Transcription
I've talked to a lot of players who have plateaued in their game, and they not only don't know what skill level they're at, but they don't know what to work on and what parts of their game that they need to improve.
In this video, we're going to go over three very simple assessments to see exactly what level you're at and what parts of your game are lacking and need some work. The first assessment that we're going to do is the return assessment. Then we're going to move on to the transition assessment. And last but not least, we're going to end with the dink assessment.
As you go on the court, you're going to tally these numbers. If you'd like to follow along with this assessment chart, just scan the QR code here or go in the link in the description below.
All right, this first assessment has everything to do with the return. We know how important it is to not only make your returns, but get your returns deep so that you can have time to come to the net and keep your opponents back. The way we're going to set this up is we're going to put a marker or something in the middle of the transition zone so that I have an indicator to know that I'm actually hitting the ball deep and keeping my opponent's back. So, you can see the pickle ball tubes here on the other side halfway up, and I'm going to make sure that I'm going to be returning past that mark. If my returns are shorter, then it doesn't count. We're going to be doing this assessment three times: 10 returns crosscourt, even to even side, 10 returns crosscourt, odd to odd side, and then also 10 returns straight on. I'm going to take the average of those and then divide it by 30, and then I'll know exactly what my number is. Lastly, it's really important to get a player that is at your skill level or around it so that you can practice these returns.
All right, first one. Okay, one for one. Here we go. All right, two for two. That was a good return there on the backhand side. That barely jump past. Close. All right, that's four. Five. Six. Oh, [music] wide. All right. So, if you miss it wide, it doesn't count. All right. We're talking about accuracy here. So, I have to get on that side of the court. Eight. Nine. All right. One more everybody. See what we can do. Get 90%. Oh, short. All right, 80%. It's all right. I'm happy with that. One went a little bit wide. One would went a little bit short, but I'm going to take that number and I'm now going to go on the odd side of the court and see how many returns I can make on that side.
All right, one. That was a tough serve, too. Holy cow. Oh, short. All right. One for two. One for two. Oh, two for three. Two for three. We'll miss it there. Oh, hey, missed it. It's counter pickle ball. Three. Four. Four. [music] Was a cleaner hit there. Four for five here. Oh, do we count it or not? Five for six. Barely. Barely. Oh. Five for seven. Fairly fast. Woo! It's close. Six break. Okay. 7 for nine or 80% here. Here we go. Oh, okay. All right. So, just under 70%. I'll take that. Wasn't wasn't my best showing, but last one down the line. Again, you're going to do 10 returns [music] from each side. One on the even side, odd side, and then now down the line.
Okay. First serve here. Okay. All right. One. One for one. Okay. Two. Two for two. Oo, that was a tough one. Right on that line. Right before. Three for three. Here we go. Four. Four. Fours. Okay. Four for five. Just a hair out. that island in. Oh, that's a little kicker serve there. Is that five for six? Five for six. All right. A little bit short. Little bit short, folks. All right. Five for seven. Okay. Six for eight. Seven for nine. All right. Seven for nine. Last one. All right. Eight for 10.
All right, now that I've finished my return assessment, you saw on the even side I got eight out of 10 returns past that target on the correct side of the court. On the odd side, I did a little bit worse. I got [music] seven out of 10. And then straight on my returns were 8 [music] out of 10. So if I take those returns that I made and then divide it by the number of returns that I hit, which is 30, it's a whopping total of 76%. Okay, so again, for me, that's fairly good. I would like to raise that. This is only one assessment test. You can do this multiple times, but this is just an example. Now, let's get to the next one.
All right, the transition assessment. So here's how it's going to go. You're going to have a partner at your skill level. Remember, that's really important so that they're putting the right pressure on you as you're trying to get through that transition. But they're going to start up at the nonvoy zone and they're going to feed a relatively deep ball. Now, from here, I'm either going to choose a drive or a drop. And it's totally up to you. The big key thing is we're trying to make sure that we get up to that nonvolley zone line. Okay? So, whatever I hit, however many shots it takes me, it really doesn't matter because, you know, you're not going to make it on a third shot or a fifth shot drop every single time. Okay? My goal is to make it up to the nonvoy line and maybe hit one dink or at least get my feet established there. Okay? So, we're going to do the same thing. We're actually going to start crosscourt, even side to even side. We're going to do the odd side and then we're going to go straight on out of 10. And then you're going to divide it by the number of attempts, which is going to be 30 transition attempts.
All right, here we go. Let's see it. Okay, one for one. Here we go. Okay, two for two. I'll take it. I will take it. Okay. Three for three. Okay. Four for four. Five for five. Just like that. Again, you may not make it up in one or two shots. Doesn't matter as long as you make it to the line. Five for five. All right. If your partner misses a volley, we just reset. Okay. Six for six. Here we go. Locked out with a knife there. Seven for seven. Here we go. Okay. Eight for eight. Nine for nine. Let's see see if I go 100. Oh, is that out? Oh, okay. All right. 90%. Okay. So, nine out of 10. Very happy with that on that side. We're going to go to the outside now.
Now, before we do that, you notice on that even side, I use a ton of drives. Again, for me, my preference when I'm making my way to transition is to drive the ball and look for that fifth shot drop. It may be different for you, and that's totally based on the type of player you are. If you're stronger dropping, then I suggest using that. If you have a good drive, then use your drive to set up that fifth shot drop. Now, let's get to the odd side. Here we go. First attempt. Okay. 0 for one. Good balls. Okay. One for two. I'll take it. All right. Two for three. Here we go. Okay, so we left it high and um I didn't quite make it to the net. So that's just going to cancel out and I'm going to actually do it one more time. Okay, two for three. Okay, three for four there. I'm happy with that one right there. All right, four for five. Okay. All right. Four for five. Okay. Five for six. Five or six. Here we go. All right. Six for seven. Again, sometimes when I'm transitioning it up, I might pop up a ball. I got to stabilize, reset it, and still try to get to the net. Six for seven. Okay. Seven for eight. Here we go. Oh, good. Okay. Seven for nine. That's more. Okay. Eight out of 10.
Lastly, we're going to do down the line. Okay. So, here we go. All right. One. One for one. All right. Two for two. Okay. Oh, locked out. All right. Pull the four. Here we go. All right. Five for five. So, I can put some brush on. Good ball. Five to six. Six for seven. All right. Seven for eight. All right. Eight for nine. Last one here for 90. Can we go for 90? Think we can do it. Oh, okay. All right. Still happy with that. 80% on the straight on transition.
So, let's go over my results here. On the even side, N [music] out of 10. All the way up to the line. I made it through transition. On the odd side, 8 out of 10. And then straight on, 8 out of 10. Which brings me to a whopping total of 83% transition. So remember, this may look different depending on the type of player that you're playing, but this is just a good way to get a baseline of where you're at and know your numbers. Okay? So, you can get out there and do this with different partners, but in this example here, I got 83% which I'm pretty happy with. Now, let's get to the dink assessment.
All right. Now, let's hop into the dink assessment. Just like the two other assessments, I'm going to start on the even side. And some important things to note here is whether you're hitting a slice or maybe a scoop or a top spin dink, remember, we're going for consistency and we're making sure that the contact point on the other side of the net is low. So, if Grayson is leaning in and he's taking the ball above net level, that is not a good thing and we're not going to count that. it's [music] going to stop there. So, we're going to see how many balls I can get consistently in and actually moving him or forcing him to contact the ball below the net. Last clarification I want to go over is these are going to be the dinks that you're actually hitting. So, the ones that he's hitting, we're not counting. Every time I touch the ball, that counts as one [music] dink.
All right, here we go. All All right. So, as you saw there, 15 plus dinks. Remember, the most important thing is getting the ball to bounce or forcing a contact below the net. There were a couple there where Grayson was taking out of the air, but it was still below the net level, which I'll still count as a fairly good dank. Now, we're going to hop on to the odd side. Here we go.
All right. So, that was the outside. Um there I'm just working on some slice, some lift, and also some chewy top spin rolls. Regardless, the most important thing is getting the ball to bounce and forcing a low contact. So you can hit any kind of dink you want. Again, we're trying to see how many dinks you can get in a row without missing.
All right, down the line. Something to understand about this one. Obviously, I have less room to work with. So, your swing speed, kind of make sure that's dialed in. You're not swinging too fast and that you're actually getting the ball to bounce or making your opponent contact the ball below the net. Again, same kind of things. When you're hitting good dinks, that is the result of them as we want to make it as hard as possible for our opponents to attack the ball. So, here we go down the line.
All right. So, as you can see there, I'm moving the ball around. But again, the most important thing is that I'm not allowing him to hit the ball out of the air above net level.
All right, now that I've finished my dink assessment on the even side and the odd side and straight on, now it's your turn. Go out there with a partner. Go ahead and do the return assessment, the transition assessment, and also the dink assessment. So, if you're serious about improving your game in 2026, we actually just opened registrations to the Pickle Ball University, our new online platform where you can get directly coached by me. We do assessments just like this in the community all the time. And the other cool thing is you can send in match footage, you can send in some drill footage with you and a partner or any shot that you're working through and you want feedback on your technique. If you'd like to learn more and get coached directly by me, scan the QR code here or go to the pickleballuniversity.com or click the link in the description below.