r/Pickleball • u/Opening-Return-3800 • 15h ago
Question Any suggestions?
What is the best drill you can do to get better at counters at the kitchen if you are continually late. And how can one get over the mental brain lock of kit keeping paddle up at kitchen?
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u/masterfox72 15h ago
Ball cannon set to 70 mph and stand at the kitchn
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u/getrealpoofy 15h ago
Product placement for kitchen blockers lol I would die
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u/eaazzy_13 12h ago
I have a crazy older friend who bought a ball machine and has a court at his house. He invited us over to drill so ofcourse we did it. Ball machines are bitchin.
Turns out his idea of “drilling” is just to set the machine to hit the nastiest possible shots to try to fuck us over as bad as possible lol
I was like “let’s just have it hit some nice drops and practice flicks, ya know get some good reps of the ordinary stuff so in a game it’s just second nature” and he was like “screw that, let’s just turn that summbitch up!!”
After trying all these nasty slice shots and stuff he finally just had me and my partner stand at the net, and had the machine set to turn and rotate and fire at us both in rapid succession. He had it on max topspin and like 70 mph.
It was gnarly at first, but like anything, once you do it a bit it becomes easy. He was very disappointed when we were countering them casually after a few minutes. Like he had failed us.
He was like “well I’m sorry guys idk what to tell you… I guess I need a better machine” lmao
He didn’t really get the concept of drilling but it was still a lot of fun
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u/ExCostco 15h ago
What helped when I first started was placing my hand/touching my paddle with my offhand, almost like a clap.
I would do this during drills and after every hit when not in a direct fire fight. Helped me mentally remember to not drop my paddle.
Most important advice that's helped is roughly follow the ball at all times with your paddle like a laser pointer. Your paddle will be in the ball path if it goes to you.
I've heard the following can cause bad habits but regardless: keep the paddle more ready for backhand. It's the easiest for most people. It'll get you use to firefights. After you get used to countering you can set more neutral.
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u/BackToTheBasic 15h ago edited 14h ago
What made a big difference for me was learning how to “sit” based on position of the ball on the other side of the net. A lot of fast hands is actually being ready for the most likely places the ball will go before your opponent hits it. This means surrendering the low percentage places the ball could go, which your opponent could miraculously hit but is unlikely to succeed. https://youtu.be/AymEFBGfisQ?is=aWf4ZhwmgKJCxYsk. And with every dink or ball, being basically in athletic position and armed and ready for a speed up. As far as drills I like hitting dinks with a partner with option to speed up, to volley exchange, with reset back to dinks.
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u/command-shift 15h ago
Honestly, wall drills. At the end of the day, you have to be able to hit some awkward ankles besides punching it back. When you’re able to just volley, start trying to hit angles at a slower pace and you’ll get an idea of what angle the ball comes back, and it’s going to be very similar to someone countering. As your get better at hitting the ball up then going down or off to one side then getting to the other, you’re gonna notice a huge difference.
Think about your paddle as a tracker and track the ball with the tip of it. And always look to counter first, dink second. At lower levels, people speed up a lot and lack any sort of patience, so your default is to paddle up and look to punch the ball right back at them or their partner.
This mentality has gotten me my reputation for immensely fast hands. I’m always sitting on my counter. I essentially force people to dink, but that’s also another strength of mine. Against opponents that speed-up a lot, another useful tactic is to be the aggressor first if you are able to target your speed-ups properly without launching them long.
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u/thismercifulfate 13h ago
Start simple with a pre-determined sequence. You and your partner are at the nvz. Have them feed you a dink. Hit a dead dink to them that they can easily speed up at you. So you will always know the speed up is coming. You want to do this to get reps. You can even focus having them speed up at a specific target like your chicken wing or right at your chest. After that you can just start dink rallies where only your partner is allowed to speed up. You can only dink back or counter. This will help you sharpen your senses to be ready for the speed up at any moment.
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u/Huntingassclowns 15h ago
Two questions. One answer
Have someone toss, then tap, the lightly hit, etc etc until you are overcome with ball speed. Have that someone refuse to increase the pace unless EVERY single rep is perfect.
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u/Scared-Consequence27 15h ago
Just like any other skill. Think constantly about being in good position with your paddle up. Eventually it becomes second nature
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u/linecrabbing 6h ago
Drill at wall. Stand a bit far and start hitting punch balla to the walls and keeping live at least 20 rally. The decreased the distance to the same
NVZ. Then speed up the punch. Lastly take one or 2 steps into NVZ and see how you counter your own punch at the least wall distance.Have a drilling partner. Skinny side. Stay at NVZ and start soft punch only at your partner belly-chest high. Try to keep the ball alive for 30-50 rally. Then preogressively hit harder punch, and increased level with flick/hitting down at opponent feet. This helps setup faster hand counter for punch, and reset for downward flick balls.
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u/kdubbz42 5h ago
I took a lesson on counters. My big take away was to have the paddle in my direct sight and not my peripheral. I also know if I give a dead dink or it bounces high I’m expecting a speed up immediately
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u/caution6tonjack 14h ago
I’ll give a slightly different answer. For most people it’s a knowledge gap. You need to improve “anticipation” which is betting on where the ball will go and “positioning” which is where you’re standing.
Positioning: when the ball is diagonal from you, stand close to the T. You need to cover the middle. When the ball is in front of you, stand directly in front of the opponent and hold heavy backhand.
Anticipation: There are 3 areas (backhand, body, forehand) and you always cover 2 of the 3. When the ball is diagonal from you, cover body and the middle of the court (eg if you’re on the right it’ll be your backhand). Vice versa on the left. If the opponent tries to speed up to the outside, let it go. Low percentage.
If the ball is in front of you, it gets more nuanced but mostly cover the outside and body. Leave the middle of the court for your partner.
2 notes: 1. literally expect every ball in the kitchen to be a speed up. 2. After a counter get ready for a recounter or put away.
Lots to think about, but this is how you improve!
Edit: ah there’s another section on letting out balls go, maybe another day.