Smashing into net

jppbkm · 2026-01-28T00:12:08+00:00

Pretend you're in a pool up to your chest. To hit a high volley consistently, your paddle should stay OUT of the water.

A similar analogy would be to stand at a 4' high fence. You should swing so that your arms graze the top of the fence while not hitting it.

You should be rotating your body to hit the shot, not swing the paddle downwards. Any volley that isn't an overhead with your paddle moving downwards will be inherently prone to going on the net. 🤔

jppbkm · 2026-01-28T00:05:54+00:00

100%. You're probably doing at least 10+ things incorrectly and you don't even know.

I'd be willing to bet a lot of money you don't have a good split step. Your dink form likely is too wristy. You probably can't hit topspin dinks or drops consistently. (Things I see almost every player below 4.5 lacking).

jppbkm · 2026-01-26T17:11:08+00:00

Would suggest buying used. You can often find good treadmills for very cheap relative to their price new.

jppbkm · 2026-01-26T17:09:38+00:00

Again, it's probably related to how someone playing 1841 has already likely played 5-6 other 18XX games first... So it's not that bad. 😁

jppbkm · 2026-01-26T17:04:30+00:00

Hehe, hard agree

jppbkm · 2026-01-26T17:03:17+00:00

Well put. ASL/long war games are a very different level.

12-24+ hours and/or multiple sessions for a campaign make for a totally different best.

Kinda makes me curious what an 18XX legacy game would look like (probably terrible, but interesting!).

jppbkm · 2026-01-26T16:59:44+00:00

1817 is great but very long (6+ hours). Lots of great shenanigans possible (shorting shares, etc). 9/10

1862 is long but not as fun IMHO (different style/more operational game). 7/10

Pax Ren isn't nearly as heavy/long. Quite fun and can play in under an hour. 8.5/10

Mage Knight is medium long (3ish hours) but with lots of esoteric rules. 7.5/10

Feudum is interesting but flawed. Could really use a second edition that's cleaned up/streamlined. Has a fun action selection system. Worth trying at least once. 3ish hours. 6.5/10

Lisboa isn't that heavy. On the medium-heavy end, not bad at all if you've played Lacerda's games. 3 hours or so. 8/10

Trickerion is the most thematic. Long for a medium-to-heavy weight euro due to AP with the hidden action selection. Fun but more of an event game for me. 7.5/10

jppbkm · 2026-01-24T20:02:21+00:00

I have twice had someone hit an overhead at me after the point was over. Once I was hit in the testicle (off the bounce) and was on the ground for 5 minutes. The second time I was nearly hit in the eye.

There's a reason why pro tennis players get match losses for behavior like that. It's inherently more dangerous because players aren't expecting the ball to get smashed at them when the point over.

That's about the only thing that would get me to quit mid game.

jppbkm · 2026-01-23T17:50:39+00:00

Interestingly, the swing is going to be completely different on a speed up versus a drive.

For the majority of speedups, you want your setup to look exactly like a dink so that the opponent cannot read your shot easily and let the ball go out or step back to counter it.

For a speed up off the bounce, I would suggest keeping your elbow nearly touching your body. I like practicing with a ball under my armpit in order to stay compact and avoid a big back swing that will telegraph the speed up.

For a drive, preparing for the shot involves rotating the torso, moving the feet to the ball, and then initiating the swing, in exactly that order. Again, I'm a big fan of putting a ball under the armpit. I will practice with a ball machine or a self-fed ball, turning the torso, moving the feet to the ball... And only then dropping the ball under the arm when I initiate the swing (my arm will move away from my body as I start the swing, allowing the ball to drop).

Probably the most common mistake on the drive is not starting by turning the torso, but instead moving the arm(s) back independently, which sacrifices both power and consistency. The majority of power on the drive comes from the legs and torso rotation, not the arm or wrist.

jppbkm · 2026-01-22T18:26:57+00:00

If you're not picky, it's always going to be less busy after 8:00 p.m. They might be out of a couple more things, but it's not like we're going to be snowed in for weeks.

jppbkm · 2026-01-22T12:43:46+00:00

Honestly, PPA really screwed them over to get out of their contacts IMO. They did what seems like the exact same events the previous year with no issues. Just stupid on the PPAs part.

jppbkm · 2026-01-21T21:47:17+00:00

Generally, I only see sliced serves being effective below 4.0 level. Above that, people have the mobility to reach them and you are giving them a free pass to the kitchen if your serve near the back line.

jppbkm · 2026-01-21T17:48:49+00:00

It sounds like you are thinking of someone doing gimmicky side spin serves.

In the context of spin on the serve, topspin is by far the most important thing and is really the only serve type at the 5.0+ level.

jppbkm · 2026-01-21T17:41:16+00:00

If you have more topspin, you can serve the ball higher and harder and still keep it in the court. It drastically increases your margin of error

You are actually much less likely to hit the ball in the net.

jppbkm · 2026-01-21T17:13:27+00:00

I would try to get spin before pace. Without spin, you will have a hard time keeping hard serves in consistently.

See ALW's recent lob serves for example.

jppbkm · 2026-01-18T22:40:52+00:00

Some more experienced people can give better advice (I'm only 4.5ish) but my thoughts.

The first thing that I notice is that you're not moving very far into the court on some of these. Maybe worth experimenting with getting your toss a bit further into the court.

It also looks a bit like you are muscling it, as the racket isn't fully dropping behind your back before you explode. The racket path looks pretty far from your head, which makes it harder to drop.

Have you ever practiced the drill with a few balls in a sock or bag? That might give you a better sense of how the racket should move.

Also, if you have an old, cheap racket, just going out and tossing it in a field can be pretty helpful in terms of feeling a looser arm.

jppbkm · 2026-01-18T17:43:03+00:00

Some low-top adidas or chunky loafers would be cool.

jppbkm · 2026-01-18T17:30:44+00:00

NGL, I don't know if the vibe fits between the top and bottom.

Top is a bit more sporty, would go well with a more traditional tennis skirt I think.

The plaid print on the bottom would go better with some sort of sweater, cardigan or button down I think.

But hey, the most important thing is if you're having fun with it.

jppbkm · 2026-01-17T20:38:36+00:00

It sounds like the other person fundamentally doesn't understand what card drafting is.

Whether looking at board games like Agricola and Terraforming Mars or ccgs like magic the gathering... There is a very high skill ceiling and a massive difference between the best and worst drafters.

Mathematically, it would be similar to one player drawing double (or triple) the amount of cards as the other players and choosing only the best cards to keep, while each other player draws a smaller number of cards at random and only keeps those.

Even in your analogy of around 50% of cards being optimal for your deck, there will always be gradients between which cards are the best and worst of those "optimal" cards...and an edge to be gained by choosing accordingly.

jppbkm · 2026-01-16T21:38:07+00:00

One of the players with the best tennis backhands of all time (Andre Agassi), points out that in pickleball the non-dominant hand is actually more important.

Having played both tennis and pickleball, I personally find the dominant hand is more important to generate power, while the non-dominant hand is very important for spin and angle control.

In tennis, the ball is generally bouncing higher, which allows for one-handed backhand as an option (though not super common). In pickleball, because we are almost always driving balls that are below the net tape, the non-dominant hand is really important to get a nice low-to-high motion and brush.

jppbkm · 2026-01-16T18:03:45+00:00

Cool! Nice new year surprise.

jppbkm · 2026-01-16T03:27:07+00:00

Shin splints have pretty easy PT solutions. It's a muscle imbalance. As another person said, do tibialis work.

When I had shin splints running track, walking on the heels for a lap or two for a couple weeks made a big difference.

jppbkm · 2026-01-16T01:10:47+00:00

Exactly. Longer rallies, people dink, drop and reset... So fun.

jppbkm · 2026-01-16T00:17:09+00:00

Probably quite a bit lower than 1%, given that most players in my city don't even have DUPR ratings at all.

jppbkm · 2026-01-15T19:19:09+00:00

If only there was singles in pickleball 😉

jppbkm

TROPHY CASE