Pickleball Tip of Week #20

Ok,

This weeks tip is a little different. You have an assignment. Watch the following video. It is last weeks Tournament Of Champions in Utah. It was an invite only event which gave out $18000 in prize money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPTR6kBJhwY

Print off this email and follow along as you watch the video.

What i want everyone to see most this week is the half volley Tim Nelson ( young man in Red and Black shirt and in my opinion the best pickleball player in the world)

does at both the return of serve and the third shot. He is half volleying or short hopping the ball.

What this does is two things. It gets him up to the net way quick and throws off the timing of his opponents because he is getting the ball back so quickly.

So understand that Tim and his partner Billy Jacobson ( who happens to be deaf) won the winners bracket and have probably been sitting for several hours waiting for Lavon Majors and Mike Gates to work their way thru the losers bracket. Hence see how many UNFORCED ERRORS Tim and Billy make early in the first game. They are down 1-5 and smartly take a time out to try and stop the momentum and get their game together.

You will see a LOT of advanced strategies in this match. You will see that on most points, the servers partner and the receivers partner are moving back and forth as the serve is made. Tim wants to play most of the points on the left side of the court. This gives him more room to poach with his forehand and cover more of the court. Their opponents are moving back and forth based on their own strategies and to try and get in the heads of Tim and Billy.

At 8:25 you will see Tim fake swing at the ball as Billy is actually hitting it. So early in the first game, Tim and Billy make the most unforced errors. In the middle of the first BOTH teams are making unforced errors and in the end of the first game, Lavon and Mike are making most of the unforced errors. At 8-3-2 Tim is behind and  starts the short hop or half volleys that i am talking about.

In the second game, again Tim and Billy make a lot of unforced errors. At 4-0-1 Tim and Billy again take a time out to try and change the momentum. They go down 0-5, but pull it together and Gates and Majors start making lots of unforced errors and Tim and Billy run out the match with 11 straight points.

Notice the ball catch Tim makes at 22:20 !!!!

Notice what we call the "Erne" poach that Tim does at 27:20. You will see that for about 5 seconds before Tim makes this incredible shot, he is wanting to do it. Unfortunately if you watch it a few times you will see that he does foot fault , but he does it so quickly and from out of nowhere, that the ref does not catch it.

Notice the incredible "misdirection" shot that Tim does at 32:53. A misdirection shot is where you are intentionally telling your opponents one thing with your body/head/hand positioning but then hit it the entirely different way.

So in conclusion, my main goal is for you to see what i am talking about with learning the soft game, limiting unforced errors and TRY OUT THIS SHORT HOP return of serve and third shot that you see Tim doing. When you do it on the return of serve, you want to hit it as deep as possible. When you do it on the third shot you want to drop it soft into the kitchen. Try it , You will be AMAZED at how much quicker this gets you up to the NVZ.