Some of the techniques discussed on this website will carry you only so far. Spin serves, slices, hard passing shots, overhand smashes will bring you to perhaps 4.0 status, but if you try to use those very same techniques at higher levels of play, you’ll lose every game.
Why? Because many people go through this stage, and the advanced players have learned to respond to all your flamboyant moves.
If you watch a typical 5.0-level game, you’ll see that the players mostly use conventional moves. They serve deep, but not necessarily fast and low. They return deep, again, not necessarily fast or low.
They drop the third shot into the kitchen, and most often into the middle, not angled to one side. Then they have a soft rally until a genuine opportunity comes along. The intermediate pickleballer tends to end soft kitchen rallies too soon by taking a shot that might be a winner, instead of waiting for one that will be a winner. You’ll often see the best pickleball players wait out a kitchen rally for a very long time, until that decisive moment comes along. And, it might not even require an offensive move. Your opponent may make a mistake, hitting the ball into the net, or may try an offensive move, that you can easily slam back even harder.
This is ridiculous the top players use spin and power all the time. Is this writer even a top player?
Yes, top players may use spins and slices but the point the writer is making is that they don’t work against top players unless those top players make a mistake and don’t see the spin coming. From what I have seen, the top players play very conservatively and wait for their opponents to make a mistake. The fancier you try to make things, the more chance their is to make a mistake.
Yes, top players may use spins and slices but the point the writer is making is that they don’t work against top players unless those top players make a mistake and don’t see the spin coming. From what I have seen, the top players play very conservatively and wait for their opponents to make a mistake. The fancier you try to make things, the more chance their is to make a mistake.