A common complaint we hear on the pickleball courts has to do with when people consistently hit hard. The Bangers, as they are often known, look to gain an advantage through speed and often draw the ire of other players who claim they "aren't playing properly" or "have no strategy." In this short article, we're going to give you some practical tips so instead of getting mad or being overpowered, you can find yourself hanging with the banging.
As we've discussed in previous articles, people participate in pickleball lessons for a wide range of reasons: they want to have fun and get some exercise; they want to build a community of friends that they get to know on and off the court; they want to have fun, be active, and spend most of their time participating, not standing around. But they also want to improve. They want to get better. And this is a key responsibility of any instructor.
So, how do we track improvement? It's not good enough to just assume our players are getting better because they're putting in hours on the court. We need some way to measure changes in performance.
Pickleball is a game and games should be fun. But what if pickleball was more than that? And I’m not talking about those people — including yours truly — for whom pickleball is a means to earn a living. I’m talking about regular players for whom pickleball literally changed their life — maybe even saved it.
Several years ago, I was running pickleball clinics on the east coast of Canada. I was reading a short newspaper clipping posted on a message board at the club. It was about the growth of pickleball in the region and some of the key people that were contributing to the community. Seemingly out of nowhere, a woman, let’s call her Jean, walked up to me and said “That’s a really good article. It’s amazing what has happened here. Actually, pickleball saved my life.”.
Whether you're a novice or an intermediate player, these easy-to-implement strategies will provide you with immediate improvements on the court. If you're eager to take your pickleball skills to the next level without a steep learning curve, then you've come to the right place. We'll delve into key aspects such as shot selection, handling high balls, return of serve, positioning, and utilizing easy angles during serves. Get ready to pick the low hanging fruit and witness a noticeable boost in your Pickleball performance. Let's dive in and discover these simple yet highly effective tips that you can apply right away.
This is the second in six part series where we are exploring the Quality Standards. This framework is used as part of Canada’s pickleball instructor certification course delivered collaboratively between Pickleball Canada and Tennis Canada. The concept of Quality Standards was developed by Wayne Elderton, one of Canada’s foremost coaching experts. I would argue that no matter what sport you teach — or even if you teach in a classroom setting — thinking about Quality Standards can be helpful.
Definition of Active Participation: The proportion of time a player is engaged in meaningful activity.
What is it that makes a good pickleball lesson? Specifically, what qualities should be present during great group training?
In the six part series, we are going to introduce something called the Quality Standards. This framework is used as part of Canada’s instructor certification course delivered collaboratively between Pickleball Canada and Tennis Canada. It was developed by Wayne Elderton, one of Canada’s foremost coaching experts. I would argue that no matter what sport you teach — or even if you teach in a classroom setting — thinking about Quality Standards can be helpful.
If you are like most people before you start playing a game, you hit some balls with your partner or opponents; probably a bunch of dinks, maybe a few volleys and smashes, some forehands and backhands from the back of the court, and possibly some drops and lobs.
But how deliberate is your warm-up, really? How focused are you during it? Again, if you're like most people, the answer is probably not very. You probably hit a few balls casually back and forth, maybe even while having a conversation. You are likely hitting a quality of ball that will hurt you in a game – too high, for example but don't think too much about it. Let's look at why the warm-up matters and what you can do to make it great.
Have you ever left a lesson feeling like a superstar, only to find yourself struggling to apply your new skills in a real game? It can be frustrating, demoralizing and even embarrassing. But fear not, because there might just be a simple yet crucial mistake lurking in your coaching experience: the lack of context. In this article, we delve into the importance of contextualizing skills in pickleball and explore how it can make all the difference in your game – and the game of your players.
Let’s face it, the sexy part of a pickleball shot is making contact with the ball; that fraction of a moment where the ball and the paddle come together to (hopefully) produce a magical result where the ball ends up exactly where it should. In all striking sports — games where players hit a ball with an implement like a racquet, stick, bat or paddle — announcers, camera operators and fans pay closest attention to the moment of contact and then what happens next (“Wow! Her ball landed just inside the line!”; “Look how great his drive was!”; “That ball had so much spin on it!”. It makes sense — contact and what happens next is the fun things to pay attention to!
If you want to play good pickleball it’s important that you know what is true. For example, it is useful to know that the distance your ball travels is related to the height, speed and spin you put on it. But it is also important to know about what’s not true — and pickleball sure has its fair share of myths. Let’s explore a few of them:
“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!” (or something worse!. 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?
Pickleball is a fast-paced, highly strategic game that requires a combination of finesse and power. However, many players, including coaches, make the mistake of focusing too much on dinking and third shot drops, ignoring the importance of other essential skills for beginners.
As a coach, I often see players fixated on these two shots, but they don't always realize that dinking and drops are advanced techniques that may not be useful for beginners who play with other beginners. Instead, players need to focus on mastering the fundamentals, such as serving and returning, which are crucial shots that new players hit every single point.
If I were to ask you what the best part of a pickleball lesson is, I think it's unlikely that you would say "the warm-up." For most of us, the warm-up (if it takes place at all) is a necessary evil that nobody really enjoys. This is because we don't typically give the warm-up the care and attention it deserves.
We often think of the warm-up as what we do before the real action begins – the stuff we have to do before we get to do the stuff we want to do. While this may be true in the context of a pickleball match (and even this is debatable), it shouldn't be the case during pickleball lessons. Here are three reasons why pickleball instructors should care more about the warm-up:
Whether it fully deserves it or not, pickleball (for the most part) enjoys a reputation for being a welcoming sport. Stories abound of non-players showing up at local courts only to be met by a friendly crew of pickleheads with some extra paddles and nothing but enthusiasm. We hear of travellers welcomed with open arms when joining a drop-in session in a different city. And if you ever need a place to crash, just find a local pickleball club and doors will open.
This week marks International Women's Day, and it's a great opportunity to identify areas in pickleball where we need to continue to work to elevate women, as well as to acknowledge where good work has already been done.
In the pickleball clinics that I teach, I’d estimate 60% of the participants are women. Our newsletter, Inside Pickleball, has a roughly even distribution of men and women. However, on the coaching side of things, at Pickleball Coaching International we estimate that just 27% of our members are women.
When it comes down to it, pickleball is pretty simple: you want to put the ball in play once more than your opponents do. But executing on this is not so straightforward. Sending the ball with the right height, speed, spin, distance and direction, requires excellent control of the paddle. You have to get the vertical and horizontal angles just right, have the paddle moving at the perfect speed and make sure that the swing path is appropriate for the height and spin of the ball you are trying to send. That’s a lot to worry about!
