Are you tired of getting lobbed and maybe you don't know how to defend it?
Which partner should chase it down?
Then you're going to want to stay tuned.
Hey, everybody, it's C.J. Johnson.
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One of our presenters, top senior pro
Helle Sparre stopped by pickleball therapy live.
When she was there, one of the questions you had for her was the lob.
And there were a lot of questions about the lob.
We know that's a problem that many of you face.
What do you do?
How do you defend it?
What's the best way to run it down?
If you've got questions, she's got answers.
Helle take a couple of minutes and,
you know, you see the lob a lot in rec play and talk a little bit about
covering the lob and how the team should move.
What are some effective things that people can do?
Yeah, there's a defensive lob and there's an offensive lob, so I assume these would
be offensive lobs if you're caught by surprise, right?
Yeah, if it's a total surprise, the diagonal player from the ball
is always what I call the workhorse and should look for the law.
They are the ones who are farther away
from where the lob came and they have a little bit more time to run it down.
They definitely need to run it down.
If it's over their partner and if it's
over their own head, they should try and take it in the air.
But it's difficult, especially if the lob comes from a dink.
So then they have to run back themselves and get it.
The lob is the first time you might be
saying, well, good shot, and then you remember who did
it and where it came from and then how am I going to get it next time?
And it's better to let it bounce because you have until the second bounce
to go get it just before the second bounce, before it dies.
And that way you have a chance of hitting
a better shot than a poor overhead if the lob came from the kitchen.
If the lob comes from the baseline, you
want to take it out of the air, there's no lob from the baseline that should bounce.
You should have enough time when you at the kitchen line to take that out of the
air because you are on offense up there, a nd once you let it bounce you in defense.
So when the lob is offensive and it comes from as a surprise from the from the no
kitchen zone because we're dinking and all of a sudden here comes that lob.
Yes, we're better off running it back and
I kind of like to run run it back in the form of a heart.
So if it's right over my head.
Don't turn around and run straight back, it will hit you in the top of the head,
but if the bounce is going to be behind my head, then I run.
Either I can't do this this way or this way back.
So you run kind of in a shape or a heart, half of a heart shaped
back and you get out of the place, you will get hit and you focus on winning.
The second bounce is going to be.
Now when we're rec players and they run back, they're not running backwards.
You're turning around, running forward back in the court.
And when you get to that ball, your best shot is to lob it back.
If we've saying we're up here thinking along.
Right.
And then all of a sudden this plane lobs it back here.
Now Red has to run back and get.
That's the first bounce.
So the second bounce will be back here.
So now.
You might say Green should run and get it because it's their forehand.
The ball came from right here.
Green is responsible for.
That area of the court, because if they can Lob it, they can also rip it.
OK, so the risk this person is responsible
for, they can't be thinking lob they're thinking about.
I might be eating a ball in my face right now.
So they are just ready like a wall, like a like a mountain with a paddle up, stoic,
strong and say, bring it on and then they're going to go hard back.
If they're half thinking of running down the lob, they're not going to be as
mountainous and as sturdy to block that ball back.
But this person may you have to be thinking of all the options red has.
I can tell you if they can lob
offensively, they have all shot possible in the book.
One of them being a hard shot right it at green.
So red is farther away.
So that red is facing.
The ball and red is ready for the trip in the middle.
A dangerously wide and the lob all three, so that's how I divide it up, it's not
50/50, so it's kind of one third to two thirds.
Now if the law does come, I go, darn it,
darn it, because I hate this run, but I'm going to have to do it now.
If I'm right handed, I would run this way.
So.
Back to the the spot, so first of all, I get out of the way, I'm turning.
And facing that way,
you turn around and you start running, so you make a turn, and if you have I've
showed it on the court, the two players are standing here
and I say, go, this player goes and this player goes.
Red is the head of Green, Red has a jump start, so Red gets to that
shot quicker than green, red is farther away and red is already facing that way.
They're facing this way because of the crosscourt slant.
So I'm already here with my left foot.
And then I turn around and I run.
And that way I get a forehand.
Now, if I'm a lefty, I might want to run this way, but if there's a fence, I can't
go that way, then it would be this way at the back end.
We need to think about
where the second is and how much time we have to run that lob down.
So we got to get back there, get behind the ball and dig that out.
And then the best shot
since I'm way back there.
I don't want to run up for another drop.
The best shot is the lob, because when you lobbied really hard, this is a defensive
law that comes off the offensive lob from this team and this player goes back.
Now, if you lobbied really hard and this team has to hit it from here.
From this area, remember, defensive labs
they always in you are actually living for one more shot, you don't want to go back
to the baseline, you're going to hit it out.
So you're you're giving them an overhead smash, but you pulled back there.
And for the ball to be in, it has to be in front of you.
So you hit that hard to hear and you're back here.
The lob the overhead will bounce somewhere in the court in front of you and you have
to the second bounce to get it and now you're trying to reset that ball back into
the kitchen and build your way back up again.
So often offensive lob you hit a defensive lob.
I don't like when I'm way back there to to
have to hit a drop in the kitchen and then be my partner all alone up here.
We are not going to win that point. So the lob.
Hi. I get to be.
It's not that I do it every time but that's my number one.
Go to shot is the high lob back.
Sometimes if I'm in better position
it wasn't so deep maybe and I'm only here I can do more of a drop into the kitchen.
I can sometimes even drive it but I need to be ready for the consequences.
This is a defensive shot and do not make any mistakes from defense.
When you're in trouble, get the ball in so they have to hit one more ball.
They might miss it.
Nobody is 100 percent even on an easy put away.
Sometimes they miss it and if they try to
go soft and they miss it in the net, then you get the last laugh.
If they hit a decent overhand,
it will bounce in front of you and you will have a choice of either driving or
dropping or may have to lob one more if you're totally out of position.
If the next overhead was over here, maybe he needs to lob it.
To get back in position again, because from defense, when you lie, but they will
have to hit it and you will be able to get it before the second bounce.
That's something to think about when you're in defense.
How much time you have to get it.
Getting to the kitchen line is not
important when you're in defense, getting the ball over is.
Same scenario, Lord comes, he's going to look at his partner
now, if the partner takes two steps back and can reach it with an overhead.
Then you can stay where should he hit this overhead?
Back in front, especially if he's in trouble, hit it back in front towards the
kitchen, in front of green screens in the right place, if you hit it here and this
guy hits it back down the middle, you have left it open.
But if you can get it lying, if I if I can
get them and I could slice it out here, like soft slice right here.
Like with a little bit of a curve, it's worth taking it out on the air, then we
stay and as soon as I hit this, I'm back over the line again.
But let's say it did bounce.
Once Green sees that I'm letting the ball
bounce, I don't want him to stand up there because it's too much pressure on me to
have to hit a perfect drop here where green is safe.
If I hit any shot to green here or to red on a wall and this guy is in trouble.
So to help this guy go back, eliminate the
gap between you and live for one more shot.
Now, if he back goes back here and now
hits a drop and they the drop, well, maybe they should have lobbed it,
because if you're doing a good job, we need to be coming forward again.
So the highest percentage when you're in real trouble is just lob it back, make
them hit the overhead and play for one more shot.
The drops are good if you look back quick enough and you're in position, but please
drop it in front of your partner who's not as far back as you.
So this players is here and he wants to drop it.
Drop it there.
Do not drop it here.
That creates the gap between you, which I call the w w w wrong way, Wanda.
And that is what my whole system is about, protecting against that bad home.
And I see that a lot.
People say, oh, I'm going to hit the Greens backhand.
Well, Green is standing here with all sorts of holes and options.
And this is not an ideal position when the ball is here.
Paul is here, great position, even though they're not straight together.
I never want you to be straight together like this, except
when we're at the kitchen, we can be even except.
One person is always slightly slanted.
The one who's diagonal from the ball, so one player's like this.
And one player slightly slanted, which gives you a double door in the middle.
So this player.
Can hit that with a back hand right there
and it goes back here or Green can take it.
Earlier with a forehand
and it goes right here, no change of direction
when what when we're standing like this one square to the ball in one diagonal.
We better make sure we we want to change
direction that gives us time to then have the reverse happen.
If the ball goes here, then this player's
straight ahead and this player now takes the law in the middle and the angle.
So every time you change direction, your defense changes.
And that's the fun part of taking other
teams apart because they don't know there's a play like this.
But we do. So we have double coverage in the middle.
We don't ever get beat in the middle.
So much anymore anyway, but we try to
exploit the others, because if they give us right away, Wanda, we are home free.
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