Do you know where to hit this third shot?
CJ when we asked the question of our
community about this, I did not expect the number of responses.
I'm so happy that they did though.
If you haven't seen the original videos,
the question and the answer video, we got you covered.
It's at the end of a very quick survey.
Click the link down below in the show notes.
If you have already seen those videos,
stay tuned because we have a few comments on the comments that you made.
Congratulations to those of you who went
through the process, who listened to the question video and then formulated an
answer before putting your answer in the comments.
It's the process that's so important to your learning sometimes.
CJ we want to get to the answer so this is set up and if you haven't seen it yet,
highly recommend you click on the link and do the process.
It'll really help you out.
It's set up as a question and answer so you get the question video.
Struggle with it a little bit before
you watch the answer video because getting the answer isn't the key here.
The key is the thought process.
It's the thought process that you can take out onto the court with you the next time.
So if you learn how to think, that's where you're going to see improvement in the
strategies that you use on the courts and that the shots you plan accordingly.
Yeah, definitely. Going through the process is so important.
And listen, a lot of the answers that we got in the comment section or in the
comments underneath the videos did not correlate exactly with our recommended
shot selection, what we would consider the optimal shot selection a lot of times.
CJ and there's nothing wrong with it.
We come in with preconceptions and it's
good to explore those preconceptions to see if they're the best way to play.
Tony I think by looking at some of those
answers, it's easy to understand where some of those preconceptions come from.
If you look at YouTube and you were just
to put in third shot in the search, you're going to get a variety of mostly how to
videos how do I hit this shot versus where do I put this shot?
So I think a lot of that adds to some of those preconceptions or those bias that we
bring when we're working through those types of exercises.
Yeah, absolutely.
The amount of noise that's out there in YouTube videos and it's hard to figure out
which one is the right one in a given situation.
And so that's something that I know we're going to talk about it in a minute in
terms of framework, but that is so important.
And the same thing with in person instruction.
A lot of times the instructor is focused
on the mechanics, the technique of the shot, which makes sense.
You need that, right, but part of the
bigger picture is what shot to hit when, what we call the strategic pillar.
When you have an instructor and you're on court with someone, very rarely does the
conversation turn to, when do I use this shot?
We're so focused on the mechanics and we're tied up, and I think almost bound by
the mechanics, that we think of that first instead of in an order that we think will
be more helpful to you and help you to play your best.
CJ I know in a minute we're going to do that.
The point breakdown to show how the ABCDE
where to hit the third shot applies in a real game situation.
But let's complete the cycle here.
The thought process on this mechanical piece that you that you mentioned, and I
think that the issue there is that players are stymied in their advancement because
they don't have a clear understanding of framework of the game.
Exactly. I think that and I'm going to pull up this
slide because this shows how we think about the game and
the way we teach inside of the pickleball system.
When players are approaching learning pickleball, when they're trying to learn
pickleball, we're most often consumed by the shots first.
So we're thinking shots, how do I do this?
How do I hit this particular shot?
Some players then start to advance to strategy at some point in time.
But having the shots or the strategy without understanding what is the
framework of the game, which dictates what the objectives are.
The game of the game are
you don't have the full picture, you don't know what shot to hit when.
And if you don't understand the full
picture, it's difficult to execute in real time.
Absolutely.
CJ and an example of that is this maximum that we hear, forehand in the middle.
Forehand in the middle is one of those things that players talk about.
They say it a lot and they lean on it a lot, but it's really not a good premise.
If you understand the framework,
objectives, strategy, and shots, then you're able to challenge that notion that
preconception that we talked about and advance your game.
So, Tony, why don't we use a point breakdown to illustrate these concepts?
Point breakdown? CJ has like candy to my ear.
So what we're going to do here is I'm going to pull up this rally.
This is a rally at the gold medal match at
the senior Pro mixed division of the PPA Lake Nona, the Hertz Championship.
You can see it was like, in the middle of the night.
It looks like it was late in the day. Everybody was done.
We got to play on the center court, which was kind of neat.
So you'll see I'm there on the right side
of the screen with a pink bandana on my trademark dink bandana.
Don't copy it, anybody.
And Leslie Bernard, my partner, is getting ready to serve.
And our opponents, Dave and Sahon, are on the left side of the court.
And what you're going to see as I run through this is you're going to see a
short return of serve hit in this case, and I'm going to stop it there.
And then I'm going to go through and show
you what the shot options are and what the best option is here.
So as we run through this, we'll see the serve get executed.
A good deep serve pushes Sahan back.
I'm going to stop it here, and you can see that Sahan has not made it up to the non
volley zone line, which is the exact same scenario that we had in the ABCDE.
The only difference here, folks, is the left to right is different.
But that's life sometimes.
And we do have to deal with left to right pick a ball.
So we'll deal with that here as well.
So the question here is, where should I hit this ball?
Should I hit the ball to position positions A-B-C-D or E?
And again, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go back now.
Go back, click on the link below, take the survey, watch those two videos, and then
you're going to come back and watch this whole video again.
And it'll all gel beautifully for you.
But basically the idea is, should I hit it
to Dave, who's up, or to Sahan, who's moving up?
The optimal answer is we hit it to the player who has not made it up, in this
case, Say Han, who's in the transition zone.
You'll see, I hit a drive towards her there.
As she's moving, she ends up hitting the
ball wide, and we end up winning the rally.
So it's a really effective technique that
you can use if you understand the framework, objective strategy, and shots.
So, Tony, if you had hit the third shot based on the preconceived notion that many
players have that traditional third shot drop, Sahan would have come up to the
nonvolley zone and you would have missed that opportunity.
Absolutely. CJ.
And this is why understanding framework and objectives is so important, because I
have a clear understanding of positional advantage and disadvantage.
If I can keep, Sahan, in a positional disadvantage, I'm going to do that.
And that's going to give me, me and Leslie an easy opportunity to score the point.
I think that's one of the things we sometimes get from players is, well, teach
me this strategy or teach me that strategy.
And that's not the most effective approach.
You need to understand these objectives in order to formulate your strategy.
I think that also speaks to, like,
clearing the mind to being able to see what's going out on the court.
Right, Tony? Absolutely.
And if you want to really grow as a pickleball player, if you're intent on
really understanding pickleball, the framework is just so important.
And like I just referred to, positional
advantage, disadvantage, that is Greek to most players.
If you're Greek, maybe you understand it, but it's Greek to most players.
And if you don't really understand those, it's very difficult to advance.
I cannot recommend enough to pick a ball
system to you if it's something that you want to grow and learn about it.
So go on back, take the survey, look at the question and the answer videos again.
Work your way through it.
Remember, that's part of the learning process.
Now you've got a few more insights into why maybe you chose some of the shots that
you chose and perhaps you will find a more optimal shot.