🥒🏓 Tip To Stop Hitting Your Backhand Rolls & Flicks Out Of Bounds

⭐️Strike the ball from a steeper "down-up" incline. This will 👇🏻

✅ Allow you to lift the ball over the net
✅ While providing more topspin to prevent the ball from going out of bounds

🚨The backhand roll and flick are strokes that takes much practice and trial & error with. Discover the little tweaks that work best for you. I find for myself that thinking "down-up" more than forward helps me improve my consistency with those shots 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Tips For 2 Hand Backhand Dink Consistency

1️⃣ Cup your right wrist, so that the paddle tip is at 1 ⏰. Keep that right wrist stable throughout contact. Maintaining the paddle face`s angle will
allow the ball to slide off the paddle face consistently.

2️⃣ Develop rhythm & balance by doing a shuffle step, aligning your feet with the angle the ball is coming from, and squat down with the ball.

3️⃣ Hit the bottom left of the ball & follow through with the top of your left thumb hitting your right shoulder at the end. This will provide spin and fluency with your stroke

🚨 I would first practice hitting this shot cross court to the opponents backhand, as you have more space to work with. Once you become fluent, you should practice hitting this dink to the middle 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Lethal 2-Shot Speed Up Combo

1️⃣ Shuffle your feet to get behind the ball early, so you can move down with the ball, & hold your launching point for a split second.

2️⃣ Deceive your opponents that you will be speeding up down the line with your head, eyes, arms & paddle. This will increase your chances that your opponent is late with their counter, setting yourself up best for your 2nd shot.

3️⃣ Hit a 2 hand backhand topspin speed up, brushing up the bottom left of the ball. I would 🎯 aim just outside their left hip, so they have to reach outside of their left hip with a backhand while not hitting it too wide of their left hip, as that will be your cross court`s opponent`s forehand.

4️⃣ This speed up will lead to the ball being countered most likely to your forehand, which you will attack as your 2nd of the combo, aiming down the middle or at the cross court opponent. Practicing this combo, so you can synchronize your movements, balance, anticipation, and consistency with that forehand you hit the 2nd ball with is key, as that is the shot you will need to win rallies off of speed ups against 5.5+ opponents.

🚨 To clarify, Mikael hit this attack right inside the opponents right hip, not outside their left hip. Because the opponent was fooled and opened up their right side to hit a forehand counter initially before switching to their backhand, Mikael`s attack generated a similar🔻triangle pattern

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🥒🏓 How To Hit A Forehand Topspin Dink

1️⃣ Slightly rotate your forearm & elbow with your wrist serving as an axis. A lot of time I see people attempt this shot by rotating the wrist forward like they are flipping over their 🍳 egg omelette with a spatula. The problem with that is the paddle face then turns, which does not allow the ball to slide off the paddle face. Thus, maintaining the same paddle face angle throughout any shot involving spin is necessary.

2️⃣ 🎯 Aim for the right side of the ball. This will cause more spin, many time even a bit of side spin included, which will allow the ball to spin down and away from your opponents.

3️⃣ Always make micro adjustments with your feet to set yourself in a balanced position behind the ball before going for this shot. Too often I see people attempt this without moving their feet, thus causing them to be unbalanced when striking the ball leading to misses. I like to think of it as if someone rolled a ground ball to me in baseball. Because baseball infielders need to not only field the ball, but also throw the ball to first base. They must align their feet & balance to direct their momentum to first base or else they won`t be able to set themselves up to make a solid throw. Think of dinking like that. Yes, you can get a paddle on the ball without moving your feet many times on a sink, but you won`t be able to land it effectively if you do not align your feet and balance 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Pickleball Tips To Dink Consistently With Your Forehand

1️⃣ Keep your paddle face slightly open, so when you hit the ball, the trajectory will go up over the net while not going too high over the net.

2️⃣ Keep your wrist locked, so the trajectory set by your paddle face being slightly opened doesn`t alter. If you unlock your wrist and fling it up, the ball will fly up.

3️⃣ Face your palm towards you target, as your palm is your compass. Where your palm faces is where the ball will head toward.

4️⃣ Absorb / Use the pace of the incoming ball to control the depth of your dink. As you practice, you will develop an intuitive feel for how to handle various paces 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Pickleball Dink To Protect Your Inside Foot!

Before I committed to playing the right side and training on that side of the court, I used to struggle tremendously handling dinks that were hit at my inside foot. I felt awkward with my feet. I felt handcuffed attempting to hit 1 hand backhand dinks from that position. I would hope my opponents would move the ball to my forehand, UNTIL I studied how the top right side players handle this dink 👇🏻

1️⃣ Step left with your left foot

2️⃣ Then, slide your right foot in to be able to hit this dink with a forehand instead of a backhand

3️⃣ Aim 1 foot inside the crosscourt kitchen corner. This will push your opponent wide, which may cause them to become off balance, create space to attack, and ultimately gain the upper hand in the kitchen battle

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🥒🏓 The Safest Dink In Pickleball

⭐️ Width - dink to the inside (left) foot of the right side player (if they are a righty)

⭐️ Depth - 2 feet inside the kitchen line

⭐️ Why? - This is an uncomfortable spot to hit a backhand dink from. In addition, it is tough for the right side player to hit any aggressive dinks or angles. Finally, there are not any holes to speed up from that position.

⭐️ Application? - Seek to dink to this spot early in a match to see how the opponent responds. Stay there often if they struggle. If they are able to handle it OK, use it as a table setter to set up angled dinks to move your opponents. If they work around to their forehand, hit an angled dink first and then go back to this spot to catch their backhand. Finally, when in doubt or when you are a bit off balanced or uncomfortable, go to this spot as it will allow you restore balance 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 How To Hit The 🍌 ATP

⭐️ To increase your capabilities of hitting the ball around the post, hold the ball & strike the outside of the ball to get used to the feeling of hitting the ball very thin. Hitting the ball this way will cause the ball to curve into the court.

⭐️ In addition, this stroke allows you to stroke the ball fluently without over hitting the ball deep out of bounds.

⭐️ After you practice hitting ATP`s this way, this stroke will become the norm & I assure you will hit many more & from tougher angles than you were previously hitting them from 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Tip On Court Positioning After A ✅ Great 3rd Shot Drop

This is a crucial tip, as I see many players 3.0-4.5 either hanging at the baseline or running up to the kitchen without assessing their partners 3rd shot drop, which creates holes that can be exploited.

How should the serving team position themselves before & after a great 3rd shot drop is hit? 👇🏻

1️⃣ The player NOT hitting the 3rd shot should move up to the transition zone, stabilize their base, and assess the trajectory of their partner`s 3rd shot drop. This player should move up one more big step further and split step AFTER they assess their partner`s 3rd shot drop will be landing in a spot where the opponent will be striking the ball on their 4th shot beneath the net cord. This allows them to poach & attack any ball that is floating and in reach. Furthermore, this positioning now makes the opponents best 4th shot a cross court dink, as any ball hit to this player allows this player to take control of the rally.

2️⃣ AFTER the player hitting the 3rd shot drop assesses their 3rd shot will be landing in a spot where the opponent will be striking the ball on their 4th shot beneath the net cord, the player should take a big step forward and split step, anticipating they may need shuffle wide to get behind the ball to hit an effective 5th shot drop to then become settled at the kitchen line. IF the player who executes the 3rd shot drop shot does not anticipate the opponent hitting a crosscourt 4th shot dink (either out of the air or off the bounce), they will get beat out wide & miss a solid opportunity to get their team to the kitchen line. IF the opponent hits a ball down the middle, your partner should poach & take it! 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Drill For ⚡️Quicker Backhand Volleys

1️⃣ Feeder feeds will hold 2 balls & 2 balls in a row rapidly. The first ball they strike off the bounce at their drilling partner`s chest, as more volleys in pickleball will come from the angle of the opponent striking the ball off of the bounce.

2️⃣ Once the feeder has hit the first ball, they will toss the 2nd ball at their hip level & hit the ball at their drilling partners chest.

⭐️ This drill will improve your technique, reload speed, & balance because you will get exposed if you are too long with your stroke, if you do not get set for the 2nd ball, and/or if you are off balanced after hitting the 1st ball 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Tips For The 🥞🥞 Pancake Volley

⭐️ This is a great shot to learn for when you realize the ball is hit just inside your dominant shoulder. You will get tied up if you attempt a per usual forehand topspin volley. Of course, you can slide to play a one hand backhand volley in these situations, however, consider a situation in which you already committed to your forehand. The pancake volley will bail you out in these situations and allow you to hit a ball low at your opponents feet 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Tips For "What Not To Do" With Your 4th Shot Volleys

⭐️When players hit 3rd shot drives at you, they are seeking to either make you miss, set up their partner for a shake n bake opportunity, set up a solid 5th shot drop opportunity, and/or set up an opportunity to drive the 5th and crash if the 4th shot is hit soft and bounces high at the transition zone.

⭐️ To prevent your opponents from gaining the following advantages, get comfortable responding to 3rd shot drives with hard 4th shot volleys, aimed deep, and below your opponents shins.

⭐️ If they try to blast their 5th shot in response, the ball is most likely going out or will lead to an easy put-away on your 6th. If they attempt a 5th shot drop, it will be a tough, uncomfortable 5th shot drop they will be hitting without much forward momentum. Executing this will not only make it tough for your opponents to get to the kitchen line and/or score points using a 3rd shot drive, but also will discourage the other team from hitting 3rd shot drives and the off ball player crashing hard.

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🥒🏓 Tips To Prep For Better 4th Shot Volleys

FINALLY! Been wanting to do this for a while - tape a clinic mic`d up! As a student of the game and life, I love spreading what I learn with people! Thrilled to show people not only what I do each day, but more-so to spread valuable knowledge to wider audiences! I thank those who have been participating in the "Road To Advanced" Clinic redhookpickleball for supporting the idea and being so enjoyable to work together with! 🙏🏻💯😀

⭐️ What you do before you strike a 4th shot volley may be argued to be just as important as the 4th shot volley strokes themselves. Here are some keys to prepare yourself best to put yourself in the best position to strike 4th shot volleys in response to 3rd shot drives! 👇🏻

1️⃣ Hit deep return of serves, aiming for the back 1/3 of the court to give yourself more time to move into position & react to the 3rd shot drive.

2️⃣ I recommend players experimenting with hitting deep returns a bit loopier to buy them more time to move up close to the kitchen line & split step before they strike their 4th shot volley. I have seen this work wonders for certain people. Of course, if your opponents struggle hitting 3rd shots off of hard return of serves and/or you are able to run, stop, and split step quickly after you hit a return of serve, then stick with that.

3️⃣ Make the forward split step a routine when the opponent is about to strike the ball. It may feel weird at first as a lot of people run forward and hit their 4th shot volley. However, this will give you more time to process whether the ball is to your backhand or forward, more time to assess whether or not the ball is going out, and will allow you coordinate your 4th shot better.

4️⃣ Finally, when striking your 4th shot from a court position between the kitchen line and the transition zone, be sure to close the gap between you and the kitchen line between your 4th shot volley & your 6th shot 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Bounce Serve Tip

🙏🏻 Share this to anyone you know who uses the bounce serve, as these tips will undoubtedly elevate their serve 💯

⭐️ I usually start teaching students to serve out of the air. However, if I notice they are struggling with letting the ball out of their hands and/or with their weight transfer, I have them attempt the bounce serve. Some keys towards consisting landing your serves in with the bounce serve 👇🏻

1️⃣ Hold the ball high. This allow the ball to bounce higher, which will increase your speed on the ball by the time your opponent makes contact. This will also provide maximum time to coil your body back to smoothly engage your lower half in your swing for a powerful weight transfer. Too often I see players hold the ball low and then have to quickly swing their arm forward to hit the ball before it double bounces. This leads to players not using most of their powerful muscles and also having to hit the ball on a steep incline to get it over the net, which will result in a loopy, easy to handle serve

2️⃣ Bouncing the ball in the same spot is key, as you can create muscle memory & make your serve feel routine. When one bounces the ball in different spots, their timing, weight transfer, swing path & contact point will all vary, causing much inconsistency

3️⃣ The rocking forward & back comes natural to me, as I warmed up pitching in baseball from the power position for as long as I can remember by rocking forward then back and then firing forward to release the ball, which enables my lower half to explode forward. Rocking forward and back engages your lower body, providing max power & fluency, preventing you from only using your arms to serve.

4️⃣ Striking the ball at its apex allows for max power & allows you to the hit ball on relatively linear trajectory. This is great to focus on to improve your drives and speed ups as well! 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Serving Tip To Conquer "The Yips"

⭐️ Throughout coaching & playing pickleball, I have witnessed players experience "the yips" serving the pickleball. In addition, I have witnessed players in all sports experiencing "the yips". The first example that comes to my head is Chuck Knoblauch who was the starting 2nd basemen for the New York Yankees during some of their great runs in the 90s and a 4x World Series Champion. Despite developing outstanding baseball skills that earned him to play on the top stage, he developed "the yips", a condition that caused him to have sudden and inexplicable difficulty making accurate throws to first base. Similarly in pickleball, I have seen players develop all skills well, yet miss so many serves in a fashion that they themselves struggled to understand.

⭐️ I had one client serve about 100 balls in a lesson, and they struggled to hit more than 5 in a row and hit about 70% in. However, when I experimented with a backhand serve off the bounce, they made about 95%. Their weight transfer and paddle stability looked fluent. It was a game changer and has resulted in the client conquering "the yips" on the serve. 1000% worth a try if you are struggling with "the yips"!

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🥒🏓 Footwork Tip To Improve Your 3rd Shot Drops & Drives

⭐️ Backwards Split Step after you serve to allow yourself to be able to get behind any ball that is returned to you. Too often I see people unable to get behind balls that are either to the side of them or near the baseline because they get caught standing on the baseline after they serve. In addition, this is will allow you to get your feet set, foundation stable sooner before executing your 3rd shot, which will lead to improving your consistency on your 3rd shots!

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🥒🏓 Tip To Hit Consistent, Effective Serves

✅ Width - Center of the box. This will allow for you to still make your serve even if you happen to miss wide of your target by a few feet. Aiming for the lines may lead to too many missed serves, in turn outweighing the benefit of making your opponents move more to return your serves.

✅ Depth - Aim for the back 1/3 of the court. The deeper your serve is hit, the more time you & your partner have to set yourselves up for your 3rd shot, to make a decision on a middle ball while the opponent has more distance to move up to their desired position to hit their 4th shot - the kitchen line. However, aiming for the back line may lead to too many missed serves, in turn outweighing the benefits of hitting deep serves. Thus, not only will aiming for the back 1/3 will lead to you hitting deep serves in at a higher consistency, but also when do hit the serve a few feet deeper than your target, they will land close to or on the back line, as seen in the clip, which will play well for you!

⭐️ Of course, the more feel you get for this spot, the more you should start raising the bar for yourself by either hitting the ball faster, with more spin, aiming another foot deeper, and/or even a foot towards either side!

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🥒🏓 Tip To 📈 Topspin On Your Serve

⭐️ Shift your grip from a continental grip to an eastern grip by shifting The V in your hand slightly to the right

⭐️ This will allow you to accelerate your paddle face faster upwards, in turn, increasing the topspin applied on the ball 👍🏻

Thank you so much rightsideassassin for helping me create this! I look forward to creating many more mini-tutorials to help pickleball players of all levels 📈 their game & their pickleball experience! 🙏🏻
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🥒🏓 Tip To Hit More ATP`s

Anticipation is the first & most important ingredient towards hitting more ATP`s. Anticipating when your opponent may hit a ball that you can ATP allows for your footwork, timing, and shot execution to fall into place.
As shown here, when my cross court opponent goes to dink a ball out of the air, especially when the opponent is closer to the crosscourt sideline. In this situation, I am responsible for covering middle. At the same time, I know if they decide to hit that ball cross court with topspin, the ball will end up outside the post before it bounces a 2nd time. Thus, I can hit a successful ATP by keeping this in mind and angling & moving my feet to be able to strike the outside of the ball to hit a 🍌ATP. Consider this next time your cross court opponent is in this position 👍🏻
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🥒🏓 Drill To Effectively Use Drop Shots

Too often at the 3.0-4.5 level, I see players hit great drop shots, but either stand at the baseline, which then allows the opponent to keep them there with their next shot, effectively negating the impact of the great drop shot; Or, I see players hit great drop shots, but they then sprint to the kitchen line and get put off balanced by an angled dink, once again negating their great drop shot.

To develop rhythm and maximize your ability to get to the kitchen line effectively, practice the drill above. This will allow you to develop the confidence and muscle memory to execute looking effortless in your next games! 👍🏻

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A Must Do 🥒🏓 Drill For All 🥒🏓 Players

1️⃣ Player A feeds the ball straight ahead and gets set at the kitchen line

2️⃣ Player B at the baseline hits a drive to work on their 3rd shot drives

3️⃣ Player A focuses on hitting a hard volley at their opponents feet to put themselves in an optimal position for their next shot

4️⃣ Player B will split step forward after their previous drive to set themselves up to hit a 5th shot drop aimed at the kitchen line to effectively counter Player A`s volley. This will allow them to move up to the kitchen line to prepare for their next shot

5️⃣ From there, play out the point however you would like! You can get into a long dink rally practicing dinks, play a fast paced style launching speed ups early to practice speed up combos & counters, or anything in between!

🚨 This drill is a great for all players. At the 4.0 & below level, I tend to see many players in tournaments often hitting 3rd shot drives, but either stay back, drive the next ball at their toes, or they put their head down and run forward after their 3rd shot drive leading them to miss or pop up the next ball. This drill will train such players to view their 3rd shot drive as a set up for their 5th shot drop often leading to setting up your team to win more rallies. At the 4.5+ levels, going to the 3rd shot drive into a 5th shot drop during a match can be an X factor when either your drop is off, your opponents have long reach, they are speeding up your drop off of the bounce effectively, or your opponents are hitting effective volleys to prevent a "shake & bake". On the other side of the court, this drill helps the feeder practice handling the fast pace of 3rd shot drives to effectively hit hard volleys that are tough to 5th shot drop. Doing so, will prevent teams from eating you alive!

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3 minutes of non-stop pickleball magic from this weekend’s session at one of the many new clubs on Long Island - @lihealth_and_racquet.setauket @lihrsetauket Fun fact, I worked here in 1998 when it was World Gym.

#pickleball #thepickleballindex #pbindex #longislandpickleball ...

Any thoughts on this Chrome Gold @dopepickleball paddle that will be featured in a Super Bowl ad?

#pickleball #pickleballpaddles #pickleballpaddles ...

FootWORK…….Want to improve at pickleball? Get a coach. Lose the ego. Drill. Work on your own. Video yourself. Focus on boring, but extremely important things like footwork.

Footwork has to be the most underrated technical aspect of pickleball and lack of good footwork will get exposed more and more as you level up.

Like me, you may know for the most part what good pickleball footwork looks like, but can’t quite commit it to muscle memory. I could use another lesson from one of the pros on thepickleballindex.com, but until then I’m shuffling every chance I get.

#pickleball #thepickleballindex #pbindex #longislandpickleball #pickleballinspiration ...

Did you catch that elf in the kitchen?

Had fun making this one, hope you pick up a few things to think about out there on the pickleball court.

Looking for local Long Island Instructors to take a lesson with or want to battle in a local tourney? Check out thepickleballindex.com - link in bio.

📍 @picklenpar Smithtown
🏓 @choruspickleball @bnbpickleball @proxrpickleball @joolapickleball

#pickleball #longislandpickleball #thepickleballindex #pbindex #pickleballmemes #pickleballfunny ...

@pickleballpellegrino learns from his mistakes
@body_bag_pb winning as usual
@thepickleballindex constantly attacking
And Mims ran, he ran so far

📍 @pickleballhallsayville
🏓’s @choruspickleball @addictpickleball @sixzeropickleball @gearbox_pickleball

#pickleball #longislandpickleball #thepickleballindex #pbindex #pickleballhighlights #pickleballmemes #pickleballfunny ...

Share this with a chill guy who just wants to drive.

Listen, the meta is turning in our favor. If you want a drop, return to my partner.

#pickleball #pickleballmemes

🏓 #ronbusripple ...

Highlights from @goodgame_pickleball ‘s Prostate Cancer Awareness Tournament @paddles_up_pickleball.

Find more great Long Island Pickleball Tournaments like this on thepickleballindex.com

#pickleball #pickleballtournament #longislandpickleball #pickleballhighlights ...

What level is this epic impromptu team pickleball battle that broke out last night @picklenpar Smithtown?

Featuring @james_kavv @abbyharper_ @ryanreed1995 @ryanbakeer @robby.pickles @digua53 @charlie71091 @kylemacknight

#pickleball #teampickleball #thepickleballindex #pbindex #pickleballhighlights #longislandpickleball #longisland #pickleballlevel ...

I’ll take the whole place down if I have to…

📍 @pickleballhallsayville
🏓 @ronbus_pickleball Ripple R1
👕 @varsitypickle

#pickleball #thepickleballindex #pbindex #longislandpickleball #pickleballhighlights #amateurpickleball #aroundthepost #pickleballatp ...

5 reasons in < 5 seconds we couldn’t get into this point…

1. @pickleballpellegrino hits a great, deep return to set the stage

2. The returner decides to drive crosscourt which is a dangerous play, especially if their 👇

3. Partner (moi) decides to creep in and maybe crash

4. And split steps too late

5. Returning team recognizes this and hits a great volley behind crashing partner

Takeaways:
1. Hit deep returns.
2. Don’t drive crosscourt unless it’s a perfect situation.
3. Stay patient and 4. under control as the partner of the person hitting the 3rd.
5. If you are the returning team and notice this, try volleying behind the crasher.

I’ve got numerous examples of this exact situation on tape, so thought I’d make a video to help you and remind myself to avoid it!

#pickleball #thepickleballindex #longislandpickleball #pbindex #pickleballtips

@mtino91 @pickleballhallsayville ...

Robby couldn’t wait to tell Mom about his perfect ATP

#pickleball #thepickleballindex #longislandpickleball #pickleballhighlights #pickleballmemes #pickleballfunny #memesofpickleball #pickleballhumor ...