Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Do you wish your paddle had magical powers? If so, what would they be? Today, we'll take a look at how our community answered that question, find out what 90% of pro pickleball players have in common, discover backhand dink mistakes that are destroying players’ games, and a lot more.

Let’s do this! 👇

One of the greatest attributes of pickleball is that it's easy to pick up — an average person should be able to dink, volley and even play some points within an hour of learning. 

That's not to say it's easy to master. But anyone should be able to start the game, and with time, excel at it without having any previous racket sport experience.

HOWEVER, let's not pretend that an extensive racket sport background doesn't give someone a leg up, especially if that person was really good at a racket sport, like college level or above.

And it makes sense. A highly accomplished tennis player, for example, may have hit over a million tennis balls. That's a LOT of muscle memory.

While tennis and pickleball are different, we hate to break it to you, but if Roger Federer played pickleball for the first time, he'd probably be a 4.5+ player in a couple of hours. To get to the 5.0+ level, it might take him a little longer, but probably not much.

Don't just take our word for it. According to tennis.com, 90% of professional pickleball players on the PPA Tour have some kind of tennis experience, with almost 50% of that group playing college tennis and almost 20% attempting to play professional tennis.

The other 10% does have some big names, though, including Hayden Patriquin and Dylan Frazier, who is currently #3 and #5 in the world in men's doubles and singles, respectively.

But to be clear, a high-level tennis background only gets you so far. It does not guarantee equal success in pickleball because there are several bad tennis habits that need to be weeded out and good pickleball habits that need to be added in.

A great example of this is the fact that former highly ranked professional tennis players, including Genie Bouchard, Sam Querrey, John Isner and Donald Young have struggled at the professional pickleball level and have not reached the same level of success they had in professional tennis.

As pickleball continues to grow, one thing is pretty certain — more and more professional pickleball players will not have tennis backgrounds, as they will have started pickleball and stuck with it from a very early age. 💪

Don’t Back Up at the Kitchen Line

If your opponent’s dink is going to bounce beyond your kitchen line, don’t back up to hit it. One of the most common errors I see among beginners is that they back up to let dinks bounce 3-4+ feet behind the kitchen line instead of hitting them in the air. Any shot that would bounce over a foot past the kitchen line should be hit out of the air. If you back up, you are giving your opponent more room to hit at your feet, which is one of the hardest spots to defend. Additionally, it is far easier to attack on a volley than it is on a dink, so by letting shots bounce beyond the kitchen you are likely giving up offensive opportunities.

We think this point may still be going on. 😀

Getting Some Peace of Mind

When you’re playing pickleball, there are tons of things you need to think about: the sun, the wind, where you should aim your third shot drop, how aggressively you should be dinking — and the list goes on and on.

Well, you don’t want to be worrying about the ball and whether or not it’s going to perform the way it should. And you don’t have to when you use the Franklin X-40 because you know it’s been carefully crafted and tested to give you the absolute best performance. Get some for yourself, and use code “clinic15” at checkout for 15% off.

Brandon Nsekpong is a professional pickleball player and teacher who played tennis and table tennis competitively as a kid. We recently asked Brandon what impact coaching has had on his own pickleball game.

“Coaching has been a major factor in my development as a player. The biggest reason is that it keeps me constantly learning. My playing style is a mix of skills I’ve picked up over the years from players at all levels, always searching for an edge in a game where the top players are often separated by the smallest margins. I take pride in coaching players to leverage the game as it’s currently played, adapting strategies to fit their strengths, rather than focusing solely on my own style or overly complex techniques. This approach keeps both me and the players I coach on top of the latest tactics and trends, ensuring we stay sharp.

Coaching also adds purpose to my journey. I’ve always been a people person and find real fulfillment in inspiring others. Helping players improve is especially rewarding when I see that “ah-ha” moment, whether it’s from a mechanical tweak that boosts their consistency or a positional change that elevates their game. I wouldn’t be the player I am today without the influence of coaching. I’m fortunate to play this game at a high level and to share what I’ve learned with others.”

_{You can also follow Brandon on Instagram!}

Are There Magical Paddles?

For everyone following our Instagram or Facebook pages, or members of our Facebook Group (the largest online forum in the world for pickleball), we sometimes like to ask you pickleball-related questions, which almost always get either insightful or funny answers.

Our most recent question was “If you could give your pickleball paddle one magical ability, what would it be?"

The most common answers centered around always hitting the ball right in the middle of the paddle. Those are pretty sensible wishes.

Other practical magical abilities included never hitting the ball into the net and never hitting the ball out. (Hey, if you combine all three of the abilities above, then you would literally never lose a point — at least not in singles. 😄)

Some people wished that their paddles could predict lottery numbers, while others had more specific requests...

"Vibrate when a ball is going out." (Great idea! And that technology probably exists.) "To bleep out my cuss words" (That's very considerate. 😉) "I wish it sounded like a lightsaber!" (The sport is trying to reduce sound, but hey, lightsabers sound pretty cool.)

But our favorite magical ability may have been to "Nasty Nelson (a trick shot where you win a point by hitting your opponent standing up at the kitchen with your serve) every time to a receiver." This is not the nicest wish, but if you could in fact do that, then you would win every point on your serve. 😆

Thanks to everyone who responded to that question. If you missed the post and want to share your magical ability now, then feel free to hit reply and write back to us. 👍

If you’re not talking about pickleball, then we don’t want to hear it. 🥒

The backhand dink is an extremely important shot to have in pickleball. If you can’t hit it consistently or you keep popping it up, then it will be tough to get better because people will keep hitting to your backhand. Well, enough is enough! Coach Matt is here to show you what you’re doing wrong on your backhand dink and what you need to do to fix it. 👇

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t cut at the ball to create slice. That is too big of a swing and will lead to hitting pop-ups. Instead, open the paddle face and simply swing across.

• Keep your elbow straight and just move your shoulder to swing.

• Set your wrist up and back and keep it locked there throughout the swing — do not flick your wrist.

• Move your feet to get to the ball (as opposed to reaching), and don’t stand upright — instead, bend your knees to get low.

80-year-old Hall of Fame basketball player, Rick Barry, is known for his underhand free throws and for playing 15 years in the ABA and NBA, where he won an NBA championship in 1975 with the Gold State Warriors. But he’s not just a basketball player.

After retiring, he took up golf and won four world long driving titles for his age group. But that wasn’t enough. He took up pickleball a little while back and strove to be the best, which he was able to do yet again, as he won the men’s doubles tournament in his age group at last year’s US Open in Naples, Florida. So the next time someone says you can’t be the best in the world at three different sports, tell ‘em “Well maybe I can’t, but Rick Barry can.” 😀

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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