We always become deer in headlights when the opponent hits a drive down middle or alley after wondering who should've taken the ball. The last portion of this video regarding positioning is fantastic advice that I'll try to start implementing. Thanks!

The main reason I’m not improving at pickleball is that I’m 78, going on 79. Just fighting hard to keep some semblance of as game as my body decays.

Just an fyi to not "flinching", people flinch. The main key is to be in a ready position, shoulders over toes, knees slightly bent, and your paddle edge advice(which should proabbly have included shoulder turn with angle of ball advice. That way, when you flinch, you are actually in a neutral position.

I find that I’m pretty good at the half volley because I played baseball. I just take them like short hops from second base.

I am a guy who prefers the drop serve. I place cones about 1 foot in from each corner and aim at them in practise. In priority, firstly, clear the net, secondly, get the serve deep and thirdly aim at a point being  the left corner or the centre or the right corner. I come from table tennis so I aim at certain spots.

Simple video yet relevant.  Best PB video I’ve watched

missed that offer.. Lets get another..just started following.. great vid.

Great breakdown and demonstrations.

I had to work very hard to master arriving at the right distance from the ball when defending lobs in order to take that big swing from behind the baseline to tee off on a high bounce with a side-arm smash. One time my side arm smash painted the far baseline. Opponents went boggle-eyed over the aggression I applied in lob defense: giant, roundhouse backswing with the paddle face angled for heavy topspin, applied to lob bouncing above the net cord, which is a higher strike position than any player of normal height can achieve in their service motion.

I've never entirely understood why more people don't destroy balls that bounce above the net cord at or behind the baseline.

The only difficult technical requirement is arriving with your feet far enough away from the ball to make ample room for the giant haymaker. You're in a losing position, so your percentages don't have to be lights out. If you ace one attempt in three, you're pretty much covering the ante already, even if the other two mostly just shiver the timbers of the net tape. You get more back on the lobs that sail long, and the lobs that get smashed back down on the way up, and that usually adds up to the lob not being a fantastic free lunch for the other side.

Against weaker opponents, I can field a deep ball from on high with a half-volley drop shot, and get back to the kitchen more than half of the time, where my side wins more than half of the kitchen battles (say 0.6*0.6=0.36), though it's a bit weird trying to get a perfect half-volley off a moon ball, or trying to do a normal drop shot off a ball that bounces up to your belt buckle.

Against equal or stronger opponents, my odds of 1) making it back to the kitchen using drops multiplied by 2) winning the kitchen rally are surely not better than 1/3 from this predicament. At my level, even stronger opponents find this roundhouse side-arm drive off a high bounce to be weird and hard to read, so an ace rate of 1/3 seems achievable, if the ball is clocked with authority into an open lane.

The main lingering question in my mind is whether this situation comes up often enough to justify the practice required to keep this club in good tune. In my case, I play often enough in open rec defending lobs for partners with weak mobility, who also don't properly coordinate on lob defense, to get enough free reps to keep any rust from forming.

Good tips!

Very well explained!!

Loving your content and delivery - all the way from London England 🇬🇧

Nailed me to a tee! Always speeding up.
I have a hard time returning the counterattack at the kitchen. I’ll work on not flinching. I’ve noticed that good players are not tense in the volley.
Good instructive video! Thx!

Great points and tips. Thanks

Nice paddle the Duo. Fun to use.

Phenomenal video chaps

regarding serves: max 2 errors
unforced errors: max 4
the serve is easy to fix but unforced errors are not. the solution is to practice your forehand and backhand on these three: dinking, topspins, and drops. do 100 without mistake for each no mistake and then do it again, and again, and again... that's how i was trained in table tennis and i'm pretty sure pickleball is no different. just like they say: practice makes perfect for those serious about competition.

Excellent points! Thanks.

Is the backhand serve OK?

Love the channel. Really good stuff on positioning.