Drills, Anticipation, and Right-Side Player Strategies!

PICKLEBALL JOURNEY TIPS!
 5 Drills to Level Up (With 9 year old Nolan)

Drill #1 - Dinking Drill!

In this drill, pretend the court is in 1/4’s! Both you and your partner will be at the kitchen line on opposing sides. Let’s say you are the one practicing - your partner will dink to the nearest line, center line, cross court box center line, and then out wide! This will work on your footwork, and precision while on the move!

This is a good drill for someone who struggles against aggressive dinkers, and has trouble with their footwork!

Drill #2 - Transition Zone!

The transition zone is in between the kitchen line, and the baseline!

In this case, pretend you’re the “feeder” or the partner who feeds the ball to the person practicing. Your job will be to take 1 step in front of the kitchen line to keep aggression, even if your partner hits a good, non-attackable drop. This is so you can get your partner as many reps in as possible, while staying consistent!

Your partner will stand in the middle of the court, resetting the balls you hit to them!

Drill #3 - Figure 8 Drill!

This will be for the singles players!

If you’re the “feeder” - you will each stand cross court at the baseline from each other. You will drive the ball cross court to your partner, and they will aim down the line. You will hit to the opposing box cross court, and they will aim down the line again!

This will keep you both moving, 1 person hits down the line, and the other practices cross court drives!

Watch the rest of our drills and get visuals with a 1on1 teaching session for drills here!

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OTHER CREATORS TIPS!
 6 Tips for Unlocking Fast Hands & Winning Hands Battles In Pickleball- From PlayPickleball!

Anticipation Tip #1 - Slightly “cheating” to your backhand will make it easier to be ready for blocks or counterpunches once your opponents speed up at you!

What we mean by this is, pretend you point your paddle directly in front of you, now make your paddle face tilt left or right (depending on if you’re a lefty or righty) slightly, favoring your backhand!

Anticipation Tip #3 - Seesaw Effect! If you’re in a firefight, or predict your opponent is about to speed up from a low position, chances are the ball will be going in an upward trajectory! Once you notice this happening, keep your paddle higher than normal, to be prepared and ready to counter! This can happen in the opposite situation as well!

If your opponent’s paddle is up high, you may be able to tell they’re going to hit downwards! So, bend your knees, keep your paddle waist or knee level, and get ready to defend!

If you learn to anticipate and read paddle faces, you can be ready to smash their high-speed ups, or defend their smashes, making you a step ahead of everyone else!

Anticipation Tip #3 - Triangle Effect!

If you speed up cross court, you can predict that your opponent will hit it forward simply because it is easier, and they don’t have an immense amount of time to react and hit it back cross court! Too risky for them!

So if you speed up cross court, try and aim for the hips, but if they get it back, be ready to cover the opposite side of your body you just sped up from!

Watch the rest of PlayPickleball’s video here! 

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OTHER CREATORS TIPS!
 3 Crucial Shots to DOMINATE as the Right-Side Player (Like Anna-Leigh and Dylan Frazier) - From Briones Pickleball

Top Spin Dink - When we get cross court dinks as the right-side player, you will get a lot of balls towards the outer line, attempting to move you out wide!

Most important for the top spin dink is footwork! When your arm is too extended, you can’t get proper leverage to put top spin on the ball. Use a shuffle step to get the ball in front of you! Drop your paddle head below the ball, and brush the side of the ball upwards, to dink it back out wide with good pace, and spin!

Consistent Middle Dink - After your opponent pulls you out wide with aggressive wide dinks, they will likely place it towards your inside foot in the middle. You can’t always depend on your forehand-middle partner to take that middle ball, so you need a consistent, and sturdy dink back to neutralize your opponent’s pressure!

If the opposing right side player pulls you out wide, then in middle, don’t always dink back cross court to their strength. This will give them control over the court again. If they dink middle, you dink middle - this will give YOU control over their footwork and positioning. Take their middle dink out of the air if you can, to apply even more pressure! If their middle dink is too aggressive or if you’re not in place, take a pivot step back and neutralize.

Apply Offense - Look for your opponent’s dead dinks, or slow dinks that bounce or sit too high! Once you take control of your opposing right side players movement, look for openings, with their pop ups! You can eventually notice they’re unstable, and uncomfortable! Take your chance, but do it strategically because the right-side players job is consistency!

Watch the rest of Briones Pickleball tips on right side player techniques here! 

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PADDLES
WHAT’S NEW

Paddle Stats Spreadsheet - HERE for discounts, and stats!

Vatic Pro Prism Flash-LH (Long Handle) 14mm

We all know who Vatic is, and that they’re one of the most popular budget friendly options! Now with an option for the 5.75 inch handle you can get more whip and leverage than ever with your Vatic! For just $90 using our code, you can “break ankles” without breaking the bank!

Our RPM test came out to - 2204

Our Power test came out to - 61.8

DISCOUNTS
WAYS TO SAVE

JustPaddles + Pickleball Journey Discount

Do you want a drilling partner who doesn’t talk smack? Here’s the SpinShot with $50 off!!!