My nature is to be busy…I like being on the go! But when it comes to learning pickleball I need to slow it down a bit. I want to learn to do something correctly, and doing that takes time.
When I am Coached
Linh, my wife, is my coach. She has always made me do the things I don’t want to do so I do what’s right for my game. Whether it is going back to look at the video of my play or changing my positioning or technique. Often my first response to her is “yeah but” and she always says “try it first”.
I see a lot of players who want to improve their game. But the question isn’t whether you want to improve but are you willing to do what it takes to improve? This is often going to take more time, and you are most likely going to get a little worse before you get better. You will likely feel a little uncomfortable along the way. But real improvement does not come from lots of quick fixes…it takes a bit more time.
You Need to Know Why
When teaching my biggest priority is for the student to understand the whys and the how of the things we are working on. Only by understanding why can you make a lasting change. If you don’t understand why you might think well this is 
working … but don’t understand when it doesn’t work tomorrow. You keep changing something without any real purpose. There is a big difference between a short-term and a long-term solution.
As an example, a player will ask me how to hold their paddle to block a shot. Some instructors will suggest they change their grip or even their entire body position. This might result in getting that one shot back but may put them in a position from which they cannot hit the next shot or worse cause them to become injured. What I would rather do is provide a more fluid, long-term solution. I position that allows them to actually attack the shot and stay on offense.
Learning Pickleball in Slow Motion
When I am learning something I am going to try to learn in slow motion. I want to feel what my body and my paddle is doing. When I slow myself down I can learn the correct form and technique. Once my body can feel this then I can speed up and be faster as needed.
I am going to break things down into stages. Starting from the ground up. My feet, hips shoulders, head then paddle. It’s a working unit that works as one. It is impossible to try and do everything correctly at once and quickly. To learn to something correctly you need to be willing to slow down and make your body relearn properly. It may take a little longer but it was last a lot longer as well.
