The Old New Game

The big news from last weekend's PPA tour was that Ben and Collin Johns lost the Men's Doubles Gold Medal match. Perhaps "lost" is not the right word, as the eighth seeded Quang Duong and Christian Alshon delivered a convincing and thorough three game beating. So much so that people are claiming that Duong/Alshon have invented a completely New Game that is going to change our world.

Hmmm...I am not so sure that the banger approach is all that new. I have always said that banging is a very effective strategy, until it isn't. Does no one remember when the Waters ladies arrived on the scene, banging their way to the top of almost every tournament? Just like Quang Duong, they played two feet back of the NVZ, they took the ball on the bounce, and they banged the crap out of almost every shot. And they were extremely successful. Until they weren't. Simone and Lucy teamed up and tried to bang with them and got destroyed. Then they changed their play to defensive resetting and selective power and then they beat the Waters team regularly. And now ALW plays a superb mix of power and finesse. And she wins EVERY TIME.

There are millions of 3.5 bangers winning game every day until they play some good 4.0's. There are millions of 4.0's doing the same thing that can't break into 4.5. It works until it doesn't.

Ben tried to counter the banging with power. The ball came back at him fast and accurate for winner after winner. Note that Duong/Alshon did not win many 3rd shot drives (nor 5th, nor 7th, etc.) - they won rallies with mid court speedups.

Ben needs to search the Internet for "How to beat the bangers" information - let more drives fly off the court, don't "feed" them at mid-court, instead hit shorter dinks to pull them in where they can't speed up as easily, lob them occasionally, and don't get sucked into power struggles. And I know this goes against current thoughts, but Ben might need to play more like Collin in these instances, instead of replacing him.

So we didn't really see anything new on the weekend, we just saw the first time that bangers reached a PPA Gold Medal match. And they were VERY GOOD bangers.

See you on the court.
Michael Gauthier
Rally Academy
Pickleball Strokes
NDY (Not Done Yet)