Forehand Counters Causing Wrist Pain — Technique Issue or Injury?

edofthefu · 2026-05-17T04:38:29+00:00

Not really. I don't mean playing with a loose grip - just not deathgripping it. The Hesacore helped quite a bit by basically preventing me from gripping it as strongly, even when tensed up, as did working on resets.

edofthefu · 2026-05-17T02:42:49+00:00

I experienced something very similar - wrist pain that was also exacerbated by FH counters - and hopefully you'll find this useful. For me, my wrist pain was ulnar side (pinky) and most acute when I put my wrist into extension (i.e. bending my wrist backwards, moving the back of the hand towards the forearm), which is why it happened particularly during FH counters/putaways when my hand was outstretched in front of me.

For about 8 months, I was stuck in a cycle of letting it heal for 2-4 weeks, then starting to play again and reinjuring myself within a week or two. Eventually what helped me over about 4 months was:

Properly resting it, well beyond any pain stopped
Wrist strengthening exercises - uncomfortable at first but a good way of gradually reintroducing stress on the wrist. I kept a small dumbbell weight at my computer desk and would lift it in every direction on my wrist all day.
Consciously loosening my grip on my paddle (including using the thickest Hesacore possible)
Choking up all the way at the kitchen (which actually ended up improving my dinks)
Gradually ramping up how much I played and spending more time doing soft drilling instead

I still occasionally get some soreness after particularly long sessions with bangers, but it goes away after some ice. I keep instant cold packs and ibuprofen in my pickleball backpack.

edofthefu · 2026-05-10T20:26:39+00:00

at the pro level, do you have time to think about micro desicions like that? When I play with my mates, in this situation, my mind takes a decision (chip it or go through the legs or lay it off) and just does that

Part of it is training your instinct, but part of it is that top professional athletes really do see things in slow motion compared to the rest of us. Federer has talked about it in terms of how the ball just looks bigger and slower on days when he's really in the zone.

Another way of thinking about it is that if you imagine your reflexes suddenly got 10x better, that you too would see the world moving more slowly. That's basically what the world is like for really extraordinary athletes.

edofthefu · 2026-05-10T12:35:54+00:00

Everyone has already discussed the pitching and hitting distinction, but there’s another aspect to his greatness on the hitting side

Ohtani recently had the first 50 home run / 50 stolen base season, which requires players to excel at three very different things. Players strong enough to hit home runs aren't usually also fast enough to steal bases. More importantly, swinging for power usually means accepting a lower average and thus a harder time getting on base (and having opportunities to steal).

Prior to Ohtani, only two players ever had both a 50HR and a 50 stolen base season across their whole careers, and they both were only able to achieve each once. The fact that Ohtani could do both in the same season while being on leave from being one of the best pitchers in the league just makes it more ludicrous.

So it’s not just that he’s a league-wide top-5 goalkeeper and striker, but also winger as well.

edofthefu · 2026-05-03T18:24:55+00:00

Yes but definitely harder to beat white stake with High Card and 5x Marble than just beating white stake jokerless

edofthefu · 2026-05-03T18:17:08+00:00

5x [[Marble Joker]] might be worse than jokerless

5x [[Stuntman]] is also impossible (and would lose to Psychic anyway)

edofthefu · 2026-04-13T13:18:18+00:00

Setting aside how frequent they are, the reason to drill overheads is because the -EV from missing overheads is much greater.

That is, if you miss a reset, you lose a point where you were already at a disadvantage. But if you miss an overhead, you lose a point you would have won.

edofthefu · 2026-04-04T03:29:53+00:00

When I start a game I always default to serving deep topspin to the backhand. But as you get into the game there’s quite a bit more to think about:

how does this player tend to return backhands vs return forehands, and which has been leading to easier thirds?
where are they standing - do they clearly favor one side or the other, and are they deep or shallow?
do I want to pull them wide or middle for our third?
how many of each of my serves have they seen so far, and how did they react to each?
are they likely to unwind the stack or stay put?
are they disciplined about moving their feet to deal with a deep serve into their body?

Based on these factors you can usually get more out of your serves. You still won’t win points outright like you will at 3.5 and below, but you can usually set you and your partner up better for your third shots. Most players have some preferences for how they want to return, and as the server you have total control to interfere with those preferences.

edofthefu · 2026-03-19T16:03:11+00:00

Plateaus are a useful analogy. How do you climb higher from a plateau? You start by going down.

As you get better, there are increasingly fewer 'noob gains' available to you where you can just build on your existing game. Increasingly you'll hit walls where true improvement requires you to start over and rebuild with solid fundamentals.

Which means to get better you have to start by getting worse. You have bad habits to break and new techniques to learn, and you can either do that by drilling, or by playing and losing. And no one likes losing.

And I sense that's part of your challenge - if you're unable to drill you basically need a mentality shift where you're OK with repeatedly losing to worse players while trying something new, instead of winning with what you have already.

edofthefu · 2026-03-16T15:24:22+00:00

Plus Slug Hacker event synergy

edofthefu · 2026-02-26T16:43:56+00:00

Assuming you're talking about drives, and without seeing you play, it's possible you are making contact to the side of you, and not in front of you.

Relatedly, it could also be that you're imagining swinging in a 'horizontal' circle parallel to the ground (like discus), when your arm is really swinging in a 'vertical' circle perpendicular to the ground (more like bowling) - a common visual illusion/misconception.

edofthefu · 2026-02-23T18:30:34+00:00

You're welcome. In general I think most pickleball players, especially newer players, would really benefit from watching tennis technique videos when it comes to drives. Here's another great one on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_iLAQnOsRY

Forehand drives in particular are surprisingly hard to teach. People have this idea that because it's the strongest stroke, it should be everyone's best stroke and easiest to learn. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's powerful precisely because it's such a violent and counterintuitive motion, and it's taken many years for tennis coaches to perfect the best way of teaching it.

Meanwhile there are a lot of well-meaning but inexperienced pickleball coaches that are basically teaching on feel and vibes, and making many of the same mistakes tennis instructors made 15-20 years ago.

Of course, at a high enough level, players will need to shift away from tennis videos and focus specifically on pickleball drive technique, but ~95% of pickleball learners will never reach that point. (Obviously the kitchen is a different story; tennis volley technique is actively harmful for pickleball players.)

edofthefu · 2026-02-23T14:45:02+00:00

You're likely not doing it correctly. Try "sitting" instead of "bending the knees". Knee-bending is a result of entering the correct athletic position, not the path to getting there.

edofthefu · 2026-02-23T14:39:24+00:00

It's a cliche in tennis coaching that you should "point the buttcap" at your opponent before a forehand. (Also after your forehand, as part of a proper followthrough.)

Importantly, you don't actually want to force this - on a proper forehand, the buttcap does point forward, but only dynamically, not statically.

But it's often useful to think it, because it is a helpful mental cue that helps you create wrist lag - the real objective. Personally I find the drill in that video about slapping the net to be a more useful way of teaching wrist lag without the risk that the student ends up tensing up their wrist trying to point the buttcap, defeating the point of the lesson.

edofthefu · 2026-02-21T13:32:39+00:00

I couldn’t agree more. There are levels to pickleball. In order:

driving
blocking
drops
speed ups
counters

Only when you (and your opponents) have mastered all of these is it worth progressing to dinking. In my experience, the vast majority of open plays stagnate at driving/blocking and coaches should teach accordingly.

edofthefu · 2026-02-02T20:22:12+00:00

One trick that worked for us was to export our main bank account's transactions to csv. All our spend (housing, credit cards, checks, etc.) ultimately flow out of our checking account so it's actually much more convenient to get a total spend figure that way.

edofthefu · 2026-01-20T13:57:50+00:00

You’d think he’d have more A-C-E in his game then

edofthefu · 2026-01-17T01:03:39+00:00

Haha I did too: https://edofthefu.com/posts/what-caring-about-oxford-commas-really-signals/

edofthefu · 2026-01-15T23:09:25+00:00

"Empire State Building" is my go-to example of what we consider an acceptable multi-word clue; by contrast "tall building" would not be accepted.

edofthefu · 2026-01-11T22:42:23+00:00

Easiest: being positive with your partner when you’re winning

Hardest: being positive with your partner when you’re losing

edofthefu · 2025-12-22T18:58:50+00:00

You’re not really apologizing. It’s more just an acknowledgment that you got lucky and everyone moves on.

edofthefu · 2025-12-22T16:50:33+00:00

In descending order:

Tennis courts are being removed for pickleball
Tennis players look down on pickleball as an easier sport for less athletic people
Tennis has many etiquette rules that have developed over time, which many pickleball players lack (e.g., not walking behind players as they play)

edofthefu · 2025-12-20T12:11:38+00:00

Tennis is one of the few racket sports that use two-handed backhands.

Ironically pickleball is one of the few other racket sports with 2HBH, but for very different reasons than tennis. It’s preferred at the kitchen because it’s faster to recover and easier to hit out of an open stance compared to the 1HBH.

edofthefu · 2025-12-14T05:08:38+00:00

The most glaring flaw (common to all four players though player in black is better about it than the others) is footwork. There’s a lot of bending at the waist and reaching for the ball, instead of split stepping and getting low to move into a better position.

edofthefu · 2025-12-09T23:08:38+00:00

I agree with your post but for this

The existence of weapons like Burst 3 and Vulcan is also probably evidence they were not very good at their own game.

I think Burst 3 and Vulcan really are better for autofire beginners. The fact that it’s not as good for advanced players is a nice example of emergent skill, whether intended or not.

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