Pickleball tips to improve your game | in 3 Simple Steps

[@johncincolapickleball]

What part of your pickleball game are you wanting to improve?

[@AnnMitt]

Please see my comment in this video comment section

[@rosborne2055]

I'm trying to improve my shot selection and court position mostly. Always trying to improve consistency and precision, but that's just endless. Your observations on improving court position while my shot is traveling (before it's landed) are spot on.

[@sbcreative108]

I'd love to be able to do an overhead smash despite my right shoulder not being strong (old injury) OR learn aother good shot to use in those cases. Thanks for all your awesome tips. Just found your channel today.

[@ThePaddlewan]

John, I want to improve my court positioning, especially off the ball. Nice Video !

[@wafarris]

Court positioning in doubles.

[@MichaelEverheartt]

Always the best! Thank you so much. Will send this to my friends. Keep the beginners focusing on the right things

[@johncincolapickleball]

You're the best!

[@melisamelisa8929]

Thank you! Very helpful video! Anyone here using an Oliver-Sport paddle? I love it!

[@kimsanders5907]

I just started playing pickleball. This video was great. Loved the explanation and the summary card. Hopefully I can work on these 3 points. Thank you

[@johnmacneill6403]

John, I always enjoy your videos, you always make a lot of sense and I can tell you put a lot of thought into what you are saying. Thanks very much for your wisdom.

[@johncincolapickleball]

thank you very much!!

[@NBTJacklyn]

This was so helpful! Thank you for making this

[@mikeoliver861]

Great tips! You are the bomb! I'm going to share this with my group. You are smart to provide tips for low-level players because there are way more of them than there are high-level players. Seems like most gurus give high-level tips, which is fine, but that audience is smaller.

[@johncincolapickleball]

glad it is helpful!

[@anti1448]

Love that little summary card at the end. Super useful for remembering the content of the video!

[@johncincolapickleball]

yes bring it to the courts and share w your friends

[@mr.mr.3301]

I’m looking for a video series that starts at 1.0 and brings you all the way up for advice and things to learn. I’m two months in and I love it, but I keep getting random suggestions by KZbin and some of this stuff is probably will be on my skill level at this point.

[@laurenzeringue629]

The why clicked for me. Thank you so much for sharing this! So helpful!

[@johncincolapickleball]

that is great!

[@veronicaqueralt1761]

Thank you, I’ll put them in practice on my next game!!!

[@mra2424]

Paddle position during a back swing can be confusing because you didn't mention a back swing on a drive and/or serve.

[@NsnsisshMkkhzgsy]

Lewis Thomas Clark William Gonzalez Sharon

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

0:24 you definitely used the wrong picture there. The guy at your local pickleball group that knows everything (even though everything is wrong) is 100% a baby-boomer named John or Bill. LOL

[@thephotoguy439]

Thanks John love 💕 this as all of your helpful tips you shared with us. California Bill

[@johncincolapickleball]

Thanks for watching!

[@VincentTab-r2g]

Martinez Michael Smith Scott Brown William

[@VincentTab-r2g]

Lewis Joseph Johnson Barbara Robinson Scott

[@paulinegustman2287]

Moore Deborah White Brenda Harris Sandra

[@LouisaWright-n3c]

Wilson Sandra Johnson Maria Garcia William

[@WellsLindsay-e6e]

Lewis Helen Lee Elizabeth Garcia Lisa

[@DonaldParrino-r5m]

Clark Jennifer Jones Sarah Hall Maria

[@MrLowRight]

I wish every player started by watching this video. I know some 3.5 players who need to watch it!

[@johncincolapickleball]

share to all the 3.5s you know

[@jasonenyart1773]

I appreciate your help so much. A frustrated novice here.

[@johncincolapickleball]

keep practicing you got it!

[@rosborne2055]

You produce excellent training videos. For my style of play I think your perspective and analysis has helped me more than any other source. Thank you.

[@johncincolapickleball]

Great to hear!

[@kimgill2021]

good video . limited items -thanks-- but with many applications . a keeper . short and sweet !

[@johncincolapickleball]

thank you!

[@tmclbnk]

Thanks for sharing your tips, while making it simple with the cheat sheet you provided.🙏

[@johncincolapickleball]

yes bring it to the court and share w friends

[@metapickleball]

the "V" is a great tip John! ty

[@johncincolapickleball]

thank you! very applicable

[@markcastro776]

Thank you for these tips and all you do to help us getter better. Appreciate your efforts.

[@johncincolapickleball]

for course

[@Pllban]

The Why. appreciate that so much! that is how I learn

[@johncincolapickleball]

the why is the most important part!

[@IRWE905]

All Great Tips. Your next Teaching Moment can be Anticipation ('How to Read the Game')

[@trishnichols4485]

I really appreciate your method of explaining.

[@johncincolapickleball]

Glad it was helpful!

[@debbiepepin2241]

Great tips ! Will work on them tomorrow. thank you !

[@johncincolapickleball]

Best of luck!

[@christiandelapena8623]

Do you guys use the Eastern forehand grip to create topspin in PB?

[@robertthrailkill1368]

Very excellent points and advice

[@johncincolapickleball]

Thanks for watching!

[@JotiRana-x6q]

As always, great advice from JC 🙏🏻

[@LindaMarkesich]

Love your videos. Best practices for instruction include engaging students and getting them active as you are teaching the "what, how, and why". Your students' readiness and needs play heavily into how much content to cover in a lesson (your students may be former athletes or they may have had little to no prior sport/ game experience). That said, this video will be a great review for some of my students after a class ot two. I would encourage other instructors out there to stay current re: best teaching practices and brain- based learning. We now know so much more about how people learn.

[@johncincolapickleball]

great comment! yes you are very right, everyone has a different way of learning and im glad this resonates with you

[@robinstewart6820]

Great tips- thanks so much! Would love to see a tip on defending mid-court shots.

[@johncincolapickleball]

thanks for the suggestion

[@malouzarate1498]

Great tips!

[@johncincolapickleball]

Glad you think so!

[@JeffLandauer]

Thumbs up for picture of Zane.

[@lazyhusband]

What do you think about gripping further down so the pinky is almost off or completely off? Jaume suggested this to Ed Ju in his video. This loosens the wrist.

[@afterthesmash]

With your paddle forward in the kitchen (but keeping your elbow relatively close to your waist) before the opponent's ball strike, position your paddle on an imaginary straight line between your dominant shoulder, a spot just above the net, and the position of the ball at point of ball strike. If the ball travels on a lower path it will hit the net. If it travels on a higher path there's a good chance it flies out of bounds. You'll still have to react left-to-right, but your most problematic target, your dominant shoulder, is defended without you doing much more than turning the face of your paddle toward the ball. When the ball is hit slower, your paddle will need to sink down, but you will have more time to do this. When your shoulder is on this line, your eye position is also low to the net which makes reading the spin of the ball a lot quicker and more accurate, since you can track lateral motion against the net cord to an accuracy of inches. Footwork is a team skill with many factors, but generally, the more you have the ball directly in front of your dominant shoulder, the better you are guarding the shortest and most dangerous path (the path of least time). Also, the closer your dominant shoulder is to the ball when the opponent strikes the ball, the more angles you cut off with less hand motion. You'll still have to learn to react fast. But gradually you will learn to sense the general direction from the opponent's back swing. It gets easier with practice. The nice thing about being really close is that you don't need any backswing at all. The kitchen is 7 feet deep. Most players can reach in about 2 feet. The shortest path paddle-to-paddle, directly ahead, is roughly 10 feet, or 20 feet round trip (except for Ernies). A brisk attack might be 15 mph (22 feet per second). Even with a bump return at half the speed, the opponent only has 1.5 seconds to handle their own heater coming back at him, which isn't much time at all while they are still in recoil from having hit the heater that hard in the first place. It seems hard at first, but as soon as you succeed with some of these bump returns, it quickly gets very hard for your opponent, too. High pace is low percentage on both sides. If you prevail in 60% of these exchanges you'll win most games. I've given you a consistent method to try out. You will learn faster on the basis of anything you decide to do consistently. So that's what I did as I became a 3.25 player. When sensing this kind of danger, I put my toes up against the NVL, leaned my shoulder into the kitchen as directly in front of the ball as possible, got my paddle pre-positioned on the most direct path between ball strike and my vulnerable shoulder (fast balls coming back super tight to the net cord) and then I took my lumps for a couple of months. A year later, my hand gets in front of most of these balls almost subconsciously, even if I have to stab my arm sideways to cut off a weird angle.

[@johncincolapickleball]

wow this is an amazing contribution. the level of detail is spot on. you hit the nail on the head. anticipation plays a large part especially if you are familiar with the people you are playing against. thank you for your great comment!!

[@AnnMitt]

Excellent tips. Please, for future video, how can a novice player defend when their opponent is aiming a fast ball at our body or feet? Is it possible to defend these body shots as a beginner, or should we just slide out of the way and give up the point?

[@LindaMarkesich]

Read, react, ready- I teach my beginners to anticipate - Read-where is the ball going off your hit ( high, low), watch your opponent's position and paddle. If you pop a ball up or see your opponent's paddle is up to attack, "split and low is how you go!" ( Like a volleyball player getting ready to dig a spike- back up a bit if time, but you must get low as they are about to hit- watch Allyce Jones if you can, she's amazing)

[@AnnMitt]

@@LindaMarkesich Thank you!!!

[@johncincolapickleball]

great point!

[@JasonFu-ws6rf]

Great tips, thanks

[@jimbernard8964]

Thanks.

[@MrAshi40]

Что это за херня?

[@Kamela_toe_harris]

The old folks game. People under 50 look ridiculous playing.

[@jaehititfirst2009]

you probably play tennis

[@vortexaris]

@@jaehititfirst2009i play both and they both are bangers

[@robertw4196]

​@@vortexarissame

[@robertw4196]

​@jaehititfirst2009 actually more and more tennis players are beginning to respect pball. Probably just a bro who hates on both.

[@lw7028]

This person plays for what people may think, this person doesn't play for the fun of the sport. I play badminton, squash and pingpong. I just started pickleball because there's something fun I want to experience from the sport.