Intermediate Pickleball

Week 1 - March 3, 2025

Two areas we will work on are Skills and Strategy. Since this is an Intermediate level class, we will focus on Consistency, Accuracy, Patience, Driving, Footwork, Shot Selection

1. Safety - This is the number one rule! Safety includes:

   • Before you even get to class, I recommend doing a half hour of more of Yoga. Pay attention to calves, quads, hamstring, hips, and adductor stretches. Continue to stretch once you arrive to class.

   • The proper shoes are very important. I recommend tennis or court shoes. There are even Pickleball specific shoes, but this is really marketing more than any tangible difference in the shoe. Please don't wear running shoes as they don't give you the proper lateral support.

   • Sun protection. Please wear sunscreen and a sunhat.

   • Eye Protection. Occasionally people get hit in the face, so I highly recommend safety type glasses if you don't normally wear glasses to protect your eyes. Safety glasses range in price from 3M brand glasses for $17 on Amazon to $157 Oakleys. 

   • Hydrate. Drink before you get thirsty. Sipping is preferred to gulping since the fluid absorbs better.

   • Take a break when needed. If you don't feel well, please stop playing even if in the middle of a point and notify me immediately.

   • Don't run down lobs or balls that are too far out of your reach. Just concede the point.

   • Do not back up stepping straight back for a lob. Turn and close your stance and run sideways. Alternatively, you can turn your back to the net and run back forwards. Players trip and fall doing this.

   • Medical conditions: Please be aware of any limitations a medical condition will create and accommodate.

2. Warm ups -1 

   • Hold the paddle with a Continental or Eastern Forehand grip and bounce the ball off your paddle about 6-8" high. Be sure to keep your eye on the ball all the way into the paddle face. The goal is to make contact in the center of the paddle face, the area called the "sweet spot." 

   • After you feel comfortable doing this, change your grip to an Eastern backhand or just stay in the Continental Grip. Bounce the ball off your paddle about 6-8" high

   • Next, switch from the forehand to the backhand back and forth

   • Once you feel very comfortable doing this exercise, walk forward, backwards, side to side as you bounce the ball off your paddle.

   • Progress to running

   • Lastly, bounce the ball higher and higher while doing all of the above variations. Start with 1-2 feet, then 2-3...

3. Warm ups - 2

   • As you move side to side across the court, bounce the ball off the ground and then pick up with your paddle. If right handed, use your FH when moving right to left. Use your BH when moving left to right. 

   • Keep the ball and your footwork calm and under control

4. GPS - Grip, Positioning/Footwork, Stroke. Always remember to check yourself with this acronym to see if you are 

   • Gripping your paddle correctly: Continental Bevel 2, Eastern BH Bevel 1, Eastern FH Bevel 3. Using the correct grip pressure?

   • Positioned correctly on the court? Did you do the proper footwork to get the ball into your ideal hitting zone?

   • Stroke - Using proper stroke mechanics? Contacting the ball out in front of your body?

5. Continental grip - The index finger knuckle is aligned with the 2nd bevel of your grip. This is the grip we use at the net. 

6. Split Step - Before you opponent makes contact with the ball, stop moving and split step and get your paddle up

7. Ready Position - This is the position you are in whenever you aren't hitting the ball or moving to a ball. Open stance, feet 1.5 shoulder width apart, paddle up at 10 o'clock. 

8. Paddle up - This is a key feature of Ready Position. Extend your arm but keep your elbow bent and arm relaxed. Hold the paddle between 10-12 o'clock if right handed or 12-2 if a leftie. Height - tip of paddle should be below chin height, butt of the grip should be above your belly button.

9. Ideal Contact Zone. Like golf or baseball, there is an ideal strike zone, hitting zone, or contact zone.

10. Contact Bubble - The area when you're at the net that you can comfortably contact the ball without stepping.

11. Dinking - These are soft underhand shots at the net that you push.

    • Continental grip

    • Use your legs and body, the shoulder is the hinge, not the wrist or the elbow.

    • Goal is to do your footwork early and push the Dink, not lift the Dink.

    • What is the target? 

      1. The NVZ line

      2. Your opponent's backhand

      3. Your opponent's feet.

      4. Gaps in the defense, usually the middle when one player moves laterally and the other doesn't follow.

      5. As you advance in your hand to eye coordination skills, move your opponent left and right.

      6. Advanced: Have your dinks drop within 4 feet of the net. Don't hit the same spot more than twice. Aim wide, aim for the middle.

12. Volleys - Hitting the ball before it bounces. Continental grip.

Common Issues: Running around the Backhand drive to hit a Forehand drive. Dinking with a Forehand instead of a Backhand. Stepping back instead of volleying the ball. After stepping back, not getting back to the NVZ line. Thinking a player cannot enter the NVZ until the ball bounces. Bending at the waist instead of the knees. Not doing enough foot work to get to the ball into the ideal hitting zone.

Week 2 - March 10, 2025

1. Review of Week 1

2. Four Vertical Volley Zones at the NVZ line - 1, 2, 3 are all backhand. The 4th zone is either A - Chicken Wing is the fastest, but weak and hard to direct. B - Forehand is the slowest but strongest. C -  the Sliding backhand.

3. Three Horizontal Zones - Red: Knee and Below. Yellow: Knee to Sternum. Green: Sternum and above. At the NVZ line, On defense, do not attack a red ball. Dink it. Yellow zone balls, dink or attack as your skill level allows. Green zone balls, attack.
   On offense, aim to your opponents red zone. If you hit into their yellow zone, be prepared for a speed up depending on skill level. Green zone, step back, before contact split step, paddle down as appropriate.

4. Mentality - We are not playing to win. We are playing to get better at pickleball and practice what we learn in class in a game situation. If you play to win, then when you lose, you failed. But if you were playing an advanced player, you would most likely lose even if you did everything you were taught in class. If you win, then you succeed right? But what if you made multiple mistakes throughout the game like the Common Issues below? Play to improve. If you win, great. If you don't, you worked on what you need to improve on and that's the win. If you have a weak drop shot, work on that in a rec game and try to hit 10 out of 10 of your drops into the NVZ low enough so they aren't attackable. If you do this, then you accomplished your goal regardless of the score.

5. Key to pickleball - Serve deep, return deep, don't give your opponent an attackable ball.

6. Driving - We will focus on Driving this week. Please read through this page on Driving.

Week 3 - March 17, 2025 Rained out

1. Review of Week 1 and 2: Zones: Vertical and Horizontal. Ready position. Paddle tracking.

2. NVZ line footwork discussion, demo, drill. Basic NVZ line footwork. Intermediate and Advanced NVZ line footwork

3. Please read through The 15 Most Common Mistakes Beginners Make

4. 1 Ball Drill: 4 players dink cross court with 2 balls. When one misses, the player that missed yells out "1 ball!", then all 4 players play 1 ball. The ball is live after 2 successful dinks after "1 ball!" is called.

5. Block, Punch, and Roll volley discussion.

6. Block and Punch volley drill.

7. Dinking footwork: Leave a foot in

Week 4 - March 24, 2025

1. Review Weeks 1, 2, 3

2. Ready position, balance, the more active you are, the further back from the NVZ line you stand

3. Serve

4. Return