For when the lob is too good and you couldn’t smash it in time, so have to run back and drop it back into the kitchen.
Is actually easier than it looks. Because the ball is high, once it drops, it will lose a lot of it’s spin. And it won’t have a lot of pace. So it’s a lot easier reset than your regular 5th shot reset or 3rd shot drop where the return is coming back faster, and with more spin.
Just scoop the ball up and send it towards the middle of the net.
Priority Checklist
Out Run The Ball First.
Don’t reach out and hit the ball with your paddle while you are still way behind the ball. Let the ball bounce, it’ll slow down a lot after it bounces. You can easily out run it and get behind the ball. no need to rush to hit it. – Paraphrasing Jilly Bill
Reset It Middle
Lowest part of the net, most margin for error. Least amount of angles opponent can attack on you if it’s a little high. And also easiest for your teammate to cover and attack if opponent pops it up high.
You really shouldn’t lob defensively, and basically should only use it for offense.
If you can get enough of a paddle on it and have enough time, you should be able to reset the ball to the middle.
However, if you must lob defensively your goal is to lob and have them not be able to get a clean hard overhead. Your goal is to force them to do a weaker overhead, and then you can reset into kitchen to get in.
Your goal isn’t to keep staying back at baseline and lobbing, because eventually you’ll hit one that is too low and they’ll put it away or you’ll hit one that flies out the court due to wind.
Priority Checklist
Must-do
Lob it high
Make sure your lob doesn’t end up at head height or below when it reaches the opponent’s kitchen, because it would be an easy putaway.
Unlike with offensive lobs, feel free to lob it as high as possible.
Lob it deep
The further back they have to run to hit the ball down, the less angles they have available to hit to.
If they are hitting overhead far back in the court, they can basically only hit down the middle because if they hit the sides, it’ll either go into the net or fly out the sides.
Lob over the opponent’s non-dominant shoulder. People have a shorter and weaker backhand overheads.
If you see that as you are about to dink, opponent are over leaning into the kitchen or trying to do an Ernie, you should lob them. Because the won’t be able to stand up straight in time to get a clean overhead smash off.
Disguise your lob like a topspin dink.
Don’t just use the lob as a bail-out to get out of a point. Use it strategically as an offensive tool.
You want a topspin lob so it goes higher over the opponent and then dips down after.
The key to lob is a controlled flick motion up but not fast.
If you flick it too fast, it’ll go out. Instead you want it to be around 30-40% speed of your regular speed-up. Basically you want the ball to dwell on your paddle for longer so you can lob it over.
You don’t want to flick too slow though because then arc of the ball would be too low and they’ll hit with an overhead.
You don’t have to lob perfectly and hit the baseline.
As long as the opponent is off balanced and stepping back at the back third of the court, it’s hard for them to get a smash in that you can’t defend.
Body: Stay set leaning forward.
Just like with drives, don’t stand up, your chest shouldn’t move and face up.
You are lifting the ball up with your legs not your chest.
This way you are using topspin to keep the ball in rather than just popping the ball up.
Lobbing against the wind is great, you just need to lob it as high as possible and the wind will blow it back in the court anywhere.
Opponent’s will go “where did the ball go?”
You can even lob from mid court transition zone.
Example of Lob Used In Game
If there is a dink that you can attack with a flick speed-up, that means you have enough time to lob it over them as a possible option.
Lob on a high enough dead ball from opponent, even off the bounce, that you can threaten speed-up and crosscourt topspin dink. And you lob it over because they can’t cover everything.
The video uses forehand as example, but that’s because people don’t have a good backhand crosscourt dink or backhand speed up so they can’t threaten to speed-up from the backhand. IF you have a backhand speed-up, a backhand lob is even more effective and more of a threat than a forehand lob because you don’t leave a middle gap so you also threaten middle topspin dink as well.
My note: if they do an aggressive dink and are expecting a pop up, thus are leaning in, lobbing off the bounce can work as well to bail you out. Turns a disadvantaged defensive situation into an offensive one.
Gabe Tardio Lob
If you watch Gabe’s lobs, he always winds it up like a he is about to do a speed-up, and then he lobs the ball into the air.
Another pro player to watch is Callen Dawson. He lobs frequently, he even short-hop lobs. He practically invented the offensive lob.
Here is a game where Callen lobs a ton.
Priority Checklist:
High Priority
Lob over their backhand side.
Wind-up and then lob
applies top spin so it dips down fast.
forces opponent to lean in for the speed-up or speed-down.
It also forces you to only lob on viable shots. Basically if you don’t have enough time to wind-up, you shouldn’t lob the ball.
When to lob:
If opponent are over leaning in, lob.
If they are looking to Ernie, lob.
If they are recovering without their feet set, lob.
And partner is too far away to cover it, lob.
Depending on position, you can either lob over the partner who is in-position’s backhand (because their other partner can’t cover it).
Or lob over the out of position partner’s forehand
If they don’t have a great overhead, lob.
If they don’t have a great backhand overhand, lob over their backhand side.
Disguise your shot like a dink.
It’s a dink with a bigger follow through upwards.
Don’t open up the paddle too early otherwise they’ll see it coming.
Don’t use the lob emotionally like when it’s 9-9 and you want to bail out of a dink rally.
Instead use the lob strategically when you see the opportunity.
Get it Over Opponent’s Arm. Higher is more important than deeper.
The closer you are to the net, the closer the apex of arc will be to your opponent, which means you won’t need to lob it as high.
The further back you are, the easier for your opponent to hit it at the apex of the arc, because the apex of the arc will be further back and closer to you.
“I would definitely say focus a little less on the top spin to start and then as you get pretty consistent you can try to implement the top spin back. Even when you do, it shouldn’t be that much spin, mostly getting the ball up!” – Catherine Parenteau
Don’t lob it too high, just two feet higher than opponent’s reach.
This way it drops down faster and is harder for them to get to.
Situational awareness: Wind
If you are playing against the wind, you can use lob as your main strategy. Because it’s very easy to lob into the wind. You can lob high apex, and the wind will keep the ball in.
If you are playing with the wind, you probably shouldn’t lob because the wind takes it out the court or into opponent’s paddle early before it reaches the apex.
If opponent likes to reach into the kitchen and speed-up out of the air, they are easier to lob.
If opponent likes to play a step or two from the kitchen and play defensive, they will be tougher to lob.
Situational awareness: Opponent’s height, weight, and speed.
Some people say to not do it off the bounce. Yes it’s better to do it out of the air (less time and space for opponent to react), but you can do it off the bounce. Pros do it off the bounce all the time.
Drill Progression
Solo Drills:
Bounce the ball on your paddle.
keep the ball on your paddle, but instead of regular height, lob it 10 feet in the air. And then keep your feet on the ground in the same place. If you move your feet in order to get the paddle underneath the ball, you lose. This is to develop your touch and feel for the ball.
Goal: Do it until you are able to get to 20 in a roll. And then move to next drill.
Always come back to this drill and try to see if you can get to 100+ in a roll. This drill teaches you to hit your paddle sweet spot on the lob and gives you great touch. Because if you have bad touch, the lob will land away from you.
Lob on the court:
Bounce a ball to yourself, and the lob it down the line and crosscourt over invisible opponent’s backhand. Aim to land it on the baseline 9 out of 10 times.
Two Person Drill:
Like a dinking drill, except one person is allowed to lob. The other person dinks and practices their overhead smashes.
3 Person Drill
The player on the 1 side lobs, the two other player across the net overhead smashes and dinks.
At rec play, you are going to get a lot of bad advice mixed in with some good advice. The hardest part as a beginner is knowing which advice to follow. If you follow the bad advice, improving becomes a winding road full of u-turns instead of a straight path.
What hinders beginners is that they hear these bad advice over & over, and eventually it wears on them and they give in. Part of why people take so long to get from the rec level to the next level in any sport is due to lack of understanding of the game.
Understand the reasoning behind the bad advice and ignore it.
A lot of bad advices are like the “e before i except after u” rules of pickleball. The exception happens more often than the rule itself.
Other times, the advices are simply outdated, with new paddle technology, you hear pros say a lot that pickleball right now is nothing like the game being played 3 years ago.
#1 Respect The X
So “respect the X” says if someone speeds up or attacks from crosscourt diagonally, let the partner diagonally across them hit the ball.
What if they are hitting the ball diagonally, within reach of you, but out of reach your partner? If you respect the X, the ball flies down the middle and you lose.
The actual rule: if you can get a clean hit on the ball, hit it. If you can’t get a clean hit on it and your partner can, let your partner hit it. And err on the side of clashing paddles. It’s better to clash paddles than to let a ball go through the middle.
And if the ball is wide where the opponent can hit shot down the sideline, the partner closest to that side covers it, and the other partner shifts over and covers the middle.
Also learn to communicate in rec games. Say “you” or “me” as soon as the ball leaves opponent’s paddle. Not after it crosses the net. After it crosses the net, it’s too late. Remember, your partner needs enough time to react to what you say and also move in to cover it. Call it early. If you call “you” last minute and your partner didn’t have enough time to react and move and the ball flies past both of you, that’s on you.
#2 Move Up The Court Together
A common bad advice is that both player should be tethered and move up the court together when dropping.
See Understanding The Transition Zone to understand why the person who isn’t dropping the ball should move up and put pressure on the kitchen and cut off angles. You actually want to be untethered from your partner so you can crash on any pop ups.
#3 Just Get The Serve In
A common bad advice is the serve is “just to get the point started”.
The serve is a weapon. If you are serving, you are at a disadvantage because the opponent starts with one person already at the kitchen.
So take the risk on your serve.
The serve is also literally the thing you can practice the most on alone without a partner. And it’s the one thing you have control over that will give you an advantage on the serving side.
On a day without wind you should be able to hit the baseline basically every time. Practice a deep fast serve that hits a foot off the baseline every time. Pros aim to miss 1 out of every 10 serves deep. If you aren’t missing 1 out of every 10 serves, you are leaving money on the table.
If you are a 3.5 level player or below, you’ll notice that your team gets to the kitchen line probably less than 30% of the time.
So if you are a rec player ~3.5 level or below, you should probably aim to miss 2 out of every 10 serves deep.
At the lower level, where you haven’t mastered the drop and resets. Which means you have even more incentive to serve bigger and take bigger risks.
A weak return increases your % of getting to the kitchen by a lot, especially if they are late running to the kitchen after returning.
#4 Mid Court Is No Man’s Land
This isn’t tennis, you need to get comfortable playing in mid court.
Against any decent 3.5+ team, you won’t be able to get to the kitchen in 1 drop.
If you never advance up and take some space in no man’s land, you will lose even if you have the best drops. Go into no man’s land, and take away their angles. Most common mistake 3.5 make is they just learned to drop and that’s all they do. They stay back and drop all day. Because they are taught “dropping is how you get to the kitchen”, they think if they drop a good enough one, they’ll get to the kitchen off the one good one. With modern paddles with grit can flick up on the ball even if it dips below the net, the kitchen opponents can keep you back even off a good drop. You need to learn to reset as well to get to the kitchen.
#5 Don’t Attack In Transition
Back in the day, you couldn’t really attack in transition against balls around net height because the paddles were smooth and made of plastic or wood. Even balls above net height, if you hit it from mid court, it will slip off your paddle and go into the net. Now with grit, you can apply topspin so even balls that are little bit below net height, you can attack and make it dip as it crosses the net.
#8 Don’t speed up crosscourt
Don’t pop a ball high and soft when speeding up crosscourt, because it’ll get countered down on your partner hard.
But if you see an opening down the middle or at the opponent’s body… and you can reach in their a speed a ball fast out the air right at them, do it.
If you can keep the ball low and fast do it.
If you watch pro play, you will see a lot of cross court speed ups out-of-the-air.
#9 Don’t Drive, Always Drop
Three years ago before gritty carbon fiber paddles came out, you really couldn’t drive unless the ball was super high. There was no grit and the ball would just slide right off or fly off the court. Now you can drive, and the topspin will keep it dipping low over the net. The key for driving is don’t drive for a winner. Aim to drive so it dips at their feet. If they are hitting down on your drive, that’s a bad drive. Make them hit up.
Feel free to drive the 3rd, then drop the 5th. Or if the pop the ball up high enough, drive the 5th, drop the 7th.
#10 Don’t Drop Volley
The common advice is: don’t drop volley a low ball into the kitchen.
If you see your opponents are on their back foot and off the court, a drop volley in the kitchen will likely be a winner.
In fact, it’s more likely for a winner than if you hit an overhead smash back at them.
This isn’t tennis, an overhead smash right back at them at the baseline isn’t too hard to get back because the pickleball speed dies as soon as it bounces. And if they are at the baseline, you have to hit the ball in the court and bounce it in front of them.
Just make sure you make the drop shot volley good and it bounces inside the kitchen. If it’s high and long, that’s just a free ride for them to the kitchen.
article also goes into footwork and positioning as well
Badminton pro explains:
Relax arm, don’t tense your arm. His arm is really really relaxed.
Also short quick flick rather than a huge long slow follow through.
He actually has his thumb on side of bevel like backhand grip, rather than all the way on the paddle face side of the bevel. This is so it has more flexibility and looseness rather than rigidity.
My note:
disadvantages: side of the bevel grip is that sacrifices some power when hitting ball parallel, but when hitting overheads, it’s same power if not more power.
Can reduce this by bending lower at the kitchen to make more things an overhead instead of hitting parallel to net/body.
advantages: you can switch to forehand/backhand just by having your thumb turn the bevel a little to the right or left. This is probably the only grip that covers everything without seriously changing grips.
makes it great for speed ups at the kitchen where you don’t need as much power because it’s not a putaway, but need to get back faster for the 2nd shot.
Footwork
For backhand overheads, Hendry talks about how using the wrist is more sideways like turning open a jar, NOT revving a motorcycle throttle.
Priority Checklist
Must-have
Switch to some sort of grip that closes the backhand downwards.
BTW: “keep arm loose” applies to serves as well. Pickleball serves are basically softball underhand pitches.
Technique: How To Overhead Smash
Strategy: Angles and Accuracy
Use Your Off Hand
for more power use your offhand
Footwork: Turn To The Side First
Turn your hip sideways first. And then move.
Common mistake here: people get to the ball, and then turn sideways right before they hit. It’s too much to do in too little time thus they miss.
Amrik Donkena Teaches The Overhead
Hips turn
Key is the hips, that’s where you get most of your muscle. Body muscle to put all your weight into it. Like pitching a baseball.
Common mistake non-tennis/non-baseball players make: They use mostly their wrist instead of their body weight.
As you turn your hips quick, almost like dancing. Your arm and body will be pulled and follow fast with it. Explode with the hips.
If you have bad hips and mobility issues though, don’t explode too quickly though, just rotate. Don’t want to risk injury especially on a motion you haven’t done before.
Do some core/back/hip weight training with medicine ball to slowly work your way up.
Arm and grip loose as possible. Grip strength at a 2 out of 10. And you just use your hip
Drop back shoulder
Racket back behind your head, in trophy stance
Pointer hand pointing at ball and keeping the hand up. (Equally as important as the other hand).
Common mistake here: people drop their hand down. The longer you keep your hand up, the more likely you hit the sweet spot of the paddle.
Hit the ball between your head and right (dominant) shoulder.
If you hit the ball too much to your left or right, you won’t be able to hit it as hard.
Pronation: In follow through, you wrist should point outwards out of your body/downwards, instead of forwards. Arm fully extended and elbow straight out.
It feels awkward if you haven’t done it before.
If you are going full power, your weight is going to finish all on your front leg. If you want to finish
Mindset
A lot of people are like “oh this is an easy shot, I don’t want to miss this” and they don’t hit or angle it hard enough.
A common beginner mistake is they are too passive when they need to be aggressive and too aggressive when they need to be passive.
For overheads, don’t be too passive when you need to be aggressive. If you are too passive, they’ll easily be able to get back into the kitchen and you loose your advantageous state. It’s okay to miss some overheads .
Priority Checklist
Must-have
Turn sideways into Trophy Stance
Non-paddle hand up pointing the ball so you can catch the ball if you wanted to.
Push off front foot and shuffle to location.
Keep moving and adjusting foot to get in right position, don’t stop.
Follow through finish all the way down instead of stopping mid stroke at shoulder height
If you hit the ball into net
you are likely dropping your head or dropping your left hand prematurely after smashing.
If you hit the ball long:
you are likely not snapping your wrist and bringing your arm down.
Advanced
Add side spin or underspin to the shot
How to angle:
Strategy
Aim for sides of the court first first if lob is low enough that you can see the court and the ball in your vision.
If the lob is too good and too far behind, and you can’t get a good hit on it, aim for middle to be safe. If lob is not good, aim for the side in the kitchen like JW and Ben Johns does. Doesn’t need to be super hard, more angled and slower is much better.
Key Concept: If you aren’t doing something, do something.
Don’t just stand there waiting for things to happen to you. This is a concept in most all sports and video games. In basketball, it’s called moving without the ball, and you might have heard that’s what makes Stephen Curry so hard to guard.
By detaching and “cheating” to the kitchen (walking up early to mid court) as the off-ball player, you save yourself less running and can walk up and get to the kitchen where the ball will land without having to run in.
When you run in, and stop, there is momentum in your body that you have to wait for to stop to. If you are already close, there is a lot less momentum because you just need to walk up, thus you are a lot more ready for a hands battle if they do decide to speed it up or attack a high drop.
Because you already up close to the kitchen, your opponent can’t really reach in far to roll it or let the ball bounce and speed up with paddle facing up because that’s an easy counter for you.
It would be like if you are at the kitchen and they step back to speed up or roll it up upwards to you, you would be able to kill it. Even if the drop a little high over the net and your opponent can hit it flat forward if they really reach in, it’s still not good for them because you can counter it back and catch them leaning in.
Only if it’s high enough that they can hit it hard downwards at you will you be at a disadvantage. So that means you just gave your partner who is dropping, a ton more margin for error. They no longer have to hit the perfect drop an inch above the net in order to come in. Any decent drop allows them to come in.
And if it’s a little high you can just step back a few steps and reset. Trust in your hands for reset and hand speed at the kitchen.
Quick Q&A:
Q: “What about rec play? where you don’t know if your partner will drop good or not?”
A: That’s a bad argument because you are giving your partner even less margin of error and less confidence by staying back waiting for the perfect drop. Now they have to hit the perfect low drop in order for you both to get in. And you wonder why they hit into the net? Because if they do one slightly high, it’ll get rolled back at them by the opponent.
Also if you are playing at rec, playing with people not as good, that’s when it’s perfect time to practice your mid court resets if your partner pops the ball up too high on their drop.
Q: “When I play they never hit it to me, only to my partner”.
A: Then why would you stay back, if you stay back they’ll keep hitting it to your partner who can’t drop it in. Stay forward so they hit it at you and you can reset it to the kitchen. If they aren’t hitting to your area, use your “forcefield” to cut off more angles and make it harder for them to hit it to your partner. It makes it a lot easier for your partner to come in.
If you are the better player, you would want the opponent to hit the ball at you right? Then stay up so they attack you and you can reset it. Or if they don’t attack you, because you are upfront, you can cover more angles and poach it.
Game theory: if the ball is too high, you are losing position anyway and would’ve likely lost either way whether you “cheated” and was up at the kitchen. But by “cheating”, you turn all the conditions where ball is a little high that they can still flick upwards into favorable conditions with advantage towards you. Instead of still being at severe disadvantage for those situations.
By “NOT cheating” you are basically ruining the chance on points where you should have a high chance of winning in order to increase your chance by a tiny bit on points that you have basically lost. And you are doing this on third shots where you are already at a disadvantage and want to take more risk (same logic behind bigger serves).
And if it’s just a little high over the net, there are only so many angles they can hit hard to because they have to reach in. They basically can only hit the ball fast straight forward (+ or – a few degrees). Every other angle, there is not enough force. So you would be right there at the kitchen, cutting off even more angles.
And if it’s way too high, people still prefer to hit it at the open space instead of to you because you at mid court. Because even if they hit slightly downward to you, you can still have a chance to get a paddle on it via prediction and deflect right into them. So you being at the mid court cuts off so much space and so many angles that it makes it easy for your partner to be able to reach the smashed ball and reset it back. VS you both at the back and have to cover all the angles
IF you hit a decent drop and your opponent is hitting up on the ball (flick, roll) from the kitchen. And your partner is not right there at the kitchen putting pressure. You should be pissed at your partner. That’s your partner’s fault. They just fucked up and ruined a perfect drop.
And vice versa. IF your partner hits a decent drop and your opponent is hitting up. BUT you are not at the kitchen yet. That’s your fault!
Remember: It doesn’t matter how good a drop is if you never move in. If you never move in, it turns a good drop into a bad drop. You will be hitting drops forever if you just stay back.
This is why pros basically detach and “cheat” almost 100% of the time
Great game where Parenteau does high arc top spin drop, Jack Sock cheats forward and then running shuffles for a poach winner. He does it over and over again. And Ben can’t roll the third shot low enough to prevent him from doing it:
Straddling the Kitchen Line
If your partner does a good third shot, get to the kitchen and Straddle the kitchen line in front of the ball with your foot spread greater than shoulder width apart.
(Really even if your partner hits a bad drop, you should do sread foot wide to maximize reset coverage because it helps you get low).
This is to cut off as many angles as possible so your partner only needs to cover the wide dink after dropping in. If your partner has to cover middle, and far side line, it makes it a lot harder for him to come up.
So it’s very much worth the risk to leave a gap open to your line, rather than leaving the middle gap open.
If you leave middle gap open, they can just speed it across for easy winner. ESP if your partner drops to the person directly in front of him instead of the middle or person in front of you.
If your partner drops crosscourt to the line in front of you, cover the line and also as much of middle as possible.
Of course it’s best if partner drops middle BUT sometimes other team is just really good at hitting forehand in the middle so it’s better for him to drop crosscourt and have you cover line and a smaller middle.
If your partner drops middle, you can risk it and cover a lot more middle. Because if they hit out to the gap you made between you and your line, they can only dink wide. Anything else will likely go out. So how far should you gamble covering middle? Basically if it’s 50/50 odds or greater that if they hit it wide, it goes out, you should do it. You should keep shifting middle until it becomes less than 50/50 odds for you.
Why 50/50? If you partner is back dropping, that means your team is at a disadvantage (lower than 50/50 state) so any thing that will get you to 50/50 is increasing your chance of winning and is worth it in the long run.
This applies for when your partner is doing a 2nd shot return and you are at the kitchen. Although you will gamble less across the kitchen line because you are typically at an advantage. UNLESS: your partner’s return was short. Now essentially the situation is reversed and your partner has to do the “3rd shot drop” on the 4th shot. So then you would immediately do the kitchen straddle just like in a 3rd shot situation. This will help them come up to the net.
Off-Ball Movement – When Your Partner is Hitting the 2nd Shot Return
You see pros do this thing they stand to the side or even off the court when their partner is returning. Even when they aren’t switching.
Advantages:
It gives their partner more depth vision to see the baseline of the crosscourt.
Like playing with one eye covered vs both open.
If you want to return to the server (let’s say server is a strong poacher but not good at third shot drops, you can keep the back by returning deep to them). Easier for your partner to aim at the server’s baseline if they want to keep the server back by making the server hit the 3rd.
Creates an illusion of an opening. Makes it harder for opponent to judge how big the opening is compared to if you just start already straddling the middle at the start.
If you ever see magic tricks, you know the human brain is really bad at keeping track of where everything and everyone is. By being on the move rather than standing still, that’s one more thing the opponent has to keep track of.
Selling the fake jab step to the middle
It also helps you sell it better because you are walking/running in towards the middle. So the opponent’s brain would continue the path. But because you started at the sidelines, it just looks like you took many steps and would continue to do so.
So you can double back, cover line and they attack you at the kitchen when they should be driving to returner coming to the kitchen. Esp on a shorter return.
Disadvantages:
The trade off to this is that of course you have to move your feet slightly more instead of resting.
Some people get too timid and only block or reset on high balls.
If there are high balls above the net you should attack 99% of the time.
A common pattern is one guy drives to kitchen and 2nd player crashes and counters the ball down. It’s called “Shake & Bake”.
Attacking even balls at net height at hip level aka yellow zone.
You need to attack balls in the yellow zone to make it clear to the opponents that it is a threat. Otherwise they will just keep fully leaning in and attacking you because they know you’ll always reset in midcourt.
If you always reset in transition you become a safe spot where they can always hit to with no repercussions.
Pattern: Opponent at the kitchen is really leaning far in to flick or smack the ball.
Strategy: even if you are at midcourt, blast it right at that leaning person’s body. He won’t be able to defend it or get out of the way because he is so leaned in. He either gets body bagged or pops it up. Get ready for him to pop it up and for you to poach it.
What percentage you attack or reset at the yellow zone depends on you, but it should never be 100% either way.
When attacking aim at the opponent right across from you unless there is a specific gap you see.
Aim downwards at their feet if ball is high enough. Otherwise aim at their shoulder jam spot.
Transition Zone Attacks: The 3 Types (These apply to Counters at the Kitchen as well)
Hitting balls higher than net height
This one is self explanatory: You can easily make the trajectory go downwards at opponent. The higher the ball, the less topspin you need to apply and more the shot becomes a putaway. The lower the ball, the more your stroke becomes like a drive hitting the ball out-of-the-air.
Hitting the Ball at slightly below net height
You can drive the ball out of the air (or off the bounce) and make it dip below the net.
Quang Duong will attack (he’s 5’ 11”) balls at around his thigh height level if he is far enough back. Even on 5th shots and then drop the 7th. Of course if the ball is low (below knee height), he will just topspin drop it in.
The game is still to be won at the kitchen line. Mindset: you are hoping opponent messes up and pops the ball up off your topspin drop or low dipping drive, so you can shake & bake. But you are expecting them to hit it short, so you can just 7th shot dink/drop it in the kitchen. The purpose of the driving in transition is to still get to the kitchen line by default.
Advanced counter: for when they are hitting the ball straight at you as you are closing in on the kitchen line: you take pace off the ball, apply topspin, and send the ball back so it dips down when it gets to opponent. Make them hit the ball at below their hips. It’s like a cross between a reset and a counter.
This is the advanced counter and is rarely talked about. It’s new tech. This is the one I instinctively used literally 1st month of playing pickleball. I didn’t even know it was advanced tech, it’s just what I do because it makes sense. Instead of having to reset, you just taking pace off the ball, apply topspin and get it back so now opponent has to hit up on it. They pop it up, you put it away. For me it was easier to do than a reset. I think table tennis players will under stand this more naturally.
Only time I’ve heard it talk about is one-time on Tyson McGuffin’s breakdown, he points out that Jaume was doing it.
Traditional Hard Counter
You hit it back at opponent hard and fast. Right at their jam spot. Or towards the middle if there is an opening gap.
It doesn’t matter if the ball goes up a little high, if they can’t get their hand up fast enough to get their paddle face downwards, the ball will pop up or fly at you parallel.
the ball coming back from them is going to be easy for you to putaway. Or they will hit too hard on the ball with paddle surface pointing up and launch the ball out.
If they move fast enough cover it with their paddle and just block it (because they didn’t have enough time to hit downward), the ball will come back but be just slow enough (still fast though) that you can reset it back to neutral.
If it’s below knee height: Reset it.
If it’s below knee height you should always reset it. Can’t attack a ball that low without sending the ball flying off the court.
Drill Progression
Self
self-toss a ball to yourself mid court. And attack the ball in the air downwards.
Robot/someone tossing you the ball:
Do it with someone tossing you the ball.
Do it with you facing outside the court, so you are turned 90 degrees. Forces you to react faster to balls you don’t expect coming.
Do it with you turned 180 degree.
This is because often times you don’t have the luxury of facing completely forward the entire time, sometimes the ball pops up surprisingly and you need to get your body/hip together quick to react and hit it.
Partner
Do a 7-11 but for high balls, you can putaway crosscourt instead of being limited to right in front of you.
Also have your partner purposely do about 5 random high balls throughout the round. So you don’t expect it.
Offense In Transition Zone
Drill to get more comfortable attacking any ball and running through the transition zone.
You drop or drive like usual on 3rd shot. And then on 5th shot where you are in mid court, you are not resetting the ball. You are ripping the ball and following it in to initiate a hands battle. https://youtu.be/08gIKfzLMoo?t=337
This is great against nervous opponents or opponents who just aren’t used to “go-go-go”.
It’s also great if you think your opponents are better than you or you are intimidated by them, because this will get you more 50-50 or 30-70 points that could go either way. As opposed to if they are just beating you out at the kitchen 9 out of 10 times. It adds randomness.
Resets Into Offense
You will start and stay in the mid court hitting resets. Your partner will be at kitchen hitting towards you. At any point if they hit the ball too high, you can attack. And then you play out the point.
Resets Into Offense 2: Charge the Net After 3 Resets
After 3 resets, you can charge the net and play out the point from the kitchen.
Got a hard poppy paddle? Don’t reset with paddle pointing up because it’s not going to drop in, your paddle is way too poppy.
Instead aim make the reset low going fast over the middle of the net. If it’s low and fast, it basically acts like a drive and you can shake and bake off of it.
A reset drive is like a return
Little backswing
You are just pushing the ball and using the incoming momentum to hit it back. Like a return.
You aren’t trying for a winner.
Hit it towards middle of net
More margin for error and less angles for opponent.
“A lot of people are mortally afraid of the mid court. One of the ways to make your thirds better is to be better in transition. Because you know if you hit with [higher margin over the net] I’m gonna be just fine cause I know how to half volley in transition.” – Colin Johns https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7FIcmePvRa
How To Defend A Pop Up.
It’s actually simple. Think of it like a see-saw. If your opponent’s paddles goes up, your paddle goes down to match it. And get low. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6HdnT8ADuV
Mindset When Reseting: Relaxed Boredom
“When Colin Johns resets mid court, he almost looks like he is bored.” – 4.0 to Pro Michael O’Neal
Like when I am at the kitchen line blocking, I’m relaxed and almost bored. Its just high confidence that you can get the paddle on it and reset it soft into the kitchen. That’s the type of ease and relaxation you need to be in.
“The mindset is super important when reseting the ball. The right mindset is almost nonchalant. It should be almost casual. Hey bring your best shot at me, it’s not going to bother me”. – Colin Johns https://youtu.be/lYZjkSkI2g8?t=1044
“It’s just a plastic ball. Why are you panicking… relax… realize you have a lot more time than you think”.
“Most people are the opposite of that, they are panicking, they are like ‘I don’t have any time, I don’t know what I am going to do with this ball, let me just take a stab at it’ and nothing good ever happens from that [mindset]”.
“Stay composed, make the ball. It’s all just mental when you are in the transition zone. Mentally calming yourself. Don’t think “oh shoot I’m screwed.” Just stay composed.” – Tanner: https://youtu.be/V7uKoRDkA38?t=803
My note: the ball can’t be too fast anyway because then it’ll go out of bounds”
“In pickleball, there are two things that are the most important. And neither one of them relate to physical skills. Those two things are: court positioning and shot selection. In Pickleball, if you do those two things really well, your physical skills will naturally just be better by virtue of being in the right place at the right time. Really think about it the next time you are playing: ‘am I in the right position on the court and am I choosing the right shot?’. Focus on those two things because in pickleball, the benefits of doing those two things are really really exaggerated” – Colin Johns.
“Get comfortable in the middle of the court. You very rarely will hit a third shot drop that will get you all the way to the line. Think of drops as a 1-2 punch. You do a third shot drop, and then reset the 5th ball and get to the line” – Tanner.
Relax to tense is faster and easier than going from tense to relaxed. Try it and see for yourself. So Stay relaxed as default in all of pickleball. – PickleScribble
Priority Checklist
Must-Do
Mindset: relaxed boredom
Staying so low that the head of your paddle touches the ground.
if it doesn’t touch the ground you aren’t low enough.
Even better, get so low that the side of the edgeguard of your paddle touches the ground.
Dig the ball up like a volley ball player would
this is why you need to get low, because if you aren’t low enough, your paddle won’t be facing upwards. If the ball sails into the net or into the ground, you know you aren’t getting low enough and your paddle is facing parallel or downwards.
Use your legs, NOT your back to be low.
Use your legs to lower your body/paddle to the floor. Don’t be leaning down with your back. That’s bad for lifting weights and bad for lifting the ball. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG8mQAOkjQc
Grip pressure: really light. 2 out of 5.
So it can absorb the power. The faster the ball, the softer the hands.
Absorb the power, catch the ball.
Catch the ball, ie: pull back a tiny bit before the ball lands. Like a catcher catching a baseball.
Look at and predict where the ball is going to go as soon as it hits the paddle.
Split step: not just stop, but also be on balls of your feet and lean forward.
Be still when you are hitting. It’s red-light green-light, don’t be caught backpedaling while the ball leaves the paddle and comes at you.
If ball is above your shoulders at decent pace where you can hit it back hard, dodge, it’s going out.
Don’t block shots that are going out.
Mirror their paddle in reverse
If their paddle goes up, your paddle goes down. How far your paddle goes down depends on how high their paddle goes up.
High Priority
Two-hand on paddle increases paddle stability thus increases sweet spot.
Also forces you to bend knee lower and go wider foot.
Position like a volley ball player with arm and hand down.
Put the paddle closer to your body
(ball slows down more as there is more distance).
Do a lifting motion up instead of flicking your wrist
this is where advantage of two-hand also comes in to play, it minimizes wrist flick and emphasizes a more lifting motion
Stand-up to lift.
You can also apply underspin by pulling the a paddle little down.
It also gives you a little arc. Arc is actually a good thing here because it gives you more margin for error. Colin Johns does this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rt8R5_XGfo
Toss the ball up high in the air, and try to catch it without bouncing with your paddle. This will train your touch.
Ball-Machine
Colin Johns had a ball machine where he was working at. And he would set up the machine in the down time and have it simulate topspin rolls, high paced shots going at his feet, etc. And then he would place targets on the floor where he needs to reset to. source: https://youtu.be/lYZjkSkI2g8?t=700
Mindset here:
“if you practice enough, you’ll recognize what works for you. And cultivating that by practicing it in a very specific way.
It doesn’t come naturally to everyone. It’s sort of an unnatural shot where you have a lot of pace coming at you and limiting your backswing. When the most natural thing to do [as tennis players] is to swing hard back.”
“It’s not a static process, it’s not go out for 10 hours a day and for a month and you’ll get better. It’s more of ‘what am I doing right, what am I doing wrong’ and adjusting based off of that.”
“Really not having a static mindset and expecting the hours will make you better. Instead figuring out how can I make this work. And one thing leads to another and that’s what I can attribute to my mid court game coming along to where it’s at right now”.
Max absorption drill:
catch the ball so that the ball just dies on your paddle and then rolls off instead of bouncing off. That’ll teach you and give you an idea of how much you can reset and that you can reset any balls that come at you. The ultimate “touch” training.
Playing with a random partner who is not good at third shots and keeps popping the ball up? That’s the perfect time to practice resets. Go up a little more to the front and use the opportunity for whenever your partner pops the ball up to reset it into the kitchen.
