PB Myth # 18: You Should Never Miss Your Serve

The conventional wisdom is that you should always make sure your serve lands in. We don't want you to hit out either but here is something to consider: if you are always playing it safe for fear of missing, are you losing out on a great opportunity?

Yes. You are. 

Think about it -- the serve is the one time in a pickleball game that you have complete control. The ball is in perfect position, you are totally on balance and you don't have to hit it until you are completely ready. There is no other moment when the conditions are so much in your favour. Yet most people squander this opportunity by merely putting the ball in play. Here are some alternatives:

1) Aim for a weakness. If you have identified that your opponent has a preferred side (usually their forehand) this is a great time to challenge them to play the shot they don't want. Use this opportunity to aim near a sideline and force them to hit a tougher return.

2) Pin them back. In most cases, the returner will want to come to the net after playing the ball. Make this more difficult by serving deep in the court and pushing them back behind the baseline.

3) Take away their time. A slow, high-arcing ball gives your opponents lots of time to prepare for the return. Why not hit the serve with some speed and challenge them to catch up?

4) Hit with spin. Add some difficulty by using sidespin or topspin on the serve. Doing so will make the ball bounce differently than the usual spin-free shot.

With each of these suggestions I'm encouraging you to "go for more" when hitting your serve. And yes, there is some risk in doing so. Hitting near the sideline increases the chance that the ball will go wide. Aiming for the back of the court or trying to hit the serve fast may mean your ball occasionally sails long. Hitting with spin will likely reduce your control and cause you to miss.

But with these risks comes the possibility of real reward.

A more challenging serve makes it more likely that your opponent will fail to hit the return the way they want. They are more likely to struggle with their first shot which is good news for you. They are more likely to hit the return short. They are less likely to have pinpoint accuracy. They are more likely to hit out of bounds. 

Of course, if you are hitting many of your serves out of play, you are probably being too aggressive. And one ought to be selective about when they choose to go for more (serving at 9-10-2 might not be the ideal time to attempt an un-returnable serve). But I don't see anything inherently wrong with the occasional missed serve so long as it is the result of looking to gain an advantage with the first shot.

There is an old saying that "if you aren't falling, you aren't trying hard enough". Perhaps we could adapt this to "if you never miss your serve, you aren't going for enough".  

Mark Renneson is a pickleball coach and 5.0/PRO level competitor. He is the founder of Third Shot Sports. He can be reached by email mark@thirdshotsports.com. 

In Praise of Bangers: Why We Should Thank Hard Hitters

“Uh! I’m so glad I don’t have to play with those people again!”
“Why?”
“They don’t play proper pickleball. All they do is smash it as hard as they can!” “I see. So how badly did you beat them?”
“We lost 15-5.”

This was an actual conversation I had with a 3.5 level player in 2014. I have since heard many more complaints about “bangers” and how their style of pickleball (i.e. hit hard in an attempt to overpower the opponents) is somehow improper, less pure and less “correct” than those who look to win by dinking and using the soft game. I think it is about time to address this negative attitude toward bangers and to unpack the mistaken assumptions that underpin it.

Why Bangers Bang

Why is it that some players look to hit hard whenever possible? The answer is twofold: First, it’s relatively easy to hit hard. It takes little precision – much less than an excellent soft shot – and it is a skill that is accessible to most players. Sure, you might hit a few balls long, but overall it’s far simpler than dropping the ball gently in the first half of the kitchen.

Second, players often hit hard because it works! More precisely, because it works against players of a certain level. Rarely is it the case that beginning, novice and even intermediate players have sufficient volleying skills to handle balls that are hit hard at them. Indeed, in the case of the player I referenced above, while she was reasonably proficient with her soft game, her volleying was weak. She could get medium-speed balls back but anything faster and she was in trouble. Her opponents recognized that they won points when they blasted it at her and so they kept doing it. It was smart strategy on their part and they were rewarded. Bangers bang because it gets them points. Until it doesn’t...

Here is a great example of this winning strategy in action!

Why Experts Don’t Bang

When you watch the best players play, it is rare that you see them hit the third shot hard at their opponent (update: this is less correct than it used to be. The paddle technology has changed significantly enough that advanced players are using the drive more often than they used to). Why? If banging works and is easy to do, why don’t the best players use it all the time? Surely they can bang as well or better than anyone else. Instead, unlike their less-skilled counterparts, experts usually play a soft shot into the kitchen and then get into a dinking rally. Are they playing “properly”? No. Are they playing the “right” way? No. They are using soft shots as a deliberate strategy to help them win.

Experts use soft shots because they are usually playing with other experts. And as an expert, their opponents have great volleying skills. At a high level, a ball smashed hard from the back of the court will be volleyed back with ease – often for a winner. Excellent players’ volleys are too good for banging; it’s a losing strategy to try to overpower an expert from the back of the court so they don’t do it. It has nothing to do with playing a purer version of the game and has everything to do with effectiveness. If an expert believed his opponent couldn’t handle a fast ball when at the net, he would most certainly hit it hard right at him. But experts have great volleys which makes banging basically useless.

To Bang or Not To Bang?

So what should you do: Hit your third shot hard at your opponents? Avoid hitting hard in favour of third shot drops? Where do you go from here? First, I advocate for doing what works. Pickleball is a game and games have winners and losers. I encourage you play the kind of game that works for you. If hitting hard is an effective strategy at your level, go for it! Overpower your opponents and show them that their volleys aren’t good enough to handle your powerful shots. That said, if you want to be able to compete at a higher level – against better volleyers – you must also develop a competent soft game. Your current strategy won’t work forever and you should prepare for the future.

Second, I urge you to become a player who doesn’t fall victim to the banger. The woman in the story that began this piece lost to her hard-hitting opponents. It’s too bad her anger was directed at them for “not playing properly” rather than at herself for not being skilled enough to receive fast-paced shots. Had she had better volleys she would have either received their hard shots well enough to win the game, or forced them to change strategies and play the softer shots she thought more appropriate.

Why We Should Praise Bangers

Hard-hitting players do us a great service: they help us to evaluate our skills. They point out the limits of our net game and can provide motivation to get better.

Rather than deriding her opponents, the woman from my story should have thanked them for highlighting the work she needed to do to get to the next level. The bangers she lost to acted as a measuring stick for her and they can do the same for all of us. If our net game cannot stand up to the fast pace of the bangers, that’s a sign that we need to get better.

We should practice, take lessons from a good coach and work deliberately until our volleys are so good that our opponents can no longer overpower us. We should learn to volley so well that even the best bangers are no match for us. Until then, the next time you lose to a banger consider thanking them for the lesson.

*this article was originally published in the August 5, 2015 edition of our newsletter.

Are Your Drills Duds?

This was originally posted in May 2016...

As a pickleball coach it is exciting to see more people taking seriously the idea of practicing. The explosion of instructional videos on YouTube (including those from yours truly) seems to suggest that people are eager to not just play pickleball, but to play it better. This is a good thing for the growth of the game and pickleball’s shift toward mainstream sport. 

I am often curious to see how people choose to organize their practice sessions — whether it is a loose 30 minutes before open play or the more structured clinics arranged by coaches. How is it set up? What do they work on? What drills do they do? This article proposes a few things to think about when planning how you practice.

Are the drills effective? Good practice sessions are focussed practice sessions. They should identify a particular situation or skill and seek to work on it repeatedly. 

If, for example, you’re choosing to work on your overhead smash, you should not be spending much time at the back of the court. You shouldn’t be hitting many serves or returns since that’s not your focus. Here’s a helpful question to ask yourself: “out of the last 20 balls I hit, how many were the exact shot I’m supposed to be working on?”.  If the answer is less than 10, your drill is not very effective. You’re spending more than half your time not working on the thing you’re supposed to be improving! Time to change the drill.

Do you have the right degree of challenge? Practice sessions are meant to help you improve but if the drill is too easy — or too hard — that won’t happen. The sweet spot for challenge is typically between 60% and 70% success. Any less and the drill is too tough and you’re failing as often as you’re succeeding. Any more, it is too easy and not pushing you to be better. So, how can you adjust the degree of difficulty?  

Change the target — Whether you are using cones, markers, lines or some other way to define a space, make it bigger to make the drill easier, smaller to make it tougher. 

Change the feed — The ball you receive influences the shot you send. Make the feed slower and more manageable if you need to make the drill less challenging. Make it harder to receive if you need to increase the degree of difficulty. 

Add movement — Hitting while standing still is easier than having to chase a ball to hit it. So if you need to make the drill a little easier, do it without requiring much movement. As your success increases, set it up so you have to chase the ball before you hit it.
 

Introduce consequences -- Real games penalize you for missing and once you’ve developed a skill, your drills should too! Adjust the rules of your drill so that there are consequences for missing (e.g. lose two points if you hit in the net; push-ups for unforced errors, etc.). Train yourself to play under pressure.

Are the drills realistic? One of the most important aspects of a good drill — and the  most difficult to maintain — is to make the drill realistic. The point of practicing is to help you play the game of pickeball better so it is important that your drills mimic game-like situations as much as possible. 

Let’s say you are working on dinking. Dinks are smart shots when you are at the kitchen and the ball is below net level but they are dumb shots when the ball is sitting up high above the net. The smart play in this case is something else — a powerful drive. If in your effort to practice dinking you dink back even the high balls (the ones you would normally hit hard in a game) you’re now practicing making a bad decision. You’re training yourself to do the wrong thing! It would make more sense if each time a ball was hit too high, you simply caught it and reset the dinking drill.

Making a drill realistic is one of the most difficult things to do. Here’s a checklist of things to look at in order to assess whether your drills passes the realism test:

• what game-like situation am I trying to simulate?

• am I standing in the right place for this situation?

• is my partner standing in a realistic spot?

• does the shot I’m hitting make sense? Would I do this in a game?

Designing great drills and practice sessions is harder than it looks. There will be many false starts and times you say to yourself, “I don’t think this is working”. That’s fine. As your experience in drilling increases you’ll start to build a library of your favourite drills for working on different situations. The key is to try to plan ahead and be willing to change it up if your drill isn’t working. 

A final tip is to become really good at copying other people. If someone introduces a drill to you that seems really effective, remember it (write it down) and use it again later. All the best coaches I know are excellent drill thieves! Oh, and if you are looking for a bunch of drills that I think are great, check this out. .

Mark Renneson is a pickleball coach and 5.0 player. He lives in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada and is the founder of Third Shot Sports. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this article or anything else pickleball related, he can be reached at mark@thirdshotsports.com

Context-Based Coaching

Have you ever taken a lesson (in pickleball or anything else), felt really good about your progress and then failed miserably when trying to apply your new skills in a game? This can be a frustrating and even demoralizing situation and very often it stems from a simple coaching mistake: the failure to contextualize the skills being learned.

How do you hit a good volley? That's a reasonable question that a pickleball or tennis player might ask. But before answering the question, the coach should ask one of her own: which volley are we talking about? Are we discussing volleying when the ball is driven hard right at you (e.g. when playing bangers)? Or are we talking about playing a volley when the ball is slow and high? What if it is a volley off an opponent's third shot drop or dink and is now below net level?

Each of these situations -- or contexts -- require very different technique. And unless we identify the context we're imagining, how can we work on building the skill in a meaningful way?

At Third Shot Sports we make sure that our students are always crystal clear on the situation we are training. It is vital that they know exactly when in a game they might encounter one shot versus another. A good habit for coaches to develop is to introduce a skill by saying "Here's the situation..." and then proceed to outline when the skill they are about to work on might be useful.

When coaches fail to do this, when they merely say "today we will learn...", they disconnect the skill being learned from the game being played. By doing so, they make it much harder for the student to identify the moment in a game when the skill could be used. This failure to perform the newly acquired skill in a game situation is not the fault of the student; it is a mistake on the part of the coach.  

So if you're a coach, try to contextualize your students' learning. And if you're the student, feel free to ask the question "So exactly when in a game would I use this shot?". 

Mark Renneson is the founder of Third Shot Sports. He has been coaching tennis for over 20 years and now travels around North America coaching pickleball. 

Inside 3S: How We Make Our Videos

At Third Shot Sports we pride ourselves on making videos that are valuable to our viewers. We want them to be easy to watch, clear, concise and, most importantly, helpful. We recently asked Third Shot Sports coach Mark Renneson to tell us about how he makes his videos.

Step 1: Get an Idea

Sometimes I have an idea for a video and sometimes I don’t. If I don’t have something specific in mind I’ll just watch footage of the pros and see if anything interesting pops out at me. I’ll then consider whether this is something that other people might find interesting too.

In other cases I have a specific concept or skill that I want to make a video about. The idea can occur to me when I’m playing pickleball or tennis myself, or just casually watching others. Often, I get the idea when I’m doing something completely unrelated. My poor wife Laura — who does not play pickleball or tennis and who isn’t really interested in either — is now accustomed to me interrupting whatever we are doing and saying out of the blue: “you know what would be a great video?” and then me not finishing the thought but kind of zoning out as I imagine what it might look like. She is a very patient woman.  

Step 2: Find a Clip (if possible)

If video I was watching gave me an idea for a topic, I’ll save that clip and see if I can find others like it. I will hunt through my archive of raw footage and I usually try to find at least a few examples — or counter-examples — of a particular topic so the audience can see the same things in slightly different contexts. It often feels like I’m searching for a needle in a haystack and it is pretty rewarding when I find what I’m looking for. If I don’t already have the footage I need, I will make it myself.

Step 3: Edit to Make Something Watchable

This is the most fun part of the process. I enjoy taking various chunks of footage and putting them together in a way that highlights the point that I’m trying to make. I use iMovie (all of the clips from 2015 were recorded, edited and uploaded 100% from my iPhone) and as I get more adept at using the technology, I can play with how the videos look. I’m beginning to work more with slo-motion, multiple angles, split screens and picture-in-picture. The creative aspect is something I quite enjoy. Once I have the main content edited together, I’ll do the voiceover when I can find some quiet time at home — which is harder to come by than it once was!

Step 4: Intro, Outro and Titles

Once the body of the video is ready I need to introduce it and complete it. Since people make their decisions about what to watch in the first few seconds, this is where I have to try to hook the viewer. Sometimes I use humour (with varying degrees of success) and sometimes I try to get the audience’s attention by being in an unusual location or having cameo appearances from my dog (Lacey) or daughter (Cecily). I try to keep the talking short so that people choose to hang around. Once this is all done — it usually takes several takes — I insert the titles/contact info and any other visuals that will help make the video look good and keep people coming back for more (hopefully).

Step 5: Upload and Share

Once I’m happy with the final product I upload it to YouTube. I can choose when to release it to the public and while it makes sense to space them out over time, I’m often so eager to put new videos out into the world that I publish them right away. I’m not very patient! I try to cross-publish on our Facebook page, any newsletters we are putting out and of course, thirdshotsports.com. Since I’ve done all that work, it makes sense to try to get as many eyeballs on it as possible.

Step 6: Feedback

Viewers often choose to share their thoughts about the videos either by emailing me directly or by posting to the comment section of YouTube. I value the time people take to respond so I make a serious effort to answer each comment personally. It takes time but I like connecting with the people who watch my work.

Step 7: Do It All Again

The time it takes to make a video from start to finish varies depending on how easily I can find the clips I need, how complicated the editing process is and whether or not I need to demonstrate some of the skills myself. In general, I’d estimate that each 3-minute video takes about 2 hours of work. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It is satisfying to see it all come together in a nice, tight package that people might want to watch and share with their friends.

Crosscourt Is Key

Good decision-making is vital to effective pickleball play. Ask a top player why they hit the ball to one spot versus another and they will never say "I don't know, I just hit it". They choose their locations deliberately and with purpose.

When playing dinks and third shot drops, you will often see top players hit crosscourt (e.g. diagonally) for a very important reason -- they have a big target. When you hit a shot down the line (i.e. parallel to the sidelines), there are only 7ft between the net and the opponents' kitchen line. But when you hit crosscourt (i.e. diagonally from one side of the court to another), you have way more room. The distance from the middle of the net to the far corner of the kitchen (where the kitchen line meets the sideline) is a whopping 15.7ft. That means, you have a target that is more than 100% longer when you hit crosscourt!

Of course, if you hit the shot on too extreme and angle you risk the possibility of a very tough around-the-post shot from your opponents. But a moderate crosscourt will prevent this and is great way to play soft shots more consistently so your opponents can't swat them out of the air.

Ask A Coach: Mixed Doubles Troubles

I've recently joined a club that has a mixed doubles league. I'm surprised to see how aggressive the men are when poaching. I'm not just talking about intercepting the odd put away shots but even run-of-the mill dinks or returns of serve. They practically push their partners off the court and play by themselves!

My inclination is to say "back off!" but thought I should check in with you first. What's going on? 

While pickleball has garnered a reputation for being friendly and social, it is not immune to the mistaken beliefs that permeate all parts of society.  That is, the sexism that we see in daily life doesn't magically disappear once people walk on the court. In doubles (mixed or same gendered), a player poaches a ball because they think they can do something better with it than can their partner. This could either be because they are in a better position to hit a particular shot or because they think they are simply a superior player. Given the extent to which you are seeing this happen in mixed, it sounds like you're playing with a group of guys that have two thoughts running through their mind: 1) I really want to win; 2) I'm better than my partner so I should take most of the shots. 

This can be an extension of the common -- and foolish -- attitude in mixed doubles of "hit to the woman". Smart doubles teams hit to the weaker player, regardless of their gender. If it happens to be the female you decide to pick on, so be it. But if you want to have success on the court, this decision should be based on assessing your opponent's skill and performance, not gender.

As for how you should proceed? I think you are totally within your rights to ask your partner to ease off on the poaching. Let him know that while you're there to compete, it's actually not that fun for you to watch him take all your shots. Your position will be strengthened when you show him that he doesn't need to worry about you pulling your own weight as a teammate. Execute great shots and he'll be more than happy to cover his side of the court and do a little less running.
 

Death of the Meaningless Return

It’s official: the return of serve has now become a key shot in pickleball. While some old-school coaches and players may still refer to it as the shot you have to play before the “real” game starts, watch any advanced players and you’ll quickly discover that this just simply isn’t so. Increasingly, the return of serve is used to gain an advantage against the serving team and to give the returners better opportunities at the net. Here are a few ways in which they do it:

• Return Deep. Pinning your opponent behind the baseline does a few things to make your life at the net easier. First, it means that they have the ball to you from a longer distance. Since the baseline to the net is 22 feet and you’re (presumably) seven feet beyond that at your own kitchen line, that means they have to hit 29 feet -- at least! -- to get the ball back to you. That gives you a lot of time to get ready for their shot. Conversely, if you return short and let them move inside the baseline to hit the ball, you’ll have less time to get prepared.

• Aim for a Weakness. Don’t just hit anywhere but aim for a spot that will annoy your opponents. This could mean hitting to a particular person (see this video about picking on the weaker opponent) or it could be just aiming for a backhand. Is there more risk? Of course. But there is also great reward to be had.

• Use Spin. Whether it is topspin, sidespin or backspin, hitting your return with spin can cause your opponent to play a less-than-ideal shot. It gives them one more thing to worry about as you approach the net for the volley.

• Take Away Time. Whether it is because you are hitting the ball hard or hitting on the rise, give your opponents less time to prepare for the third shot. This will put them under pressure and can cause them to make bad decisions. Just make sure you give yourself sufficient time to get to the kitchen!

Of course, whenever you attempt to make a higher quality shot you risk a drop in consistency. But with a little deliberate practice and some patience, you can turn your return of serve into a shot that sets you up to win more points rather than being a meaningless shot that lets your opponents off easy.

Have something to say about this? Send an e-mail to mark@thirdshotsports.com and let us know what you think!

Are Your Drills Duds?

As a pickleball coach it is exciting to see more people taking seriously the idea of practicing. The explosion of instructional videos on YouTube (including those from yours truly) seems to suggest that people are eager to not just play pickleball, but to play it better. This is a good thing for the growth of the game and pickleball’s shift toward mainstream sport.

I am often curious to see how people choose to organize their practice sessions — whether it is a loose 30 minutes before open play or the more structured clinics arranged by coaches. How is it set up? What do they work on? What drills do they do? This article proposes a few things to think about when planning how you practice.

Are the drills effective? Good practice sessions are focussed practice sessions. They should identify a particular situation or skill and seek to work on it repeatedly.

If, for example, you’re choosing to work on your overhead smash, you should not be spending much time at the back of the court. You shouldn’t be hitting many serves or returns since that’s not your focus. Here’s a helpful question to ask yourself: “out of the last 20 balls I hit, how many were the exact shot I’m supposed to be working on?”.  If the answer is less than 10, your drill is not very effective. You’re spending more than half your time not working on the thing you’re supposed to be improving! Time to change the drill.

Do you have the right degree of challenge? Practice sessions are meant to help you improve but if the drill is too easy — or too hard — that won’t happen. The sweet spot for challenge is typically between 60% and 70% success. Any less and the drill is too tough and you’re failing as often as you’re succeeding. Any more, it is too easy and not pushing you to be better. So, how can you adjust the degree of difficulty?  

Change the target — Whether you are using cones, markers, lines or some other way to define a space, make it bigger to make the drill easier, smaller to make it tougher.

Change the feed — The ball you receive influences the shot you send. Make the feed slower and more manageable if you need to make the drill less challenging. Make it harder to receive if you need to increase the degree of difficulty.

Add movement — Hitting while standing still is easier than having to chase a ball to hit it. So if you need to make the drill a little easier, do it without requiring much movement. As your success increases, set it up so you have to chase the ball before you hit it.
 

Introduce consequences -- Real games penalize you for missing and once you’ve developed a skill, your drills should too! Adjust the rules of your drill so that there are consequences for missing (e.g. lose two points if you hit in the net; push-ups for unforced errors, etc.). Train yourself to play under pressure.

Are the drills realistic? One of the most important aspects of a good drill — and the  most difficult to maintain — is to make the drill realistic. The point of practicing is to help you play the game of pickeball better so it is important that your drills mimic game-like situations as much as possible.

Let’s say you are working on dinking. Dinks are smart shots when you are at the kitchen and the ball is below net level but they are dumb shots when the ball is sitting up high above the net. The smart play in this case is something else — a powerful drive. If in your effort to practice dinking you dink back even the high balls (the ones you would normally hit hard in a game) you’re now practicing making a bad decision. You’re training yourself to do the wrong thing! It would make more sense if each time a ball was hit too high, you simply caught it and reset the dinking drill.

Making a drill realistic is one of the most difficult things to do. Here’s a checklist of things to look at in order to assess whether your drills passes the realism test:

• what game-like situation am I trying to simulate?

• am I standing in the right place for this situation?

• is my partner standing in a realistic spot?

• does the shot I’m hitting make sense? Would I do this in a game?

Designing great drills and practice sessions is harder than it looks. There will be many false starts and times you say to yourself, “I don’t think this is working”. That’s fine. As your experience in drilling increases you’ll start to build a library of your favourite drills for working on different situations. The key is to try to plan ahead and be willing to change it up if your drill isn’t working.

A final tip is to become really good at copying other people. If someone introduces a drill to you that seems really effective, remember it (write it down) and use it again later. All the best coaches I know are excellent drill thieves!

Mark Renneson is a pickleball coach and 5.0 player. He lives in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada and is the founder of Third Shot Sports. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this article or anything else pickleball related, he can be reached at mark@thirdshotsports.com

Ask A Coach: Pickleball Practice

I love playing pickleball games but I could really use some focussed work on my volleys and smashes. How do I get other people to practice pickleball and do drills, not only play games?  F. Cable, Sarasota, Florida

As the game of pickleball evolves and enthusiasm builds, many people want to get better. Whether it is so they can move up their club's ladder or prepare for an upcoming tournament, many people are looking to solidify current skills and gain new ones.
 

But some people aren't. 

For some, playing pickleball is purely a social pastime; like going out for lunch with a friend. For this group, getting better at pickleball is about as high a priority as "getting better at eating". Their pleasure comes from playing the game and being with others, not from seeing their abilities improve. And while it's nice to play well, their performance doesn't have a big impact on their overall well-being.

You are unlikely to find much enthusiasm for your practice sessions with this group of players. What you need is someone who shares your motivations. You need to find someone who is not only willing to work on their weaknesses, but keen to do so. You need someone about the same level as you both in terms of skill and fitness. You need a training partner!

My suggestion is that you talk with the people around you. Perhaps there are others who would like to train before they play. Maybe there is a Facebook group for pickleball in your area and you can post something to the effect of: “Hi. I’m a 3.0 player who wants to get better. I like playing games but I’m keen to practice and do some drills. Anyone out there interested?” and see what happens.

Another option is to find a coach you think you can trust. Whether it is privately or in a group, they might run training sessions that meet your needs. Be sure to tell them about what you are looking for so that everyone is on the same page. And of course, you can always have me come for a visit!

Have a question for a coach? Email mark@thirdshotsports.com!

Is It Wrong to Hit a 2-Handed Backhand (Part 1)?

Recently I published a YouTube video that I made while at a tournament in Arizona. I focussed on the technique that someone was using when hitting her backhand. It was unusual since she hit her backhand with two hands rather than the more customary single hand. In the video I noted how she prepared her body, where she made contact with the ball and what she did after she hit it. You can see the whole video for yourself, here.

While I often get comments (sometimes negative) on the videos I publish, the first one posted for this video didn’t mince words: “Sad to see the ex tennis players making videos about pickleball, you will not see one Men's 5.0 player using this shot, it is not a good choice for Pickleball”.  

Ok. I appreciate brevity so I was happy that gotmilk at least got straight to the point. He (she?) is correct in noting that this is not a common shot with the 5.0 men, but does that mean it is “a bad choice”? Another commenter named toadsprocket wrote: “Tennis has many things usable in Pickleball, the 2 handed backhand is certainly not one of them”. Not useable? But this player was using it! That was the point of the video! And not only was she using it, she did so to pretty good effect (did I mention that the player is Christine McGrath and that she is a multiple-time national champion?).  

A third viewer, named  dinkster, jumped in and wrote “these are ex tennis players that have not put the time into their new found [sic] sport, they will lose the 2 hand just give them some time. I would not teach this at my clinics”. So there!

Everyone seemed to be in agreement that the two-handed backhand has no place in pickleball. But why not? What is “wrong” with hitting with two hands?

While it is undeniable that most players hit one-handed backhands and that it is not necessary (for most people) to use both arms to swing a lightweight paddle, that is not an argument that the two-handed backhand should be avoided. Arguments use reasons to support a claim.

Most people don’t spend their time writing pickleball articles but I do. Am I doing something wrong? Or just something different? Only gotmilk provided something approaching a reason for his/her position: “very slow especially at the net” but there was no further explanation added. It wasn’t clear what gotmilk thought was slow: the preparation? The speed McGrath generates when she hits the ball? Something else?   

This leads to the bigger question: what counts as good technique? A question that we will try to answer next time. UPDATE: PART 2 IS AVAILABLE HERE.

Is It Wrong to Hit a 2-Handed Backhand? (Part 2)

Note: This is a follow up to Part 1 which is available here.

While there are many rules in pickleball, there is only one involving technique (e.g. the serve must be made in an upward motion with contact below the waist and the paddle not above the wrist). There are no rules about how you have to hit your volley or your smash, your dink or your return. And there are certainly no rules about how many hands you can use to hit your backhand.

Since pickleball is not a judged sport like gymnastics or diving, players don’t win because they look a particular way. They win based on their performance. It makes sense, then, that assessing someone’s technique must involve the question: can they do what they want with the ball? In terms of McGrath’s backhand, I’d say she’s doing a pretty good job (only she will know for sure how much the outcomes match her intentions). She can hit with power and finesse, she can hit different directions and heights and she can vary the spin and speed she uses. All with two hands!

A second consideration when evaluating technique has to do with potential for growth; can it get even better than it already is? Assuming she wants to improve as a player, could the technique she’s using now be a foundation for future development or is it at its limit? Two handed players sometimes struggle to take speed off the ball -- there is sometimes a problem with sufficient sensitivity when the second hand gets involved. I’m not saying this is the case with McGrath but it would be worth investigating. How well can she hit a drop volley with it? What about a slice backhand? The women’s game is evolving in such a way that well-rounded players will have to have all these shots at their disposal. If her technique somehow prevents her from doing these things (or others), then it is worth considering alternatives.

Finally, good technique is safe. If you satisfy the first two criteria (effectiveness and potential for growth) but do so in a way that puts you at greater risk of an injury, it is not good technique. Good technique is well coordinated and efficient which should not put extra stress on the body. I see nothing about her backhand technique that suggests she’s in the danger zone.

To summarize, dogmatic positions about the need to play particular way are antithetical to the nature of the game. Pickleball is a fast-paced sport that involves frequent adjustment and improvisation. Because of its performance-based nature, players can and should use the technique they believe will help them perform. And as the technology evolves and more players enter the sport, innovation is inevitable. While some might wish for the days when pickleball was slower, less intense and more predictable, I’m excited to see what changes are in store.

What do you think? Send an email to mark@thirdshotsports.com.

How to Choose a Pickleball Paddle

Depending on how often you play, a pickleball paddle can be a very personal purchase. If you are a daily pickler you may spend more time with your paddle than some of your close friends. So when looking to buy a new paddle, it is important to make a good choice. Here’s a guide to help you…

Know Your Game. Pickleball paddles come in all shapes and sizes and have very different characteristics. Some are designed for power while others for feel. Some are made to create as much spin as possible while others are meant to be super quick and maneuverable.

In order to choose the right one for you, it is important to be clear on how you play. Is your game based around power or are you more of a soft game player? How important to you is spin? Are you a new player who would benefit from maximum surface area or an advanced player who consistently hits the centre and wants something more nimble? Not everyone needs the same thing from a paddle so make a list outlining your game -- or ask a friend to give you their thoughts on how you play -- and take it with you when you look to buy.

Be Willing to Grow. Don’t expect your new paddle to feel like your old one. It won’t. And that shouldn’t count as a strike against it. Be patient in getting to know your new paddle and enjoy learning about its subtleties and discovering its strengths. Since this process will take a little bit of time, don’t get yourself a new paddle just before a big tournament or important match. Give yourself and your paddle some time to get acquainted in low pressure situations.

Aim for Substance and Style. While it is important that your paddle feels great it’s also important that it looks good too -- at least to you. Whether it’s the overall design or the graphics, you’ll want to get a paddle that you are proud to play with. Manufacturers are making increasingly original graphics and there are designs to fit everyone’s tastes. And if you can’t find one you like, some companies like Pro Lite will even let you design your own graphics!

What's with Weight? People can be very particular with the weight of their paddle. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that lighter is always better.

While a lighter paddle is easy to maneuver, it is also less stable on off-centre hits. Heavier paddles can feel more solid in your hand and can give you confidence that if you don’t hit the ball perfectly, you can still make a decent shot. Heavier paddles also help you generate more speed than light ones but they take more effort to swing. Be open to trying out paddles of all weights -- you just might surprise yourself!

If it Feels Good, Do It! People can tell you all they want about how great a paddle is but what matters most is that it feels good to you. So whether you try one of your friends’ paddles or borrow a demo, let your intuition guide you. Don’t overdo it on the equipment reviews or be too swayed by what the pros are playing with. If you find one that feels good and meets your needs, consider giving it a go. Who knows, it might be the start of a beautiful relationship!

Mark Renneson is the founder of Third Shot Sports and is a 5.0 competitor. He is currently using a customized Engage Pickleball Paddle similar to the Encore Pro. He can be reached at mark@thirdshotsports.com

Where the Game is Going

The growth of pickleball has been astonishing. In a very short period the sport has changed from an obscure, niche pastime enjoyed by a relatively small group of people into a major contender for how people choose to spend their time, energy and money. If it isn't yet mainstream, it is well on its way. The fact that very large sporting companies are getting in on the action and that major tournaments like the US Open are going to have a presence on television, signals that pickleball has grown up.

But what does this mean for how the game is played? How will the expansion of pickleball influence what happens on the court? We've got a few ideas...

MORE POWER. As more people enter the game, there are more potential customers for paddle manufacturers. And they are all vying to produce something new and cutting edge. As paddle technology develops, the paddles are becoming both more powerful and better equipped to deliver serious spin. These changes are going to privilege the power game and the result will be fewer third shot drops and less dinking.

MORE MOVEMENT. The prohibition on volleying in the kitchen means that in pickleball it is relatively easy to isolate a particular player and freeze out the stronger opponent. In order to combat this, players are going to start being more creative about how they move around the court. Poaching will just be the tip of the iceberg!
 

BIGGER SERVES AND RETURNS. Players have already started to use the serve and return to gain an advantage. This will continue and we will start to see much more creative play on the first two shots. Extreme spin and angles can be expected!

While not everyone will look forward to these changes, I do think they are inevitable. Steps can be taken to shape the game (e.g. new paddle and ball specifications; rule changes; court size adjustments) but these are difficult changes to make. And as more people get into the game, the level of the best players will continue to grow. And the nature of sport is always that top players will look for creative ways to gain a competitive advantage. This is where innovation begins and from my side of the net, that’s a pretty exciting thing to watch.

Mark Renneson is a pickleball coach, 5.0 player and the founder of Third Shot Sports. You can comment on this article by emailing mark@thirdshotsports.com

Don't Fear the Lob

When I introduce the concept of coming to the net as a team, the immediate reaction is almost always: "But what if they lob us?". People are often fearful of the ball being hit over their head and, as a result, they often stay back from the kitchen. But here's the thing... it's actually poor strategy to guard against the lob by hanging back. Here's why:

1) The lob is actually low risk. The next time you're waiting your turn to play, watch another game. Count how many times a lob is hit as a winning shot (i.e. the lob is hit so well that the receiving team cannot touch it). What you are likely to notice is that this number is very low. In many cases, a team will lob the ball out of bounds. In others, they will hit the lob short giving the receiving team a chance to smash the ball. Unreturnable lobs are rare in pickleball.   

2) You're giving up your main advantage. The strength of being at the net is your ability to hit the ball when it's above net level. This means you can hit down on the ball which means you can hit it hard. By hanging back from the kitchen line you make it easier for your opponents to hit the ball at your feet. This is exactly what they want!

So next time you're playing get right up to the kitchen line and look for a high ball. And if you happen to lose the occasional point because of a great lob, don't worry about it. Compared to the number of points you have the chance to with by being up close, it is probably worth the sacrifice.

 

To Poach or Not to Poach: The Etiquette of Crossing the Line

“Poacher!” That’s what someone – a spectator – yelled during a recent intermediate pickleball game I watched. It was meant not as an observation, but a reprimand of the man who crossed the centre of the court to put away an attempted dink that floated a little too high. With the tone she used, she might as well have yelled, “Ball hog!” It was clear that this spectator viewed poaching as a kind of etiquette infraction, a pickleball sin that was both rude and obnoxious.  But is it?

To be clear, poaching refers to crossing over the centre of the court to hit a ball that is otherwise destined for your partner. It means that you must abandon ‘your side’ of the court in order to intercept/steal ‘your partner’s ball’. There are a few reasons one might poach:

1. your partner is farther back in the court than you and allowing the ball to go to her will result in the ball getting low and being in a less than desirable position. You poaching, on the other hand, gives you the opportunity to hit the ball while it is still high and thus in a more enviable position to hit hard. Here is an example.

2. You think you are a better player than your partner and are more likely to make a good shot. By coming across and taking balls aimed towards your partner, you are ostensibly giving your team a better chance to win by having the better player hit the ball most often. Here is an example.

3. You like hitting the ball and are willing to leave your side of the court to satisfy your desire.*

So, is it a faux-pas to poach? The answer is, it depends. Like most things, context matters.

If you are playing a competitive match where the primary goal is to win, I think you can justify poaching for reasons 1 and 2. In this situation, both teammates should have similar goals and personal ego should be set aside for the good of the team.

If a poach is more likely to result in a winning shot then it is a reasonable play. If, however, it is a friendly, recreational match, things get a little murky. For most people, the fun comes from hitting the ball. And since poaching takes away your partner’s opportunity to hit the ball, it takes away some of their fun. You become not just a shot stealer but a fun stealer!

If we think back to the story that started this article we see how important the context is. The woman who yelled “Poacher!” as a reprimand, clearly saw the poach as stealing the fun of one of the players. If that exact same shot had been hit not during a fun pick-up game at the YMCA but in the gold medal round of a tournament, perhaps she would have yelled something more congratulatory.  

So where do we go from here? First, err on the side of caution. Until you learn otherwise, assume that your partner cares more about being part of the game then about winning. Even if you can poach some of their balls, maybe hold off, at least for the start. Second, talk to your partner. Ask them how they want to handle balls over the net that either person can get. See what they say. Finally, encourage your partner to go for balls if they are in a position to put them away – even if they are on ‘your’ side of the court. This can show that you care more about the team doing well than you hitting a certain number of shots.

Mark Renneson is a pickleball coach, founder of Third Shot Sports and 5.0 competitor. He can be reached at mark@thirdshotsports.com

Not So Fast!

We live in a culture that tends to value speed. Implicit in this is that if fast is good, really fast is better. This article is about slowness. In particular, this article is about three situations in which slowing down can benefit your pickleball game. Enjoy (but not too quickly).

Situation 1: Returning Serve
Why do we return serve? The obvious answer is “so we don’t lose the point”. True. But what else do we want from our return? What do we want it to do for us? When you watch the best players it is clear that the return of serve is an approach shot -- it’s the shot you use to get yourself up to the kitchen so you can (hopefully) volley. I often see people hammer the return and run up towards the NVL. The trouble is, the ball gets to their opponents so quickly, by the time their return is hit back to them, they have failed to get to their ideal volleying spot. They just didn’t have enough time. Consequently, they end up having a difficult ball down at their feet and rather than controlling the point, they are defending.

Instead of always playing a fast return, why not play a slow one? A slow arcing ball that lands deep in the court will give you plenty of time to control the net and will still pin your opponent behind the baseline. Will it win you the point? Usually not. But remember, the point of the return isn’t to hit a winning shot; it’s to get to the net so that you can volley effectively. And a nice slow ball can give you the time you need to do that.

Situation 2: Volleying

For many people, volleying can be exciting. They get up to the net, receive the ball in the air and -- sometimes out of a feeling of panic -- slam it back to their opponents. It sounds good. It feels great! The trouble is, if the opponents are at the baseline, this isn’t particularly effective. Because the distance between the hitter and receiver is long, the receiver has a relatively long time to react to the fast ball coming towards her. The volleyer can quickly go from a position of power to one of defense.

A more effective shot in this situation would be a drop volley. If the volleyer can take almost all of the speed off of the ball (soft hands and a continental grip are helpful in this regard) and land the volley in the kitchen, the receiving team will likely have trouble getting to the ball before it’s second bounce. While it might feel good to hit the ball fast, it feels even better to win the point.A slow, short volley can help you to do that.

Situation 3: The 3rd Shot

You serve. Your opponents return and rush the net. Now what? It depends who you ask. Lower level players typically use this as a chance to smack the ball hard at the net team. This works well only if they are weak volleyers. However, the stronger players usually play a more subtle shot. A slower shot that we will call the third shot drop.This shot is slow and low. It is designed to land in the kitchen and prevent the net team from volleying. The third shot drop itself doesn’t usually win the point but it can be useful in taking away the net team’s advantage. Because the net team is receiving a low ball that lands in the kitchen, they have to hit it upwards. And since they are hitting upwards, they must hit it slowly (a fast ball would fly long). The third shot in a rally is incredibly important (so important I named a company after it!). By using the inherently slow third shot drop, the returning team is able to move from a defensive position to a neutral or offensive one. And that’s pretty great.   

This article was about three situations in which slow shots can be highly effective. As usual, it would be a mistake to interpret this in absolute terms. I’m NOT saying, never hit the ball hard. No doubt there are good times to do so. What is important is that we begin to understand how to respond intelligently to different situations. At Third Shot Pickleball we take situation training seriously.

Mark Renneson is a pickleball coach and founder of Third Shot Sports. You can reach him by e-mail at mark@thirdshotsports or on twitter @thirdshotsports.