So I want you guys to think what do you think is the best decision to do here as Liam is it to drop it or to drive it and where should you drive it or drop it what’s up Pickers it’s awesome with pickall Playbook and I have a really exciting one for you today today we’re going to be breaking down a recreation game a 6.0 Recreation game with Colin.

Shik so he’s a top 20 doubles player and a top five I would say singles player really good at both doubles and singles learned a ton playing with him and my whole goal with this video is to just help you guys see what I learned so that you can apply it in your game as well as see our strategy throughout this one point that we’re going to analyze just.

One point it’s a pretty big point and uh you guys can see what’s going through our minds and what we’re thinking right off the bat here Liam is over here on the right Jason’s far left he’s my partner and then I’m obviously I got the pink shoes right there Austin and then Colin shik over here to the left just so you know who everybody.

Is so his Liam’s initial serve land it looks like it lands on the line from here it’s probably a couple inches in from the line this is a pretty difficult position to see that from but the most important thing about his serve is the depth of it not the pace not the spin it’s the depth of the serve because it gets his opponent Jason on his back foot.

Before he’s coming into the net so since Jason is on his back foot here it automatically puts Jason in a defensive position and it makes it difficult for Jason to get into the kitchen only way that you’re going to win in pickle ball especially at the high level is is if you come into the net so Jason’s goal is to get in but when you have a deep serve.

Like this that gets you on your back foot it automatically puts you on defense okay Jason returns this ball Cross Court smart decision because he has more Court to work with there and it gives him more time to come forward whereas if he returns this ball down the line the ball’s going to come to him quicker okay so it’s going to get on him.

Quicker he wants as much time as possible would have been great if he could get this return deeper but obviously with that good of a serve that’s that’s easier said than done Liam has a couple of options here he can hit this return he can hit this third shot down the line here okay I’m going to cover it with my backhand but he can go.

There he could also drop it down the line he could drop it crosscourt or he could drive it at Jason so I want you guys to think what do you think is the best decision to do here as Liam is it to drop it or to drive it and where should you drive it or drop it so the quick answer is the drive is the most optimal option here that that return.

Comes in short and high so whenever a return comes in short and high we want to let it fly short and High Let It Fly meaning we’re driving because we can hit down or at least across on the ball and get the ball at our opponent’s feet second most important thing is that the location of your drive you want to get it on the opponent that is running.

Forward the opponent that’s off balance the opponent that isn’t in an offensive position I am on balance here I’m in an offensive position I’m up at the net I’m closest to the net so it’s going to be difficult to drive it at me and impossible to get your drive at my feet because I’m so close to the net if you try to hit my feet you’re going to hit.

It at the bottom of the net okay so first of all he’s driving is what he should do he doesn’t end up doing it but if he drives this ball he can get it at Jason’s feet he wants to second of all get it to the person that’s running for it and is off balance and then Jason’s going top pop up this shot and Colin’s probably going to put it away anyways.

The reason that he didn’t and he chose to drop instead just so you guys can see he drops instead of drives is because of this initial step that I take okay right here I’m letting him know hey I have the entire middle of the Court covered so now he thinks to himself maybe he thinks I don’t I don’t know Liam’s mind but if it was me hitting.

This drive I’d think oh okay I’ll drive it up the line or I’ll probably drop it to Jason and he chooses the second option which is to drop it to Jason but since I’m applying this extra pressure big step I’m now covering my line if he were to drive it up the line I’m probably just going to hit a winner on my backhand.

Side he chooses to drop it so that initial pressure that I cause right here with this step causes him to drop that ball hopefully that makes sense he drops it Jason’s now in a more so offensive position and Jason can rip the crap out of this ball if he wants to but that’s not going to put him in a good position because both opponents are.

At midcourt right now if he rips this ball hits it as hard as he can all that these opponents are going to do is rip it back and they’re going to be in a better offensive position because they’re moving forward and it’s going to get on Jason quicker because he’s closer to the net so he chooses the smart decision and.

Just rolls it at the feet of Colin a nice soft shot roll it’s a little tweener cuz why not sometimes a tweener is a good decision too like in this position Why move your feet any more than you need to might as well tweener it otherwise you have to move your feet all the way around it I’m not suggesting.

That you tweener until like four five plus level but sometimes it makes more sense another good example is if your opponent’s lob you and you’re on a full-on Sprint to get to the lob it’s going to take longer to run around the ball and hit a forehand or a backhand than it is to just run over the ball and hit it through your legs so it is a nice.

Thing to have in the Arsenal but it’s not like right here probably not the most necessary thing but remember this is a wreck game so we’re just having fun you know now the point’s neutral I believe the boys on this side hit four shots four total shots after their sered one two three four and now they’re established at the.

Kitchen now the point is completely neutral and our entire goal and this is where beginners and intermediates get it wrong is they just think okay let’s keep it low and Dink let’s keep it low and Dink what you want to do is create offense your entire point of dinking is to get a popup so the way that you do that is by changing your dink location.

And putting it behind your opponents you want to make them feel off balance you want to make them feel like they’re pushed off of the line and really awkward so A good rule of thumb is if the ball comes to you high your first goal should be to speed that ball up out of the here if it comes up high but it’s not high enough and it’s bouncing then.

Your goal should be to create a popup the way that you’re going to do that is by dinking it behind your opponents so notice how this dink here goes behind I don’t remember who hit it Jason Liam hits here Jason hits it behind Colin Colin’s taking a couple of steps back off of the line he’s in an uh defensive position and it causes this.

Pop up here okay my location that I can go to with this speed up I can go up the middle but I don’t want to go too far over towards Collins’s side because he’ll cover it with his forehand and probably put the ball away I can also go up the line here on Liam’s right side because he’s probably going to cover with a back.

Hand but his job is to cover the line so maybe not the best spot and then I can also go right here in this location hopefully you guys can see my mouse you should be able to and that’s the location I choose to go to and Liam D covers it so now I think to myself okay he covered that shot he was sitting backand so I say if I get.

Another opportunity I’m going to go up the line that’s going to make the most sense probably to go up the line now am I thinking that in the middle of this point probably not but after the point I’ll analyze it and go into the next Point thinking okay that line is open more more or less open right here so speed up okay Jason’s.

In an offensive position my speed up created another popup Jason hits down on the ball which is exactly what you want to do you want to get it at the feet of your opponent and Colin makes a 6.0 level decision and resets the ball he doesn’t speed up the ball from this low position he resets it one reset two resets three resets he was off balance.

For three shots in a row there right here that sorry that initial right there off balance off balance again he’s off of the line he’s in a defensive position I see this and I’m trying to attack out of the air and so I see okay Colin pulled over and he’s covering middle Liam’s covering his line so let’s go right.

Behind him this is probably the most yeah it is it is the most difficult shot to hit but if you can hit it then you want to hit it no one’s going to get that shot unless they’re at colins level level here like the fact that he gets this and he puts it back in the kitchen is just ridiculous cuz he’s so off balance here so he gets this I’m leaning.

I’m hovering over the kitchen and he gets it to land in the kitchen and pretty much puts me in the same position that he was in and then I’m doing a Top Spin roll offense and I pull it behind him again and now the point is neutral again so something great about what Colin did.

Here is he hit it in to the first half of the kitchen the first half of the kitchen is the half of the kitchen that is closest to the net that totally neutralizes the point okay starts the point over because from this sorry this position where it lands in the first half of the kitchen I can’t do anything offensive from here and I.

Can barely do any defense because I have to hit it pretty much straight up to get it over the net so I hit I think I hit slice yeah here and then I hit it back into the first half of the kitchen saying hey you neutralized the point I’m neutralizing it back and now it’s your decision are you going to speed up from.

This position obviously he’s not going to because he’s a smart player but it gets him to pop up the ball slightly because that’s a difficult position a lot of people think just use the second half of the kitchen the half of the kitchen that’s closest to the kitchen line to create offense but if you hit it in that first half of the kitchen and.

Kind of get them off balance chances are you’re going to create a popup so popup number two from col and where do I put it same exact location as my first one and Liam covers with his backand again so it’s like I should have learned my lesson the first time and put that speed up down the line because Liam’s not covering line he’s.

Holding on that backhand side I’ve already seen that from the previous point also Colin knows that I go to this position and so he’s even more ready than the last one to hit a forehand here okay so Liam counters with a backhand and then now I say I’ve learned my lesson okay now I’m going to go to his forehand side and look at this last.

Second he’s so quick gets it onto that side and it turns into you can hear it here but it’s like a he hits it five times essentially and he gets the ball down players aren’t going to get the ball down unless that happens unless they shank the ball but at least I finally went to the right location you guys can hear the as he.

Hits through the ball and he gets that ball down so wicked fast hands to get it to that forehand side okay so he gets the ball down I’m reaching over as if I’m going to take it um one of the signs of a really good partner is the fact that they still get this ball even though I totally fake him out okay he’s still there he’s still.

Ready to get it because he understands that’s my ball I it’s my job to cover the middle whenever Liam is hitting the shot because he’s across from him whereas it’s my job I have to cover the line here so I realized this last second literally oh okay that’s not my ball he takes it and I’m very happy as you guys can see to still be in the point the.

Fact that Jason still got the the ball back okay so he puts it here Colin reaches in takes this dink out of the air it pops up slightly Jason speeds it up and Colin makes another 6.0 decision to reset this ball right here okay so he resets it let’s watch that really quick.

Reset and reset again and reset again now the point is neutral if not they’re on offense because he pushed us off the line now we’re trying to move the ball around I’m trying to get it behind my opponents as you can see I’m in the middle of the court and Colin realizes this and he hits it way far.

Crosscourt okay so he’s moving me around and then I shank that last ball unfortunately but it’s it’s literally because Colin’s backand dink is so disgusting with so much spin that the ball just drops you can literally see the arc it’s a beautiful thing I’d love to have that back in one day I will you.

Know just got to keep practicing it but I’m trying to keep it behind him he finds the the offense first and I’m reaching in again this is the fourth maybe fifth time that I’ve had the opportunity to speed up and look at the location of my speed up here I’m going down the line for sure Liam’s covering backhand here probably going to be a.

Winner if not uh Liam’s going to hit it five times again and get the ball in or pop it up and I’m going to hit hit a put away but end up shanking the ball so that I figured out now from analyzing this point while playing in it you know while I’m there that my goal should be to hit this next shot up the line okay on Liam I’m going to be going down the.

Line no point in going to the middle he’s going to be covering that backhand side majority of the time obviously he can change it up at any time but I’m going to make him change it up okay when he proves to me that he can cover that forehand side then I’ll be like okay now I need to change it up and go back up to the middle or go crosscourt for the.

Harder more difficult shot so let’s watch this point one more time with pretty much no talking just quick analysis deep serve should have drove that extra pressure made him not drive we’re still in defense on this side and and now it’s neutral get the ball behind him gets a popup speed up location not the.

Best great speed up location Colin gets to it like it was nothing speed up location not the best great speed up location but I should have put my first one there everything’s neutral again hit behind him he he gets me off balance and I’m late getting to that ball he also has so.

Much Top Spin such a good back end ink
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