Pickleball BLOCKING 101: 3 Tips for the Perfect Defensive Shot (+ 3 Drills)

If you want to win more pickleball games and never let your opponents score a point on you again, then this video is for you. In this video, we're going over all things blocking, and be sure to stay to the end because we have a massive giveaway that you don't want to miss. Let's roll. The block in pickleball is a defensive shot that allows you to take an attack from your opponents and neutralize them. If you can get good at this shot, just blocking that ball back into the kitchen, you're going to frustrate your opponents and win so many more games. Coming up, we're going to show you the fundamentals and how to do it. Now, one of the most important techniques to remember when you are blocking is to have a very loose grip on the paddle. I want you to think of this on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being that paddle's falling out of your hand versus 10. You can see your veins because you're gripping the paddle so tight. You want to be at about a 3 to 4. It's very loose because that loose grip is actually what's going to absorb the ball and bounce it into the kitchen. If you have a very tight grip on the paddle, that ball is going to hit the paddle and transfer with the power going towards your opponents, and they'll probably be able to counterattack that or even hit a put away. So it's very important to have a loose grip on the block. It's important to keep in mind that when you're hitting this shot, you want to absorb that power and put the ball down at your opponent's feet. So unlike a counterattack, you want to eliminate having a big follow through. If I do have a big follow through, that ball could sail or pop up. Instead, watch my follow through this time. Ball comes, you see I have minimal follow through, that ball absorbs into the paddle and it goes into an unattackable spot near my opponent's feet. So be sure to eliminate a big follow through when you're trying to block. Another bonus tip to keep in mind is you want to pay attention to the pace at which the ball is coming at you. If the speed up is off speed or a little slower, you might want to add a little pace, but the quicker that ball is coming to you, the less follow through you need to have a successful block. Now one of the most common mistakes I see people make when they're learning this shot is their paddle face and the direction that it's facing. So a big mistake people will make is they think blocking the ball means their paddle face is flat, meaning it's like straight up and down. Another mistake people make is they'll close it. A lot of times people do this because they don't want to pop the ball up. However, you have to remember with a block, you need to be able to get that ball a little loft. So when you have that paddle face flat, what it's going to look like is just falling into the net. So when you have that paddle face open and it's facing the sky, you're going to have a little loft on that ball and it's going to look something a little more like that. Again, that ball is over the net and bouncing into the kitchen. Now we're going to show you a drill that's going to help you really learn the blocks. It's called the double hit volley drill. So how this works is you're going to line up across from your partner and you're going to work on catching the ball on your paddle, letting it bounce, and then volleying it back. It's going to look something like this. It's actually a lot harder than you think and you're really going to work on developing that feel and touch for the ball. Now you're going to see how many you can get in a row, count, and see if you can beat it in your next round. This next drill we like to call the human wall and this really translates well to kitchen play when you're in a game setting. So how it works is you're going to be across from your partner at the kitchen line. You're going to be in a dinking battle. Now here's the catch. Only your partner can be the one speeding up the ball. You cannot speed up the ball. However, for every single speed up they hit, you have to block. It's going to really help you work on having an open paddle face and translating what we were just teaching you with the technique into a game style play. This last drill is going to be the one you're going to use against the bangers. Now this is one of the biggest complaints I see in pickleball is people don't know what to do with bangers because they love hitting the ball hard from the baseline. This is where your blocks come in handy. In this drill you're going to feed the ball to your partner who's at the baseline. They're going to be driving the ball and you're going to work on blocking that into the kitchen. What this does is it makes them come up to the kitchen line and have to play the short game. I'm going to show you guys what this looks like. So you feed the ball and just block into the kitchen. Feed the ball, block it into the kitchen. Again, this is a great drill to do, especially if you play a lot of bangers that love to just drive the ball. Thanks so much for watching. Be sure to like and subscribe to the playpickleball.com YouTube channel. And as we mentioned at the beginning of the video, we have a massive giveaway for you guys. We're going to be giving away $200 worth of Selkirk store credit to five lucky winners. If you want a chance to win, find the link in the description below and we'll see you on the next one.