Erne

Being able to do the Erne on defense shrinks the court down and forces them to have to drop / dink towards middle. It’s one of the strongest moves in Pickleball that is often underutilized at the 4.5 and below level.

If you don’t Ernie, a low aggressive topspin drop to corners (especially to your backhand) is very strong because it gives them more margin for error and makes you outstretched. It pulls you away from the middle.

By being an Erne threat, they can’t drop high/shallow at the edges of the court, which means you can crunch and protect middle more.

In dinking rallies, Erne also shrinks the court down and makes them not want to dink down the line.

In dink rallys can also set up Erne via dinking patterns. Patterns that force them to hit the ball late, outstretched, so they most likely will dink it down the line or risk dinking the ball out the court. Then you pre-jump and Erne it.

“Just showing that you want to Erne is that pressure. It’s that visible mental pressure you can apply. And the earlier you do it, the more it pays dividends throughout your game/match.

It really changes up where [the opponent can go] with [their] shots. You know what it feels like on the receiving end. It closes down an alley. Create a simmering energy and pressure just by trying to do it” – Ryan from Raise The Bar

Erne Footwork

Classic Jumping Erne Footwork

• This one is more committal so you want to do the jump only right after opponent hits the ball. So you don’t get caught out.

Walk Around Kitchen Erne

• Andre Daescu does this one, it’s a lot less commital, because you walk around the kitchen. And you can always just bring your foot back. You are basically just straddling the kitchen.
  • So you can do this earlier right before opponent makes contact with the paddle.
  • If you are taller and need less reach, you can use this method.

Priority Checklist:

• Wait until your opponent’s paddle has made contact with the ball before you jump.
  • If you jump too early, opponent will dink away from you.
• Footwork: do the correct steps for an erne with more reach.
  • The important part here is this: For the Erne you jump with your inside foot (foot closest to the mid line), first.
• Read and recognize the typical patterns of behavior from opponents.
• Set yourself up to Erne by forcing opponent into the patterns.

Erne Against Drops

This is the easiest Erne to do and gives you the most amount of margin for error. Learn this Erne first.

Your mindset: if their drop is high enough for you to Erne it, you should always erne it, otherwise, it’ll land, bounce and push you way back off the corner and off the kitchen line and off the middle of the court… making your team at a disadvantage as the opponents get to the kitchen.

When you are first learning Erne, everything that you think you can Erne, go for it. It’s the only way to know if something can be Erne’d is to limit test. Miss and miss, a lot.

On defense even if you are hitting up and to the side on the Erne, it’s still really effective because it allows you to hit to the wide side angles, pulling opponents out of position.

Priority:

• Try to aim it so the trajectory is inside the kitchen and it bounces in the kitchen.
  • With the trajectory in the kitchen, they can’t even hit it.
  • Tip: You want to flick almost backwards like you are aiming to hit the ball into their side of the net.
  • Tip: don’t be afraid to hit it wide and use the full kitchen, unlike with dinks they won’t be able to ATP it because it’s too fast.

Left Side Erne off a Drop (as a right hander)

• If ball is high to your backhand side, switch your paddle to tomahawk grip and you can reach further and angle it to hit in the kitchen on the side for a winner.
• Here is a great example by Christian Alshon:

Right Side Erne (backhand) off a Drop

Hayden king of Ernes. They call him big H for a reason, he is able to shrink the court size down with his presence despite being shorter and having less reach.

Pattern: Hayden is in middle with his inside foot on the mid line. You can see as soon as the ball leaves Rafa Hewett’s paddle that Hayden knows it’s Erne time.

He shifts his body over to get himself closer to the sidelines.

And then he jumps and backhand flicks the ball down.

He aims inside the kitchen at a wide angle for a winner.
Because, the ball’s trajectory is inside the kitchen, Johnson can’t even do anything about it even though he is right a the kitchen.

More Drop Ernes

• First Erne in this video, he erne as the follow through after he hits it, and let’s his momentum take him across the court after he hits the ball.
  • He didn’t have to Erne it, but drop was high.

Erne Dinking Patterns

Dinking patterns to create Erne opportunities.

The key is to hit a deep dink at the sidelines that make them have to shift and stretch out to hit the ball.

If they are late to contact the ball with the paddle, they’ll often either hit it out the side or hit down the line.

When they have their head down looking at the ball, jump the Erne.

Another thing I noticed is if their feet and body is turned sideways and perpendicular to the kitchen line, they basically can no longer dink safely back crosscourt. The angles they can dink to drastically decreases the more perpendicular they are.

The more sideways there legs turn, the more likely they are to be forced to dink down the line.

Pattern: Forcing Down The Line Dink Erne

1. You dink deep to outside-foot of the person directly in front of you.
2. Opponent: is turned to the side and thus likely to dink down the line.
   • As soon as you see opponent head look down, arm outstretched, and paddle face open up, he will be unlikely to bring it back to the middle.
3. You jump and Erne.

Pattern: Split Line Erne aka Forcing Inside-Out Forehand Dink From Middle

1. You dink middle to the forehand of the left-side player.
2. Opponent Left Side Player: crosses over to take the ball with their forehand and dinks inside-out forehand. 90% of the time they will do this because the inside-in Erne is more unnatural motion.
3. You: jump for Erne

This Erne comes up in-game the most.

• This one was a more dangerous one because they could’ve gone behind him for a winner.

Physical: How To Jump Longer Distances

The longer you jump, the more you are as an erne threat.

Once I figure out how to apply long jumper’s training to here, I’ll add it over.