These commentaries are great. I've learned so much from them! Keep them coming. How many pro athletes analyze their own games for the world to see. Thank you. These are fantastic! A privilege to watch.
Dude Don’t stop vlogging. I’ve heard guys teasing you on other shows and it drives me insane. We want the content. Keep it coming. And I love watching you beat them on the court! Don’t stop!
I’ve been coaching college tennis for a few years now and been serious into pickleball for a couple years. Other than the unforced errors, Ben seemed to be thinking multiple shots ahead and knowing exactly what to cover. From what I saw there were a couple points you were caught guessing and ended up forcing a ball that didn’t set up your next shot. Most of your points you seemed to have high percentage shots, but Ben knew exactly when to guard the high percentage shot. I’m sure you know this more than anyone, unforced errors, and (anticipation) Ben’s ability to know what angles to cut off was the main reason this match was lopsided. Finding a way to mix up your shot selection and executing on it can be one of the hardest things to do when your opponent is in rhythm.
Vulcan doubles with Garnett: You are playing so much better, night in day from 6mnths ago. That scorpian at the end of the 1st game in the quarters was awesome (I yelled out loud ha :). More work on dinking, speed ups and counters. Congrats!!!! Oh and try to watch the opponents paddle and hand position it is a tell on what their next shot will be....
I'm only a old-guy 4.0 (playing 9 years) so this is all FWIW. As they say, "take my advice, I'm not using it". At 11:14 you said you were "a little tall" when you drove it into the net. To me it just looked like you didn't get deep enough, early enough ... OR you could say you caught it a little late / let it get slightly too deep behind you. Which can be fixed either way - deeper position or take it earlier. 17:58 you thought your backswing was overdone. It looked decently compact to me - seemed like a classic pull - just got there slightly early. almost like you had two ideas in your head so your timing was off. 18:12 was one of the best setup shots of the match but you watched it instead of following it in and cutting off the angle - would have been awesome to see you get to about the 10' or 11' area, one step on the ball side of the centerline. That's one of the best cutoff spot in singles when the ball is deep on their backhand side. It lets you aggressively split-step forward+right to cutoff any pass attempt, and forward-left to cutoff anything he sent cross-court. It's probably the most under-appreciated follow-up court position in singles after you've sent one deep to their backhand. 18:16 kinda funny that you immediately get that "cutoff position" exactly right on this very next rally. you send a deep return to his backhand and do a SUPERB job of following it and getting to that cutoff area a few feet off the kitchen, ready to cut off the pass and the cross-court. of course he then drives into the net, so no putaway needed by you, but still ... great job. 18:39 looks like you were on autopilot, just running a play instead of playing the actual ball you got. looked like a perfect time to forehand drive down the line low and hard - his position and timing weren't quite covering the pass. 18:57 you made a good bet but he guessed correctly by staying home instead of coming too far over to cover the pass. My guess is that some of the most mobile pros like yourself, who can get there and still think, will start drilling that as a deep cross-court lob, to give them time to get back in position. 19:18 you keep talking about missing serves and returns. You're probably right that they happen too often after tweeners, but in general I feel like you have a healthy ratio. by far the bigger problem for most pros is serving short and returning more than 5' off the baseline way too often. This is the time to become a ridiculously deep server and returner, before everyone's doing it. Everybody knows they're supposed to. nobody does it consistently enough. and don't worry about going long 10%-15% of the time right now on those shots, just to get that range figured out. 20:22 you froze him enough that a semi-lob down the line would have been a thing of beauty. probably a lot more effective there than the other option you talked about, the low pass/drive. He was ready for your stretcher, so even if you had made it, he would have gone postal on it. 20:45 you said you just gotta keep that down - probably valid. But I think there's another option. He sold you by waiting center-ish just a hair, hoping you'd take the bait and try the vanilla pass. next time mix it up with a deep semi-deep semi-lob past his backhand. very safe and no way anybody's getting there from his starting position. 20:40 That's the shot. "extra medium". love it. just deep enough that he had to try for it even though it was impossible to get to. beautiful.
On the drop shop (slice): You don't have to slice it, just keep your paddle open and loosen your grip. Pickleball is not all wrist. Ben Johns says if he could give one piece of advice it would be tape your hand to the paddle so you can't use your wrist.
While it feels better to watch matches you win, you probably learn more from the matches you lose! Watched you closely at Seattle, sad to see you lose but fully expect to see you back better than ever.
loving the vidoes man! would be the coolest experience to play singles if you up for it nest time yopur in arizona ;)
These commentaries are great. I've learned so much from them! Keep them coming. How many pro athletes analyze their own games for the world to see. Thank you. These are fantastic! A privilege to watch.
Glad you like them!
Dude Don’t stop vlogging. I’ve heard guys teasing you on other shows and it drives me insane. We want the content. Keep it coming. And I love watching you beat them on the court! Don’t stop!
This is awesome. So many good insights into the game strategy from a pro.
Waiting for your next video on the recent Tyson match…
Great match! Keep the analysis videos coming!
I’ve been coaching college tennis for a few years now and been serious into pickleball for a couple years. Other than the unforced errors, Ben seemed to be thinking multiple shots ahead and knowing exactly what to cover. From what I saw there were a couple points you were caught guessing and ended up forcing a ball that didn’t set up your next shot. Most of your points you seemed to have high percentage shots, but Ben knew exactly when to guard the high percentage shot. I’m sure you know this more than anyone, unforced errors, and (anticipation) Ben’s ability to know what angles to cut off was the main reason this match was lopsided. Finding a way to mix up your shot selection and executing on it can be one of the hardest things to do when your opponent is in rhythm.
Vulcan doubles with Garnett: You are playing so much better, night in day from 6mnths ago. That scorpian at the end of the 1st game in the quarters was awesome (I yelled out loud ha :). More work on dinking, speed ups and counters. Congrats!!!! Oh and try to watch the opponents paddle and hand position it is a tell on what their next shot will be....
Thank you for your time and posting. slowly but surely you will get there. Best of luck. :)
You are the most entertaining Pickleball player ever!
Love the analysis videos. Doubles please???
I'm only a old-guy 4.0 (playing 9 years) so this is all FWIW. As they say, "take my advice, I'm not using it".
At 11:14 you said you were "a little tall" when you drove it into the net. To me it just looked like you didn't get deep enough, early enough ... OR you could say you caught it a little late / let it get slightly too deep behind you. Which can be fixed either way - deeper position or take it earlier.
17:58 you thought your backswing was overdone. It looked decently compact to me - seemed like a classic pull - just got there slightly early. almost like you had two ideas in your head so your timing was off.
18:12 was one of the best setup shots of the match but you watched it instead of following it in and cutting off the angle - would have been awesome to see you get to about the 10' or 11' area, one step on the ball side of the centerline. That's one of the best cutoff spot in singles when the ball is deep on their backhand side. It lets you aggressively split-step forward+right to cutoff any pass attempt, and forward-left to cutoff anything he sent cross-court. It's probably the most under-appreciated follow-up court position in singles after you've sent one deep to their backhand.
18:16 kinda funny that you immediately get that "cutoff position" exactly right on this very next rally. you send a deep return to his backhand and do a SUPERB job of following it and getting to that cutoff area a few feet off the kitchen, ready to cut off the pass and the cross-court. of course he then drives into the net, so no putaway needed by you, but still ... great job.
18:39 looks like you were on autopilot, just running a play instead of playing the actual ball you got. looked like a perfect time to forehand drive down the line low and hard - his position and timing weren't quite covering the pass.
18:57 you made a good bet but he guessed correctly by staying home instead of coming too far over to cover the pass. My guess is that some of the most mobile pros like yourself, who can get there and still think, will start drilling that as a deep cross-court lob, to give them time to get back in position.
19:18 you keep talking about missing serves and returns. You're probably right that they happen too often after tweeners, but in general I feel like you have a healthy ratio. by far the bigger problem for most pros is serving short and returning more than 5' off the baseline way too often. This is the time to become a ridiculously deep server and returner, before everyone's doing it. Everybody knows they're supposed to. nobody does it consistently enough. and don't worry about going long 10%-15% of the time right now on those shots, just to get that range figured out.
20:22 you froze him enough that a semi-lob down the line would have been a thing of beauty. probably a lot more effective there than the other option you talked about, the low pass/drive. He was ready for your stretcher, so even if you had made it, he would have gone postal on it.
20:45 you said you just gotta keep that down - probably valid. But I think there's another option. He sold you by waiting center-ish just a hair, hoping you'd take the bait and try the vanilla pass. next time mix it up with a deep semi-deep semi-lob past his backhand. very safe and no way anybody's getting there from his starting position.
20:40 That's the shot. "extra medium". love it. just deep enough that he had to try for it even though it was impossible to get to. beautiful.
Crowdfund a youtube premium for Christian?
On the drop shop (slice): You don't have to slice it, just keep your paddle open and loosen your grip. Pickleball is not all wrist. Ben Johns says if he could give one piece of advice it would be tape your hand to the paddle so you can't use your wrist.
Opposite of what Alshon says. I would agree with Ben here.
Awesome to watch your reviews! Glad you're doing UA-cam content 🤘
i'm pissed your ATP wasn't on sportscenter top 10!
Keep it going you are an exciting player!
While it feels better to watch matches you win, you probably learn more from the matches you lose! Watched you closely at Seattle, sad to see you lose but fully expect to see you back better than ever.
Do you have a coach?
Great match ❤
Thought you were the other guy at first bc of the cap. Thought that was your look always
I didn't win. Spoiler alert.
Better as Spoliler alert, I didn't win. 😊
"Promo sm" 💞
Why do they call him “Jow-may”? Isn’t it pronounced “Hai-may”?
Get UA-cam premium my guy
now show what happened against McGuffin!!! Cry baby!