7 Pickleball Habits Holding You Back

I can watch somebody play pickleball for 30 seconds and immediately tell what level they are. And it's not because they hit the ball hard. It's not because they have some magical shot. It's because of these seven habits. And the good news is each one of them is learnable. In this video, we're gonna show you those seven things that are gonna take your level from beginner to intermediate. So let's get into it. So the first thing that we're gonna go over that really separates beginners from intermediates has to do with paddle prep. Now, whenever I watch a beginner play, what I commonly see is the paddle kind of hangs down by their side, and they're not really ready for the next ball. When you get in an athletic position and you have your paddle out front ready to respond, it's going to help you with volleys, it's going to help you in hand battles, it's going to help you in firefights, in so many different areas of the court, if you're simply prepped with your paddle, you'll be able to recognize balls and react in a much better way. The next thing I can immediately tell beginners from intermediate players is where their weight is. A lot of beginner players will kind of sink back into their heels and this will create a bunch of issues because you're sinking back in your heels and now my chest is going up and now if I hit a ball. The ball is oftentimes going up because my momentum is backwards as my weight is in the heels. You'll know immediately someone's been playing pickleball for a longer time and at a higher level when they shift their weight from the heels of their feet to their toes. Now your chest is actually facing towards your opponents. You're able to be a lot more aggressive side to side and back and forth and so Immediately, just shifting your weight from the heels and your feet to your toes will automatically put you in a more offensive position. This next area is something that I really struggled with when I was first starting playing pickleball. And when I made this simple adjustment, it actually changed the game for me. And it has to do with the split step. A lot of beginners, what they do is they'll just kind of like run through their shot and I pop that way up because what I was told when I first started playing is that when you hit this shot from the baseline, you got to get your butt to the kitchen line as soon as possible. But higher level players understand that you want to run up and split step and stop before Your opponent contacts the ball. So what it would look like here is I'm going to hit my shot. I'm going to run it before my opponent contacts the ball. I'm going to split step. That will allow me to be on balance and make that ball. So again, before she contacts the ball, I'm going to split step and then it's going to let me come in. Also will help you if when you split step, she leaves the ball up. You can hit that swinging volley. or in any other area on the court if you're off balance and running and out of control when you hit you're probably going to make an error. The next habit I want to talk about has to do with the return. Now a lot of beginners immediately their thought is let me just get the ball in the court but if you want to separate yourself from the beginner level the biggest thing you have to remember with the return is depth okay and I mean your goal for the return is to get it in this Fourth of the court, this back fourth of the court. The reason why is because you as a returning team have the advantage. So you want to make the serving team third shot their approach shot to the kitchen as hard as possible. So when you target this back fourth of the court, you really are giving yourself such a huge advantage and that will immediately separate you from the beginner level and put you more into the intermediate level in pickleball. The next area that I really see beginners make mistakes has to do with attacking the ball. Now just because you can attack the ball doesn't mean you should attack the ball and intermediate players know when they should attack the ball instead of just doing it at will. So some things that you're looking for here is the height of the ball. If that ball starts to drop below net level, it becomes a lot more difficult to attack the ball. And if I do, I have to be really crafty with pace and spin. So a beginner will often get overreached and try to attack balls that they shouldn't, as well as when they're dinking, they'll attack balls that are outside of their contact point zone, where intermediate players will attack balls inside their contact point zone. So those are a couple things. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Make sure you're on balance and make sure you judge the height of the ball. Remember you can always reach and then retreat if it's not there. The next habit that separates beginners from intermediates is dinking and specifically Timing with dinking. Now, a lot of beginners will hit what's called a short hop, meaning they hit the ball as soon as it hits the ground. You see how I'm hitting that ball so low? Now, it gets over the net, but it's not a good dink back. Now, intermediates are learning to do something called apexing the dink. So the apex is once that ball bounces, it comes up to the highest point of the bounce, that's called the apex, And then it starts to drop. That's when intermediate players really start to learn to hit that ball once it's coming down off the drop because that ball is a lot higher. The higher the ball is off the bounce, the more offense I can do. I'm not going to ever be able to do any offense coming from down here because the only option to get it over the net Is to pull that ball up so intermediate players really are looking to apex dinks. The next thing that really separates beginners from intermediates is hitting the dreaded out ball. Now, as you play more and more pickleball, you're going to be able to judge which balls are going out. Beginners hit out balls all the time, and those are free points. So you really want to make sure you don't do that. So what intermediates learn to do is recognize the contact point of their opponent and recognize the depth or angle that they're given. So if their opponent is is contacting the ball from a low position. If they hit up on the ball with pace, it's likely going out. They have to hit the ball really soft if they're contacting it from a low to high motion. If the ball bounces higher or if it comes up here, they can swing a lot harder and keep the ball in. So where you are relative to the net also matters. If somebody has a huge swing from the baseline, they can sometimes keep the ball in. But if that swing doesn't shorten and they get big in transition and rip a ball, a lot of times I'll just get out of the way. And if they hit it in, I'll clap my hands and make them do it again. So intermediates recognize these things. They recognize the stroke of their opponent relative to the court and the contact point at which their opponent contacts the ball. The last thing is true is if somebody, if I'm up at the kitchen line, I mean, same thing. If somebody reaches in here and they hit that ball hard, I'm going to let it go. They have to hit the ball really soft the closer they are to the net in order to keep it in. So try those things out so you don't hit out balls and you're going to win way more pickleball points. Selkirk Academy is not your typical pickleball camp. While other camps just scratch the surface, Selkirk Academy goes in-depth making you a better player. All camps are taught by PCI certified coaches at some of the country's best facilities. For more information go to academy.selkirk.com today. Make sure that you guys like and subscribe to the PlayPickleball.com YouTube channel. And big shout out to St. Pete Athletic, the coolest pickleball club in the nation. If you're ever in St. Petersburg, Florida, make sure to check this place out. And we'll see you on the next one.