Coach’s Corner
By Doug Brenner
If you think you’re working too hard to win the point — you probably are
Chances are, if you think you’re working way too hard to win a pickleball ball, you probably are. When you watch a high rating player building the point in closely match games, one of the key features of the game becomes pretty obvious. They seem to be able to relieve the pressure, and return the favour to the other team without having to exert a lot of effort.
The harder you play — intensity — the more calories you’ll burn. But, don’t confuse intensity with results. What I’m learning is the more I focus on technique and positioning, the easier it gets to play the full 2 hours session. The more I’m pressured, the harder I have to work to reset and get back from a defensive, to a neutral position.
In Casual Pickleball, for a person who weights 150 pounds, (recreational) we burn about 422 calories per hour, or .046 calories per minute. In Competitive Pickleball (tournaments) 704 calories per hour, or.08 calories per minute.
Tennis: 420-600 calories recreational; 775 calories, competitively
Squash 600-900 calories recreational & competitively
Badminton 300-450 calories
Anticipation is the key to pacing yourself on the court. If you look at your opponent’s paddle as they’re hitting, you should be able to prepare and react to the shot and get into position to hit. I try to focus on the hit after, anticipating to close the gap before the ball arrives
This is why you run out of runway when you over-rely on hard drives to players at the Kitchen Line. You’re working harder on retrieval and drive, than block volleys and drops into the Kitchen.
On dinking battles at the net, I’m always tethering, moving wide, open stance, wrist laid back, little to no back swing, then returning to centre to close the gap. Constantly using these short shuffle steps can save you from using a lot of extra effort when you have to drive for a ball because you didn’t anticipate the next shot, hit to a predictable location.
The first decision you make with a new partner after a friendly shout out to the opposing team, is deciding what side of the court you’ll take.
This five second ritual is usual a simple routine, asking if the partner has a preferred side, as you settle in to either take the opening serve, or receive/return it. As a left handed player I’m used to requesting the right side court and starting my serve or deep return. This lets us both, right hander, and left, cover the important centre line on our forehands, using backhands to cover the sides.
But in changing it up the other day, I came to the realization there should be a weighted factor that goes into this court decision. Which sides are the stronger/weaker players using?
Coach’s Corner
By Doug Brenner
Setting up diagonally to weaker side can give you an advantage
In game play, it quickly became obvious that aligning myself diagonally to the weaker side, allowed me to hit cross court drive’s and drop shot setups across the lower middle of the net, with a couple of more feet of runway than hitting straight across to the stronger player.
This simple set up also made a noticeable difference because I was returning shots from the weaker player, cross cross, than harder to handle drives and drops from the stronger player.
Although left handed, I believe it will also help right handed players, who position themselves on the diagonal to the weaker side, to set up for cross court hits.
Perhaps you’ve already come to the same conclusion. But if you haven’t try it; you might find the diagonal set up to the weaker side, pays you back a dividend.
Coach’s Corner
By Doug Brenner
Adjusting grip changes paddle to ball angle at impact. Builds consistency by adding top spin.
I demonstrated both using Ball Angle to the paddle face at the moment of impact. I suggested changing his grip and turning his hand a quarter turn (he was left landed) to the left, towards the Eastern Forehand Grip. If he was right handed, it would be a turn to the right. This rotation opens up the paddle face slightly, allowing the ball to get over the net by adding more loft to the ball. After the league play ended, he came over to tell me how, "incredibly well" my tip had worked. His serve improved immediately with a simple rotation to the grip and was now clearing the net instead of hitting net cords. With emphasis, he said the adjustment had added even more spin to his already hard top spin, drive serve. If you are struggling with net cords on the serve or hitting it out, remember PAS. Path of ball flight; Angle of ball to paddle face; Speed of ball. All impact spin and stroke consistency. Change Angle by rotating the grip. BALLS LANDING OUT: Quarter turn to left to close paddle face at contact, reducing the angle of ball to paddle face. BALL HITTING NET CORDS: Quarter turn to the right to open up paddle face and help elevate the ball over net. Making small adjustment in the grip by rotating hand a quarter turn around paddle handle can have a big impact on your stroke consistency. A regular player partner, with a nice drive serve, suddenly had a hard top spin serve go south on him during game play.
He caught the net tap 3-4 times in a game, and I had a quick touchdown with him between team changeover. He said the sensation was like the ball was sticking to the surface of his paddle, causing him to bring the ball down, into the net suddenly.
After a couple more discussion points, I told him, his issue was likely related to the PAS at the contact point of his serve. Ball Path, Ball Angle or Ball Speed, all which impact the effect of the spin he was putting on his serve.
I asked him a couple of key questions, "Was the issue mainly related to the ball dropping short into the net?' hitting too fat, or "going too long and missing the baseline?" hitting too thin.
Grip 1. Continental. Closed position for serves missing baseline. Often used for serve, volley, dinking, but personal preference and dexterity determines what grip player decides to use.
Grip 2. Eastern Forehand. Middle position for serves that are falling in. Palm of hand behind grip for power and control. The go-to grip for powerful top spin forehand drives. Note laid back wrist leads paddle face.Grip 3. Extreme Eastern. Open position for high deep serves. A hybrid choice to help clear net cords at risk of high attackable balls. Experiment to learn what works best for your game.
You Be The Judge — Interesting Court Calls.
Playing against two at the Kitchen Line, I hit a high lob over their heads, just as a ball was hit into the court directly in front of me, between the net and the service line.
I called “Ball!” Immediately while my lob was still in mid-air and before I could see where it landed. It landed out behind players missing the baseline.
Players called my lob out, and claimed point. I said play had stopped as soon as I called for the obstruction.
What do you think?
Tough call so I discussed with another instructor and we both arrived at the following conclusion.
Despite calling the obstruction, my lob was out and not impacted by the other team’s attempt to play ball.
Because there wasn’t an immediate safety concern after I had hit the lob, the out call took priority,
And it was a loss point.
I discussed with the players after the game ended, and agreed I had made the wrong call, with an apology.