Road To Pro Week 4

Author

Shea Underwood
February 23, 2024

WEEK 4

Welcome back to the Road to Pro! Lately, I’ve been considering making some changes on my YouTube channel, and I wanted to bring the idea to you to see what you think. Since starting my channel, I’ve produced many different types of content; however, I have been considering slightly narrowing my focus to only posting content related to the Road to Pro journey.

This would consist of a behind the scenes look of the following:

  • How I’m training

  • Analyses of my matches

  • Tournament vlogs

  • Collections of helpful tips…etc.

Everything would be centered around the Road to Pro. My other content would live on the Cracked Pickleball channel. I’d love to hear what you all think about this. Feel free to send a reply and let me know!!

Tip Highlight

The technique I’ve been focusing on the most this week is keeping the tip of your paddle down when driving and dropping the ball with top spin, especially when using a two-handed backhand. I have noticed that most players with a great two-handed backhand tend to do this right before contact with the ball. I know this is a crucial element of the forehand drive, so I should have applied this to my backhand sooner. Regardless, since I’ve implemented this technique in my two-handed backhand, it’s made a huge difference.

Keeping the tip of your paddle down provides the most surface area for the ball. This allows the ball to roll off the paddle during contact, generating a great amount of power and spin. The power comes from the paddle head speed, and the spin comes from the upward force applied to the ball. Check out these snapshots of players with great two-handed backhands.

You can see the tips of their paddles are down right before contact. Give it a try.

Subscriber Special

Drilling with the Dink Master

My partnership with Enhance Pickleball to offer you an exclusive deal is still happening! The first 100 people to purchase a Dink Master using the link below will receive the following FREE items:

  • A Dink Pad

  • The Dink Master Mini-Course

  • A pack of lead tape

  • Free Shipping

That’s over $120 worth of FREE pickleball gear for you!

This offer is going live on my YouTube channel on February 27th, and I anticipate 100 spots going very quickly.

Click This Link to access your exclusive offer!

On the Rise

This week, I’ve been focusing on two very important elements of my game:

1. Two-handed backhand drops

After watching myself play against Ivan in my latest video, “10 ADVANCED Pickleball Tips You Must Know,” I realized that this shot is not where it needs to be at this stage in my game. I have to be able to reliably and consistently use a two-handed backhand, not only to drive the ball, but also to hit a well-placed drop.

2. Taking better angles

It has taken me three years to realize that I am TERRIBLE at taking the correct angle to get to the ball. What I’ve been doing is running to where the ball is bouncing and relying on my athleticism to take a shot. INSTEAD, what I should be doing is running behind where the ball is going to bounce, which will put me in the perfect position to make the right shot. I go over this in more detail at 6:10 in this week’s video. You can click on this link to go directly to that section.

Q&A Spotlight

I’ve been taking Q/A requests through my Instagram. Here is a great question a follower asked:

I really want to improve my topspin. Can I do that without changing from the continental grip?

Answer: From what I’ve seen, the mechanics for getting topspin, no matter your grip, are ultimately the same across the board.

That being said, here are the four things you need to make sure you’re doing:

  1. Swing from low to high, making sure you get underneath the ball first. Your paddle quickly “brushing” up the backside of the ball is the main factor in generating topspin.

  2. Directly after contact, continue your follow through in the direction you want the ball to go. The moment you start wavering a bit to one side after contact, you start getting topspin variations rather than true topspin.

  3. Keep your paddle tip down. As explained above, this makes your paddle head speed faster, which allows you to apply more topspin to the ball.

  4. Use a carbon fiber paddle or a paddle with grit paint on it. Newer paddles have better spin.

Feed Favorites

I released two new videos this past week. One is on my personal channel, and the other is on the Cracked Pickleball channel. Go check them out!

Also, check out this Instagram post to enter my current giveaway! I’m giving away two Dude Perfect X Selkirk paddles for FREE.

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