Pickleball Pros’ Best-Kept Secrets

WEEK 39

Welcome back to the Road to Pro!

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

• What sets pros apart from rec players?

• Game-changing tips from a top pro

• My new favorite way to play singles

This week Ben asked our featured question, so I’ll be sending him a new Selkirk paddle! If you want a chance to win a paddle, click on the button below to submit your pickleball questions. Anyone whose question is featured in my newsletter will automatically win a new paddle!

Now let’s get to it!

Q&A Spotlight

The Secret Ingredients

Answer: As much as I wish I could, I can’t tell you how to turn a paddle into a magic wand, but I can share the secret ingredients that set pros apart from recreational players. I recently spent some time with Roscoe Bellamy, a top pro pickleball player who’s beat Ben Johns himself in singles. You can watch their match here!

Roscoe shared some of the best-kept secrets that the pros all know, and I’m gonna share them with you this week. Let’s get into it!

Secret 1: Master Your Footwork

One of the most intimidating players to face is someone with excellent footwork. Good footwork helps you always get in the right position, and when you are, you gain so much more control over your shots. Being in the right position also opens up so many more options for you. You can attack, dink, drop, whatever you want. This puts pressure on your opponents, and it can be unsettling to them when they see how well you handle whichever shot they throw at you. Great footwork can even allow you to fake them out, catching them off guard with unexpected shots. If you want to use this to your advantage, focus on moving your feet and getting behind every ball. Your feet should only be planted when you’re making contact with the ball, and any other time, don’t stop moving your feet to get in the right position. At any level, players with exceptional footwork are the most threatening.

Secret 2: Avoid Premature Movement

The number one factor that slows down your hand speed is moving too soon. 99% of players have a tendency to flinch or shift before their opponent even makes contact with the ball, especially when expecting a speed-up at the kitchen line. This premature movement wastes the small amount of time you have to react to the shot, and it will leave you out of position.

Next time you’re out playing, have someone stand across from you at the kitchen and hit speed-ups at you, occasionally whiffing the ball. When they whiff, pay attention to what you do with your paddle. You’ll see how you react before they even make contact with the ball. So, what you need to be doing is, instead of guessing, focus on watching the ball and reacting to the shot your opponent actually makes. Anticipate, but don't assume—you need to respond to the actual shot, not what you think your opponent will do. Remember what we just learned about footwork? Skilled players with great footwork can easily fake you out, so you can’t assume you know what your opponent is about to do.

Secret 3: Your Fitness Enhances Your Decision-Making

Your fitness level directly affects your performance on the court, and it’s one of the biggest reasons why you’re losing points you can’t explain. As you progress in pickleball and start facing higher-level opponents, the team willing to stay engaged in dinking rallies the longest, is usually the team that wins the point. That’s not always the case; however, the fitter you are, the more able you’ll be to maintain your focus and physical readiness no matter how long a point lasts. You’ll also be able to show your opponents that you’re prepared to stick in it for as long as necessary to win the point. The reason being fit is so important is because when you get tired, you naturally start standing up from the athletic, low stance you need to maintain throughout a rally. Losing your low ready position will result in a loss of control. By improving your fitness, you'll play better overall and be able to sustain longer rallies.

Secret 4: Manage Your Nerves

Everyone gets nervous—even the best pro pickleball players. It's natural and hard to avoid, but how you handle your nerves can give you an edge over your opponent, who probably feels the same way. Nerves often go away after the first few points of a game, but those beginning points are crucial, and you don’t want to let your nerves get in the way of you playing your best. One of the first things that happens when you get nervous is your feet slow down. To counter this, make a conscious effort to move your feet even more. By focusing on something you can control—like your footwork—you'll not only counteract the effects of nerves but you’ll also maintain better positioning and movement during the game.

Secret 5: Embrace Your Unique Playing Style

Sometimes, there is no right or wrong way to play. Every player has their own style they bring to their game, and that’s ok. Even the pros play with different approaches. Take Colin Johns for example - he's known for his incredible consistency and great defense, but he doesn't attack or play offensively very much at the net. Look at AJ Koller, who uses a ton of lobs and plays in a way that some people consider more unconventional, yet he's won several gold medals with his approach. This principle applies at every level. There are so many athletes who transition to pickleball from different sports, and sometimes the techniques from those other sports affect the way they play pickleball. Pickleball isn't always so cut and dry, so it’s ok if you have your own style of play, or if you prefer to hit certain shots over others. Rather than fighting against it, use it to your advantage and play to your strengths.

Secret 6: Adjust for Altitude Changes

Altitude can actually affect how the ball moves through the air. At higher elevations, the ball flies farther than usual. To counteract this, Roscoe puts lead tape evenly around the edges of his paddle. This reduces the paddle’s power overall, which will then make the ball travel through the air in a way that’s more similar to what he’s used to. It sounds like this is too small of an issue to even matter, but when you play pickleball all the time, you’ll be subconsciously aware of small differences like this. And if you’re someone who travels around for tournaments, this is definitely something you should keep in mind. It will help you maintain control and consistency in different playing conditions.

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Drill Highlight

Even the Playing Field

I recently created a new way of playing singles games that evens the playing field between two players who have different skill levels.

What I do is play a series of regular singles games, but adjust the point system to make it more interesting and more fair. (You can also apply this same system to doubles games if one team is significantly better than the other.)

How it works: Every game you play will be played to 7. In the first game, you’ll both start with 0 points like normal; however, at the end of the first game, the loser gets one point. That means they are going to start the next game with 1 point, making it slightly easier to get to 7 points and win the game. If that same person loses the second game, they earn a second point, and they’ll start the third game with 2 points already on the board. This means that they only have to win 5 points against the other player to win the game.

If, for example, that player with 2 points wins the third game, they will lose a point and start the next game with 1 point. There will only ever be one player with points on the board at the beginning of the game. One player will go up in points if they keep losing, and they would get points taken away if they win, going all the way back down to 0-0 if they keep winning. One player will always have 0 points at the start of a game, so a game would never start with a score of something like 3-5. Once you begin each game, however, you count points as normal until one player reaches 7.

The reason this point system is so helpful is because it evens the playing field for the lower-skilled player. It’ll keep them mentally more focused and determined (making the games more competitive overall), and the better player doesn’t have to dumb down their skill.

Videos You’ll Enjoy

• I just released a new YouTube video where I compiled the Nastiest Points In Pickleball History! Go check it out if you want to see the best pickleball plays made by some of the top pros!

• Go take a look at Cracked Pickleball’s most recent video where we show you what it takes for 3.5s to beat 5.0s in a game of pickleball!

Special Announcement

Thanks for reading this week’s issue! I appreciate your support, and I love being able to provide all of you with knowledge and tips that’ll help you enhance your game.

I’m getting married in just a few days, and I’ll be heading on our honeymoon directly after. So, there won’t be an issue next week, but I’ll be back in two weeks with some more pickleball content for you!

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