09/14/2021
What is the best drill to make me a better player?
They are looking for a drill to help their serve, or a drill to help their d**k game or a drill to help them have more consistent drop shots. They are always looking for and asking for drills to help their shots. But they never ask for THE drill that will do more for their game than any other drill.
What a lot of players, including teaching coaches, don't realize is that every ball or paddle sport has one specific need in order to play. Yes, every sport has to have a foundation to start from and that building block is your hand eye coordination.
Your hand eye coordination is that magical, mythical skill that allows you to catch a pickleball cleanly on the sweet spot of your paddle. You know how good that shot feels when you hit it in the right spot on your paddle and you know how ugly it feels when you don't hit that sweetspot.
It's pretty simple, if you have NO hand eye coordination, playing any sport that uses a ball, racquet or paddle is going to be very tough and unfortunately very frustrating.
But here is the good news. Hand eye coordination is a learnable skill. You can start with none or start with a little or start with a high level of hand eye coordination, and practice it just like you do any other skill.
Yes if you want a better backhand d**k, practice backhand d**ks. If you want a better forehand drive, practice forehand drives. And if you want better hand eye coordination, PRACTICE and DRILL your hand eye coordination.
Think about it. In every sport, you start by building a good foundation that works on your hand eye coordination.
In baseball, you start with hitting a ball off a batting tee, this gets you using the proper swing and actually seeing your bat hit the ball.
In basketball, you lower the basket and learn to shoot with the proper technique until your hands and eyes and needed muscles all start to work together to put the ball through the hoop.
Pickleball is exactly the same way, but you can even go so far as to work to build and strengthen your hand eye coordination even before you start practicing the proper strokes.
So what is the best drill to build that foundational hand eye skill?
Simply bounce a pickleball repeatedly on your paddle, concentrating on the ball hitting the paddle's sweetspot. It is so simple that most players will never do it. But those who do reap the benefits quickly.
A few keys to getting the most benefits from this simple bounce drill:
1) Make sure you hold the paddle with a continental (handshake) grip. If you have that grip and you turn your wrist toward the sky, you paddle head should be relatively flat (think holding a frying pan).
2) Bounce the ball on your paddle to about a 12 inch height.
3) Focus your eyes on seeing the ball strike your paddle each and every time. Try to hit and feel the sweetspot.
4) Make sure your contact point is just below your waist. Don't allow yourself to hit the ball chest high or above because that is not realistically the height where you will hit the ball in real play. Keeping the ball at or below the waist will get your eyes and hands working together to make those future real shots.
Do this bounce drill for about five minutes each and every day. In about three weeks you will begin to see a noticeable difference in how you are able to control the ball on the court.
Do it every day. You will be very glad you did.
THEN, if you want to drill a particular shot or swing shape, join us:
INTRODUCTIONLearn the game from an experienced, patient player/coach who will focus on what you are trying to accomplish. Danny is the organizer of Pickleball Music City (Nashville- 300 members), Sain
