The Shake & Bake: More Than a Box of Breadcrumbs

Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Coaching Newsletter!

Today we’re going to learn a strategy to win easy points off the third shot drive.

Spoiler alert: it has nothing to do with improving your drive itself—it’s almost all about the player not hitting the drive. 🤔

Are you ready to start winning easy points? Of course you are!

Let’s get started. 👇

When your team is hitting the third shot drive, the player hitting the drive is only doing half the work.

But why? Only one person can be hitting the ball at a time.

When one player is hitting a third shot, the other partner will sometimes disengage for the moment. When it comes to third shot drives, that leaves a ton of money on the table. 💰

In fact, when the non-hitting player gets involved, you can win easy points!

The most common way to do this is by using a pattern called the shake and bake.

💡 A shake and bake is when one player hits a third shot drive and the other player crashes the net to put away the return.

High level players attempt this play all the time. Here’s what it looks like. ⬇️

It looks like the “baking” player knew exactly where the ball was going before it was even hit. That’s because she did!

Well, sort of.

High level players use the geometry of the court to predict the area that the ball will most likely be returned to. Following a really good drive, you can predict where the ball will be returned to down to a third of the court — meaning that if you move to the right spot you will be within six and a half feet of the ball. The ball will effectively “come right to you.”

When it comes to executing a perfect shake and bake, each player needs to consider one thing based on their role as the player either hitting the drive or crashing. The player crashing needs to predict where the ball will be returned to and the player driving needs to pick a target that their partner can effectively cover.

You can predict where the ball will be returned to by understanding that hard drives usually go back in the direction that they came from. It is very hard to change the direction of a hard drive. Therefore, if you drive down the line, it will likely come back down the line, if you drive cross court it will likely come back cross court, and if you drive through the middle it will likely come back through the middle. Therefore, as the player not hitting the drive you should follow the ball in the direction that it is hit so you can get behind the return.

As the player hitting the drive, you have three options: you can drive down the line, cross court, or through the middle. Two are great options for a shake and bake, and one is not. Driving down the line or through the middle are great options for the shake and bake because if the non hitting player gets behind the ball, the receiving team would have to change direction to hit away from them, which we’ve established is difficult to do. If you drive cross court and the non-hitting player follows, the receiving team can hit back on the easier cross court angle to get the ball away from them.

To conclude, this strategy does require that both partners are on the same page. You and your partner should discuss before and during the game where you will be hitting the drives and where the non-driving player should be moving. If you employ the strategy correctly you’ll be on your way to winning lots of free points!

See you on the courts!

- Matt Slowinski (Co-Founder, Pro Player & Coach)

Time to get a visual behind all those words. 😁

Watch this clip for a textbook shake and bake. 👇

Notice the choice that the driving player made for placement. He hit down the line (relative to the side of the court that he is playing on), so that his partner could cross over and finish the point. Nicely done!

Insights from World No. 3 Ranked Pro James Ignatowich

THREE KEYS to the shake and bake.

1. A righty/lefty team’s shake and back is astronomically more dangerous and effective than two righties. With a lefty/righty team - not only do you have two forehand options for the middle third - you have two forehand options for the middle crash. Very straightforward here.

2. A shake and bake drive should not always be your fast ball. The best drives at the pro level are hit at around 75% pace, intending to dip below the height of the net before eventually hitting the ground. This gives the crashing player more time to crash

3. Before executing this play, TALK beforehand. It makes all of the difference if the crashing player knows exactly where the drive is going.

See you all for my next bulletin!

-James

^{For more from James, check out his Instagram and YouTube!}

Once you understand the strategy, the shake and bake is pretty easy to execute. But there’s one shot that you need to have in order to perform the shake and bake: the drive!

Check out the video below for one of the best ways to practice your drive. It will help you hone in your consistency while practicing pace and spin!👇

Well, that’s a wrap… so let’s recap what we learned this week:

• The player not hitting the ball has just as important of a role as the player hitting the ball on third shot drives

• Drives are usually returned back in the direction that they came from—use that knowledge to predict where the ball will go

• Drive down the line or through the middle, and avoid driving cross court so your partner has the best chance of getting the ball

Thanks for reading! We hope you can put these tips to good use the next time you’re out on the courts.

Reply to this email with anything you want to see in our future newsletters 😄 

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic