The dinking tips- which sums up to dinking with intention/purpose- applies to all the shots we are trying to learn/do. It is so true about being reactive- when just learning the game. A local coach had us reversing the scoring in a doubles match- he had each of us scoring our own errors and first to 11 is the biggest "loser". This completely changed how we played our rec games, as suddenly, you were so aware of your contribution to losing the point and which particular error you keep making. It also showed us how "present" you need to be on each point to not be the person the loses that point. We all agreed it was the most mentally exhausting game after, but we did play so much better.
John, I’ve always said your analogies, and the way you explain things is fantastic! Tomorrow I am going to stop being reactive, and point my paddle toward the ball! 😊
Great tips that I wrote in my notes. May I suggest you can expand each tip into its own video as an on going series. Call it Tipping like a 4.0 Moving like a 4.0 Dinking like a 4.0😊
As a player that has progressed from 3.0 to a solid 4.0, I would add the ability to hit a drop shot from anywhere on the court with both forehand/backhand a definite MUST HAVE! Your proactive skill over being reactive explanation was great and so true! I would also add that you must develop spin especially topspin.
Yeah, flipping the mindset is something I learned from golf. The brain doesn’t respond to negatives, like don’t slice into the lake. Instead phrase in a positive way like aim left. I hadn’t thought about it in a pickleball context, but it makes sense and I’ll try to apply it.
At the very end of the video you spent about 18 seconds explaining why pulling the handle will get the face to square up. I’ve never heard that before and tried it when I played the next morning and some of my volleys surprised me how well I hit them. I’d love to see you do a video or part of a video expanding that concept because I’m not sure I captured enough from your short description. Thank you as always.
I think you could expand on the dinking to say that every shot needs to be hit with purpose. If you’re hitting a ball to a spot, there should be an expected outcome for why you chose that shot as opposed to another. Really like the tip to the ball drill to help minimize the over swinging.
Any word from Titan Ball Machines on the 24 drill app update? I keep having to shuffle my 12 slots around and am looking forward to the update. Thanks!
Great video! Very helpful! However, I have a request. So many players don't know what level they are or overrate themselves. When you say 3.0 or 4.0 what do you mean? What delineates a 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, etc...? What skills does a 2.5 have to acquire to be a 3.0 etc...?
@@johncampbell3912 The different rating systems are horribly divergent. I was almost a 4.0 on paper a year ago. Now with an extra year of practice, I'm close to holding my own with tournament-rated 3.75s. The pickleball hotbeds (e.g. Florida, Arizona) all seem to think their 3.5s would whupp anyone else's 4.0s. Here are some notes of my own. Most of the more athletic 3.5s I've played against are able to cover the whole court, can poach on the hop, and can defend lobs without looking like idiots. They don't have all the strategy, but the ball rarely passes them because they are hopelessly out of position. They use drops, but they often prefer drives. Some of them will run to mid-court to also drive their 5th shot. This usually ends in disaster against an equal or better opponent, but they hardly ever notice. Run fast, hit hard. Lather, rinse, repeat. They excel at picking their spots on loose balls, so they clean up on the 3.25s and make little progress against solid 3.75s who don't fluff the ball nearly so much. They take high risk shots to the outside, which they often make (until the pressure ramps up), but they would be better off taking lower risks shots to the center. Most legit 3.75s I've played against find it pretty normal to have to slowly claw their way to the kitchen, and maybe not get there until the 7th shot. The might even flub a drop shot and back up a step to chip back an off-speed smash, making the journey even longer. Especially when making a 3rd shot drop, they coordinate well together to decide whether to advance (together!) or hold fort. Patience and judgment is a far bigger component of their toolkit. Most of the legit 4.0s I've played against have started to add volley rolls, flicks, and precision lobs to the last foot of the court. Their decision-making about precisely which ball to speed up in a dink rally might remain rather sketchy, for reasons they don't entirely understand. If your main emotion on court is to regret that you did or did not speed up the last marginal ball in a long dink rally, you are probably a 4.5+. If you main emotion on court is regret that you targeted the left hip instead of the right hip on your last speed up, you are probably a 5.0+. I added the stuff above my own level from Tanner Pickleball. He's pretty good on the 4.5 to 5.5 range. Pickleburner was pretty good on the 3.5 to 4.5 range, but he seems to have stopped posting new content.
There is a "standard" set of skills outlined by USA Pickleball that cover the standard for each skill level. But, IMO very unfortunately, pickleball has largely ignored the standard and the focus is solely on wins/losses to gauge level. This is fine for singles, but for doubles pickleball, where your partner is relying on you to play with both appropriate skill AND strategy/shot choice (the latter here being the big issue IMO), our collective ignorance of the skill level standards is a lost opportunity.
@@LearnAtMyExpense The "standard" barely covers necessary partnership dynamics concerning joint strategic purpose. As you point out, tournament rankings have other problems. In practice, you see certain repeated stratifications of mindset. I play against people with a complete 4.0 set of basic skills, but they have a 3.0 doubles IQ. They speed up balls without achieving a clear winner when positioned close to the net (so the ball is coming back, fast, if often also out of control) even while their partner is still moving forward. It's a recipe for disaster, even if the ball is struck with great skill. They pat themselves on the back for forcing a pop up, while they simultaneously curse their partner for smashing the pop up into the net, after their partner is caught off guard by a ball flying up at a crazy angle, with their own feet still moving forward to gain dominance at the net. This is definitely not covered in the standard skills matrix. Some of these same players can not transition from fast back to slow again to save their lives. Once the ball speeds up, 100% of their game is reduced to attack/counterattack. Two guys like this will pair up-with elite reaction speed and 4.0 paddle skills-and dominate a 3.5 tournament bracket, and that is as far as they will ever go. The skills matrix would rate them 4.0 all day, and they can crush a 3.5 bracket, but they also get totally crushed themselves in a 4.0 bracket. As soon as they run into opponents with good structure who can block and reset the first hard ball into the kitchen, they are done like dinner. Because of this kind of physical/mental skill imbalance is common in practice, you can't actually achieve a what a mathematician would describe as a transitive full order by any scalar rating system (a single number assigned to each person indicating relative strength). It is finally more useful to learn to recognize some of the common playing styles and the ratings those kinds of players normally possess. I just described what I rate in my own head as the 3.5 double A, triple plus (AA+++). Mops the floor with an ordinary 3.25 or most 3.5s, but gets easily crushed by any real 4.0, because they have no answer for any opponent who can quickly transition from fast to slow and back to fast again. Above 4.0, the rating system is far less messy, because a glaring imbalance between physical and mental skill is hard to sustain beyond a certain level of play. In between strong 3.25 and incomplete 4.0s, the rating system is a dog's breakfast. Unfortunately, that covers the vast majority of athletic club players.
@@LearnAtMyExpense This is in part what I was alluding to. I have played with players at my local park with the same limited skill set. However, they rate themselves differently. At the 2.5 level for instance there are some players that are better than the rest. Yet, they don't have a drop shot or dink at all. The simply 'hit' the ball better. I was hoping John would talk about this a bit. You can be a winning player and beat 3.0s but should in my opinion still be rated 2.5. Winning plus the requisite skill set should determine one's level.
Wow, you’re lucky to get drives aimed so high over the net, lol! In reality, beginners at pickleball are already driving the ball fast and hard just above the net, so the ball is either hitting the ground extremely flat and fast or coming at your hip if you’re in front of the shot. Either way the advice in this vid does not apply to the way we hit drives at my club.
Liked the video but I was surprised that there wasn't anything in there about reading your opponents. In my opinion that is so necessary to progress further after reaching 4.0
What did you find helpful?
Honestly that last 15 seconds of pulling the handle -- HA! As always great video
The dinking tips- which sums up to dinking with intention/purpose- applies to all the shots we are trying to learn/do. It is so true about being reactive- when just learning the game. A local coach had us reversing the scoring in a doubles match- he had each of us scoring our own errors and first to 11 is the biggest "loser". This completely changed how we played our rec games, as suddenly, you were so aware of your contribution to losing the point and which particular error you keep making. It also showed us how "present" you need to be on each point to not be the person the loses that point. We all agreed it was the most mentally exhausting game after, but we did play so much better.
@@sassysally625 That’s a great idea!
John, I’ve always said your analogies, and the way you explain things is fantastic!
Tomorrow I am going to stop being reactive, and point my paddle toward the ball! 😊
Agreed - that last 15 seconds was interesting. Hopefully fleshed out more in an upcoming vid
Love the summary bullet points at the end. You are awesome.
glad it is helpful!
Great tips that I wrote in my notes. May I suggest you can expand each tip into its own video as an on going series. Call it Tipping like a 4.0
Moving like a 4.0
Dinking like a 4.0😊
thank you!
As a player that has progressed from 3.0 to a solid 4.0, I would add the ability to hit a drop shot from anywhere on the court with both forehand/backhand a definite MUST HAVE! Your proactive skill over being reactive explanation was great and so true! I would also add that you must develop spin especially topspin.
Yeah, flipping the mindset is something I learned from golf. The brain doesn’t respond to negatives, like don’t slice into the lake. Instead phrase in a positive way like aim left. I hadn’t thought about it in a pickleball context, but it makes sense and I’ll try to apply it.
Great video today, very thought provoking. Really enjoyed it and will take it out to the court and practice.
thank you!
Flip the mindset!
thats a good one!
At the very end of the video you spent about 18 seconds explaining why pulling the handle will get the face to square up. I’ve never heard that before and tried it when I played the next morning and some of my volleys surprised me how well I hit them. I’d love to see you do a video or part of a video expanding that concept because I’m not sure I captured enough from your short description. Thank you as always.
I think you could expand on the dinking to say that every shot needs to be hit with purpose. If you’re hitting a ball to a spot, there should be an expected outcome for why you chose that shot as opposed to another. Really like the tip to the ball drill to help minimize the over swinging.
awesome thank you
Solid as always
gracias!
Love your videos!!
If you're looking for a video editor now I got you! Huge fan and lover of pickleball!
email the1moonclub@gmail.com
I'm getting some weird audio on this video.
apologies, will fix the mic for next time we film
Any word from Titan Ball Machines on the 24 drill app update? I keep having to shuffle my 12 slots around and am looking forward to the update. Thanks!
On their FB feed they said it's supposed to come out end of the month (originally they just said 3d quarter)
how to handle a drive lower than the net
Probably a dumb advice but try beating the wall with various drills. It works wonders on your game reaction subconsciously.
Great video! Very helpful! However, I have a request. So many players don't know what level they are or overrate themselves. When you say 3.0 or 4.0 what do you mean? What delineates a 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, etc...? What skills does a 2.5 have to acquire to be a 3.0 etc...?
this is available on most national pickleball websites
@@johncampbell3912 The different rating systems are horribly divergent. I was almost a 4.0 on paper a year ago. Now with an extra year of practice, I'm close to holding my own with tournament-rated 3.75s. The pickleball hotbeds (e.g. Florida, Arizona) all seem to think their 3.5s would whupp anyone else's 4.0s.
Here are some notes of my own.
Most of the more athletic 3.5s I've played against are able to cover the whole court, can poach on the hop, and can defend lobs without looking like idiots. They don't have all the strategy, but the ball rarely passes them because they are hopelessly out of position. They use drops, but they often prefer drives. Some of them will run to mid-court to also drive their 5th shot. This usually ends in disaster against an equal or better opponent, but they hardly ever notice. Run fast, hit hard. Lather, rinse, repeat. They excel at picking their spots on loose balls, so they clean up on the 3.25s and make little progress against solid 3.75s who don't fluff the ball nearly so much. They take high risk shots to the outside, which they often make (until the pressure ramps up), but they would be better off taking lower risks shots to the center.
Most legit 3.75s I've played against find it pretty normal to have to slowly claw their way to the kitchen, and maybe not get there until the 7th shot. The might even flub a drop shot and back up a step to chip back an off-speed smash, making the journey even longer. Especially when making a 3rd shot drop, they coordinate well together to decide whether to advance (together!) or hold fort. Patience and judgment is a far bigger component of their toolkit.
Most of the legit 4.0s I've played against have started to add volley rolls, flicks, and precision lobs to the last foot of the court. Their decision-making about precisely which ball to speed up in a dink rally might remain rather sketchy, for reasons they don't entirely understand.
If your main emotion on court is to regret that you did or did not speed up the last marginal ball in a long dink rally, you are probably a 4.5+.
If you main emotion on court is regret that you targeted the left hip instead of the right hip on your last speed up, you are probably a 5.0+.
I added the stuff above my own level from Tanner Pickleball. He's pretty good on the 4.5 to 5.5 range. Pickleburner was pretty good on the 3.5 to 4.5 range, but he seems to have stopped posting new content.
There is a "standard" set of skills outlined by USA Pickleball that cover the standard for each skill level. But, IMO very unfortunately, pickleball has largely ignored the standard and the focus is solely on wins/losses to gauge level. This is fine for singles, but for doubles pickleball, where your partner is relying on you to play with both appropriate skill AND strategy/shot choice (the latter here being the big issue IMO), our collective ignorance of the skill level standards is a lost opportunity.
@@LearnAtMyExpense The "standard" barely covers necessary partnership dynamics concerning joint strategic purpose. As you point out, tournament rankings have other problems. In practice, you see certain repeated stratifications of mindset.
I play against people with a complete 4.0 set of basic skills, but they have a 3.0 doubles IQ. They speed up balls without achieving a clear winner when positioned close to the net (so the ball is coming back, fast, if often also out of control) even while their partner is still moving forward. It's a recipe for disaster, even if the ball is struck with great skill. They pat themselves on the back for forcing a pop up, while they simultaneously curse their partner for smashing the pop up into the net, after their partner is caught off guard by a ball flying up at a crazy angle, with their own feet still moving forward to gain dominance at the net. This is definitely not covered in the standard skills matrix.
Some of these same players can not transition from fast back to slow again to save their lives. Once the ball speeds up, 100% of their game is reduced to attack/counterattack.
Two guys like this will pair up-with elite reaction speed and 4.0 paddle skills-and dominate a 3.5 tournament bracket, and that is as far as they will ever go. The skills matrix would rate them 4.0 all day, and they can crush a 3.5 bracket, but they also get totally crushed themselves in a 4.0 bracket. As soon as they run into opponents with good structure who can block and reset the first hard ball into the kitchen, they are done like dinner.
Because of this kind of physical/mental skill imbalance is common in practice, you can't actually achieve a what a mathematician would describe as a transitive full order by any scalar rating system (a single number assigned to each person indicating relative strength).
It is finally more useful to learn to recognize some of the common playing styles and the ratings those kinds of players normally possess. I just described what I rate in my own head as the 3.5 double A, triple plus (AA+++). Mops the floor with an ordinary 3.25 or most 3.5s, but gets easily crushed by any real 4.0, because they have no answer for any opponent who can quickly transition from fast to slow and back to fast again.
Above 4.0, the rating system is far less messy, because a glaring imbalance between physical and mental skill is hard to sustain beyond a certain level of play.
In between strong 3.25 and incomplete 4.0s, the rating system is a dog's breakfast. Unfortunately, that covers the vast majority of athletic club players.
@@LearnAtMyExpense This is in part what I was alluding to. I have played with players at my local park with the same limited skill set. However, they rate themselves differently. At the 2.5 level for instance there are some players that are better than the rest. Yet, they don't have a drop shot or dink at all. The simply 'hit' the ball better. I was hoping John would talk about this a bit. You can be a winning player and beat 3.0s but should in my opinion still be rated 2.5. Winning plus the requisite skill set should determine one's level.
This felt like how to be a 4.0 by playing like a 5.0. The first tip was good though.
Wow, you’re lucky to get drives aimed so high over the net, lol! In reality, beginners at pickleball are already driving the ball fast and hard just above the net, so the ball is either hitting the ground extremely flat and fast or coming at your hip if you’re in front of the shot. Either way the advice in this vid does not apply to the way we hit drives at my club.
Liked the video but I was surprised that there wasn't anything in there about reading your opponents. In my opinion that is so necessary to progress further after reaching 4.0