Pickleball Pointers from Dr. PoP
Professor of Pickleball
Pickleball is a sport in and of itself, but new folks to the game want to play is like the sport they came from. Because of its simplicity and ease to learn, players will bring habits from their previous sporting experience on to the pickleball court. Pickleball attracts players from tennis, ping pong, racquetball, volleyball, paddleball, padel, badminton, softball, soccer, etc. because they can learn the basics quickly and be having fun playing the game. Learning the basics is far from mastery of the game though! Its pretty easy to guess what sport a new pickleballer came from by the mechanics and strategy they employ on the pickleball court. Ping-pongers seem to have amazing hands at the net. Tennis players want to drive everything 6 inches over the net at the corners to pass their opponents. Racquetballers have the signature wrist snap on many of their shots. I could list more, but the point is that some of the strategies that worked in the your old sports, don’t really work in pickleball. Pickleball is a game of unforced errors until you reach the very highest levels – patience prevails. Pickling high percentage shots is the best way to execute a winning rally. You don’t overpower nearly as much as other sports – you outsmart. Being an old and slow engineer, I love this outsmarting aspect as it lets me remain competitive with much more athletic younger folks. So bring your hand-eye coordination to the pickleball court, but be ready to learn an entirely unique set of mechanics (dinks, third shot drops, underhand serve) and have a mind transition (patience, deception, loopy service returns, …)
