This is some footage from the USAPA National pickleball championship that was just held
in Casa Grande Arizona.
This is the men's doubles and with their back towards us you've got Matt Staub and Daniel
Moore.
They ended up finishing second in the men's doubles 19-plus and I think one of the reasons
is that obviously they play really well as a team together.
What impressed me about this point was their movement back and forth and how they mirrored
each other and made it very difficult for their opponents Morgan and Marcin to get the
ball past them.
So here's the same point in slow motion.
I really like to slow down video and watch what the players are doing as they move.
So here they come in and here comes the third shot drop and you'll notice that Daniel hits
a little bit high and Matt notices that so he backs up gets in a defensive position and
he softens the shot so that they now can both come up to the net.
Notice how they’re right at the non-volley zone and they're right together.
Again it was described to me as if my partner is right alongside me not forward of me or
backward me that we form a wall and that wall makes it extremely difficult for somebody
to get past us In fact Laura Fenton-Kovanda when she gave us a clinic here in Incline
talked a lot about working somebody to get them to come back off of the line so that
there is an opening to make an attack shot.
Perhaps somebody hits a shot and doesn't come right back up as in this instance you see
Matt's back just a little bit now he comes back up to the line so the two of them again
are forming that wall.
Here does it great right he takes two steps back but again look how he comes forward to
that line now he's forcing that shot to go over to Daniel forcing him to hit that way
and then they come back and again they're covering the center.
They’re covering that whole non-volley line and any time they step back from it they get
right back up to the line.
What I've noticed with my play as well as some of the people that I play with we do
a really good job of getting up to the line but sometimes we don't always stay there when
our opponents use the opportunity to drive us back we don’t always go back to the line.
We take that one step back and then we tend to stay there or we take that two steps back
and then continue to go back and what this team really clearly shows here actually both
teams is as we know you need to control than that net play.
If you can control the net you have a greater advantage now what I wanted to show you is
an example perhaps of some of the things that I know we do and maybe you do these things
to in terms of getting to the net and playing as a team.
I shot some video with some friends and what you're going to notice in this very first
video is that we never fully capture the net.
Debbie starts to come up and instead of going straight to the net on the next shot she stays
back and there's a big difference in where we are we are.
Not side by side with each other so taking this point I've slowed this one down.
She hits a really great shot nice and deep comes in she has to stop and
wait for the return it's a good return but you'll notice that she doesn't follow it up
to the non-volley zone and she gets out of this Jam by hitting a fantastic lob but you'll
notice here instead of coming in she backs away from the net and we really don't control
that non volley zone.
Really only win the point by the fact that Bill hit it out.
Here's another point and what you'll notice in this particular point is now we're at the
net but we don't stay at the non-volley zone.
So after the return the third shot which is going to come up here from Mark comes up a
little bit high.
I hit a smash that's not real great I don't turn my shoulders much and that gives Bill
the opportunity to return the shot.
Now she is going to take that shot because it's her forehand what you'll notice is she
hits the shot but instead of going forward she steps back and by stepping back she puts
herself out of position and then misses the next shot.