Pursuit of 4.0 Gold Episode 3 | Persevere | Can I Medal In 4.0 in 60 Days Pickleball

[@PickleShooters]

Story telling is off the charts. Love this series so much!!!

[@LoudBrownCloud]

Flicks into the net are the bane of my existence. Keep it up boys, there was a lot of good play in those games. You will get there, NET GAINS!!!

[@mustache_gaming6098]

I really enjoyed this highlighting the lows of tournament play. Not every one is going to go well. It’s how you handle the tough losses that makes you great !

[@MrPanthers23]

Great video. Love the editing and music. The only bad thing about this video was your pickleball skills. Your youtube skills are awesome. Keep it up, man. I'm on the same grind

[@JeffandHali]

I so relate! Keep growing, learning and drilling!

[@joanc551]

"I quit pickleball...." is what I say a lot. keep up the fight

[@Aedkb]

Game 2: Justin just keep hitting over hands! If you’re not getting a lot of slice on that soft shot it’s a free trip to the net. Also Justin you’re dropping too low and too late into your ready position when they are driving at you. Keep your body a little more still. Louis you gotta be a gold fish man. If you make a mistake take two practice swings for what you’ll do next time and then move onto the next point. You can get only win the next point. Great series!

[@JohnS.Licata]

I find that missed speedups or flicks happen bc of nervousness mainly or loss of eye contact. In my first tournament, the nervous part only allowed me to keep the play going with a few scores which is fine when your partner is a scoring machine. I find that partnering with women is a big help since they can provide humor which I find relaxing leading to better play. Conclusion: pickleball is 50% mental.

[@gseacat]

This is a great series and how you’re telling the story and editing the videos is really good! Good luck trying to get that medal! I hope you keep making videos like these next year

[@PickleballPursuit]

This series will continue for quite a while. I really enjoy making these videos

[@John-cs1cj]

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, “Pickleball is 90 percent mental, the other half is physical!” 😊 Enjoy guys!! Fun to watch for sure!! I so relate! 👍

[@PickleballPursuit]

Greatest pickleball player of all time! Thanks!

[@petertran7360]

Keep your head up boys! Love the pod and the production of all this!

[@Rated4Weight84]

Louis, watch one of Ed Ju's recent videos talking about backhand flicks with Mari Humberg. I have always flicked into the net a lot till I recently watched that and incorporated what she taught him in that video.

[@fabioconceicao3315]

The quality of your videos gets better and better! I can’t wait to see the next one and I hope you get gold!

[@aaronsegal1682]

Loving this series.

[@aznflamel3oy]

Enjoyed watching. Though hurts to see the mistakes one after another. Would you be willing to upload the full match video? Curious to see both your playstyles, including both strengths and weaknesses. I noticed a few things that might be helpful in addressing some inconsistency issues. Since the main issue seems to be consistency, I feel like the best advice would be to try and improve on those by decreasing the chance of error by making more high percentage shots. For my first advice, It's a very common thing in pickleball to return a serve with a approaching shot, meaning having the mindset of moving forward while performing the return swing/hit, and generally it's fine if there are no issues with it. But if you notice inconsistencies related to bad returns, I'd suggest focusing more on planting your feet and getting in good positions to hit a good return back at the opponent instead of moving and hitting at the same time. Whenever you move and swing at the same time, it will always be riskier than hitting it while you have a stabilized form. Second advise is for your overhead/volleys. I noticed that both you and Justin tend to hit volleys and overheads generally directly back to the opponent without much purpose of just hitting it hard. I personally find much more success in slowing down the speed/reactionary response of trying to hit the ball immediately and taking time to place the ball in areas of the court that are open to make opponents move and run for the ball. Whether or not you can hit a winner and put it away is not necessarily important but it allows to increase their chance of getting caught out of position for you to hit an easier shot at more open areas. Both you and Justin can play around with how much you want to push the boundaries of what your both comfortable at when aiming for open corners while volleying or doing overheads. It will take some time to get used to it, and it might be a little inconsistent at first try to find a good balance between risk and accuracy with all your shots, not just the "putaway" shots. Third advice is something you are already aware of which is issues with your blocks that are going into the net. It's hard to explain why your creating those mistakes, and it could be because multiple factors but I noticed that you don't slice too often. It seems like you prefer doing top spin drops more so than underspin drops shots when trying to transition to the net. It's definitely a personal preference and I wouldn't say one is better than the other, but maybe try working on adding/drilling with underspin drops. I personally feel like it will help you get more dialed into that specific type of shot where you're adding slight underspin to float the ball over the net. I generally prefer underspin drops as opposed to top spin because it's much more consistent and safer put of the two options. I still work on my topspin drops so that it's part of my arsenal whenever I need it. I feel like drilling underspin drops and having someone drive balls at you and you're at the net to block or even counter the drives (this is all situational dependent on how low and good the drive is) will help you get better at returning drives. Whenever I am blocking a drive, there are moments when my wrist is slightly loose and I block with the intent of absorbing some of the pace of the ball and at the same time I apply very very slight underspin, and this will help with lowering the chance at these ball will shoot back up and high at the opponent. Ultimately it boils down to an aspect of "feeling" the impact and having a light "touch" in regards to how you respond to each drive. I have a tennis background, and so this process of blocking or volleying fast balls at the net is where I've carried over my skills. I also noticed a few mistakes at the net where you are unprepared for speed up or faster volleys. I'm not too exactly what is the root cause for this issue, whether it's a lack of mental readiness, poor body posturing, or something else but whenever I deal with opponents that like to speed up balls at the net, I sometimes split step backwards to give myself more space and time to react. Another big part is also training the ability to read the ball and your opponents to determine what their tendencies are and whether they have reoccurring shots. Like if you see a person that loves to speed up when you hit their forehand, be ready to counter once you or your partner dinks to their forehand side. Hopefully you find some of my input helpful. If you ever come down to Los Angeles area, let me know. Wouldnt mind hitting with you both. Good luck on that 4.0!

[@aznflamel3oy]

Speaking of some of my advices. This video just showed up on my youtube feed and it goes through some of the things i mentioned. Mistakes #3 (8:13 timestamp) and Mistakes #4 (12:22). The other mistakes that they mention throughout the rest of the video is also super helpful. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpiVo3aOatuWhKs&ab_channel=CrackedPickleball

[@DanGardner-xx4te]

Big fan of this series. Longer shorts may help, Lewis. Keep grinding!

[@PickleballPursuit]

Here I am just thinking maybe playing in a speedo would help!

[@vupac3000]

Great video. Keep at it Louis!

[@JasonDeats]

Thanks for sharing. It's definitely harder than it looks.

[@Alliver_pickleball]

Love the content! Keep it up!

[@JovanniG678]

With overheads don’t try to hit straight down on the ball, I like to say “you wanna push thru the ball” at contact and send it to where you want it to go. Your aiming point with over heads should be the other teams knees at first and as you get better and find your groove you can lower your target to the ankle at the kitchen and knees or shins closer to the baseline. Hitting into the net shows that your paddle face is closed or just facing down at contact, you wanna open it slightly, which, sounds silly but it’s true. Open that face a little more cause in the video many of your balls were hitting just at the tape or just below, if you open another two or three degrees you’ll get those over. Also, in your ready/athletic stance your paddle is lower than your hips get that paddle up to hip level when you take that wide stance and are bent at the knees, I think your reaction time will see some improvement. Just my two cents.

[@PickleballPursuit]

Thanks for taking the time to comment all of this

[@Dallen_38]

Man this was an emotional Rollercoaster to start my morning

[@NonLethalSharkAttack]

Keep fighting. We believe.

[@peskypenguin3831]

This was my favorite video so far with the gameplay behind it.

[@XenosInGame]

Enjoyed the video. Losses definitely give you an idea of what to work on. Imo you both need to work on overhead form. You're losing a ton of power they way you do it now. A paddle with more put away power and pop would be ideal. Because you're both over swinging on volleys to make up for the paddle.

[@65atBestPB]

Watched the video … nothing to be sad about here (other than those shorts). A real problem would be not having the skills to play at the level you entered. Not the case here … unforced errors just have to be cleaned up. Welcome to the club … it’s a frickin plastic wiffle … and a paddle. I think cleaning up kitchen and transition errors would be much quicker than adding tennis overhead. In pickleball at kitchen non-tennis overhead (minimal throwing motion) is often the right choice. But when pushed back off kitchen line, tennis overhead fundamentals apply, including initial turn and shuffle steps back. You can see throwing fundamental in tennis overheads, football drop back passing. Same with baseball pitcher, but obviously without the footwork required to move back. Justin … play catch with Louis with a wiffle ball … it could be your first video on your channel. 😛We can find out if he ever played baseball. Louis will get this … pickleball is overheads for show, dink for $dough$. Our 5.0 instructor had a crap overhead … he is a top 5.0 … just sayin. Edit: Forgot to mention, for me I’ve seen better results just blocking volleys on hard 3rd shot drives … keep it simple. I come from tennis where we stick drives to targets, so it goes against my built in volley muscle memory. There are so many examples in pickleball where you aren’t rewarded for added offense … like you are in tennis. Keep it in … don’t pop up … don’t miss … collect gold. Edit2 ;) Your overhead at 3:06 had the initial turn and shuffle steps back. Some momentum backwards afterwards happens on deep lobs, but should not have that much body movement backwards during hit. But, I think the quickest overhead improvement would come from getting paddle up immediately with that initial turn sideways. This might be a little overkill for pickleball, but this is a full technical explanation of overhead technique. He does a good job explaining the roll and reason for pronation. I still remember our head tennis pro teaching overheads and bouncing tennis ball over back curtain with minimum body/arm effort. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnbUfWmeq72Bjrssi=fT9eW-mYMUBY4zIC

[@kolbybixler7574]

I think the thing that took me from 4.0 --> 4.25/4.5ish was returns in play. I went from 3-5 missed in a single game to last tournament I played I missed 3 total across 5 games. even if its not good at least you got a chance.

[@PickleballPursuit]

Yea returns are killing us. We averaged 3 missed returns each game in this tournament alone

[@Gdon1991]

Keep your head up boys!

[@eellaups]

Taking notes ✍️✍️✍️ on production quality... and lobbing y'all jkjk

[@joshie_pb]

I was the dude in the blue on your last game, we were super desperate on winning that game.

[@buildingpickleball]

Babe quick another episode dropped

[@nosyjoe]

I see myself in this.

[@tommymurphey]

What lens did you use to shoot this? I am no pro but looks like you guys got beat trying to race to the kitchen. Try to split step a little early against opponents that drive a lot.

[@PickleballPursuit]

I use a couple of different cameras and lenses to film but if you want to film gameplay you need a wide lens (16-24mm full frame equivalent). For all of the b-roll I'm typically using a 24-70 f2.8 g master lens

[@cardinals5516]

This just sets the stage for a more dramatic finish when you get gold at the final tournament. You guys can do it!

[@ericinhomessi6234]

I was in the lost tree tourney too, let’s play some pepino ball sometime 🤙🏽

[@tuan-luu]

Play in DFW lol tourneys are a bit easier. Y’all can def medal here

[@MattyRut2922]

Louis, I am feel so bad for you. Do you know I do when I’m down? Play with a new paddle. New week, new main.

[@kimleith1378]

Tough loss, stay the course. Ditch those U.E.'s

[@DebMcQuillen]

But as we'd say to our kids......did you have fun? 😊

[@PickleballPursuit]

We sure didn’t 🤣

[@claycc79]

For the most part you guys stand straight up while playing, so bend your knees and get in a athletic position. Second, your volleying is terrible so work on that and keep the ball in low and in play and you will start winning.

[@PickleballPursuit]

Clay, everything is pretty terrible but in all seriousness I do appreciate the feedback and will work on it!

[@Ten25zerosix]

Y’all need to drill more….should’ve won all your games

[@bsu88]

Moving way too much on your blocks. Less is more and not every block has to be hard.