Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Pickleball Tip of Week #34

Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday season. Anita and i were without PB for two weeks. One on a cruise and the other visiting family in Maryland.

Todays tip will be on stroking NOT pokeing the ball.
Many of my tips come from my observations while playing or more likely while sitting on the bench watching others play. I was lucky enough to play a couple of games this morning with National Doubles Champion..... Brian Staub. After playing with him as my partner i took a break and watched from the side lines.

Brian is one of the sports TOP players. He also has a text book swing at the ball. For those of you that havent watched it ....go to ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhkjNsEA9_w

 ....... and watch the mens open doubles finals from last month. Notice how Brian and ALL the top players are very relaxed and smooth in their stokes. They anticipate where and how their opponents will be hitting the ball. They move to that point and get their paddle back early and smoothly without rushing... hit the ball.

This is in contrast to what i see lower level players doing...which is NOT anticipating, NOT moving to where the ball will be coming to and NOT swinging smoothly and without rushing the shot. These lower level players seem to wait until the last moment and then POKE at the ball which gives them MUCH less control on the shot.

If you want to improve and play like a top player, then you want to do the things that the top players do. You should spend time each week watching videos of top players doing what they do best. Great PB>
jeff shank

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