Want to be more aggressive? Stop hitting so hard. A lot of players come out swinging because they learn pretty quickly that hitting harder can mean winning more points. And sometimes it does. But if you want to improve past a certain level, you have to learn how to hit hard, when to hit hard... and when NOT to hit hard. Because aggression isnât just about power. Itâs about wisdom. Here are 4 ways I think about being aggressively smart: Go for a bigger serve. This is one place where taking a...
15 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
You want a fun pickleball party trick AND a reliable serve? Learn to serve with your eyes closed. Ok, Iâm not actually suggesting you do this in a game, but the concept holds. The serve is the one shot in pickleball where you have control over all the variables. No one is attacking you. No weird spin is coming at you. Youâre not late or off balance. You have the ball, you choose when to start, and you get to execute the exact same motion every single time. And yet I frequently see players...
22 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
You might be avoiding games that could actually help you. We all want to get into the better games. I hear some version of it all the time: The games aren't good enough. This person isn't good enough to drill with me. That person is too good for me. And yes, level matters. You need appropriate competition and practice partners to improve. But I also think we spend way too much time evaluating whether the people across the net are giving us the right experience, and not enough time asking:...
30 days ago â˘Â 4 min read
Hey Friend! I ran two Womenâs Intensives this weekend, and my friend Jane (check her out @obsessed.with.pickleball on IG), a 4.5 player, was there all day shooting film for me. In the middle of the morning of the 3.0-3.5 clinic, she turned to me and said, âYouâre teaching fundamentals, but this is all stuff you say to me too.â She was right. In the intensive, we worked on drive/drop combos to get to the kitchen, deeper serves and returns, and holding the line on aggressive dinks instead of...
about 1 month ago â˘Â 2 min read
Hey friend! Competing keeps reminding me of something: your ability to win canât always depend on your ability to play your best. This past weekend, my partner (and fellow California Smash coach) Claudio & I went into an open-level moneyball tournament seeded first in our pool and second overall...and let's just say I came out TIGHT. It was really windy, my serves and returns felt shaky, and my forehand dink, normally my biggest strength as a right side player, wasnât exactly staying down. We...
about 1 month ago â˘Â 2 min read
Hey friend, My August Womenâs Intensives are coming up August 22â23, and I added a little something extra: raffling off a CRBN Barrage 4 at each intensive. đ (thanks CRBN). Everyone who attends is automatically entered, and one woman from each clinic will go home with a brand-new paddle. But the real goal of these intensives is to help you take all the skills youâve been working on and actually use them better in games. Because at a certain point, getting better at pickleball isnât just about...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 1 min read
Hi Friend! At almost every clinic I run, I see the same thing: players work hard to get to the ball, only to arrive just a beat too lateâlunging, stretching, or popping the ball up. And almost every time, the problem started before their opponent even hit the ball. They never stabilized. Instead, they ran through the shot or were still falling forward or backward when it was time to react. Enter the split step. If you never played tennis, you may have never even heard of it. The split step is...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Simple Is Better: Stop Overcomplicating your Pickleball Hey friend, I'm in your inbox this week with a simple reminder: bread-and-butter pickleball will raise your level faster than any flashy new shot. We think improvement comes from learning something new. More often, it comes from finally doing the simple things consistently. I posted a new positioning video on YouTube last week (see below), and many comments said the same thing: âSo simple, but so helpful.ââGood reminders. I needed this.â...
2 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
Want to Improve Faster? Track Your Kitchen Arrival Percentage Last week I ran a doubles strategy clinic with 16 women, and I started with a bet. My coaching partner and I stood at the kitchen line while I put two players in the transition zone. I offered anyone a dollar if they could get to the kitchen...with one catch: they could only hit hard. No drops. No resets. Just power. Team after team got stuck. Every hard ball came back at their feet, and they never advanced. Only one team broke...
3 months ago â˘Â 3 min read