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This is a weekly, coaching based newsletter. You’ll receive three tips from James directly in your inbox each week. We’ll also have interviews with other pros to discuss technique and strategy, along with tournament recaps and hot topics to keep you in the loop.

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How To Take Your Serve To The Next Level in 1 Minute ⏰

Take advantage of the geometry of the court to aim your serve like the Pros

⬆️ Click The Video Above ⬆️

Hot Take 🔥

If you aren’t missing 1 out of 10 serves, you aren’t taking enough risk.

There is a risk reward trade-off for anything in life, and the pickleball serve is no exception. Long gone are the days of the top pros just “laying in” their serves with no intention of creating any offense, or earning “free” points off of missed returns.

Advancements in paddle technology have changed pickleball for good, and the top pros can regularly be seen hitting the serve with power, depth and topspin. Taking “risk” on the serve, by virtue of hitting the serve with depth and pace, requires some courage. I would know - I used to be terrified of missing a serve. After all, if you miss a serve your chances of winning that point immediately go to 0. You might lose your scoring momentum and your partner may even get mad at you for it - I play mixed doubles exclusively with my girlfriend, so that last factor was very concerning.

So, to make things easier on myself, I would just lay the serve in and get ready to hit a third shot. Fun fact, I went 9 straight tournaments without missing a serve in 2022. I was congratulated for the streak back then, and I suppose I felt proud of my consistency on the serve.

Looking back, it’s nothing to be proud of. Hitting a hard, deep and aggressive serve has proven to be the superior strategy on the professional circuit. The most powerful servers earn themselves a big advantage - through missed returns, easier third shot drops and an ideal set up for the “drive and crash.”

This is why I recommend hitting the serve as hard as you can, as long as you make 9/10 of them. If you can hit the serve very hard and earn some missed returns, I’d argue that making “only” 80% of your serves is your target. After going over all of my professional doubles matches in 2024, I’ve actually earned MORE missed returns than serves that I’ve missed. That math alone tells me I’m doing something right. If we consider the easier third shots I receive as a result of short returns, it’s a clear home run.

Use Weight Transfer to Generate Maximum Power 💪 

⬆️ Click The Video Above ⬆️

Featured Pro Tip: Anna Bright

Pro Mixed Doubles Strategy

Hi Guys!

Anna Bright here. James said all I have to write here after he got absolutely wrecked for posting a photo of him stepping in front of me was:

“James is my supreme overlord and I love him and nothing makes me happier than when he takes a dink I could have easily made myself. And I don’t hate him.”

But I thought I would expand further for those who are interested.

Mixed doubles at the professional level is very, very different from mixed at the amateur level. Around 4.5+ is where the game starts to shift, in my opinion, but I wanted to write a bit about why pro mixed is played the way it is, and why the constant vilification of men who are “stealing” their partners’ balls or “pushing” their partner off the court, or even “playing singles” is generally wrong.

Pro level mixed doubles comes down to three main things: among men and women of the same relative level, men are more athletic, have more reach, and have more power. Also more wrist dexterity. These things are not subjective, they are facts. Are there exceptions? Yes, but generally this holds true in pickleball and all sports.

This is why men typically play the left, or “dominant” side of the court in mixed- they want to have their forehand in the middle. This allows a pro level mixed team to maximize their offense. Another factor in all of this is that women are simply easier to attack than men not only due to generally having less power but also because we are easier to jam (has anyone ever seen me hit a 1 handed counter at my body? Probably not - most women do not have this shot).

So, in short, I have 0 problem with James taking “my” balls in mixed. Does he overstep sometimes? Sure. But more often the issue is not taking enough. Just remember, everything I wrote here applies to the PRO level, if you aren’t a pro or close to it, stay in your lane boys.

Anticipate The Erne Like a Pro

The Reactionary vs. the Anticipatory Erne

⬆️ Click The Video Above ⬆️

See You Next Week!

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