Ensuring reliability on your backhand slice dink 🔒

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What does the future of high level pickleball look like? 🤷‍♂️

Assuming pickleball continues to be played at the highest level for the next 20+ years, I have some thoughts on what the future of the game is going to look like. First of all, unless paddle power is held is in check, players are going to be GUNNING for the body. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see even more body bags coming even in the next couple years. The paddles are already hot enough where it can be extremely hard to get out of the way. You might start seeing inverse effects of this however, like players sitting on the body shot more - perhaps opening up middle or wide opportunities. Off-speed speedups will be in everyone’s arsenal to create confusion too.

I think a lot of the best teams will be righty/lefty combinations with two handed backhands on both sides. Backhand topspin dinks are more solid than forehand dinks, and having those on the wings with two forehands helping each other out in the middle will be the norm at the highest levels. The men’s game might get even slower at the kitchen, but a lot of players will continue to play quick in transition. You’ll start seeing more battles at the kitchen of who can get topspin on their dinks first and take control of the rally. In general, dinking quality will improve - more people will be hitting Anna Leigh style dink winners. I think the mixed game will also slow down a little - I believe over time women will start to hold their own against the opposing man even more, which would likely result in more patient play from the men. The drive and crash will always be an effective play unless the quality of 4th and 6th shots improve more than I anticipate. Obviously a lot of these predictions are subject to change based on technology - if the paddles cool off you’ll start seeing more extended hands battles from the men for example.

Popping up volleys? Watch here 👍

thepickleballclinic

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Crashing decision making and positioning👌

When I’m looking to crash on my partners drive, there’s a few things going on in my head. First of all, you really need to know your partner - which balls do they typically drive or drop? You can crash a drop too, but the timing is different, and if the hit a bad one and you’re too close you’re in trouble. I’m focused acutely on watching the ball for this reason. Pay attention to who’s returning, where they’re going after, and how good a return it is. These are all variables that will impact your partners decision and result.

As far as positioning, I’m probably 2-3 feet closer to the net than my partner hitting the drive, probably 1-2 feet from the middle on average. From this point, I basically follow the ball for the next couple steps. If my partner drives it straight ahead, I’ll move forward and towards the middle, and then SPLIT STEP. At this point I’m basically in the middle of the court - not too close to the kitchen either. If you think you don’t have time to split step you probably shouldn’t be crashing on that ball. From this split step, you can close even more space forward if you need to, or shuffle to either side. This is the decision point: do I stay home or lunge for it? The decision becomes increasingly instinctive - it’s related to how low the opponents contact point is, how strong their volleys are etc.. I encourage you to go for it in practice and to mess up - you gotta explore what you can and can’t get away with!

Have a semi western grip? Here’s how to approach volley’s🔒

jamesignatowichcoaching

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