Pickleball isn't just about hitting great shots.
That's right it's not just about great shots. Pickleball is full of strategies
and today I want to talk about one of the basic strategies of pickleball.
You got it if you got 'em back keep 'em back. Stay tuned.
I was absolutely amazed to find that cheer. It was a bad cheer back then and it just
really hasn't gotten any better. Hey everybody it's CJ Johnson.
Today we're going to talk about pickleball strategy. Specifically keep them back. If
you got them back there keep them back and if you can push them back that's
pretty good too. But before we get to that if you won't mind if you haven't
already done so if you'd hit the subscribe button over here on the left
hand side. That tells YouTube that you find this content important and you'll
get a notification anytime that I post a new video that way you won't miss
anything valuable that I put out in the future. Thank you so much for taking just
a little bit of time and doing that. I really appreciate your support. When
we're talking strategy it's important to understand the nature of pickleball and
when you're on the offense and when you're on the defense. Pickleball is one
of the few sports where the serving team is actually put on the defense and it's
because of that two bounce rule. The serving team has to stay at the back and
therefore the receiving team is allowed a little bit of extra time to get to the
net. In pickleball whoever controls the net controls the point. One of the things
that I've been seeing a lot lately probably more so with a 3.o level player
but sometimes with the 3.5 as well as the 4.0 is they're in
control. Their team is at the non-volley zone and their opponents are
at the back of the court. Instead of continuing to hit it to the back and to
hit it at their opponents feet they try and hit this soft little
drop-shot at the net. Well basically one of three things can happen.
Number one yes you could conceivably hit a winner. Number two you could hit it
into the net and number three you've now invited the team at the baseline to the
net and you've completely given your advantage away. So since hitting a winner
is only good about maybe one third of the time and very few people have the
touch to hit that shot consistently. The best thing that you can do is keep them
back. Let's watch how some of the top pros keep their opponents at the back
and on the defensive.
Here we've got Tereshchenko and Elliot with their back towards us against
McGrath and Ansboury in the farcourt. Irene hits a high third shot
which Sarah then uses to keep her at the back of the court. When the point ends
neither Elliot nor Tereshchenko have worked their way into the non-volley
zone. They've been on the defensive the whole entire time.
With their back towards us is Williams and Schwarz and in the Far Court our
Lucore and the Hamner. What you'll notice is that when the third shot again
is just a little bit high Bonni takes advantage of that and keeps Hamner and
Lucore at the back of the court. It's not until they hit a third shot which is
still a little high but Bonnie allows the ball to bounce which that gives them
a little time to work themselves into the net, they even up the point and
eventually win it. We've got Robertson Rickard with their back towards us and
Weinbach and Moore in the Far Court. You'll notice here once again that third
shot is hit just a little bit high and Scott Moore takes advantage of it
keeping that team back. Each time the shot comes back they're unable to soften
it and it comes a little bit higher and a little bit higher and he continues to
push them back in the court until they eventually win the point.
Here's an example of why you may not want to get too cute with that third shot. We've got
Rozpedski and Evans with their back towards us and Yates and Gabrielsen in
the far court. After a fairly lucky lob to even things up and put their team on
the offensive Morgan Evans tries a short little shot to the corner but Wes
Gabrielsen is one of the quicker players in the game he manages to get
there and forces Rozpedski to hit one more shot to make it a winner.
The bottom line is this when you control the non-volley zone stay on the offensive
keep that other team on the defensive keep them back in the court. If you got
value from this video if you wouldn't mind giving it a little thumbs up or sharing
it with your pickleball playing friends. This is such a robust community and I
love that you're sharing your tips with other people. If you would put a comment
down below how did you learn to keep your opponent's at the baseline
when you have control of the non-volley zone. We'd love to know because together we can
Train Smart, Live Bold, Age Well