Transcription
If you're struggling to improve at pickleball, it's probably because you're making the same mistakes like everybody else. And the biggest mistake that I see by far is that everyone thinks that they need to attack every shot in order to win the game. A lot of players think that they need to go for lines, for winners, for brilliant shots in order to win the game, which is completely untrue. And playing that way is one of the big reasons that you're currently stuck at your level.
What you need to do instead is try out this strategy that I will teach you here, which is a very different way of playing pickleball. And the specific strategy that we're focusing on is going to help you not only avoid mistakes, but to apply greater pressure on your opponents, resulting in you ultimately leveling up your game and winning more.
One of the biggest problems in pickleball is that many players try to be a hero right away by trying to hit an ace, smash a drive winner, or just simply hit a very aggressive drop, even if they know that they only have a 50% chance of hitting that shot in. And that brings me to the first and most important thing that you need to do every single time that you start a point. And that is to keep the beginning of each point simple. Stop trying to be a hero and just keep it simple.
So, here's exactly what I like to do to keep the beginning of the point as simple as possible. And I'm going to be telling you that as the serving team and also as the returning team. Starting as the serving team, my goal is going to be to run a serve play that's going to get me up to the net. And so, if that return comes deep and I'm on my back foot, I'm going to drive that initial shot to set myself up for an easier drop. I'm then going to drop that next shot and then transition forward. A lot of players instead drive that first shot, drive the second, and they're moving forward. But what they don't realize is that they never actually make it up to the kitchen. So many points at the amateur level are finished early just simply because players haven't made it up. And so one of my favorite plays to run is the drive and drop combo. And you can check that out right here. The the drive and drop combo play. This is the most used play in all of pickleball, specifically at the higher levels. You will see pros use this play all the time. Let's break it down.
So, the way that it works is we serve, they return, they're moving forward, we receive a return that comes in the back third of the court. So, past this line here, we receive a return. It's not going to be smart to drop that because we're probably on our back foot. We're probably scrambling to get to the ball. We aren't on balance. We aren't comfortable. We aren't offensive. And so because of that, we're going to hit a drive straight down the line majority of the time to put it on this player because they're closest to us. That's going to cause them to have less time to react and and cause them to either pop up the ball, miss the ball, or give us an easier drop. Then we can hit that fifth shot drop, and that's going to be going crosscourt. The reason that we're hitting that drop crosscourt is because we have the most distance to hit to. We hit drops crosscourt because we have the most distance. We hit drives down the line because we have the least distance. We want them to not have that much reaction time with the drive. We want to have as much time as possible to get up to the net with the drop. And now we're both up. We're big happy family.
And so when we're doing this particular play, we we hit our serve, they return the ball. It's only when the ball is coming in this back third. If it's not in this back third and instead you get a short low return, you're just going to drop. There's no reason to do the drive drop combo because it's short and low. You have to hit up. If you were to drive the ball, you're going to hit it to their strike zone. Instead, you're just skipping that first step of drive and you're going to drop the ball again crosscourt. Now, we're all up at the net. We've taken all that court away from our opponents.
So, now let's see this play in action. So, I like to use this play, like I said, whenever it's in the back third of the court. Something to take note of. If the return were to come back to my partner from this position and this person was returning, they move forward, but they don't make it very far forward. I would instead want to hit that drive instead of to this person to this person because they're not established. They're in a bad position. They're off balance whereas this person is. So, if they haven't made it past midcourt by the time that you make contact with the ball, go to them. And this is something that you have to anticipate. You're like, "Oh, no. They're really far back there. I'm going for them. We go for them specifically aiming for their shin area. The reason that we want to go for their shins or for their feet is because it's going to cause them to have to move their body out of the way in order to make contact with the ball. And it also causes decision fatigue. Do they let the ball bounce and then hit it or do they take it out of the air? With these gears turning, we're winning. So, if you notice that your opponents haven't made it past midcourt by the time that you're driving the ball, hit it to them. Other than that, we're going straight down the line to the player that is closest to us. This is going to get us that nice popup for that easy fifth shot.
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Now, let's hop back into the video. So, that's our goal as the serving team to get up to the net. Now, as the returning team, our goal isn't only to get up to the net after we return the ball, but to keep our opponents back. And so, as the returning team, I like to run a consistent play that's going to keep my opponents back. And what that is is returning deep and up the middle. The reason that I'm going up the middle is because it always causes confusion with my opponents. They have to decide who's going to take the ball, if they're going to run around it to hit a forehand, if it's on their backhand side, and they have to have some form of communication with each other. If they don't, it's going to be a winner. And that's why we get the saying down the middle solves the riddle. Now, take note, it's also deep. The reason that we're getting it deep is to keep our opponents back. It's also way more difficult to hit a third shot on a deep return in comparison to a short return. The other benefit to hitting deep is the fact that it gives me time, sufficient time to make it up to the kitchen line.
And these are just a couple simple plays. I've actually compiled over 45 plays that you can check out at school.com/pickleball playbook that breaks these specific strategies down and helps you to be able to run plays so that you can take advantage of your opponents early in the match. So that's all rule number one comes down to. We keep the beginning of the point extremely simple. We aren't trying to be a hero. Instead, we run the most optimal play so that we can consistently get up to the net and set up camp. All of these hero players out there that just choose to drive every single ball haven't realized it yet, but they're limiting their growth because they're not ever making it up to the kitchen line. Yes, they might win a couple of points here and there, and yes, they might be winning matches, but as soon as they play against players that are a higher level than them, they now have no answers because they haven't had that sufficient time to practice up at the kitchen because they never transition. So, if you feel stuck at your level and you bang your way up to the kitchen and never quite make it there, it's because you need to stop trying to be the hero, start using plays, and stop hitting every single ball hard. Yes, there are times that we should be hitting the ball hard and attacking, but very rarely is that going to be when we're back on the baseline.
I've actually heard so many coaches talk about how pros are attacking the ball more in transition, how they're attacking every single shot, every single third. and they show an example point from a match where the pros are scrambling and hitting drives on every single shot and then they end up coming out on top of that one point during that match. But if you go and watch the rest of the match, what you're going to find is that they make it up to the kitchen line on almost every single other point. They're up at the kitchen line, they've set up camp, and they're trying to set themselves up with aggressive dinks. This doesn't mean that they're just poking the ball or just trying to survive by pushing it in. They're still being aggressive. It's just the fact that these coaches are showing you one specific point from the match and using that like it's doctrine. Yes, we should be able to attack from the back court, but no, we should not be attacking every single shot. Our main focus instead should be to apply pressure on our opponents in the most optimal way. Sometimes that's going to be attacking every shot. Other times it's going to be hitting setup shots to get them to pop up the ball.
And so, one of the most important things to understand is that the goal in pickleball is obviously to win. And the absolute best way to do that is to move up to the net. The reason that we move up to the net is because it takes court away from our opponents. They don't have as much court to hit to. Plus, it makes it much easier for us to hit it onto our opponent's side of the court because we're closer to our target, the other side of the net. Now, this seems like very basic advice, but let me tell you that it is more than enough. It's more than sufficient to beat high-level opponents. So now that we know the goal in pickleball is to win and the plan to get us there is to move towards the net, we now need to understand how can we make getting up to the net as easy as possible. And the way that we do that is by having extremely consistent drops and resets. The player that has the most consistent drops and resets is going to win majority of points at any level. And the problem with most amateur players' drops and resets is that they are dead. dead meaning that they are high loopy shots landing in the kitchen and never allowing them to move forward. And so that's why so many players just rely on their drive. They drive, drive, drive, drive, drive hoping that their opponents make a mistake, hoping that they can hit a winner. Well, the truth is about the drive is it is a set-up shot. It's going to set you up for an easier drop. The vast majority of the time, it's going to set you up for an easier reset. So many players set themselves up for this easy drop, this easy reset, and they either miss the drop or reset, or they try to go for another drive. Instead, we need to look at what the pros are doing. They may drive that first shot to set themselves up. Then they're going to hit a drop, but it's going to be consistent. And here is why. Instead of hitting a dead drop that is high and loopy, they're going to draw a straight line to their opponent's shins. Now, I say straight line. If we drew a straight line to our opponent's shins, we're probably going to hit the ball in the net. What sets the pros apart from amateurs with their drops and with their resets is that instead of hitting just a dead drop and a dead reset that's very inconsistent, could be super high or it could go right into the net, they're going to draw a consistent line to their opponent's shins. They're not aiming to get that reset into the kitchen. Instead, they're aiming for their opponent's shins. And what this creates is some of the drops land in the kitchen. Some of them land slightly high on their opponents and they hit an overhead on them or a swinging volley. Then they hit another one and it's much better than the previous one. But the vast majority of them are going to land in that target area near their opponent's shins/ knees/feet. And this is because of the trajectory of the ball that they're drawing. So with your drops, instead of trying to get them high and looping over the net and landing into the kitchen, draw that straight line. Literally tell yourself that you're trying to hit your opponent's knees. So you're hitting that drop. And what this is going to help you to do is to accelerate through that drop to lean forward and have confidence. You're aiming for your opponent's knees. You're going to keep it low over the net, but most importantly, it's going to be consistent. Whereas, if you're trying to go for high loopy and get it to land in the kitchen, they're going to tee off on the ball. If it does, chances are it's going in the net or it's going to be way too high. They're going to hit an overhead and put the ball away. So, the most important advice that I can give you with drops and with resets is to make sure that you are drawing a straight line and keeping it low over the net. Now, I say low. I'm not saying aiming for inches, but I'm saying keeping it about a foot over the net every single time. If you can draw that straight line consistently, you're going to have some of the nastiest drops and resets that you've ever had. So, let me show you what that looks like with these two drops. The first drop, this is going to be the typical drop that we see high and loopy. We're getting it to land in the kitchen. Instead, we're now picturing our opponents over there and we're hitting it right to their shins. We're going to do that straight line directly to the opponent's shins. Which one out of those two is going to be a way harder shot for our opponents to attack. That second one is almost nearly impossible for them to attack. And the best part about it is that it causes decision fatigue because they have to decide, do I take this ball out of the air and hit this defensive shot out of the air or do I let it bounce and back up and then either try to speed it up from this low position, which would be a bad decision, or dink it from this position. They have to decide take it out of the air or let that ball bounce just simply because we put it in such a good position at their shins. And it's the same exact thing when we're resetting the ball. So, if we're at midcourt and we reset it, this is the typical reset that we see. It's high, it's loopy, and we're trying to get it to land in the kitchen. They're going to smash that or we're going to hit it into the net. Whatever happens, it's not going to be good for us. Or we draw that straight line to our opponents. That's going to be way more difficult for them to handle. And the best part is it's way more consistent because you're you're drawing a straight line rather than a random loop. So, it's helping you to draw that straight line every single time. and you have that specific target to aim to instead of just somewhere in the air. We're getting it on our opponents. This is being offensive. This is in a way attacking our opponents. And this is why the pros have so much success with getting up to the net because they draw that straight line rather than this high loop.
The second fix with our drops and our resets that we need to implement is making sure that we're hitting them crosscourt. Anytime we're hitting a soft shot like a drop or a reset or a dink, we want to be hitting these balls crosscourt majority of the time. The reason is because we have a greater distance to hit to, which gives us more time to transition. We're going to be way more consistent by hitting it crosscourt in comparison to directly down the line. And with this tip in specific, you're not going to be able to wake up tomorrow and be extremely consistent at drawing that straight line. Yes, it's going to be easier than having that loop, but you're not going to be as consistent. What happens so often is players get into a wreck game and they think that that's the best and most optimal time that they can practice. In a wreck game, you might be able to practice this drop six or seven times in a 2-hour session. Whereas, if you're going out and you're drilling, you can practice it six to 700 times in that 2-hour session. So, that's why drilling is going to be your best friend for practicing hitting your drops and resets inconsistently. And if you have a perfect drop and a perfect reset, you don't need a perfect drive because you will always have a perfect transition. And if you're consistently getting up to the net, well, heck, you're already at that next level. And it's not about just going out with a drilling partner and having them feed you random balls either. It's about having a specific training plan with competitive drills so that you can perform well under pressure, so that you can consistently hit your drops and resets while feeling that same pressure that you would feel in a tournament. Pickball drillsapp.com has hundreds of drills that help you feel tournament pressure and get your reps in. They take the boring chore aspect out of drilling and just keep it fun and effective. When I first started drilling, I enjoyed it, but doing the same drills got when I first started drilling, I really enjoyed it, but doing the same drills over and over got extremely boring. Thousands of players that are using the app aren't just having fun, but are seeing real progress. going from three 0 to 35, from 35 to 40, and from 40 to 45 and beyond. You can pause the video and see what players are saying here. You can try it all free by going to pickalldrillsapp.com. I promise that you will improve your game as a result.
And that brings us to rule number three. Once we're at the net and we've set up camp, we need to attack. And that begs the question, how? I want you to think about net play like a tug of war. We're sometimes pulling our opponents off the court. Sometimes they're pulling us off the court. It's a constant give and take as we're trying to set ourselves up for a speed up or a putaway. Whenever we're in charge of the point, when we're in charge of that tug-of-war, we've pulled our opponents off the court and opened up the middle. Or maybe we've just made them feel uncomfortable and pop up the ball. We're recovering and hovering over the kitchen looking to attack. Recovering and hovering is one of the greatest tools that we have up at the kitchen. What that looks like is where we're dinking the ball and then we're simply following where the ball is headed and hovering over the kitchen. We know that we've hit an aggressive dink. We're in charge of the tug-of-war. We've pulled our opponents off of the court. And so, we're in attack mode, leaning in, taking more court away from our opponents as we follow the ball. And the most important tip that I can give you with this is that if you are always following where the ball is, you're always going to be in the right position. So if your partner is dinking crosscourt, you want to make sure that you are following where the ball is and putting your ball in direct alignment with where it is landing. If you dink the ball crosscourt, well, now you're going to be over here covering the middle and hovering over that kitchen.
Now, on the flip side, when we're not in control of that tug-of-war, we need to be doing two specific things. The first is we need to think middle. Whenever we're in trouble, we're pulled out wide, we're offbalance, we need to be thinking hit the ball short and up the middle. When we're up on the kitchen line, if we're back on the baseline and we're being pulled out wide, we're in a scramble. They're hitting overheads, whatever it might be, we need to think deep and up the middle. Either way, we're thinking up the middle. But the closer that we get to the net, the more shallow up the middle we're hitting. The further back we are from the net while we're on defense, the deeper in the court we're hitting. But the point is is that we're going up the middle of the court. There are so many advantages to going up the middle of the court, including you're taking away your opponent's angles, so now they can no longer attack. It's over the lowest part of the net, so it's going to be way more consistent for you, and it's going to give you sufficient time to recover back into the point. The best part about it is that you're not giving your opponents an easy that they can just jump over the kitchen and attack you with and finish the point.
The second thing we're going to do when we're in trouble is we're going to create space and time. So, if you pop up the ball, for instance, you notice that you popped up your dink, take a big step back and split step. This is going to give you sufficient time to counterattack or reset your opponent's attack. Another situation, you're off balance. Your opponents have a huge load up. They're gonna speed up the ball. Take a step back and split step. The most important part about this is that we are leaning forward. So, I have a tilt forward. That's going to tilt my paddle face downwards when I make contact with the ball. And the most important part about this is that the first team to hit downwards is the team that's going to come out on top of the hands battle. And since we've given ourselves sufficient space and as a result time to react, we have the advantage even though they're speeding up the ball. And so it's a constant game of tug-of-war where we have to decide, are we in charge of the point and we're recovering and hovering over the kitchen, taking space away from our opponents, or are we giving ourselves more space so that we have more time to react with that step back and split step. If you can do that, keep the beginning of the point as simple as possible by running specific serve and return plays and then making your transition as easy as possible by drilling drops and resets. And then finally, taking time away from your opponents by recovering and hovering. And when you're on defense, hitting the ball to the middle, as well as stepping back and split stepping to give yourself sufficient space and as a result, time. You're going to be able to beat any opponent that you play in pickleball and ultimately take your game to the next level.
So, that's everything. Pickleball is easy when we understand exactly what we need to do. If you want to continue improving your game and hanging out with me, you can watch this video right here and that's going to take you through a specific set of rules that you need to follow whenever you're playing in a match. And you need to follow these in a specific order. And if you can do that, it's going to make the matches that you play so much easier. So, click this video right here and I'll see you over.