Kevin, you could vastly improve your game by getting your paddle up and out in front in ready position after every shot. You tend to hold it low down by your side which causes you to miss many defensive shots, and hit shots too high because you are going from low to high with your paddle and hitting up on the ball.
Also, drill your backhand shots. You miss easy backhand shots because your backhand is far weaker than your forehand, or you try to hit them as a forehand when you should be using your backhand.
You asked for comments so... 1. 3rd shot drop! : Both 3.5 players are trying to drive through 2 players standing forward. driving from the base line works if the opponents are too lazy to move forward. If they are at the kithchen; Lob or drop. Faster younger taller men can usually smash a lob back. 3rd shot drop is a much higher percentage shot and it was not part of the 3.5 game shown today. 2. Dink better! : This 3.5 team was trying to speed up to early while the dinks were still very low. Be patient. Wait until the bounce is higher or they hit into the net. Recognize when they are out of position to split the middle. 3. Avoid dinking wide! This is when you give away the ATP. ATPs are demoralizing and take you out of the next 2 points mentally. 4. Service return: Return deep and slow to give yourself time to charge the kitchen. If your returns are strong, low and fast, you wont have enough time to get to the kitchen. A strong fast return should only be used if you have enough time to get into proper foward position. A higher slower return is more advantageous because THEY have to wait for it to bounce before returning it. Make them wait longer! 5. Cleaner flatter swings! : Avoid an under-hand swing. Try to swing you paddle flatter. under-hand swings have excellent left and right control but little height control. Height control is more important. A flat hit from the left or right has less directional control but is more precise with height control. Height control is more important then directional control. I can go on, but if you can fix these basic items you can beat the guys with the little paddles. Kenny.
Gosh, the 3.5's should not be hitting the net as often as they are, heck they have a full paddle! They've tried no lobs (harder to hit hard with the tiny paddle) or much else in their arsenal. You sure these two are 3.5's? Sorry, I can't even watch to the end, the mistakes are rookie mistakes and numerous!
3.0 is far more accurate. Limited shots in the arsenal like you said, and everything going over the net was far too high. People tend to self-rank much higher than reality.
Well we are both between 3.0 and 3.5 DUPR currently, so you are correct in that regard, we would be competing in 3.0 bracket. Though my Dupr has been as high as 3.75. Lobs against these two 6’+ 20 something’s would have been a sight to see. I think we might have been ducking for cover after those ;). I was impressed with how well those two handled the trainers. At one point we actually decided to drive them since our drops were too easy for them to attack. We figured maybe countering with a trainer or resetting would be more difficult. But that didn’t turn out to be the case. Looking back at these games, I felt like we lost them more than the score showed. I was surprised that we actually managed to stay somewhat close…
Kevin, you could vastly improve your game by getting your paddle up and out in front in ready position after every shot. You tend to hold it low down by your side which causes you to miss many defensive shots, and hit shots too high because you are going from low to high with your paddle and hitting up on the ball.
Also, drill your backhand shots. You miss easy backhand shots because your backhand is far weaker than your forehand, or you try to hit them as a forehand when you should be using your backhand.
Yeah, that is definitely something I forget to do. Whenever I am lazy I tend to drop my paddle.
“Yeah, just hit him!” That’s always a good strat. Man those guys are good. Might need to give them wooden planks next time and rematch them.
You asked for comments so...
1. 3rd shot drop! : Both 3.5 players are trying to drive through 2 players standing forward. driving from the base line works if the opponents are too lazy to move forward. If they are at the kithchen; Lob or drop. Faster younger taller men can usually smash a lob back. 3rd shot drop is a much higher percentage shot and it was not part of the 3.5 game shown today.
2. Dink better! : This 3.5 team was trying to speed up to early while the dinks were still very low. Be patient. Wait until the bounce is higher or they hit into the net. Recognize when they are out of position to split the middle.
3. Avoid dinking wide! This is when you give away the ATP. ATPs are demoralizing and take you out of the next 2 points mentally.
4. Service return: Return deep and slow to give yourself time to charge the kitchen. If your returns are strong, low and fast, you wont have enough time to get to the kitchen. A strong fast return should only be used if you have enough time to get into proper foward position. A higher slower return is more advantageous because THEY have to wait for it to bounce before returning it. Make them wait longer!
5. Cleaner flatter swings! : Avoid an under-hand swing. Try to swing you paddle flatter. under-hand swings have excellent left and right control but little height control. Height control is more important. A flat hit from the left or right has less directional control but is more precise with height control. Height control is more important then directional control.
I can go on, but if you can fix these basic items you can beat the guys with the little paddles.
Kenny.
Thanks Kenny! I’ll take this into consideration next time. These are some really helpful tips
Gosh, the 3.5's should not be hitting the net as often as they are, heck they have a full paddle! They've tried no lobs (harder to hit hard with the tiny paddle) or much else in their arsenal. You sure these two are 3.5's? Sorry, I can't even watch to the end, the mistakes are rookie mistakes and numerous!
Thanks for watching as far as you could!
3.0 is far more accurate. Limited shots in the arsenal like you said, and everything going over the net was far too high. People tend to self-rank much higher than reality.
Well we are both between 3.0 and 3.5 DUPR currently, so you are correct in that regard, we would be competing in 3.0 bracket. Though my Dupr has been as high as 3.75. Lobs against these two 6’+ 20 something’s would have been a sight to see. I think we might have been ducking for cover after those ;). I was impressed with how well those two handled the trainers. At one point we actually decided to drive them since our drops were too easy for them to attack. We figured maybe countering with a trainer or resetting would be more difficult. But that didn’t turn out to be the case. Looking back at these games, I felt like we lost them more than the score showed. I was surprised that we actually managed to stay somewhat close…
Get that boy Cade mic upped
For sure, thought 1 mic on each side would be able to pick everything up, gonna have to mic everyone up next time
@ definitely love these type of vids too