Today, I had the pleasure of talking to my good pickleball friend Victor and he
reminded me this too shall pass.
Now for some of us the light is at the end of the tunnel,
perhaps there are some courts that will be opening up soon.
For others it may involve just a little bit more time and patience,
but it doesn't really matter where you are.
It's been long and frankly some of us are getting a little antsy.
Maybe you're getting tired of doing some of the indoor drills that you've been
doing and perhaps you haven't done anything and now you're getting concerned
about what's going to happen to your body when you get back on the court.
So today I'm going to share with you some of the insider coaching tips that I
give to my clients to help them to play better pickleball.
Hey everybody, my name is CJ Johnson.
The better pickleball channel is dedicated to helping players over 50 live their
best life on and off the pickle ball courts.
Just so you don't forget, hit the subscribe button.
That way you'll get a notification anytime I post a new video.
Make sure you stick around to the end.
I've got a free plan that I share with my clients as well as access to some
bonus videos. Let's be honest, for most of us,
it's getting a little tedious to stay at home and continue to challenge
ourselves and to keep in mind that we will be back on the pickleball courts
soon.
What we do now is going to set us up for success or failure.
Whenever I work with students who are struggling,
I take them back to the basics.
That's a great place for us to start to reclaim our pickleball form.
There are three basics to playing good pickleball that you can work on right
now. A strong body, fast reactions and good footwork.
As I mentioned at the start of this,
I'll be sharing a goal setting PDF that I use with my clients whenever we're
making change.
One of the things that I ask them to do is to look at their life and pick the
lowest hanging fruit or the things that will be easiest to change when it comes
to physical and mental change.
Some things will require more effort than others and it's best if we start with
the things that are easiest to change first and frankly those are different for
everyone. As I go through this one by one,
think about which ones would be simplest for you to make adjustments to,
those will be the first things that go on your plan.
Here are some detailed resources to help you to improve your weakest areas.
When it comes to having a strong body,
the first place an athlete needs to look at is their core.
We often think of our core as our apps,
but essentially it's everything about our arms and our legs.
Those muscles help us stabilize our body and transfer movement directionally.
It's common to believe that the way to a strong core is simply through doing sit
ups and while they can be an important part of toning your core,
there are two exercises,
the bird dog and the plank that are actually more effective.
If you want to move well on a pickleball court and stand injury free,
you need to have strong legs. In a recent video I showed,
what happens when we don't use our legs to dink.
We begin to use our backs.
It's a less effective position and it increases our chance of injury.
Squats are one of the most effective ways to strengthen the major muscle groups
in our legs. Don't let that word strike a fear into you.
You can learn how to do proper squats and not hurt your knees.
A simple way to begin is every time you get up from a seated position,
do so without the assistance of your hands.
You hear me harp on this all the time. Balance, balance, balance.
As we age,
our balance declines and it is one of the things that we can correct.
You probably saw a balance video I put out about two to three weeks ago but that
isn't the first balance video I've done on this channel.
So I've got some links to some other activities that will help to increase your
balance.
I think a lot of players miss hit shots because they don't watch the ball go all
the way to their paddle.
In the video Watch that ball,
I shared several drills to help you to increase your focus and hit more shots
towards the sweet spot of your paddle.
Picking the ball up quickly as we're moving is another skill that fades because
frankly our eye muscles don't work the same way they used to a few years ago.
I shot this video with some suggestions on how to improve that skill.
Our third skill is good footwork.
Typically good pickleball players are good movers and the first thing they need
is fast feet.
This video is chalk full of drills to help your feet get quicker.
Another essential to moving well on the pickleball court is to have a good split
step.
Since half of this audience has never played another sport outside of
pickleball,
it doesn't surprise me that you don't know importance of a split step or when to
utilize the split step.
This video explains that entirely what it is,
why you need it and how to make it effective.
Now it's time for you to go to work. Download,
your goal setting resource right here and put in your three weakest areas.
Inside that resource, you're going to find links to multiple videos,
which will help you to put together your own personalized plan,
and in no time you'll be playing better pickleball.
If you've got value from this video,
make sure that you give it a thumbs up and share it with your pickleball playing
friends, because together we can. Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well.