My guess is you normally play doubles,
but perhaps you've had to transition to some form of singles.
Now, if you do,
chances are there are three mistakes that you're making.
That's costing you points while playing singles.
But the benefit to that is if you fix these three things,
it will also make you a better doubles player. Curious,
stay tuned.
Hey everybody, it's CJ Johnson. If you're new here, welcome better.
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I've been hearing from a lot of you that the only way you can return to playing
pickleball is by playing singles.
And that's a challenge for someone who normally plays double.
Now a few weeks ago,
I posted a video to help you to learn the basics of
playing skinny singles.
And I'm going to put a link to that at the end of this video.
So stay tuned for that today.
We're going to talk a little bit more about the strategy behind singles play
and ultimately how it can help you to become a better doubles
player.
Just like doubles the person who's at the net controls the point.
You're in a position to take reaction time away from the other
person. Unlike doubles,
you don't have a partner who can help you or who can poach.
There are three shots that you need to become proficient at
to play better singles. Coincidentally,
those three shots are going to help you to become a better doubles player.
Let's get to work today. My friend Monty
is going to help me to demonstrate the serve, the return and the passing shot.
We're going to start with the serve.
If your only thought is to get the serve in the serve,
usually lands somewhere in the middle of the box that makes it easy for
the returner to hit it deep to the serving team and to use their momentum,
to get to the non-volley zone faster.
In addition to getting the serve in,
we want to serve that creates a week return that gives our
serving team in easier third shot and may keep the returner from getting all the
way to the non-value zone.
Remember the point of taking a risk of your serve is to
elicit a shorter return.
So the first one I'm going to have Monty hit this one hard
and let's see what happens to the depth of my return.
You'll notice that that shot my
return landed much shorter in the court,
allowing him to come in.
And I was actually stopped short of the non volley
zone. Okay, let's try another one. We know what the hard serve can do. Monte,
let's hit
a shot that's maybe a little less hard,
but has a little bit more spin on it. Let's see if that causes problems.
You'll notice. Same thing.
You'll notice my return landed short.
It allowed Monte to start to move up in the court and I'm still short
of the non volley zone. So even though that serve wasn't as hard,
it still caused a problem. Now,
the third way that you can cause trouble for the returner would be
to simply make them move. So go ahead Monte hit a
serve where you make me move.
You'll notice again,
I got away with that a little bit because I managed to hit it a little bit high,
which gave me a little bit more time.
That's actually going to come up in point number two,
but still my return of serve was weak.
Monte gained momentum and was starting to move in.
Okay, let's move on to the return. As the returner,
you are the offensive player because the server has to stay on the
baseline and allow the ball to bounce.
Your goal should be to make the server's third shot,
difficult, a deeper return accomplishes that,
but it's not just the depth of the return.
A hard return that's hit deep is going to get to your
opponent faster.
What you want to focus on would be a deep return that
might be slightly higher to allow you the opportunity
to establish yourself at the non-volley zone.
You'll notice I established at the net where Monte was still
behind the baseline.
So by just taking that ball a little bit higher,
I've gotten to the net and kept him using from using
forward momentum.
Okay. So your third opportunity is the passing shot.
And when I am thinking of a passing shot
here, I'm not thinking of necessarily being right on the line.
I'm thinking of hitting that shot somewhere between here and the line.
That can be an extremely useful shot for you.
When you've got somebody who's big and tall playing doubles,
and they're trying to choke the middle. This kind of keeps them honest.
It keeps him on their side of the court. Now,
the thing about this is if I hit it in the right place,
I'm usually going to cause my opponent to stretch as they stretch the
paddle face, may open.
And that gives sets me up for the next shot. So, okay.
So we're here in Monte. You're going to feed this ball to me.
So even though Monte got that,
he hit a soft shot.
And because I knew that that was good passing shot and that I
was going to get a weak return,
I could start to come into the net,
so work on your passing shots and that will help you in your
doubles game. Singles is your opportunity to take some risk on your serve,
develop a more effective return and learn to hit effective
passing shots. Here's that link. I promised you to the skinny singles video.
If you got value,
make sure that you give it a thumbs up and shows with your pickleball playing
friends because together we can train smart, live bold and age well.