There is nothing worse than saving your opponents by hitting a ball that's going
out. Identifying a ball that's going out is a learned skill.
Today, I'm going to tell you the things
that you should be looking for and give you a way to practice it.
It's coming up now.
Hey, everybody, it's C.J. Johnson.
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Don't you hate it when you hit a ball that you know was going out?
We've all done it before.
You allow your opponents to stay in the point and inadvertently you help them
build up their confidence by hitting balls that you should otherwise let go.
You may remember my friend Monte.
He was here to help me with a serve video because he's got a wicked good serve.
Yeah. Yeah, it works.
And he also has a great forehand with a lot of topspin.
So he's going to help me show you what we need to look for to identify
the out ball and then a little game that you can play afterwards.
Let's go get it. All right.
Before you step on the courts, there are a couple of things you want to do.
The first one is the element, specifically, the wind.
Determine the direction of the wind, and if the wind's coming from behind your
opponent, it could make it more likely that that ball is going out.
In fact, one of the things that I like
to do is to say to my partner, it looks like the wind is behind the other team.
That way they're aware of it as well.
Another question to ask yourself is how consistent is your opponent?
If they're extremely consistent,
you probably have to take a few chances and be aggressive with the ball.
If they're not really consistent,
maybe you're going to let a few of them go out.
If you don't know the answer to that question.
One of the things that I always like to do
is let a few balls go past me and see what happens.
Do they have the ability to keep the ball in?
If they do now, I need to change my tactics.
The third question is, does that player use a lot of topspin?
Topspin is created when the paddle moves from a low to high position.
When the paddle brushes up
on the ball at contact, what it does is it makes that ball spin
top to bottom so that ball is actually going down.
So topspin makes it easier to keep the ball in.
What is the height of the ball
in relationship to the height of the net? If the apex of the shot is below the net,
they have to hit up on the ball to get it over.
If the apex of the ball is above the net,
they can hit flat or they can hit down to get it over.
Court position.
Are they at the baseline in the transition zone or at the non-volley zone?
The closer they get
to the non-volley zone, the shorter the shot becomes,
the more difficult it is to keep a hard shot in play.
Look for the size of the swing, the paddle position and the turn of their body.
When someone turns their body, drops the paddle head and is going to use
their core muscles, that typically signifies a long stroke.
The longer the stroke, the more speed that we're adding to the ball.
When a person sets up for a drop shot,
typically the paddle is more in front of them and they're using their body less.
So be aware of what that person's body
and paddle language are telling you about the size of the swing.
Is the player on the run? A ny time that we are scrambling to get
a shot, we're taking a lot of momentum with us and it becomes easier to transfer
that speed to the ball and hit the shot out.
A general rule of thumb, shoulder high, let it fly.
I'm about five feet, eight inches tall.
If I am at the net, I measure between my shoulders somewhere
around my chest, if that ball is coming with pace again, depending upon where it's
coming from on the court, it's a likelihood that that ball is out.
If I have to reach high above my shoulders or if I have to jump
and I'm at the non-volley zone, you saved them a point. K
ind of think general rule of thumb, shoulder height, let it fly.
Don't be afraid of letting the ball get past you.
Most people hit more balls that are out
than actually let a ball that's in get past them.
And it's the only way that you're going
to learn now that you know the concepts and what to look for.
How do you learn to let balls go out?
When we first started playing pickleball,
we had to learn to position our paddles and our bodies to accommodate the bounce.
It was foreign to us.
We didn't know how much it was or wasn't going to bounce.
The same thing happens,
the same exact concept happens for the out ball. For this drill.
I'm going to stand at the non-volley zone
in my normal ready position, Monte's at the baseline.
I will let the shot go past me and I'll either say in or out.
You can have somebody standing
at the baseline and let you know or the person on the other side of the net
might be able to tell you if you are correct or not.
As you let the ball go past, you start to gauge where is that ball
in relationship to your body as well as how fast is that ball traveling.
Now that you know how to stop chasing out
balls, let's work on those blocking skills by clicking on that playlist right over
here. If you got value from this video, give it a thumbs up and share it with your
pickleball playing friends, because together we can
Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well.