You can't stop a banger from hitting the pickleball hard,
but the best way to beat them is with a good block.
Hey everybody it's CJ Johnson.
Just because someone hits the ball hard doesn't mean they're a banger.
In order to play good pickleball,
you need to learn when to hit the ball hard and when to hit the ball softly.
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welcome back.
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It doesn't matter if you're playing with bangers or with people who have a more
multidimensional game.
You need to know how to effectively block a hard hit shot.
One of the most effective ways to beat somebody who's hitting the ball hard is
to become a good blocker.
In this shot.
All I'm trying to do is absorb the energy that's coming to me. Now.
Ideally I'd like to drop it relatively low,
maybe somewhere into the kitchen I just don't want to hit that into the net.
A couple of basics. First of all, when I'm here,
I want to be up and on the balls of my feet and I want to be relatively low and
centered. I want to have the paddle. If this is 12 right in front of me,
I want to tilt the paddle slightly towards 11 o'clock.
It allows me the ability to move from side to side.
The next thing I want to do is make sure that the paddle is away from my body.
The closer I get to my body,
the more difficult it is to absorb the energy of the shot that's coming toward
me. When the ball hits my paddle,
it's a feeling like the energy is coming back and just being absorbed into the paddle.
When I do that,
I want to have a relatively light grip pressure.
Now I know that sounds counter intuitive.
It's really not a one or a two but it's more like a four or five on the grip
pressure scale. If you're not familiar with that,
if that's the first time you've heard that, I just put the video,
it's called a the best grip in pickleball.
Click on that link and it'll explain all about how to calculate the right grip
pressure for you.
We want to have about a four or a five when we hit this shot.
So we're going to start by getting ready at the line and then we'll have our
partner hit drives towards us. One of the other keys to this,
is making sure to watch the ball all the way to the paddle.
Normally I'd shoot this so that you could see my eyes,
but whenever you have, actually whenever you're playing pickleball,
we should be wearing some kind of eye protection.
So I'm not going to sit here and let Jeannie hit at me without having something
over my eyes.
You never know when that ball could hit the net or bounce off the side of the
paddle. Something really strange and hurt your eyes.
So always make sure that you're wearing eye protection.
Once you're feeling comfortable with the basic block,
you could try to deflect the ball just a little bit.
And what I mean by that is by moving the paddle high too low,
just about an inch, you're going to put a little back spin on the ball.
So when that ball hits the ground on the other side,
it's going to stay pretty low and it's going to be relatively difficult for your
opponents to return. So let's go ahead and try that.
One last thing. Whenever you're doing this drill, I see a lot of people,
myself included, who will chase out balls. If you think a ball is out,
let it go. Don't get in the habit of chasing it.
Solid blocking is the best way to defend any hard hit shot.
If you got value from this video, you know what to do.
Give it a thumbs up and share with your pickleball friends because together we can
Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well.