Today we're going to be talking about
seven mistakes that beginning pickleball players make.
Wait a minute.
This has been done a million times before. Hold on.
CJ.
What you're forgetting about is that these mistakes are things that you you probably
haven't heard about in other videos and we're going to share them with you.
Stay tuned.
Hey, everybody. I'm CJ Johnson from Better Pickleball.
And I'm one half of VIPickleball, along with my partner, Tony Roig.
We help pickleball players over 50 live
their best lives on and off the pickleball courts.
Tony, you're the one who said we're going to make these different.
What's number one?
The number one error that I want to talk
about or mistake that I think we should talk about in this video
that beginner pickleball players make a lot is running around their shots.
When you run around your shot.
When you play pickleball, particularly
when you're a beginning player, it can result in a lot of errors in your shots.
Well, not only running around, sometimes, the more you're moving and
especially if you're moving backwards and all trying to run around something,
you run the risk of tripping and falling and nobody wants to be injured.
It's tough to sit on the sidelines when
everybody else is having fun playing pickleball.
So avoid those injuries.
Why don't we show them a little bit of what that looks like?
Normally, where we see that is we see that on the return of serve.
That's a really common area where players run around their shots.
So we're going to do here is I'm a left
handed player and I really like my forehand.
Right.
So, CJ, if I get a return or serve over here, right, go ahead.
Cj.
If I get a return of serve over here, I can just step in and hit my forehead.
No problem. Right.
But now if I get a serve over here and have to return serve, go ahead.
Then what I don't want to do is run around it and hit like that.
That's what I'm trying to avoid doing.
You can see the amount of effort it takes for me to run around that shot.
Go ahead CJ. Give me another one over here.
So if I get a ball over here, I have to run around.
That's really difficult. It puts my body weight
in the wrong direction, right and it's really difficult for me to hit that shot.
What I want to do instead of running around the shot.
If I get a serve over here that I have to
return, what I want to do is just use my backhannd.
So I want to basically use my backhand
and a nice, simple return of serve with my backhand instead of running around the
forehand or the backhand, depending on what you do.
So try not to run around your shots when you're playing pickleball.
Work on both sides of the game. Definitely.
Cj the other thing that we see a lot,
right is what happens when players are playing on the return side of the game?
Oh, my goodness.
Not getting up to the non volley zone.
And if you're new to pickleball, you might be tempted to stay at the baseline.
Perhaps you come from tennis.
We see a lot of tennis players who like to camp out at the baseline.
But being at the non volley zone is a
positional advantage, one that you don't want to give up.
So especially if you're the returning team,
you need to make sure that we always call it the hit and run.
Hit the ball. Get to the non volley zone.
Definitely want to do that. Let's show them what it looks like.
We're going to show you some shots where
we don't move up to the non-volley zone line.
And the difference in the point when we move up to the non-volley zone line.
One of the things we see is people not
getting to the non volley zone are only getting a portion of the way there.
So in this scenario,
I'm returning the shot and I'm coming in about as far as we see some people get,
which is maybe like halfway to the non volley zone.
So Tony is now going to hit a third shot.
Watch what can happen on that third shot.
Go ahead.
Right at my feet. Well, that's one of the hardest balls to
hit the ball is something that's hit at your feet.
Now, let's play that same return and say,
instead of stopping here, I came up all the way to the non-volley zone.
Tony still has to hit this third shot, but he hit the third shot.
It's much easier for me to defend
the shot that make sure that you get all the way up and then non volley zone.
So no matter what you do, if there's one thing that you take away from today,
make sure you get yourself up to the non volley zone line.
Definitely the number one thing you got to do as a pickleball player.
The next one we want to talk about is one
that again, is one of these pervasive things that happens out there, but no one
talks about, which is when you try to do too much with your shot.
It's not about winners.
Pickleball is a game of consistency, and if you keep the ball in play, chances
are you're going to win a lot more rallies.
So stop trying to hit the winners and doing too much with the shot.
Keep the ball in play.
If 80 miles an hour will do it, don't hit it 120.
We're going to show you what it looks like.
So what happens when you try to do too much with the shot is you end up hitting
the balls a lot of time into the net or out.
And what happens is you get situations
where you get a pop up and all you have to do is put the ball away, especially down
the middle is a really good spot to aim for.
All you got to do is do that. But instead you end up cranking the ball
and end up fencing it or hitting it in the net.
So what you want to do is if I get a pop up right, what I want to do is out? Right.
Why hit it so hard? Why hit it so crazy?
Right? Instead, all I have to do here I got a pop
up is just boom, roll it right down the middle.
There all I have to do to win the point.
Next time you get a pop up that you can
put away, just hit it the least amount necessary to get the job done.
So remember, it's not a game of winners.
Keep the ball in play.
Definitely want to extend those rallies.
One other area that is a real problem is the non volley zone rule in this video.
We're not going to explain the rule to you.
We'll link to a video up here somewhere that'll explain the rule to you.
What we want to talk about in this video.
This tip we want to give you is
not waiting for the ball to bounce, to move in to the non volley zone to hit it.
It's a real problem when you play pickleball.
It's one of the things we hear a lot is I
can't get into the non volley zone because it didn't bounce yet. So we're going to
show you what that looks like, what you should be doing?
Absolutely. Let's talk about the NVZ.
There's a lot of things that we hear about the NVZ that are not correct.
One of those is that you can't go into the non volley zone until the ball bounces.
If you wait until the ball bounces, you're going to be rushed to hit your shot.
I can go into the non volley zone to play a ball that bounces.
Let me show you what it looks like
when I wait until the ball bounces to go into the nonvolley zone,
you see how it is very off balance and all of my body was moving forward.
Now let me show you what it looks like
when I anticipate the ball coming into the non volley zone and start to move.
Notice how much I'm much more balanced and able to easily get to the shot.
So you don't have to wait till the ball bounces.
If you think it's going to bounce,
move into the non volley zone to play the shot.
Now you know what to do when you see the
ball is going to be short in the non volley zone.
Do not wait for that ball to bounce.
What I'm talking about now is something that is going to really help you
extend not just play better pickleball, but extend your pickleball life.
And what we're talking about here is what CJ?
We're talking about warming up.
Tony, how many times have you seen people at the pickleball courts
run onto the pickleball court, hit a couple of shots, and the next thing you
know, they are in a game, and right after that, they're hurt. Yes five minutes.
That's all you need are five minutes
to warm up your body and get yourself ready to play.
As Tony said, not only are you going to
play better pickleball, you're going to extend your ability to play pickleball
because like I said earlier, nobody wants to sit on the sidelines.
Let's show you a few things that you can
do while your friends are waiting for you to play.
I'm looking forward to this one because I
am guilty of the two second warm up and then playing.
So definitely warm up.
Avoid those injuries.
Since he told me he doesn't warm up, he's going to be out here doing these.
I'm only going to give you two quick ones.
If you'd like we're going to link to a video right up above here.
It's called Five Minutes to Better
Pickleball with an entire pickleball warm up in it.
But I'm going to show you two of my favorites, one for the upper body for the
shoulder and then the other one for the lower body for the hamstrings.
So here's the shoulder one.
Tony, take your hand out in front of you, bring it across.
And now just gently by your elbow, just pull to the side.
And then we're going to go across
and we're going to do the same thing on the other side.
Got it.
All right, hamstrings, put your foot out in front, up on your heel.
And now what I'm going to do is I'm just feeling with my arms here.
I'm going to go down and come back up and go down and come up.
You want to keep your knee just a little
bit straighter, as straight as you can when you do it.
That knee. Gotcha.
That knee. Keep it a little bit straighter.
So you really feel
the stretch in the hamstring and then you change legs and do the exact same thing.
So the back knee bends the forward knee.
You want to keep that as straight as you possibly can?
I like it. Hey, that's looking good.
Maybe you're going to warm up now.
Definitely.
I am definitely going to add some of those
warm up to my routine because I want to play better and also not get injured.
The last tip we want to cover with you is keeping your eye on the ball.
And we're not talking about just keeping your eye on the ball when you hit it.
We are going to talk about that.
We're also talking about keeping your eye on the ball, on your path to improvement.
One of the things that we see players get
so tied up in is the latest and the greatest.
He calls it a red herring.
I call it Squirrel from the movie Up.
If you remember that one,
whether it's the chainsaw serve, the backhand roll or whatever.
You don't need those shots to play great pickleball, even high level pickleball.
You don't have to have those shots to play great pickleball.
So it's important to stay focused on your path to improvement.
All right, so we're going to give you an example of keeping your eye on the ball.
We're just going to volley a little bit
here, so we're just going to keep the ball going.
Boom, boom. I'm keeping my eye on the ball, right?
Every time I look at the ball, boom right into the paddle, right.
And I look at the ball, I get it right down the line.
I missed it completely.
Not even looking at the ball.
When you're playing pickleball it's really important.
Keep your eye on the ball into the contact zone where you hit it.
It is so easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest in pickleball.
And right now, as we're shooting this,
everybody is talking about the chainsaw serve.
Why would you spend time trying to learn
when you can easily come out and hit a bounce serve deep into the court,
and it's going to get you started playing the game.
If you want to improve as a pickleball player, keep your eye on the ball.
We'll make a deal with you.
If you're a beginner player
and you get your first four point medal you email CJ or myself at
wearepickleball.com and we'll give you a tip on the backhand roll.
We're dinking a little bit here.
This is like we're playing the game, right?
So we're playing a game. Playing a game.
Oh, my God. Stress me a little bit there.
CJ, what's Martha going to think of me?
I just popped the ball up.
I shouldn't be on this court, should I? Absolutely.
You should be on this court.
Everybody makes mistakes.
We all pop the ball up.
We all make mistakes, so don't feel self-conscious.
Go out there, have fun, have a good time and don't feel bad when you miss one.
Folks, I'm going to tell you this.
I play at the highest level at the senior pro level.
Senior pros pop the ball up.
If you're popping the ball up, don't worry about what other people think about.
Just worry about your game.
Tony, thank you so much for coming and
helping all of us to play better pickleball.
It's a pleasure. Cj if you're watching this video
and you're a beginning pickleball player, if you can fix a couple of these, these
errors in your game, you're going to see improvement when you're out on the court.
We've got a couple of bonus resources for you.
Click on this playlist right over here or down here and get our free guide to
beginning pickleball, because together we can Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well.