Is There a Place For Nasty in Pickleball?
Do Villains Matter?
In today’s Bite Size Pickleball newsletter:
Is there a place for nasty in pickleball?
A fraction of a second from greatness. Or: How to increase your hand speed.
Recapping our last podcast.
Vin Diesel pickleball news.
We have a guy on our courts who will try to Nasty Nelson anyone he can possibly hit on his serve, it doesn’t matter their level, he will take a shot at them. When I objected about this player to a friend, his reply was, “Pickleball needs its villains.”
Really? Does pickleball need its villains? OR do villains go directly against the original ethos of the sport? Which is, basically, a sport based on fun and community. How do I know this? I interviewed Scott Stover, the nephew of Barney McCallum, one of the founders of pickleball. Scott was also the first ever men’s double’s champion. In explaining to me the original ethos of the game, this line from Scott rang especially true: “I am happy 99% of the pickleball being played is on a recreational level for fun.”
IMO: Villains take the fun out of the game. At least they do for me. When you have to worry about someone trying to bean you on every serve, or point, not fun. When you have to worry about someone making questionable line calls, not fun. When you have to worry about someone who picks on weaker players, not fun. You get the point.
Here’s my personal experience with the Nasty Nelson. A while back, I tried one against a friend of mine who was goofing off, which he often does. He turned his back to me on a serve, and my aim was to hit him in the butt and make everyone laugh. My aim sucked. The ball sailed high and hit him really hard in the back of the head. All of a sudden, who’s the villain now? Me. The other players on the court, and a couple who were on the sidelines, were, like, “Dude, you’re an a**hole.” It didn’t feel good for me, and it took a couple of months for the two of us to repair our friendship. I have not tried a Nasty Nelson since, and I won’t ever again.
I WILL back someone off the T if they’re crowding the middle when I am serving. But I will not outright try to hit someone on my serve. Not fun.
So, you might be cool with pickleball needing its villains, but I don’t want to be one of them! I want to do all I can to help spread the positive pickleball vibes. You have that choice, too: Nasty or positive?
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR HAND SPEED
Here’s an article I wrote for Pickleball Magazine. I hope it gives you some ideas.
RECAPPING OUR LAST PODCAST (MORE ON HAND SPEED)
In this past Sunday’s podcast, I analyzed last weekend’s men’s championship PPA doubles match between Dylan Frazier/JW Johnson vs. Gabe Tardio/Andrei Daescu, which Frazier and Johnson won in three straight games. How does it relate to hand speed?
Because Frazier and Johnson are both so quick with their hands, they rely mainly on their hand speed to win, not power. Power when needed, yes, but typically, they just dare their opponents to challenge their hand speed.
The typical pro pattern is to drive the 3rd shot, and if that doesn’t work to set up a point, they’ll drop the 5th shot, 7th shot, etc., until they get it right and get up to the kitchen line. In contrast, Frazier and Johnson drop 90% of their 3rd shots because they are so confident with their hand speed. They obviously also have very practiced dinking skills.
Both will initiate an attack on their opponents, but they are also very comfy letting their opponents attack first. Or, TRY to attack first. Because what usually happens, is they get shot down by Frazier’s and Johnson’s superior speed.
In the podcast, I used the analogy of the great Waco Kid from the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles. The Waco Kid could outdraw a whole lineup of goons without even appearing to lift a finger.
(The brilliant Gene Wilder looking confident and badass as the Waco Kid.)
The other thing Frazier and Johnson do, masterfully, is to control their temperaments: they are never too high, or too low. They basically cruise at Zen speed, which again, along with not slugging every ball as hard as they can, gives them another way to conserve energy, by not getting too emotional. When players get too worked up, it actually serves to tax the physical body. Yes, the brain, when it is on overdrive (ya know, too many “andiamo”s), actually takes something out of you physically.
I’m not saying getting fired-up won’t work for you, because there is a time and place for everything. Just saying, that these two talented young men keep it even- keeled, and it is a thing of beauty to watch. There is a lot of grace in their game, and they make pickleball look like an art form, not a cage match with a wiffle ball.
I promise, if you work on these two areas of your game, hand speed, and mindfulness, you’ll be closer to creating your own masterpiece. Half-paddle tap, anyone?
(Frazier on the left, Johnson on the right)
NOTE: The link to their gold medal match is in the first paragraph above.
GUEST COLUMNIST UPDATE
For those of you looking for guest columnist Vin Diesel. Bad news: Vin’s agent texted to say Vince had to skip this issue because he is in preparation for Fast and Furious Part 47. Good news: His agent assured me that Vin’s pickleball column will be ready to go by the next issue! Are you excited?!??!???!!!!!!??? Because, if you couldn’t tell by all the exclamation points, and question marks, I AM!!!!!!!!!! I mean, who gets Vin Diesel as a pickleball columnist? Who knows, he might even provide some spoilers for FF47. Double scoop (with fudge on top) or what? In the meantime….
READ THE FIRST COUPLE OF CHAPTERS OF RICK’S NEW PICKLEBALL BOOK FOR FREE
Click for a preview of How to Play Better Pickleball available at Amazon.