Here's How to Control Your Opponent
Hey Everyone! 👋
I’ve been absolutely BLOWN away with how much positive feedback I received from the first newsletter. I appreciate the comments and how excited everyone is! 🥳🎉
Lucky for you, we’re just getting started! My entire goal for this newsletter is to give you the information needed in order to improve and reach 5.0 status. 🏆
If this newsletter helps you reach that goal, then I’m reaching mine!
In today’s email:
🤫 EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: How to control your opponent at the kitchen line
🧠 Feed your pickleball brain
⏱️ Get your 60-second fix
🙋♂️ What I’m working on right now
PS - For all of you who referred people to my newsletter, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
The first ten that referred ten or more will receive an email from me tomorrow with details on how to claim their FREE Virtual Coaching Session with me.
Now, let’s help you get better at pickleball!
Take Dinks Out Of The Air to CONTROL Your Opponent
A must-have skill if you want to reach 5.0 is the ability to take dinks out of the air and control your opponent.
Here’s how:
🐍 Hit a good dink then lean in
When you hit a dink that you can be aggressive on, you want to lean into the kitchen with your paddle to shrink the kitchen for your opponent. By doing this, you’ll force them to hit a better shot or pay the consequences.
✅ Lean in - all the way
When I teach this, players often think that simply holding their paddle out is what I mean by leaning in.
No. 🤦
Leaning in means leaning in all the way. Your arm should be completely outstretched, and you should have your weight on the balls of your feet. Pretend you’re trying to touch the net with your paddle.
That’s leaning in.
🤚 Stay back only if it’s shallow
If you did this on every dink, you’d get tired and likely fall over. We should just be leaning in like this on good, aggressive dinks. These are dinks that force our opponent to take a step back, left, or right.
It’s these aggressive dinks that will cause our opponent to leave a ball up that we can take out of the air or attack.
If it’s deep (meaning close to their feet 🦶), then lean in. If it’s shallow, stay back. 🤔
🔔 Practice
Even when you’re just warming up, you can practice this. Take note of every dink you hit. If you hit it deep, lean in to take the next one out of the air. If it’s shallow stay back. 🙇♂️
By practicing this often, you’ll learn how to recognize prime attacking opportunities quickly. 👀
If you want to drill, do it with someone who also understands this concept so you can help each other get better. That’s how you raise your skill level. 📈
RAISE YOUR PICKLEBALL IQ 🧠👇
“Instead of trying to end a point immediately, try setting up your opponent by moving them right 👉, then left 👈. Causing them to move will open up holes, leaving you a better chance to hit a winner. 😎”
How to Defend Against Drives Like a Pro
In today’s game, everyone is driving the ball more and more. It is crucial that you learn how to defend drives properly if you want to keep up. 🏃♂️➡️
Watch this video clip to learn how to defend yourself against drives. 💪
IN UNDER 60 SECONDS 👈
A Flicking 🤭 Good Tip
This past week, my personal training focus has been HEAVILY on my..
Backhand Flick ☄️💣
This is SUCH an important shot, if you’re looking to compete at the highest level possible, you have to dial this in. 👀
I’ve always naturally had a pretty good flick. However, from my natural swing path, the ball would always go to the same spot: through the middle. Facing off against opponents in the Pro Division doesn’t cut it, and it made me predictable. 🤦♂️
I spent an entire week having my mom throw me balls to flick down the line (thanks, Mom). Also, in rec games, I would only flick down the line; no more middle! 📝
You have to have both shots; through the middle, and down the line with the flick.
Since you’re flicking balls out of the air, the opponent has little time to react. They can only guess. Most players can only flick through the middle due to the natural swing path, so it allows the opponent to guess (accurately) more times than not. ⏰
When you attack down the line, it forces your opponent to adjust. It also forces the cross-court player to really commit heavily to the middle so their partner isn’t caught guessing the wrong spot. This, alone, opens up an array of shots that keep your opponents on their toes. 🎁💥
Long story short… make sure you learn to backhand flick down the middle and the line.
🙌 🎉 🥳