those are the most common five mistakes that I've been seeing in rec play. If you're able to fix them, it's going to go a long way. Now that you've understood what you need to do to fix them, stop making those mistakes. [music] Get out there, make sure you think these things through and fix them immediately. If you like this video, please make sure you give it a like, you subscribe to the channel, [music] and you leave a comment for me. >> [music]