In this week’s video I have a drill for you to practice how to stand your ground and not give up your position.
In this drill I show you how to get used to moving forward and receiving the ball where you want to receive it so you can react like you want to react. You have choices don’t let your opponent make those for you…
A Pickleball Drills For Two – Focusing On Forward Movement
Let’s start with leading with our paddle, a very common thing that we do is when the ball is going a little bit deeper than normal, a tendency for players is to back up and give up ground on the court. This happens often with a return of serve, a third shot drop, a third shot drive, or any of those types of shots.
So we’re going to practice that movement. For this drill, as you will see in the video I’m going to start with both feet in the blue, and when my partner feeds the ball, she’s going to either feed it down low or she can toss it up high. I have to move forward and no matter what I’m not backing up. (After you have run the drill a few times then you feed your partner balls)
We are going to play out the point once we’ve got that ball in I’m going to really kind of try to drop it back in. Really the key factor is even if it’s deep i’m still absorbing it down in front of me so i can drop the paddle. I don’t need to squat and compress down, so often I see players who
feel like they have to get down in order to get a low ball. When I do that I’m losing a lot of range and space.
When my paddle is in front of me with the head down it just naturally goes where I need it to. I just want to catch it on the paddle, I don’t necessarily want to try to scoop it or lift it because the paddle is going to do the job for me.
So starting with both feet in the blue she’s going to feed a ball to me and i’m going to catch it and keep going. I’m not rushing to the NVZ line, the harder she can make it for me the better. She can mix it up all around, basically trying to really force me to do something that I would normally give up my position for, that’s the key.
You’ll see on the video how quickly I can actually accelerate from that position and ask your partner to make it even harder, try to smash down your return at your partner’s feet, so they feel like “I need more room!” I want this drill to feel tough, I want you to feel the pressure of what you are doing.
I like that one a lot actually because I kind of had to wait for it to get here to take it up high but I couldn’t back up to do that so i got my paddle up and let it come to me rather than adjusting up and around. So this about adjusting your paddle before you really think about your feet
and it’s all about where you want the ball when you’re hitting it instead of thinking, “okay my opponent gave me this, and now i’ve got to kind of see how I’m going to manipulate that ball”
I want that ball where I want it, so I want that paddle up, and I want to adjust and react how I want to react. I want to practice making those choices so i’m not playing defensively and allowing my opponent to make that decision for me.
