The Time To Practice

Whenever you are up so many points that it is unlikely you’ll lose the game, it is a good time to start practicing your crazy moves. This is time to try switching hands, the legal serve spin, the slice, extreme diagonals, and many of the other techniques you’ll read here, as well as anything you want to invent. By exploring the limits, you’ll learn more about what works, and what doesn’t work, or is not worth the effort.

Yesterday, as usual, being in a pickup game where the score was eight to two, I announced to my partner that I was going to try my newest weird serve experiment. I always announce these things to my partner, so they don’t think I’ve gone bonkers and so they have a chance to object if they wish. They almost always say, “sure, go for it.” Yesterday, my portner said, “Maybe you’ll be more successful if you play normally.” Of course he was right, but I think one of us was more into the spirit of pickleball than the other. Only thing is, I don’t know which one of us it was.