Hey!

Coming at you from Atlanta, Georgia!

After a month-long break, I'm back in action at the Atlanta Open, one of the biggest tournaments of the year!

More on that below.

Before we keep going, welcome back to another edition of the newsletter. If you’re new to the newsletter and want to go back and check out past editions, go here!

Today’s edition has three parts: 

1. A Helpful Tip (Video) – 6 Overlooked Skills You Need in Your Game (Film Breakdown)

2. For the Pickleball Nerds – Attack This One Spot MORE!

3. My Journey Playing Pro – Tourney Time!

A Helpful Tip (Video):

My theory is, you don’t attack up the line, enough.

Here’s the scenario…

All four players are at the kitchen, dinking. Someone earns a high ball or decides to speed up off the bounce. Where do they attack? More often than not, it’s cross court (diagonal). Not down the line.

Here’s something interesting you might now know…

When a player hits a cross-court speed - up, the most likely reply will be hit at their partner. I call this the "triangle effect." In the image above, if the bottom left player hits the ball to the top right player, the most likely return will be hit to the bottom right player — forming a triangle of sorts. 

Not always, but often. By the way, you won’t be able to unsee this now. Ha!

Let’s talk specifically about the right side player. If he (bottom right) attacked top left, the most likely counter would be where?

If you said bottom left… You’re correct.

Now, attacking cross isn’t bad. But for it to be successful, your partner needs to be ready. Because if you attack cross randomly, that’ll put them in a bad position.

So here’s what I propose. And again, this is not an “always” thing. It’s a “do it more” thing.

If you’re the player on the right side, attack up the line more than you currently do — especially if you’re playing mixed doubles.  

Why? 

Well, in mixed doubles, the guy (who typically plays the left side) in front of you, likes to cheat toward the middle of the court so he can be aggressive with his forehand. But, the moment he moves middle, he opens up the line. And that puts him in a terrible position to counter your line-attack.

At best, he hits a reset. At worst, he misses or pops it up.  

Let’s go one step further…  

Vague statement, but it’s mostly true. At the net, more people use a one handed backhand than a two hander. So when that top right player (in the image above) is out of position, get them “stretched out” by hitting it to their back hand.

In fact, try it right now! Take your right arm (opposite for lefties) and imagine you’re “stretching out” far across your body for a backhand counter.

You feel that? Yeah, ow. 

You have no power. 

And although I haven’t talked to Ben Johns about this… I’m confident this is a big reason he added a two-handed backhand into his game. So instead of only hitting one handed resets. Now, he gets two hands on the paddle for when his opponents attack line on him. 

As I watch amateurs and even pros today, I still see many players relentlessly attack cross court. And the truth is, I don’t fully know why. To me, it’s not the highest percentage play. It’s a longer distance and it gives the opponent more time to react. Sure “down the middle solves the riddle” is a thing that’s true. But at higher levels, teams have their rotations down and a middle ball is often annihilated. It could be teams recognizing one player has weaker counters, and so they just go after them, whether it’s line or cross. But I’m not 100% sure why some players do this. 

Now, let’s pause for a moment. 

At this point, some of you might be asking. “Wait, what about attacking the right hip or right shoulder of the player in front of you a good thing? To put them in that chicken wing position?” My response is, YES, do that! 

MORE. 

You definitely want to change up your attacking spots so you don’t become predictable. And that right hip / shoulder area is a fantastic place to aim for. 

In closing, I focused on the line attack in this piece because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since Collin Johns burned me on it 4 or 5 times when we played the Johns brothers back in Daytona.

It wasn’t pretty. Collin ate my lunch on his line attacks in that match. 

So next time you go out and play, give line attacks more attention and see how it goes!

Back in action this week at the PPA Atlanta Open. I haven’t played a tournament in about a month, so I’m excited to get back at it.

This is a big tournament, with basically every player from both tours attending. All the PPA signed players will be there. But there’s quite a few of the competing tour (APP) players attending too. So winning won’t be easy. 

And honestly, as the game grows and players get better, winning is never easy!

Will update you on the results next week!

Have a great rest of your week and don't forget to attack the line! 😉

Kyle

PS: I've been pondering this subject for some time now and am open to any thoughts so I can continue to update my beliefs! So if you have any, hit reply and let me know!

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