In the game of pickleball and in all other racquet/paddle sports unforced errors are the bane of a player's existence. Unforced errors occur when one player without the direct intervention of an opponent makes a bad shot, hence unforced.
We have skills exercises to build up the ability to play any type of shot that is used in pickleball, but prevention of unforced errors is a correlative and all encompassing skill that we don't typically practice for.
Unforced errors fall into two categories. There are the unforced errors that end a rally on their own, such as a missed serve, or return of serve, or other shot, that is mishit and goes into the net or out of the court. These are easy to spot.
What can sometimes be more difficult to pick out are shots that are precipitating, and invite the opposition to put away the next shot to win a point or to cause the error prone to lose a serve. During a dinking rally, for example, when one person puts a ball a little too high or a little too deep, the opposition has an opportunity to win the rally with a hard shot down the middle.
A harder unforced error to get a handle on occurs when one player coughs up a ball that gives the opposition a chance, but good fortune or sheer luck permits the team making the unforced error to stay in the rally for a while longer, though probably on the defensive. The shot that ends the rally might not itself be off an unforced error, but might be able to be traced back to the original shot that got the ball rolling badly, as it were.
Recently, Peter Singleton, who manufactures the Singleton Pickleball Paddles, which many players are now using due to their durability and quality, was practicing with me and a couple of others recently. He suggested a drill for detecting unforced errors, and which allowed us to see them as they occurred and gave us ideas on how to rectify them.
The drill is actually a game played by 4 players as in normal doubles. In the game, each player serves one time in rotation clockwise. So, after 4 rallies each player has served one time, and the rotation continues for the game.
After the serve, the rally is played as a normal point rally. If an unforced error occurs prior to the completion of the rally, and which causes the team making the unforced error to lose the rally, then the opposition team gets one point, regardless of who served to begin the rally.
So, you can only win a point on an opponent's unforced error. If a rally just ends with good play resulting from ball placement or skill, there is no point awarded. There must be a discernible unforced error.
The game is played to 11 as usual, win by two.
When we played this game, we found that we became more aware of what were unforced errors, and were quick to acknowledge our own errors. The idea is to do a drill, not fight for, or over, points. It is also to try and learn from having made unforced errors to remove them from our repertoire.
The 4 of us played several games this way, and saw to an extent that we became a little more conservative in our playing during this drill. So, we became more prudently aggressive, and looked to reduce low percentage shots.
After we had played several games this way, we concluded our training session with a series of games among the 4 of us. During those games, some of the prudent aggression of the earlier exercise had rubbed off, and our games were somewhat different than they had been previously.
Give it a try.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Serve Return of Serve Tips
It has been over 10 years since I last had to work to earn a living. I don't remember much about my job, and certainly don't miss it. It comes to mind periodically in the middle of the night when during a nightmare I am trying to get to work but can't remember where to go, or who to report to. I have something really important to do but cannot remember what. That, of course is strange since my last office was in my home. If I can't find that I am in dire straits.
But, there is one particular bit of wisdom I remember from my work life. Xerox, the company that commercialized the photocopy business had a very strong sales force, so strong that they also commercialized sales training. So, as much of my work was sales related I took their sales course once upon a time.
So, the sum of all the wisdom I gathered in 40 years of working, and remember, was that "Nothing happens until somebody sells something" from the Xerox sales training course.
Every other department in a company believes that they are driving the bus, though in reality somehow the accountants got to be in official charge, which has driven out most of the creativity in commercial enterprise. But, no sales means no productions, means no accounting, means no jobs.
What has that got to do with pickleball?
Well nothing directly. But in pickleball nothing happens until one team gets a serve into play, and that is similar in concept.
What got me to thinking about the serve was a short video by Bob Youngren about serving. Bob is 70 years old, and is a Very accomplished medal winning 5.0 player and coach out of California and Surprise AZ.
Serves should always be put into play. Missing a serve is missing an opportunity to score a point. If less than 100% of your serves are put in play you need to re-evaluate your serving strategy.
I find that I very seldom miss a serve, but when I do I can always attribute it to cranial flatulence. I know what to do to put my serve in, but sometimes my brain goes numb. Bob Youngren says in the video to take 2 seconds to collect yourself when you are at the line serving, essentially to make sure that your brain and your body are in the same place and on the same planet.
Simple advice that should reduce your loss of serves significantly.
Of course, while we are at it, I have a simple tip for how to handle serves. The best players make every serve count, and usually just focus on putting the ball into play, but there are still many players that we know and love who try to beat us with their tricky serve.
Now, if they are like most who try to dazzle with their serve, they can beat you with one serve in 20 and will put at least 2 into the net or out of play. Personally, I will take those odds, but there is a way to reduce the odds of them beating you any time with their serve.
Typically, when a player is serving we pick the ball up shortly after it leaves their paddle. The problem with that is that it reduces the amount of time you have to prepare for your return.
If instead you focus and pick the ball up while it is still in the server's hand you have more time to respond to where it is going to go. If you are watching the ball before it is struck, then you can also see how the hitting hand moves, inside or outside or straight up, which gives you a jump on the ball.
Try both of these tips to reduce unforced errors on your own serve, and to reduce misses on opposition serves.
But, there is one particular bit of wisdom I remember from my work life. Xerox, the company that commercialized the photocopy business had a very strong sales force, so strong that they also commercialized sales training. So, as much of my work was sales related I took their sales course once upon a time.
So, the sum of all the wisdom I gathered in 40 years of working, and remember, was that "Nothing happens until somebody sells something" from the Xerox sales training course.
Every other department in a company believes that they are driving the bus, though in reality somehow the accountants got to be in official charge, which has driven out most of the creativity in commercial enterprise. But, no sales means no productions, means no accounting, means no jobs.
What has that got to do with pickleball?
Well nothing directly. But in pickleball nothing happens until one team gets a serve into play, and that is similar in concept.
What got me to thinking about the serve was a short video by Bob Youngren about serving. Bob is 70 years old, and is a Very accomplished medal winning 5.0 player and coach out of California and Surprise AZ.
Serves should always be put into play. Missing a serve is missing an opportunity to score a point. If less than 100% of your serves are put in play you need to re-evaluate your serving strategy.
I find that I very seldom miss a serve, but when I do I can always attribute it to cranial flatulence. I know what to do to put my serve in, but sometimes my brain goes numb. Bob Youngren says in the video to take 2 seconds to collect yourself when you are at the line serving, essentially to make sure that your brain and your body are in the same place and on the same planet.
Simple advice that should reduce your loss of serves significantly.
Of course, while we are at it, I have a simple tip for how to handle serves. The best players make every serve count, and usually just focus on putting the ball into play, but there are still many players that we know and love who try to beat us with their tricky serve.
Now, if they are like most who try to dazzle with their serve, they can beat you with one serve in 20 and will put at least 2 into the net or out of play. Personally, I will take those odds, but there is a way to reduce the odds of them beating you any time with their serve.
Typically, when a player is serving we pick the ball up shortly after it leaves their paddle. The problem with that is that it reduces the amount of time you have to prepare for your return.
If instead you focus and pick the ball up while it is still in the server's hand you have more time to respond to where it is going to go. If you are watching the ball before it is struck, then you can also see how the hitting hand moves, inside or outside or straight up, which gives you a jump on the ball.
Try both of these tips to reduce unforced errors on your own serve, and to reduce misses on opposition serves.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
The Ac"tions" of Improving at Pickleball
Improving your pickleball game is the fruit of 9
ac"tions". I have chosen 9 action words, which are words that
all have in common, the suffix "tion". "Tion" as a
suffix turns a verb into an action noun, and since pickleball is all about
action, I thought they were appropriate.
They are Appreciation, Aspiration,
Observation, Concentration, Imitation, Perspiration, Replication, Combination,
and finally Deviation.
All of you reading this, I hope, have come
to realize that Pickleball is a lot of fun. Since most of us are older,
though fighting a resistance to dotage, we have discovered that it is a way to
get some competitive juices flowing again, and get some great exercise, with
limited risk of serious injury, though men will be boys, so anything is
possible.
Those of us who started our sports careers
in another day and age may hanker for the good old days once again, a chance
for has beens and never weres to become more than legends in our own minds.
Most of us walked on to a pickleball court
one day, were handed a paddle, and started in to play. Instruction was usually
minimal, and may remain so to this day. So, we picked up that game on our
own with our friends, and gradually got better at it, picking up skills by
osmosis and repetition. It has been studied in tennis instruction that
just playing games will improve someone's play, but that the growth is erratic
and slow, compared to other methods for skill growth, particularly involving
drills and practice of skills.
So, let's see if the "tions" I
listed above can help to set a framework for improving our game of Pickleball.
Appreciation
Appreciation is the building block for growth. It is
actually composed of two parts.
The first thing to appreciate is you,
whether you care to improve your game, or are just having a great time playing
with your new and old friends. If you are happy with your play, with the
amount you play and its skill level, then read no further. You are
enjoying the game and it is meeting your needs, so why do anything more?
There is nothing wrong with stopping reading now, and going out and
playing a game.
But, some of you will appreciate that you
have this desire to play pickleball the best you possibly can at whatever is
your age and stage and that getting better is important to you, hopefully not
as important as your marriage, your faith, your other hobbies, but somewhat
important none the less.
You may not be a pickleball addict, but
you are at least a carrier. I run into more pickleball players
particularly at the tournaments I have watched or played in who say in passing
that pickleball is addictive.
But, let's look for a moment at the word
addiction. Addiction is the continued repetition of a behavior despite adverse
consequences, or a neurological impairment leading to such behaviors.
Now, to be perfectly honest, I have not personally noticed that playing
pickleball has adverse consequences, unless of course, you ignore your non
pickleball playing spouse, which can lead to expensive consequences, such as
the need to buy expensive mea culpa gifts, or the cost of a good divorce
lawyer.
But, where pickleball might be an
addiction is where there is some evidence that pickleball players might have a
neurological impairment, that results in them dreaming about pickleball,
talking about nothing but pickleball, carrying their pickleball gear with them
wherever they go, or writing articles about pickleball and skill building in
pickleball.
So, having dispensed with this nonsense
about pickleball as an addiction, let's those of us who have a great affinity
for the game move along to part 2 of appreciation of pickleball.
So then, part 2 of appreciation is
appreciating the game and its nuances. If the game to you is no bigger
than you and your partners and opponents on the court, then you have nothing
more to add. But, particularly if you have watched skilled players in
tournaments or on YouTube videos, then you have begun to appreciate that there
is much more to the game. You have begun to see that there are aspects to
the game that look like fun, but which are currently not in your repertoire,
and you have no idea how to use them if they were.
You now have some appreciation for the
game, and this will grow over time.
Most of these "tions" are like
the stages of grieving described in the book On Death and Dying by Elizabeth
Kubler Ross. As she described in her book, during the grieving of a loss,
we move in and out of the 5 stages of grieving, back and forth, to and fro,
until we hopefully come to a period of acceptance, and our period of grief is
over.
So too with the "tions" of
pickleball, starting with Appreciation. You have some appreciation today,
and as you move through the other stages below, you may revisit Appreciation
and view it quite differently than you do today.
Aspiration
Once you can appreciate that the game is bigger than a bread box,
then you can aspire to explore the game for yourself and to set some objectives
for how you would like to be able to play the game.
Frankly, I find it hard to watch somebody
like Mark "Yoda" Friedenberg and not want to get better. Here
is a man about my size, a couple of years older, and with due respect to Mark,
somewhat hunched over, who stays in the play, makes a good partner, and makes a
very challenging opponent. He also wins a lot of tournaments, and runs
great coaching clinics.
Among the best players in North America,
there seem to be 3 major sources of them, Washington State, Arizona and
Florida. That is where they tend to converge for major pickleball
tournaments, and Arizona and Florida as winter destinations seem to be places
where a lot of skill is built and then spread out around North America.
For those of us who are snowbirding
seniors, we see more of the seniors among the better pickleball players in the
tournaments where we keep warm for the winter. That allows us to set our
aspirations somewhere in the realm of possibility, as compared to watching some
of the younger, faster pickleball players, like Mark Nelson (The Puppet
Master), and the other 20 somethings, and even the 30 and 40 somethings, like
Steve Wong, Don Paschal, and Emilio Ruiz, with no disrespect meant for the many
fine women players around in all age groups, or the other fine male players
like the USAPA 2013 National Champions, Brian Staub and Phil Bagley from The
Villages in Florida.
If all you have seen are the local players
at your local club or park, it is hard to aspire beyond being the biggest fish
in the small pond you play in. To build some Aspiration within the game,
you must see better players play, or attempt to play against a better caliber
of player.
I have played at Rincon Country West RV
Park in Tucson for a couple of winters and then in London Ontario with the
London Pickleball Club for a couple of summers. But, it was when we
played in our first winter tournament in Arizona that my eyes were opened to
the game. It was then I decided that I want to up my game. It was
watching the 5.0 players play that gave me inspiration to have Aspirations.
Observation
You can appreciate pickleball and aspire to improve your game all
you want, but it takes more to get good at pickleball than those two, though
with both of them as a foundation, you are ready to take the next step to
advancing your skill set.
You may have watched better players play either in tournaments or
at your own courts, and you may have noticed that there are things that they do
that you don't, but have you really observed their play and observed your own
play. It is one thing to watch, quite another to really observe.
For the longest time, I would see what others were doing and being
somewhat of a visual person would try to do what they did, and had some, though
limited, success with that. I may have picked up on the physical movement
of the body required to hit a certain shot, but probably not on the situation
and the why of doing what was done.
You can watch how a former tennis player hits a baseline volley
shot with topspin on it, without knowing why he hit that particular shot and
why he placed it where he did. That is where observation comes in.
Observation is more than just seeing. It is looking for
nuance. Observation is very difficult if you do not know what you are
observing for, and you may well watch a video of a top tournament match and
pick up on some things today, based on your own knowledge, and see the same
video a year from now, and pick up on a whole new set of things that catch your
attention.
Concentration
To make your observation complete, you need to focus on what you
are observing. Concentration can be intense since you are looking at what you
are observing, but comparing it to your own play, how you would have played a
particular situation, how the paddle is being held and how the preparation for
the shot occurs.
Concentration on the play of others with your own play in the back
of your mind lets you vicariously put yourself into the play and figure out
things that are missing in your own skill set. Watching and breaking down
videos is particularly good for this, since you can see something one minute,
go back and look at it again looking for something different and pick up on
other nuances of play.
I don't usually like to watch a movie over again, even a good one,
but when I do, with what I know already, if I remember ever having seen the
movie before, I see things I missed the first time. It is the same with
good tournament videos of pickleball.
Imitation
It is said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery.” Though we would like to play
like better players, our purpose in imitating them is not to flatter them, but
to beat them, basically at their own game.
If your concentration has paid off, then you have seen things that
you want to imitate to improve your game.
I have watched a lot of games the last few years, and am
continually amazed how many players will repeat certain types of shots that are
marginally successful at best, and expect a good result each time. That is pretty much the definition of
insanity, repeating unsuccessful behaviors and expecting changes in results.
If a shot works for you 10% of the time, why on God’s little green
earth would you want to try it 10 times a game?
Actually, if a shot is only successful 10% of the time, why would you
ever use it again?
One particular friend of mine has a shot where he is approaching
the net, so his feet are not planted and he swings through the ball. 1 in 10 times he hits a shot that is
impossible to return just over the net.
7 of ten times his shots go into the net, or out of the court, and the
other 2 are returnable.
This friend is imitating himself, and for a good reason. When he hits that shot successfully, it is a
great shot, and his opponents, if they are smart, will compliment him on such a
masterful execution of skill. So, the
10% success puffs up, due to the positive reinforcement he gets, and it looks
like he is having a higher success rate, since nobody mentions the dumb shots
into the net, or off into never never land.
So, his opponents are totting up the points and if they are really
smart are setting him up for more of that shot.
So, we are imitating ourselves much of the time, to little or no
avail, and need instead to imitate those who we have come to appreciate and
aspire to emulate.
But, the problem of imitation is that without the following
actions, we are imitating a mirage, not the substance of what we have
seen. At this point without the rest of
the work of skill building, our imitation is a wisp of what we are hoping to
achieve.
The difficulty with the steps we have taken thus far is that they
are all enclosed in this quote from various writers, including Steven Covey,
which goes: “We see the world not as it is, but as we are – or, as we are
conditioned to see it.”
Up till now, we have done the mental gymnastics to improve our
game, but the game we are trying to improve is built somewhat on a lie, if we
are to believe Mr. Covey and I personally do, at least in this instance.
Up to this point, we are dealing with the perception of reality,
which is not the same, no matter how hard we try as reality itself. It is not until we actually do the real
physical work described in the following steps that the truth percolates up to
the surface and sets our inner pickleball star free.
Perspiration
There is no other way to improve your game but to practice,
practice and then practice some more.
Any other approach to pickleball improvement is based on delusion.
What you need is a commitment to work at improving your game, and
then you need a place to do it away from the gaze of others, and except for one
particular skill you need a willing partner or 3 to work with you.
The one skill you can work on by yourself is hand speed. That requires a ball, and a wall, and
you. You can practice serves on your own
with a bucket of balls, which is also useful, but limited in scope.
To improve the fundamental shots of pickleball, the serve, return
of serve, third shot drop, dinking, overheads and volleying requires at least
one other player to work with you. It
requires commitment to spending an hour or more regularly with your associates
going through the repetition of drills that are designed for improving these
skills. It also requires your partners
being willing to tell you about things in your stroke, footwork, grip or court
position that are working against you, so you can improve them as part of this
work.
It is here while you perspire that you reevaluate those things you
posited in the earlier stages and see how they match up to the reality of who
you are and how you play the game, and can learn to play the game.
There are a number of drills available on the Rincon Country West
Pickleball Club site under the Skills heading that
can be incorporated into any practice routines for building up your skills.
Replication
Working on the aspects of your pickleball game is about
replicating what is good and eliminating what is not.
You want the correct paddle grip, alignment with the net, stroke,
knee bend for any particular shot to become part of your muscle memory so that
when a shot comes to you, knowing what to do with it is second nature to
you. By replication you not only improve
the skill, but you cut down on how long it takes you to execute the shot, since
there is no conscious thought needed to prepare for the shot.
Imagine if a shot is so easy for you to execute that rather than
executing it alone, you are actually able to look at where you want to place
it, and make your shot a strategic shot.
You move from being a squirrel in traffic to being the traffic
cop, directing the traffic.
So, it is in the replication of the skill building exercises that
you refine things like your body position, or your hand placement on your
paddle as you practice, practice and practice some more how to execute the
particular shot you are working on at the moment.
When they are refined, you then continue to work on them regularly
so as not to lose that edge you are building.
Of course, there will be times when that great skill you learned
breaks down during competition as your opponents have an easy answer for
you. That leads you back to your drills
and refining your skill set once again to adjust to things you never imagined
before.
Combination
When you have grasped how to execute individual shots, it is time
to work them into combinations.
For example, when I first learned how to dink the ball properly,
and developed some skill at it, I would get into a rally and dink till I
died. But, my tournament partner John
Szabo was getting irritated with me for doing it, and he was right. Dinking is good, but knowing when, in a
dinking rally, to reach in a bit and hit a hard volley or when the ball is high
enough to smack it back is better.
The most common combination in pickleball is the serve, return of
serve, and third shot drop followed by net play. This particular combination needs lots of
practice, but working on the combination before you have the components down is
just a source of frustration.
Having written this particular paragraph above a few days ago, I
happened to have our first practice session with a small group of us this
morning. Though we had fun, we did not
actually see much improvement since for some reason we immediately went into
the above combination routine without first practicing the individual
components. I proved to my own
satisfaction that you must follow the building blocks in order, even if you jump
back and forth later to revisit one or another.
So, in practice it is good when working with an opposition team to
intend to work on particular combinations and to advise your opponents what you
are desirous of accomplishing, and enlisting their support, as well as giving
yours to them. Combination work is best
done with 4 players, though you can still do most of it with two.
In combination work, you see where ball placement and positioning
work into the equation of play, which further builds muscle memory as you learn
to play a step or two ahead.
Deviation
The final aspect of skill building is learning deviation. Many of us learned to return a serve deep and
receive a deep return of serve. Our
perception, or at least mine, back then, was that there were only two options
for me to play, drill the ball back at the opponents, or lob a shot over their
heads. That was all we knew when we were
learning to play the game.
But, once you have learned the third shot drop, it becomes a more
effective play because it allows you to get to the non volley line, and so
there is a tendency to go with it.
But, in deviation, you are looking for opportunities to put your
opponent on guard, to change things up.
Here you can use that hard back line volley shot that you put back into
your club bag, just to change things up a bit.
It should be used sparingly, because if it is expected, it is an easier
shot to put away for a skilled opponent than a good drop shot. But a little surprise now and then is not
only good for a marriage; it is good for your pickleball game.
If you bear the above in mind and either stick to what I have written
above or formulate your own method based on the above your game is likely to
improve greatly.
But, this is just a written overview of improving your game. There are many fine articles written by such
skilled instructors and players as Prem
Carnot, the Pickleball Guru. He has
a site with articles and help for specific skills and situations that is both
thought provoking and directly instructive.
Another site with lots of good ideas is AZPickleballFun.com which was
developed by Bob Halpin and his wife Loretta.
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