Do you ever have a problem knowing when to take the ball out of the air,
if you do, you don't want to miss out on today's drill?
Hey, everybody, it's C.J. Johnson here at Better Pickleball.
We are dedicated to helping players over
50 live their best lives on and off the pickleball courts.
If you're not sure when you should be
taking the ball out of the air, you're not alone.
It's a common mistake that we see and
today's drill is going to help you to fix it.
I want to give a special shout out to Tyson Mcguffin.
Jeannie and I have been doing this
drill and it really helps to, helps you, helps us to define when we want to take
the ball out of the air and when we want to let it bounce.
One of the things that I see players do to
much of is they back away from the non-volley zone line
and then the cardinal sin is to back away and not come back forward.
So there are times to that point,
but you always need to make sure that you come back to.
This is going to help us to learn when we should be volleying.
What I did is I've got we've got volcano cones with balls on top.
They're placed about six inches into the non-volley zone.
And what they're designed to do is here I
can comfortably defend the balls on my side of the court.
If they are too far in I'd be reaching too much.
And if I'm reaching too much, I shouldn't be taking the volley, the ball out of air.
I should allow it to bounce and then hit the next shot.
So the goal here, we're just going to play a dink game. We
don't really pay a ton of attention to the
baseline or to the non-volley zone line as the baseline here.
We do pay attention to the sidelines. This is a non-volley zone line game.
We play to 11.
If I happen to hit any of Jeanie's balls, I get three points.
Same goes for Jeanie if she happens to hit any of my balls.
So let's see what happens here.
All right.
I let that one bounce.
That I had to take out of the air because I'm defending my cone.
Whoops, I should have let that one bounce.
We're starting to get a few out balls here,
but the point here
is just to get to a point where you're comfortable starting to realize when you
should take the ball out of the air when you shouldn't.
I
hit that one in the net. Zero one, let's go again. I need to let that bounce i
t was too far in front of me.
Same with that one.
Whoa, that's getting a little close. I needed to take out of the air.
I am watching her feet and thinking about
where I'm going to place that ball instead of watching the ball.
Nice shot. Zero two.
Oh, you see, she had to do that one
because that was going to hit the cone. Good try on the defense and s
he just actually missed it.
All right.
Net's higher on the far side ri
ght? What do you got?
One-three, I think.
Oh, come on. If it's inside of this cone
I really shouldn't be taking that ball out of the air, right?
I should allow it to bounce even if I have to back up a little bit.
That's OK.
Allow it to bounce, because if I try and take the ball to
far in front of me, I'm probably going to pop the ball up in the air.
I think we've got two for me three you.
I should not have let that bounce.
We had a little wind here today in case you can't see it. So that adds a
little interesting spin on to all the balls.
But, hey, that's what you're going to have when you're outdoors and you're playing.
You may have some n really windy days.
I think we got
two-four or five.
All right let's put it in play.
I should not have let that bounce.
She had to take that one . I should have let that one bounce see how that's in front?
Well, I'm letting them get a little too close.
What you want to do is you want to keep
playing this game, we'll play a game, like I said, up to 11 points.
But what it's going to teach you is the
right time to take the ball out of the air.
It should be so that you're comfortable defending, not having to reach, to defend.
Put that in practice.
Let us know down in the comments how this drill does for you, because you know what
I always say together we can train smart, live bold and age well.