Top 5 Trick Shots + New Pickleball Excuses

Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

The famous northern lights were visible as far south as Alabama this past week due to massive geomagnetic storms on the sun. Did anyone get to see them? Or play pickleball with them as the backdrop? Let us know if you did! Speaking of exciting things on a pickleball court, today, we’ll list our Top 5 pickleball trick shots, take a look at a pickleball beef involving a machete, reveal more pickleball excuses, and a whole lot more.

Let’s do this! 👇

As you start getting better at pickleball, you'll probably begin to see other players hit shots that are more than just your average dink or volley.

If one of these shots you witness looks a little different, is a bit flashier than normal (and definitely riskier😄), then chances are, it's a... TRICK SHOT!

We're going to list five of our favorite trick shots below! There are definitely more than five, and if the list was "most effective," or "coolest looking," then our list might be slightly different. But we're choosing our favorites. In no particular order, here they are...

The Erne: Named after pro pickleball player, Erne Perry, this is a shot where you hit the ball either in the air as you are jumping over the corner of the kitchen or after you run around or through the kitchen and re-establish your feet out of bounds, just to the side of the kitchen.

The Tweener: The front-facing tweener is a shot where instead of hitting a normal forehand dink or groundstroke, you hit it from between your legs. The backward facing tweener (as shown above by Mr. Ben Johns), is a lot more difficult, and you hit this shot after chasing down a lob that's been hit over your head. They're both cool, but a backwards tweener is the real deal. 💪

The Kyle Yates: Named after former world #1 pickleball player, Kyle Yates, this is a shot where you pretend to hit a backhand dink crosscourt, but at the last second, you flip your paddle over such that it becomes a forehand, which you then speed up — either down the line or up the middle.

The ATP: ATP stands for "Around the Post," and this is a shot where rather than hitting the ball over the net, you hit it around the net. 😲 You can only hit this shot if you are moved far enough to the side of the court that you have an angle to hit the ball around the net post.

Behind-the-back: This shot can be hit either off a bounce or as a volley. You have to turn your body sideways a bit so that your arm can swing behind and around the back of your body. Compared to the shots above, it's not all that hard to do, but it still looks really cool. 😎

Honorable Mention:

The Nasty Nelson: This shot is when you purposely hit your serve at your opponent standing directly across from you at the kitchen line. If your serve hits your opponent in the air, it's your point. This shot is kind of mean and tough to pull off, but if it works, it's super memorable and really funny! 😁

Trick shots are often not the best shot choice (i.e. tweener, behind-the-back and Nasty Nelson), although sometimes they are (i.e. ATP, Erne). Regardless, pickleball is about having fun — and these trick shots are definitely that!

So take a look at the shots above, and try hitting one of them some time. You won't regret that you tried — although your partner probably will. 😂

Let the Score Influence Your Third Shot Decision

When making your third shot decision (i.e. whether to drop or drive), you should consider whether you're on the first or second server. Players will sometimes think of the third shot decision making as black and white using conditionals. For example: drive high balls and drop low balls or drive short balls and drop deep balls.

The score can also help you determine how much risk you want to take. When you're on the first server, you can give yourself some extra leeway to go for more aggressive thirds, like a drive or topspin drop. When you're on your second server, the priority should be getting the ball in and getting to the kitchen line, so maybe you'd consider dropping a ball that you might normally drive.

A World Without Balls 😲

Take a second and imagine playing ball sports without balls. That would totally suck, right? You would have to imagine everything. Have you ever played basketball with no net attached to the rim? It would kind of be like that, but even worse! It would be so sad.🥲 OK, let’s stop this thought experiment, it’s getting depressing.😀

Luckily, balls aren’t going anywhere, thanks to one of the premier ball-making companies ever, Franklin. And fortunately for us, they make the best pickleballs in the world, the X-40s. Get some today, and use code “clinic15” at checkout for 15% off!

Michael Loyd is a pro pickleball player who grew up playing tennis in Texas. Today, Michael discusses the return of serve and how important it is these days as serves continue to get bigger and bigger.

“The two keys to a good return are positioning and placement. Positioning refers to where you are standing on the court before the serve is even hit. The better your opponent’s serve is the more space you will need to give yourself time to return. Don’t be afraid to take one to two steps back from your normal positioning to allow for extra time. You may also notice that your opponent is only serving well to one part of the box. Let’s say he or she keeps getting the better of you out wide to your backhand. It’s okay to cheat over and give yourself a better shot at returning this serve. As you move up in level your opponent may be better at hitting different parts of the box but they will always have a preference.

Placement refers to where you are trying to hit your return of serve. We will focus on depth for two main reasons. First, the deeper your return is, the more time you will have to get up to kitchen effectively. Second, your opponent will be more rushed taking a 3rd deeper in the court. In order to achieve this, focus on getting a foot to two feet more net clearance on your return of serve and swinging more through the ball on your return. (Think about hitting two more imaginary balls after the real one in front of you.) BIG follow through.

Put these two concepts together and you’ll be set up for an easier 4th instead of scrambling after a big serve.

Follow Michael’s journey on Instagram.👍

What a point! The court positioning at the end isn’t exactly ideal 😁, but hey, it worked! 💪 

If you don’t like discounts, then keep on reading. OK, now that we’ve weeded out 1% of you 😂, we want to tell you that we have incredible discounts on the best brands in pickleball. Check them out here.

Machete Madness

When you're playing pickleball, there are a few things you need to be careful about before playing — protect yourself from the sun with sunscreen and from injury by stretching.

And then while you're playing, you want your paddle up in ready position to protect yourself from getting body bagged. 

But there's now one more thing you have to protect yourself against: an angry machete-wielding maintenance worker at your local park. 😲

Yes, at the Pelican Marsh Community Center in Naples, Florida, a maintenance worker is accused of getting a machete from his car and threatening to beat "(expletive)" if the players didn't get off the public courts.

The maintenance worker had previously yelled at the pickleballers to leave while kicking down tables and chairs, but that didn't quite get the job done. 

After the incident, the picklers called local police, who arrested the man, Joseph DeValle, and reported that he smelled of alcohol.

DeValle now faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.

The moral of the story? There are crazy people out there — especially in Florida. 😂 No, no, no, there are crazy people everywhere, not just in Florida. 😄

But seriously, we don't recommend that you now pack a machete along with your paddles in your pickleball bag.

Also, don't think of your park maintenance workers any differently. Maintenance workers are there to make parks look great and run smoothly. This was an isolated incident and we've never heard of something like it before.

We have heard of things like people converting a manure pit into a pickleball court, but we’ve already covered that. 😄👍

Stick pickleball in between those two, and you have the perfect day. 👍

It’s Time to Get Engage-d

Pickleball is about having fun. But you know what’s even more fun than just playing pickleball? Playing pickleball well. 💪 That's why you want to use the very best equipment in the world — like the Pursuit Pro1 from Engage Pickleball. Why is the Pursuit Pro1 so good? Funny you should ask...

• Raw Toray T700 Carbon Fiber surface

• MachPro Polymer Core

• New aerodynamic shape

And you don't have to just take our word for it. Some of the very best pickleball players on the planet, including Jessie Irvine, the Johnson twins, Alix Truong, and Travis Rettenmaier all trust their games with Engage. Get one for yourself today.

The forehand dink. It’s the most basic shot in all of pickleball and probably the first one you learn when you first pick up the game. But there’s a reason for that — because it’s super important! And just because you’ve hit this shot a lot doesn’t mean that you’re hitting it right. Good thing Coach Tanner is here to show you not only how to hit the forehand dink, but also what you should be trying to accomplish with it. 👇

Key takeaways:

• A push dink is about consistency, safety and placement.

• A topspin dink is more aggressive, but it’s also easier to miss.

• Don’t overdue a topspin swing — it’s just a small brush-up on the ball.

• Only use a topspin dink when you are receiving a relatively easy dink.

There are MORE excuses you can use! 😁 By now, you should know the classic SWIPE-L (Sun, Wind, Injury, Partner, Early, Late) excuses. If not, this video should help. 😃 Anyway, here are two more strong ones…

PADDLE - Your paddle isn’t good. Maybe it WAS good, but it’s been overused and is now “dead.” 😄 Or it is good, but it's new so you haven't had enough time to get used to it. Or there's a problem with your grip — it’s too thick or too thin. Or the over-grip wasn’t put on well. Yes, there are many variations to this one. 😂 

PRACTICE - You have not played enough. Either you haven't played recently (like you've been away for a week) or you never get a chance to play because of your busy schedule.😥 OR you have actually over-practiced to the point where you are either too sore or you need a mental break from the game. 😄 

Remember, all of these excuses are VALID. Just be careful about using too many at one time. 😂 (Plus, the two excuses above both start with the letter “p,” so you can just add them to the “P” part of “SWIPE-L”! 💪)

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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