When 🥒🏓 Angles Beat 🥒🏓 Power

⭐️ When players are teeing off on your powerful attacks, especially balls you are making contact at around chest level, consider taking some speed off and angling the ball instead

⭐️ Your opponents will probably over commit to your powerful attack, leading them to be off balanced preventing them to neutralize your angled off speed attack

⭐️ At the very least, they may get the ball over the net with your team being in an even better position to win the rally, as illustrated above

🚨Take speed off the ball by focusing much more on spin then power & aim deeper than a normal aggressive dink, a foot beyond the kitchen on this off speed angled attack, as this will make it much tougher for them to align their feet and balance to return your shot. Without taking off speed, you may strike the ball out of bounds. Without aiming deeper than a usual aggressive dink, your opponents may be able to drop step, get behind the ball, and hit an effective defensive dink.

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🥒🏓 Tournament Prep Tip!

1️⃣ Hit up either your tournament partner, a drilling partner, or a local coach to feed you balls with you at the baseline to get tons of reps hitting aggressive 3rd shot drops & 3rd shot drives w/ 5th shot drops

2️⃣ Keep the end in mind during the session- developing unshakeable confidence in your ability to get your team to the kitchen at the highest rate. Analyze your shots as a 3rd party to quiet down the ego and your emotions. Focus on developing rhythm, make minor tweaks as necessary to increase consistency rate to a point at which you can confidently visualize yourself executing in your tournament games! 👍🏻

Thank you matt.finno brunofaletto & mikaelvoll_pb for taking the time this week to feed a ton of balls for me to get reps on these shots 🙏🏻

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🥒🏓 Drill For Covering The Middle Better

🚨 Often when teams successfully attack down the middle, it comes from the right side player`s forehand. In this situation, the left side player on the team defending, should focus on countering the down-the-line attack, an attack on their body, & an attack to the right of their right shoulder they do not have to move step to the middle for. Any attacks down the middle that the left side player must move to cover for, should be taken by the right side player. This is because the left side player can only cover so much space on a counter in a short period of time. Delegating responsibility to the right side player to counter attacks that are down the middle will lead to a more formidable defense, as the right side player does not have to focus on countering attacks on the right side of their body from this angle, as those attacks will be heading out of bounds. Provided that, it is essential right side players work on countering such middle attacks. For right handed players who don`t stack & play the left side exclusively, drilling the progression above will help your teams play at a higher level. Below are some keys to executing the 2 handed backhand counter showed above.

1️⃣ Bend your left wrist back with your hand facing to the left. This will allow you whip the paddle with more velocity & help generate top spin

2️⃣ Feel stable on your lower half to allow for max power and consistency

3️⃣ Feel loose with the upper half of your body to allow your arms to whip through the ball

4️⃣ Aim for the left side of the ball, focusing on getting on top of the ball, so you counter downwards, which will put your opponent at a disadvantage

Thank you to matt.finno for drilling with me often, providing valuable constructive criticism, and valuing my feedback to him as well! Looking forward to seeing him continue to improve upon his skills & impressive tournament performances on the ppa.challenger ! Thank you egoathletica for prepping me for the summer weather & humidity! Looking forward to more apparel coming out soon! Use code DEAN at checkout for 15% off 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 How To Return The Best Lobs

1️⃣ Recognize the opponent deceived you, hit a lob with optimal pace, height, & depth, as such lobs will prevent you from being able to hit an overhead

2️⃣ Drop step as if you are going for a fly ball in baseball to allow to accelerate quickly to the baseline

3️⃣ Stutter step & position your wrist you are using for the drop shot behind the ball, so you can move forward & hit the ball over the net

4️⃣ At this stage in the rally, you are in the same situation as if you just hit a 3rd shot - you analyze how you hit the ball to determine where you should position yourself next. If you execute a successful drop like I did here, you will be able to move up to the transition zone to set your team up for a drop shot or reset at the transition zone to get your team to the kitchen line OR you will earn a dead dink to speed up like I did here to put pressure on your opposition 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Tip For When Your Partner Hits A Great Drop Shot

1️⃣ Move into the transition calmly as your partner is striking the ball

2️⃣ When you notice the drop shot will cause your opponent to either reach low or short hop / scoop the return of the drop shot, take 1 more step forward

3️⃣ Push off your outside foot explosively as your opponent is about to make contact

4️⃣ Bury the attack behind your opponent who is striking the ball for an easy winner! 👍🏻

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3 Benefits Of "Split Stepping" In Pickleball 🥒🏓

1️⃣ 📈 Resets

2️⃣ 📈 Counter Attacks

3️⃣ 📈 Ability To Let Out Balls Go

⭐️Be sure to be light on your feet when split stepping, lean a little forward in a powerful position, and do so as your ball is crossing over the net, so you are not moving when they strike the ball. This footwork tip will work wonders. It allows the top pros in the world to make some of their gets look so easy!

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🥒🏓 Tip For 📈 Topspin On Forehand Volley

1️⃣ Paddle head pointing down at 5 O`Clock

2️⃣ Strike the right side of the ball at 4 O`Clock

3️⃣ As if are turning a door knob really fast

⭐️ To drill this shot, have your drilling partner feed balls are around your shin level from anywhere between the transition zone and the baseline. The lower the ball is, the more crucial it will be to get that paddle head down and whip that door knob open to put shape / top spin on the ball and get it over the net.

⭐️ Developing confidence in this shot is crucial for increasing the pressure you can apply on your opponents when they are not at the kitchen line yet. In addition, this will allow you to attack a wider range of balls at the kitchen line, making it tougher for your opponents to neutralize your ability to attack on your forehand 👍🏻
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