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Action Plans

Week 5 - TBD, 2024

1. Skills - Underhand block -> No, Instead, use the bh and fh punch volley. Please review these videos:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaK0hAv5X00
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mB0ZtPumtc

2. Skills - Deciding when to volley or let the ball bounce. If bouncing, foot work is key. Start moving immediately, don't wait

3. Strategy: How to approach the NVZ. Assess your shot, your partners shot, and your opponents ability before moving up. Always stop before they make contact with the ball. I can teach this best when we're playing and you're on my side. Advance. Hold. Retreat.

4. Green, Yellow, Red Zones

5. Zone 1, 2, 3, 4

6. Hitting Zone discussion

7. More aggressive dinking

8. Play games and use what we learned

9. Teach me how to say "advance", "retreat", "hold" in Cantonese.

Week 4 - Sept 13, 2024

10. Played games.

11. See Action Plans

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

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

Week 3 - May 16, 2024

1. Review of Week 1 and 2

2. Ready position, split step discussion, balance

3. Footwork video. Shuffle step and get back to the middle.

4. Moving with your partner. 6' apart. Push and Pull like you are linked with a 2x4.

5. Open and Closed stance exercise

6. Serves: Get them deep

7. Returns: Get them deep. Loft returns high and deep enough so you can get all the way to the NVZ line easily.

Week 2 - May 7, 2024 

1. Review of Week 1

2. Dinking review and drill. Basic footwork discussion and demo. Please watch this video for more info.

3. Paddle up!

4. Four Zones at the NVZ line - 1, 2, 3 are all backhand. The 4th zone is either a Chicken Wing, Forehand, or Sliding backhand depending on what you have time for.

5. Scoring. Singles: Start at 1 and increment in whole numbers until 11 is reached. A player must win by 2 points. The serve starts on the right side initially and then is started from the right side if the servers score is even or the left side if the servers score is odd.

Doubles: Start at 1 and increment in whole numbers until 11 is reached. The very first serve to start the game is done from the right side depending on how the facility picks the side that serves first. After a side out, every side gets 2 serves, one for each server. When you are the server, you must call out the score each time before you serve by saying: server's score, receivers score, server number. So if you say 5-7-2 that means you have 5, your opponent has 7, and you are the second server. See the video below for more details.

See this video for more info.

6. Play a game to demonstrate scoring

7. 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 The 15 Most Common Mistakes Beginners Make? Play to improve. If you win, great. If you don't, you worked on what you need to improve on. 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.

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 1 - April 30, 2024

Two areas we will work on are Skills and Strategy. Since this is an Advanced Beginning class, we will focus on mainly on Skills.

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.  But the cheaper ones work just as well as the expensive glasses at keeping a ball from hitting your eye.

   • 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.

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

2. Warm ups. 

   • Hold the paddle with a Continental or Eastern Forehand grip and bounce the ball off your paddle about 4-8" 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 4-8" 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. 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? 2-3 at the net, 4-6 when driving and smashing.

   • 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?

4. Split Step

   • Before you opponent makes contact with the ball, stop moving and split step and get your paddle up

5. Ready Position - This is the position you are in whenever you aren't hitting the ball or moving to a ball. Open stance, feed 1.5 shoulder width apart, paddle up, 

6. 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 oclock if right handed or 12-2 if a leftie. Height - tip of paddle should be at chin height.

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

8. 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.

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