3 Pickleball Skills That Separate Amateur From Advance Players

If you watch advanced players play, it's not simply consistency or athleticism that sets them apart from average players, but they have a few key skills that most players never develop. And today, I'm going to show you exactly what these three pickleball skills are and exactly how to implement them in your game right away. Okay, so the number one thing that separates average players from more advanced players is topspin, right? Topspin is utilized in a lot of different scenarios. It can get that ball up and down, and it can also be very aggressive when it comes to putting pressure on your opponent. So the first thing I'm going to show you and talk about is topspin dinks. I know a lot of you are working on that currently, or you're trying to improve it, but if you're failing to do that, we're going to go over a couple of things. So we're going to start with the forehand side, and I'm just going to hit a couple here. Here we go, Gray. So a couple of topspin dinks here. I know Grayson is feeding me a couple of dinks here in front of me, but I just wanted to show you a couple there. Okay, so when I'm hitting topspin dinks, it's really important that I'm dropping my paddle early and I'm swinging in a very vertical upward motion. One of the big mistakes that I see players make when they're trying to hit topspin dinks is they're actually swinging very forward on the ball. And when I swing forward on the ball, right, not only could it go to the net like that, but it could go very far, and then now my opponent is attacking me. So what's really important is that my swing path is very vertical, okay? So from this point of view, from this camera, this is a vertical swing, right? And then we have more of a linear swing here. So I want less of this motion and a lot more of this motion. You'll see a lot of players at high levels dinking topspin here. They kind of finish on the same side. We'll see Ben Johns do this. A lot of the pro ladies will kind of finish on this side and the benefit of this stroke is that I'm swinging very vertically. The second thing that I want to keep in mind is that I'm not using my wrist. A lot of players will use a ton of wrists and they're trying to apply topspin, but not only is the wrist inconsistent, but sometimes the wrist will push the ball into the net like that. Sometimes the wrist will cause the ball to fly too far, right? And now my opponent's taking the ball out of the air and crushing, okay? So what is the role of the wrist here? Well, the wrist is just to stabilize your paddle face, okay? So I'm going to make sure that my wrist is actually stable through the shot and I'm actually using a little bit of my biceps here and my shoulder as I swing in that vertical motion, okay? So my swing isn't from this hinge here. It's actually from the shoulder hinge here. So that is how I'm actually getting very consistent clean contacts watching the ball like that and that's how I can apply topspin and also get the ball to drop, okay? The third component of topspin or the third thing I see a lot of players do is they don't get under the ball, okay? So a lot of players will get that ball and they kind of start at the ball height or they don't really get under it. So it kind of looks like this, okay? So that was actually a pretty good one there, but if I am not like really getting under the ball, right? It's very hard for me to actually swing in a low to high motion getting that vertical swing path. So the very first thing that you'll see good players do when they receive the ball is they drop their paddle tip down. Not only do they drop it down, but they create the right amount of space and then they are lifting up on the ball in that vertical motion, okay? So as soon as that ball comes, I'm dropping my paddle down or super early, right? So that I can actually get that spin on the ball, okay? So that's what we call setup and preparation and if you set up early and you prepare create that space and actually drop that paddle tip down, that's how we could get in a good position to hit our topspin dinks. Okay, now I'm going to quickly go over the backhand side. Same key principles apply. You're going to hit some on the backhand here, okay? For the backhand, the same things apply. I have to A, keep my paddle below the ball or start it below the ball. B, my motion's got to be very vertical, very low to high like this and then C, I'm going to not be using my wrist, right? So even if you look at my two-handed backhand, I like to start below the ball. One thing I like to say is I like to get both wrists below the contact of the ball and we'll see that here, okay? So below contact, right? Here we go, below contact. So wherever the apex of my ball is, that's where I want to be hitting it. My wrists are below. I'm going to swing in that vertical motion and then you're not going to see me doing a ton of this, right? You're going to see my swing path initiated from this motion here, okay? So here we go again, okay? There it is. Even if I'm thinking a little bit up the line, the same thing here, okay? So this topspin is created with those three things and the most important thing for topspin dinks, remember, is to get it to bounce because if I don't get my topspin dinks to bounce, my opponent is going to be attacking. I'm going to show you this right now, okay? But if I am trying to hit topspin dinks and it's going too far, obviously I'm going to get crushed. If topspin is something that you're actually still working on and struggling with, make sure you check out topspinsecrets.com or scan the QR code below and we'll show you how to get better on each and every shot. Alright, let's move on to the second thing that separates average players from advanced players and that is having a very solid transition game, specifically resets. What do we see at lower levels of play? They're all over the place, they're missing balls and they're popping it up. Good players have trained their resets here and again, when I'm in this position, I want to make sure that I'm buying myself time and that ball is landing in that non volley zone. Alright, I'm going to take a couple of resets here and Grayson's going to feed me. Okay, good. Now, the biggest thing here is that I am buying myself time. Obviously, I don't want my resets too high, but when I have good arc on them and when they're landing in the non volley zone, that allows me time to get in and then I can get up to that net and be in a better counter position. So, what goes wrong on most players resets? Well, we'll start off with the most obvious and that's number one, their feet are not balanced and they are just moving all over the place. So, common thing that I see is players come into a late split. So, whether they are actually not stopping at all or they're stopping late. Okay, so that's number one. So, let's say I'm kind of hitting a drop here and I'm coming in, coming in, coming in. Okay, and then they are late on that split. So, you don't want to do that. You got to make sure you're in that wide stance. Along with that, it's really important that you actually get into a wide stance with your feet parallel to each other. A lot of times, players don't have the awareness and they kind of are stopping kind of in this position. So, hit me a ball over here, Gray. Then I'm really off balance if my feet are staggered. Okay, so it's super important that your feet are parallel to each other. All right, so that's super important to know. Now, the next thing that I want to get to is a lot of players try to hit their resets and they're trying to hit their resets in the non-volley zone, but they are hitting a counter attack. They're actually punching at the ball or pushing through the ball. This is not great because that's going to apply a lot of force back. So, right here, Gray, go ahead. I see a lot of players resetting like this, right? And what they're doing is they're just putting the ball right to their opponent's strong counter position here. So, if I'm trying to get the ball to bounce, what's really important is I'm not pushing and countering through the ball, but I'm lifting up on the ball. Okay, so right here, Grayson will feed me. These are a slight lift. Okay, this is how I'm going to get a little bit of height on the ball. When you miss the ball into the net like that, it usually has to do with hitting the edge guard or the frame here. But when I am hitting these simple resets, I want to make sure that I'm always lifting up on the ball. Okay, so just a little lift like that. A little lift like that. Okay, so that's a big difference when we talk about actually getting the ball to bounce and countering. And a lot of people just don't really know what the difference is there. But again, if you are resetting and you're actually having a pushing motion. One more time, Gray. Like that, you're really not going to slow the ball down. You're not giving yourself time and it's not going to drop into non-voicing. Last but not least, this has to do with a lot of players from kind of different backgrounds. Maybe you're coming from tennis or badminton or something like that. And the big mistake is doing too much. Actually being too complex, too risky, too much movement on your reset. So a common thing that I see players do is they either cut at the ball or swipe at the ball like that. Okay, so when you're doing that, again, you might be able to make some when you're putting like a ton of spin on the ball or you're doing something like that. But it's going to be very inconsistent, especially when that player is attacking you really, really hard or with a lot of pace and topspin. What we want to do is we want to be as still as we can in transition. And we want to be able to absorb the ball into our paddle and just hit that simple lift. So actually, Grayson, you're going to try to keep attacking me and then I'm going to try to do all those three things and then we'll see how long I can last here in transition. Okay, here we go. Okay, nice and balanced. Okay, so you can see I have very simple, simple motions. I'm not slicing the ball. I'm just lifting the ball. Okay, just like that. Okay, you could even see on all those balls there, right, not only am I staying low and balanced with my lower base and upper body, but everything is very, very minimal. And once you can learn how to minimize your movements in the transition zone, you're going to hit better shots. Really quickly before we get into the third and final thing that separates amateur players from advanced players. If you're really liking this content, make sure you subscribe to this channel. It really helps us out. Give this video a like. Now we're going to jump into aggressive dinking. That is what separates really good players from average players. Alright, and before we're going to even think about dinking aggressively, the very first thing we have to look at is guess what? Our feet. Why should we worry about feet first? Well, feet sets up your ball position where you're hitting the ball, your ball contact, and then it will give you the options that you have available when you have that good contact point. So, for example, if I get a ball that's kind of wide here, if I don't move my feet well, this is what's going to look like, right? I'm kind of forced to shovel or I'm forced to kind of lift the ball. And if I do move my feet in a good way, right? I could actually dink really aggressively by working really hard with my feet. If you watch all the top players in the world, they move their feet very well so that they can actually put themselves in more offensive positions. If footwork is actually something you've been struggling with, make sure you check out fixmyfootwork.com or scan the QR code below because this is really the foundation and it will help you be more aggressive with your shots. So, on footwork, we're just going to quickly go over how you've got to use that shuffle step really quickly so that you can get your ball contact in front of you. If I'm going to be dinking more aggressively, in this example, I'm on the right side and I'm going to be rolling cross-court. For me to do this, I have to get behind the ball, physically behind the ball, and I want to be contacting the ball out here. I can't be very aggressive if it's outside my hip. So, I'm going to use my footwork to angle shuffle step or the shuffle step. So, here we go. Moving my feet well. Boom. Okay. Gray, you could even move me a little bit more. Okay. Boom. Okay. So, when I'm really quick with my feet, I have a lot of options. I could roll. I could speed up. I could lob. I could do a lot of things. If your feet is really slow or you're half-falling the ball or you're stretching and reaching like this, go again. Feed me a little bit more aggressive. If you're in that kind of position, of course, you're not going to get the opportunities to be really aggressive. This is why when you're trying to be aggressive with your dinks and you're playing at higher levels, you can't even start to think about aggression unless you fix your feet first. Now, I'm going to show you a couple of key things that I like to do on the backhand side. Now, I'm going to quickly talk about the backhand side. Like we just talked about on the forehand side, your ball position and where you contact the ball is the most important thing. And the only thing that is going to allow you to get there is your feet. So, for the two-handed backhand, obviously a lot of pros are using this in today's game. Why? Because it's more aggressive and you can hit with topspin. So, again, I'm going to be utilizing that shuffle step or the angle shuffle step to get my ball position in ideal position. And from there, I'm going to be rolling the ball and I'm going to be making sure that I'm hitting spots on the court that is actually going to put my opponent in a tough position. So, let's talk about targets. Especially on this left side, I have the inside foot over there to Grayson's right foot or I have that outside dink where I can actually pull my opponent off the court. Where your balls are actually landing is the key to aggressive dinks. Remember, if you're trying to dink aggressively, your balls have to bounce and they have to move your opponent. So, it's really important to put cones out there to see where your balls are actually landing and also how close you could even get them there. So, Gray, I'm going to move my feet. I'm going to go outside a couple and then I'm going to go inside a couple. Here we go. So, outside. Okay. Outside. Inside. Okay. And then one more. Inside. Okay. So, you can see in those examples there, none of my balls were going past the non-volley zone. I think this is super important, especially in advanced level play. If your balls are going past the non-volley zone, you're going to get eaten up and that ball is going to get attacked and they're probably going to attack your partner right here. So again, if I'm going for this inside cone and I'm a little bit too aggressive here and my ball is actually landing past the non-volley zone, your opponents are going to be attacking that. So, the second thing I want to keep in mind besides targets, which is going to help you, is your swing speed. Your swing speed dictates how far your ball is going to travel. Obviously, there's other things, your paddle angle and things like that, but the swing speed is the primary source of energy. So, when I'm going for that outside cone, my swing speed could be a little bit faster. I'm going to show you a couple examples there. I could be a little bit more aggressive with my swing speed because it's a farther distance. When I'm going towards this inside cone, my distance is a little bit shorter. So, I have to make sure that I slow my swing speed down to hit my target. Again, I'm going to show you my swing speed for the outside cone and then swing speed for the inside. So, swing speed management is a big thing, especially at higher levels, and if you're trying to dink aggressively, make sure you're picking good targets and you're controlling your swing speed.