By the middle of December,
the better pickleball channel will reach 1 million views and I am so thankful to
each and every one of you for helping this channel to achieve that milestone.
My favorite part of this whole journey has been the opportunity to get to know
so many of you,
whether it's by email or social media or running into you at a pickleball
tournament. It has been special.
My next favorite part is hearing your stories,
how you've improved or changed your fitness or the things that you have done to
get better.
You need to know that you inspire me to keep making this content.
That's why I couldn't let this milestone pass without a celebration and what's a
celebration without a few prizes.
Here's your chance to win some cool pickleball prizes that have been provided by
Gearbox.
You may have noticed that I recently started playing their paddle and it's been
beneficial for my game. If you're in the market for a new paddle,
they have a fantastic demo program and I'll put some information in the show
notes below. This sweepstakes is completely free to enter.
I only ask that you do one thing and it's in keeping with the holiday time of
year, do a random act of kindness for someone else. That's it.
You decide what you want to do and who you want to do it for.
Once you've shown someone else a little bit of love,
you'll be given the chance to have some bonus entries,
but those are all free to. The winner will be drawn on
December 22nd, 2019.
Simply click the show notes below for a link to the rules and the entry or go to
www.betterpickleball.com. Good luck.
And now let's find out why your partner won't come to the net.
Wendy recently asked, we have all kinds of players that we play with at the Y.
You mentioned going to the non-volley zone together. I agree with this,
but we have some players,
not beginners who refuse to get up to the non volley zone and hang out in no
man's land, no matter how much we tell them. If I wait for them,
we'll never get up there. CJ,
what should I do?
Hey everybody it's CJ Johnson.
Have you ever played with a partner who just won't come to the net ?
Put a yes or no down in the comments below.
Pickleball rec play is one of the unique aspects of this sport,
which makes it so enjoyable. You don't have to have a partner to play.
You can go there is open play.
You get to play with a lot of different people and of course there's the social
aspect. You get to meet a lot of different people and make a ton of friends.
The downside to pickleball rec play is that not everybody plays within certain
accepted pickleball norms.
I'm often asked by players what should they do when that happens,
when you have someone who's hanging out in no man's land,
which I prefer to call the transition area.
The first thing that you need to do is find out why.
It's usually best done between games.
This is not a conversation you want to get into on the court.
You might say something like, you're a really good player,
but I've noticed that you don't always move from the baseline up to the net and
I'm curious as to why.
Then you want to make sure that you listen carefully to their explanation.
I think you're going to find that it's one of the following. Number one,
they don't understand the strategy.
Players often do something because they're told by somebody either to do it or
to not do it. What they need to understand is why it's important.
The strategy of getting to the non-volley zone is really simple.
You're trying to take the time away from your opponents.
When your team is at the non-volley zone and your opponents are not,
you've shortened the distance between the two teams and you have taken away
their time to react. That's to your team's advantage.
To eliminate that advantage,
the other team has to get to the non volley zone and that's not always an easy
task.
Number two,
they might've gotten accustomed to that habit and they're not even aware that
they're doing it. In doubles tennis.
One player is typically at the net and the other player stays back.
When tennis players transition into pickleball,
they may bring that habit along with them and old habits and old patterns are
hard to break. If that's the case,
you can explain the strategy to them or just simply share a reminder with them
that it's better if both players at the net versus the gap that's caused when
one player is forward and the other is back. They may be on advice overload.
Think back to when you first started playing pickleball. For me,
it seemed that every time I got on the court with somebody,
I got something new to do.
Stand here, go here, do this. Don't do that. Now, one thing everybody said was,
don't step in the kitchen. Don't run into the kitchen.
If I'm afraid of doing something,
I'm not going to run forward toward the kitchen.
I'm going to subconsciously stay away from it.
That person may just simply be on advice overload.
Ask them what they're thinking about in between games and see if you can help
prioritize their list of things to do when they're on the pickleball court.
Number four they're concerned about the lob.
This one I might be able to understand just a little bit because you do see some
lobs, especially in indoor play.
But the lob is not anywhere near as dangerous as most people think it is.
It's an extremely difficult to execute shot,
especially if you're playing outdoors where you have the weather conditions.
My guess is that you will lose fewer points to a well hit lob than you will by
not having both of your team members at the non- volley zone.
Number five they can't get there in one shot. Let's face it,
most of us are over 50 and it can be a chore to get from the baseline to the non
volley zone all in one shot. Since they've heard this area called no man's land,
they're probably trying to avoid that area and if they can't get up there,
that may mean that they just choose to stay at the back,
have the conversation with them.
See if they could do a couple of different things.
One would be to hit a higher and softer return to buy themselves a little bit
more time to get up to the non-volley zone.
The other strategy would be to use the split step.
The moment they see their opponents getting ready to hit the shot,
simply utilize the split step, hit the next shot,
and then continue to move to the net. Number six,
they're not a good blocker and they're afraid of getting hit by a hard,
fast ball. Well, with a little bit of practice,
anybody can improve their blocking skills.
If you're not sure how to coach this,
I've created a playlist or a printed list just for you.
Simply tell them that you saw something on YouTube that you think will help them
be a better player. If you've got value from the 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