Get Into a Good Position

Between games a few days ago I watched a court with some fairly new and inexperienced players, and of course the instructor in me became interested. I wondered to myself what the "One Thing" would be to teach them if I had only 2-3 minutes.

The common challenge appeared to be that none of them ever seemed to be ready or in a good position to hit an incoming ball. The result looked more like Olympic Breakdancing than good pickleball, with shots being wild attempts at simply getting the paddle on the ball.

I was reminded of the great center fielders in baseball, when the haters would exclaim how lucky they were that everyone hit the ball to them. The trick, of course, is getting to where the ball is going to be and getting set up properly.
I watched players running hard to get TO the ball, and then struggling to even hit it, let alone hit it well. And even worse, some of them had figured out that putting spin on the ball might make it more difficult to return, so here they were with the most awkward shots I've ever seen, trying to put spin on the ball.

So today's advice is to figure out where the ball is GOING TO BE, then get there. Get yourself in a good position to take a good shot, forget about the spin for a while, and watch your game get immediately better.

Have a great day!

Michael Gauthier
Rally Academy
Pickleball Strokes