The Pickleball Student Of The Game Analysis Blog is for beginner-to-advanced players who want to reduce unforced errors, get to the next level, increase their appreciation for the game and connect with like minded individuals. NOTE: To access the series of web-based learning sessions, click on the "Assignment" label on the sidebar.
To join our online community, click the membership form tab below.
Folks this might be one of the most important lessons in pickleball you will ever receive.
In this video, I'm going to explain to you how to hit the ball so that it will go where you want it to go.
These techniques will help you keep the ball and play and place the ball where it causes your opponent's trouble.
What I have here is a paddle with a pointer that is perpendicular to the paddle face.
The pointer points to the approximate direction the ball will travel after making contact with a paddle.
Notice how even small movements and small paddle face angle changes create big changes in where the pointer is pointing.
Remember the pointer points to the direction the ball will travel after making contact with the paddle. (A ball at the end of a pointer: Article) (Quick Tips On Hitting The Ball To Far: Video)
01:24
So, these rather small changes in the paddle face angle can create huge changes in the direction that the ball will travel
Notice that if my swing path is rapidly curving to achieve a good shot I have to hit the ball at precisely at the exact moment that the pointer is pointing where I want the ball to go
The combination of a moving ball and a rapidly curving swing creates a very difficult situation for achieving success.
Essentially for success, you must have perfect timing so that you hit the ball at the exact instant that the pointer is pointing where you want the ball to go.
With such a swing style getting success shot after shot is impossible.
A problem most poor players have is poor paddle face angle control caused by a rapidly curving swing path.
About the worst swing style is that of using a flyswatter.
Such wrist action in a pickleball swing ensures failure.
15:42 Deakin/Macvinnie vs Witsken/Merchant58:06 Matt Goebel/Tyson McGuffin vs Wes Gabrielsen/Morgan Evans1:59:13 Aspen Kern/Joey Farias vs Daniel Moore/Brian Ashworth2:52:51 Matt Wright/Dave Weinbach vs Deakin/Macvinnie4:02:56 Matt Goebel/Tyson McGuffin vs Wes Gabrielsen/Morgan Evans4:57:38 Redding/Fleming vs Burr/Gates
Mike Owens asked Jack Olmsted to look at the above video and comment on what Mike could do to improve his game. Jack suggested that I take a look at it and make comments too. What follows is a very detailed analysis that I did as I watched Mike in the above video, which I originally did as comments on the video's YouTube page, so my comments below are addressed to Mike. Although my comments are specific to Mike's play in this game, I see all of the things I commented on below in the game play of pretty much everyone I watch play Pickleball...
When you watch your video again, it's a big help to use some YouTube playback shortcuts:
1. The space bar toggles between play and pause.
2. The left arrow key jumps back 5 seconds in the video each time it's pressed (and the right arrow key jumps forward 5 seconds).
3. The period/right-angle-bracket key (./>) advances a paused video 1 frame each time it's pressed.
4. The comma/left-angle-bracket key (,/<) backs up a paused video 1 frame each time it's pressed.
After watching the first point it's clear that you are very agile and
are fast getting to the ball, so I watched the whole video to see if I
could see something worth commenting on.
What stands out is that your weight transfer during your forehands
is inconsistent. Although you transferred your weight from your back
foot to your front foot (which is the best way to do it) on every one of
your 16 serves (which are forehands), only about 50% of the rest of
your forehands had that weight transfer (great examples of good weight transfer are at 0:27 and 0:46) and during about 50% of them you instead transferred your weight from your front foot to your back foot (at 1:02, 1:05, 1:20, 2:35, 3:08, 3:45, 3:56, 6:43, 7:44, 7:46, and 8:36).
This second best way is OK if it's the only way you can get the ball
back, but it's a much weaker shot, so you should avoid it if you can.
It's a weaker shot because stepping from the front foot to the back foot
means you are moving away from the net, and the speed with which you do
so is subtracted from the speed you hit the ball, resulting in a
slower ball, giving your opponent more time to get to the ball and hit
it. If your desire is to hit the ball slower, it's much better to just
slow your swing down -- not back up while you're moving (it's easier to
hit the ball while standing still rather than while you're moving). In
reviewing the video, it appears that you're having to back up because
your opponent is hitting the ball deep to you and you're not standing
far enough back (e.g., behind the baseline) to return his shot without backing up. You're very
fast on your feet, so I don't think you have to stand inside the
baseline in order for you to run in if your opponent dinks the ball -- you should only stand inside the baseline if your particular opponent never hits the ball deep, or if it's a good gamble that a ball you hit to your opponent is likely to come back short.
Here's your proper weight transfer at 0:46, starting with a split-step:
Next, you started moving towards where the ball was going to be at ball contact:
Then, you set your back (away from the net) foot, which you'll step off of to hit the ball:
Next, you have stepped off your back foot, and just before ball contact you are about to land on your front foot, which is the foot you should balance on while making ball contact:
Finally, you can see that you're still balancing on your front as you follow-through:
This was a very-well-executed weight transfer (from your back foot to your front foot)...
TECH NOTE: Due to Facebook Messager formatting links do not work in this copied/pasted chat session. So, a link list has been created at the beginning of the session before the Facebook Messager formatting.
Hi Michael, Are you interested in Pickleball Video analysis?
Yes, I am curious to what you provide with the video analysis and pricing points, because I am assuming it isn't free.
Jack
At the moment, it is free to the first 20 players
Well, that is nice to know. What type of advise would one expect? To kind of shed some, I've been told I am around a 4.0, and I primarily play doubles, but I have started playing singles, but really lack players to play against for singles.
Upload a video of you playing a game on YouTube. If you would like to be involved in the live stream session, then we would set and time/day and go through they game. Depending on the game, it would take about 30-45 minutes.
Is there a preferred angle for the recorded video?
Jack
Camera Posistion:
It depends on how wide the lens is on your camera or cell phone. If you don't have a wide angle lens, then probably off to one side and back for enough to get all four corners of the court.
I'm going to use the above video that Jack Olmsted recorded to compare different types of Pickleball serves. I'll start with a typical beginner serve. The typical beginner prepares for the serve by facing the net -- this is called an "open" stance -- the hips and the shoulders are roughly parallel with the net (and the baseline), as shown in the first picture:
This stance has two major shortcomings. It reduces the amount of power you can hit the ball with, and if you want horizontal directional accuracy you have to avoid the natural across-the-body follow-through.
You can put more power into the ball by using a "square" stance (also called a "neutral" stance). It's called a square stance because the hips and shoulders are at right angles to the net (a square is made up of lines that meet at right angles), rather than parallel to the baseline (for an open stance). The square stance has a back foot (the foot farthest from the net) that you push off of at the start of the serve, and that push gets transmitted to the ball, and a front foot (closest to the net) that you balance on at ball contact. After ball contact the back foot is brought up even with the front foot to put you into a neutral stance, which is the stance required for being in the "ready" position.
The square stance also enables horizontal directional accuracy by allowing you to have the natural across-the-body follow-through without disturbing the desired pendulum motion of the arm in the vicinity of ball contact. If you have an open stance instead, your follow-through has to continue in the direction that you want the ball to travel, because an across-the-body follow-through will tend to cause the ball to be pulled in the direction of the follow-through (because ball contact is typically out in front of the body, at which point the arm has started swinging across the body). The next picture shows the server at the end of the backswing:
Notice that this server has stepped forward while taking the paddle back. This results in an advanced version of a beginner's serve, because it produces a front foot and a back foot, which allows the server to produce more power. It's not a fully advanced serve though, because the open stance requires avoiding an across-the-body follow-through so that horizontal directional accuracy can be maintained. Another advanced aspect of this serve is the large backswing, which results in generating more power than when using a short backswing because the paddle head accelerates over a longer distance, yielding a greater paddle head speed at ball contact for the same swing force.
The next picture shows the server just before contact. She is still moving forward, which is good, because that forward movement is added to the ball speed. She is looking down at the ball, which is also essential, as she can then see the paddle hit the ball, and adjust the swing to make sure that the ball hits the center of the paddle:
Notice that the arm holding the paddle is bent significantly at the elbow (it's hard to see because of the blur, but you can see that her shirt sleeve of her hitting arm is roughly pointing down, which means that her arm must be significantly bent just before ball contact, which hasn't quite happened yet, as indicated by the ball not being a blur), resulting in a smaller arc for the paddle head travel, which results in less power.
The last picture shows the end of the follow-through. Notice that the follow-through is NOT across-the-body. This maintains horizontal directional accuracy, and is another indicator that this is an advanced beginner serve:
Two other advanced aspects of this serve are that the server isn't bending the wrist up during the serve (notice the wrist is straight at the end of the follow-through), which yields good vertical directional accuracy; and that the follow-through is long, which, along with the long backswing, provides a more uniform paddle head speed in the ball contact zone than a short swing. One other thing to notice is that the arm that tossed the ball has swung backwards, which twisted the shoulders horizontally. Since this moves the shoulder of the hitting arm forward during the swing, it adds a bit of racket head speed, giving the server a bit more power. Since this server has an open stance, the shoulder twist doesn't pull the shoulder out of the intended path of the ball much, so it's relatively harmless.
Example #1: A short video of how to play pickleball by Heather Pape
Don't Wait To Be An Expert To Share Pickleball Lessons Learned: Excellent Example
Pickleball 101 Topics
(Time Code List)
0:11 Materials Needed To Play Pickleball0:24 Court Lines0:43 The Kitchen Lines1:00 Outline Of The Court1:30 Serving1:53 Rules To Serving2:24 Serving Example2:37 Rules For The Kitchen3:20 Double Bounce Rule3:46 Scoring4:07 Example4:24 Doubles Demo4:39 Credits
Make a YouTube video explaining an aspect of playing pickleball. Include a time code list in the YouTube description. Post the link to the video in comments.
Assignment: Choose an individual from the above list and use their production style as a model to produce a training video. Post the link to your video in the comments.
Andy Leighton and his wife Helen discuss the positive effects on living with Parkinson's and playing Pickleball since 2011.
Pittsburgh pickleball tournament attracts more than 400 players while raising money for Parkinson Foundation
Pickleball player and Parkinson’s patient Andy Leighton can attest to the sport’s benefits.
“I love the closeness of it,” Leighton says. “You’re closer to your opponents than you are in tennis, and that fosters a social relationship that you won’t get in tennis or most other sports.”
Leighton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about six years ago. Off the court, his symptoms will flare and his body will shake. But once he has a pickleball paddle in his hand, everything changes.
“My wife took me to a tournament — entered us in a tournament — didn’t tell me a thing about the sport, and I’m a tennis player,” Leighton says. “When I tried to apply my tennis skills, you can only do so much of that, so I suffered a little bit. And then I caught on. Now I’m a monster.”
Pittsburgh City Paper (June 28, 2017)Read More For more articles and videos regarding Pickleball and Parkinson's, check out this Port Townsend Pickleball search stream and the Gamma Pickleball Classic "Why Pickleball" page
This is the first of 10 modules from the Core Pickleball Strategies class On Google Docs, write a short review on each module and post the Google Doc link in the comments below.
Jarick Rager, Pickleball Player/Programmer, demonstrated his new mobile app, Pickleball Stat, from his Trussville, AL home office. Jarick and his doubles partner Collin Smythe won the 4.5 Gold Medal at the 2017 Nashville Labor Day Pickleball Tournament. Watch their Gold Medal Match.
