The Pickle Newsletter #1

Quick Hitting News:

• New paddles are coming! It might be worth waiting a couple of months for a new paddle according to Pickleball Studio.

• Next PPA event is in North Carolina, starting on April 3rd.

• Check out the top 10 plays of the last PPA Austin event here.

• Major League Pickleball (MLP) draft is starting on April 2nd at 6 PM ET on PB TV.

  • See MLP schedule here. The first event is in Atlanta on May 9th. Many of these events are immediately before or after PPA events in the same city.

Podcast Highlights:

The James Ignatowich Show: Q&A

1. Tips for Hitting Drives

   • Stop overhitting your drives. You don’t need to hit drives as hard as you can. Aim for 60-70% of your full power.

   • Hit drives low over the net. Aim drives to land 6 inches above the net and 4 feet behind the kitchen line.

     •  If you’re going to miss a drive, miss it into the top of the net. Low drives are harder for your opponent to hit and make them pop the ball up more. Drives that are missed long are likely too high and are easier for your opponent to get a paddle on.

2. Returning a hard serve

   • Loft your return cross court

     • There is more space and time for the ball to travel and for you to get up to the kitchen line

   • Keep a wide base and bend your knees

     • A hard serve is going to bounce lower. Get low and get wide.

   • Don’t swing so hard

     • There is already a lot of pace on the ball, you don’t need to create your own.

3. Dinking tips

   1. Focus on taking more dinks out of the air by leaning in at kitchen line

      • This shrinks the kitchen and takes time away from your opponent as they have less time to react

      • If you’re going to speed the ball up, it’s generally easier out of the air than off the bounce

   2. Aim your dinks 6 inches in front of the kitchen line to reduce the chances of your opponent hitting the ball out of the air

4. Mentality

   • The top players are more present and focused for a longer period of time. Always stay fully engage and treat every shot like your playing a tournament (recreational games/drilling)

Tyson McGuffin: Power of Pressure & Positioning

Scenario #1: Opponent hits a great third shot drop/drive and you see their partner creeping in to poach the 5th shot.

Discussion: Watch out for the poach! If you see your opponent about to poach and can’t hit it to the side they’re running from, just dink it into the kitchen. You relinquish control of the kitchen but will not get poached and will disrupt the positioning of your opponents.

Scenario #2: When you’re serving to opponents who are stacked and they return the ball short.

Discussion: Drive middle. It will create confusion on who is taking the ball and set up teammate to poach.

Scenario #3: You’re winning/losing the dink battle

Discussion: If you’re winning the dinking battle, lean in and take more balls out of the air. If you’re losing, try to hit shallow dinks to neutralize the point and sag off the line if needed.

4.0 to Pro:

Golf and Pickleball analogy: Both sports have a shorter backswing and accelerate through the hitting zone.

Two key phases for hitting dinks and drops:

1. Preparation

   • Get to the ball early and be balanced

   • Set your paddle before swinging

     • Keep a small backswing (this isn’t tennis!)

2. Accelerate through the hitting zone

   • Quickly snap through the contact of the ball to maximize spin

   • Focus on hitting up rather than forward (2 parts up, 1 part forward)

   • To generate more topspin, brush the ball at 4 or 5 o’clock (for right handers) instead of 6 o’clock

Tip of the week:

• Hit your third shot drop to the left side players backhand and have your teammate shift to the middle. This gives your opponent a narrow window to hit their fourth shot and applies pressure to poach the 5th shot. Be sure not to hit it too close to the sideline as the net is higher and presents an erne threat if the drop is too high.

Random Reddit Post of the week: Pickleball paddle under an XRay