Pickleball anyone?

[eroscott]

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Originally Posted by doneat54 Too slow for me. Now in my 42nd year playing racquetball, still play doubles for 2-3 hours twice a week. Any RB players out there?

I played singles and doubles racquetball for many years, trained, camps, tournaments, etc. Now I only play pickleball 4+ days per week. It can be plenty fast testing your agility and reflexes if you are playing with the right level of players to meet your own level.

Saw two articles this past month of past professional women racquetball players who switched to pickleball and talk about the speed of pickleball.

[doneat54]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eroscott I played singles and doubles racquetball for many years, trained, camps, tournaments, etc. Now I only play pickleball 4+ days per week. It can be plenty fast testing your agility and reflexes if you are playing with the right level of players to meet your own level. Saw two articles this past month of past professional women racquetball players who switched to pickleball and talk about the speed of pickleball.

I have watched some videos of national PB tournaments and I can see that it can be fast, and very technical. But I am a huge back wall player in RB and have so much invested in it that switching to something else is not an option for me. I will play as long as I can. RB has definitely faded out since the 80s and you have to really try hard to find places to play, but there is still a hardcore group of people that play. I can play singles for a bit over an hour, but prefer doubles now as I can play 2+ hours easily and love the technical nature and teamwork.

[Ready]

I have played both racquetball and PB. Racquetball is all about power, and keeping the ball low. PB is more about finesse than power, but speed and agility definitely becomes a factor with better PB players. Racquetball burns more calories than PB. PB is more social, and in my opinion more fun. But they are both great sports.

Many racquetball players have a difficult time making the transition to PB because they want to hit the ball really hard and they stay back and try to put shots away from deep in the back court. That doesn’t work when playing against the better PB players, but it can be a hard habit for long time racquetball players to break.

[eroscott]

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Originally Posted by Ready ...Racquetball burns more calories than PB....

Back when I was making the transition I did a comparison with my fitbit and shared with my racquetball friends.

My Racquetball


My Pickelball

[Spanky]

Pickleball is fun. I played PB about 3 times a week, along with tennis 2 times a week. I still prefer tennis over PB.

[deserat]

I play badminton - many older people age out of badminton as it is a faster game and go to pickleball - it uses the badminton court lines and is pretty loud on an indoor court compared to badminton :-) (clickety-clack - clickety - clack....)

I have played pickleball briefly and it is a different game, but the strategy is similar - put the ball where the other person isn't.... :-)

[GoodWishes]

I used to play tennis and developed tennis elbow. After about a year dealing with tennis elbow, I finally stopped playing tennis and my tennis elbow got much better. I was sad that I had to stop.

A year ago, I heard about pickleball from a couple who moved to an adult community. Pickleball is very popular in the adult community. The husband really got into it and plays everyday.

I watched some youtube videos and started playing. I found several drop in places to play. In one of the gyms, there are 6 courts and 1 of the courts is dedicated for beginners which is nice for beginners.

I have been playing once a week for almost a year and enjoy it a lot. Tennis elbow has not came back but I am being careful not to play too much.

[garyt]

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Originally Posted by Corporateburnout I don't understand why high level competitive players would want to play against beginners or intermediates. Where's the fun? Our tennis league consists of 12 players at 4.0-4.5 level and when a sub is needed the club must replace the player with a similar level substitute otherwise the level of play would drop considerably.

Some people just want to win. In every sport I've ever played there were teams/individuals who would sandbag. Be it softball, bowling. volleyball, basketball or golf, there's always some dufus who gets off on winning even if he has to drop down two levels to do it. I can't understand how they get any satisfaction from that.

[Sunny]

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Originally Posted by Amethyst I don't get it. If everybody is so darned competitive, why not just play tennis? I love to play games and socialize; but if people are competitive, it's not for me. I have scoliosis; although I'm strong and fit from yoga and working out, and definitely not ready for the shuffleboard court, I can't compete at running and jumping.

I think as others have said you may be able to find casual players to play with. I think a few years ago the power game started coming to Pickleball when aging tennis players started to move on over. This seems to have changed the game quite a bit.

But don't fret it, and find a more casual game. Where I am the early morning crowd tends to be more serious, more competitive, and the second half of the morning a bit more relaxed. But I do wish there was a low-skill / out of shape
/ beginner only court always open.

[Dtail]

Okay so have an ongoing difference of opinion on effectively etiquette in Pickleball.
Do you feel it is okay to hit the ball very hard directly at someone with an underhand shot, if the skill levels are reasonably close, but others have not mastered this type of shot yet and thus it is mostly a one way scenario?

[cbo111]

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Originally Posted by Dtail Okay so have an ongoing difference of opinion on effectively etiquette in Pickleball. Do you feel it is okay to hit the ball very hard directly at someone with an underhand shot, if the skill levels are reasonably close, but others have not mastered this type of shot yet and thus it is mostly a one way scenario?

I've played competitive pickle ball for a couple years and the body shot is effective, legal, and fun. At all levels, your competitor will be trying to construct the point by dinking you until you make a mistake and float a ball too high. Then....bang goes the body shot. But good players only hit the ball with enough force to overcome the opponent's reaction ability. So, when you are playing a less experienced player, you can still issue them a body shot, just use less force. Of course, a shot to their feet is probably more effective anyway.

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbo111 I've played competitive pickle ball for a couple years and the body shot is effective, legal, and fun. At all levels, your competitor will be trying to construct the point by dinking you until you make a mistake and float a ball too high. Then....bang goes the body shot. But good players only hit the ball with enough force to overcome the opponent's reaction ability. So, when you are playing a less experienced player, you can still issue them a body shot, just use less force. Of course, a shot to their feet is probably more effective anyway.

Thanks for the response. Let me explain a little further. When we play, there is some dinking game going on, but there are also many shots from all over the court and thus the rally does not evolve into a dinking game. I am not referring to the side shot slam from just outside the kitchen zone.

Thus my shot is effectively a hard at the body underhand shot with lots of speed from the middle of the court or perhaps at the back of the court and sometimes the shot gets through and hits the player.

[Philliefan33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbo111 I've played competitive pickle ball for a couple years and the body shot is effective, legal, and fun. At all levels, your competitor will be trying to construct the point by dinking you until you make a mistake and float a ball too high. Then....bang goes the body shot. But good players only hit the ball with enough force to overcome the opponent's reaction ability. So, when you are playing a less experienced player, you can still issue them a body shot, just use less force. Of course, a shot to their feet is probably more effective anyway.

I’ve only been playing a few months, so I’m certainly not an expert on pickleball etiquette, but I’ll give my opinion anyway.

If the players are of similar abilities think body shots are okay. However, the intent should be only to hit hard enough to win the rally and not to hurt.

It probably depends on the unwritten rules of the courts you are playing on.

[Ready]

I get hit all the time. Some players just like to hit the ball hard. If I don’t want to get hit I just avoid those players. But it’s a legal shot so it’s going to happen. Now if you’re playing people significantly below your skill level and you don’t really need the shot to win, you’re going to come across looking like a bit of a jerk.

My pet peeve is during open play when I have two really good players on the other side, and I get paired up with a beginner. They do everything they can to keep the ball away from me and pick on the beginner. I understand doing that in tournaments, but in open play when we’re trying to have fun I consider it bad ediquette. And it makes those players look really small, because it’s obvious they are afraid that if they hit the ball to me I might get the point.

[Dtail]

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Originally Posted by Philliefan33 I’ve only been playing a few months, so I’m certainly not an expert on pickleball etiquette, but I’ll give my opinion anyway. If the players are of similar abilities think body shots are okay. However, the intent should be only to hit hard enough to win the rally and not to hurt. It probably depends on the unwritten rules of the courts you are playing on.

Of course, I never try to hurt anyone, but yeah I hear you. It is somewhat of a complex issue at times in conjunction in keeping with the social aspect of the game.

[Dtail]

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Originally Posted by Ready I get hit all the time. Some players just like to hit the ball hard. If I don’t want to get hit I just avoid those players. But it’s a legal shot so it’s going to happen. Now if you’re playing people significantly below your skill level and you don’t really need the shot to win, you’re going to come across looking like a bit of a jerk. My pet peeve is during open play when I have two really good players on the other side, and I get paired up with a beginner. They do everything they can to keep the ball away from me and pick on the beginner. I understand doing that in tournaments, but in open play when we’re trying to have fun I consider it bad ediquette. And it makes those players look really small, because it’s obvious they are afraid that if they hit the ball to me I might get the point.

Agree with your first point. I have effectively stopped hitting body shots at lesser players and then get asked why.

Your second point happens to me at times too. I just put up with it for the most part.

[Kroeran]

I seem to recall a media situation where a top basketball star was required to purposely miss shots on the hoop, and he was incapable of overriding his instincts.

I have been in friendly games with talent gaps on the other side, and I was not capable of hitting the ball to the stronger
player, even after being nicely asked to do so.

[Osprey]

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Originally Posted by eroscott I play. There are some great pickleball videos and coaches. Many of these I watch on youtube on my PC web browser where I use the gear icon and change the speed to x1.25 or x1.50. You will love these! A solid coach: ThirdShotSports: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFX...sZ2A/playlists Pickleball Channel and specifically their '411' videos. https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...pickleball+411 Sarah Ansboury is excellent: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHu...DTF-Ldg/videos Deb Harrison is informative: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyh...xiHBv-g/videos

Thanks for list of videos. I am new to pickleball and was looking for videos. Does anyone know if there is a way to save YouTube videos to watch them off line?

[Ready]

Well we haven't talked about pickleball all summer long!

OK, I've had a few weird interactions on the court over the past few weeks. I'm wondering if anyone else experiences this.

I generally make plans to play with a friend of mine because I like to know who my partner is going to be. I either go to places where the courts have a rating on them or it's generally understood that the hours I'm there is advanced play.

So I show up on a court rated 4.0/4.5 with my partner and I'm told we have to split up because we are "too good". What's the point of coming over to a 4.0/4.5 court if you think the team you are going to be playing against is too competitive for you? We have ten courts with ratings from 3.0 and up but some people just don't like to lose and refuse to play us unless we split.

On the days I'm on unrated courts it gets worse. Two little old ladies show up and tell us we have to split up. We then proceed to play a game where the ladies miss all of their shots while we just stand around and watch. So I try to suggest we move some paddles around so that we can line up more competitive matches and I'm accused of only wanting to play with certain people, which apparently brands me as anti-social. Yet when I do play with novices the other team does everything they can to keep the ball away from me so I'm barely playing anyway.

Some of the people who show up literally can't hit the ball if it's right in front of them. So we let them play a few games. We lose 11-0 or 11-1. And they keep coming back. When they put their paddles in everyone runs to pull their paddles out of the queue until somebody gives in and agrees to play a game to be polite.

If you were causing your team to lose every game and were missing almost every shot, why would you keep coming back when there are mostly advanced players there? Wouldn't you feel guilty that you are always causing your team to lose and try to find other places or times to play when the skill level is lower?

I don't know why it frustrates me so much but sometimes I just don't get people who show up to the courts and do this stuff. Is it just me?

[eroscott]

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Originally Posted by Ready Well we haven't talked about pickleball all summer long! OK, I've had a few weird interactions on the court over the past few weeks. I'm wondering if anyone else experiences this. ... So I show up on a court rated 4.0/4.5 with my partner and I'm told we have to split up because we are "too good". What's the point of coming over to a 4.0/4.5 court if you think the team you are going to be playing against is too competitive for you? We have ten courts with ratings from 3.0 and up but some people just don't like to lose and refuse to play us unless we split. ... I don't know why it frustrates me so much but sometimes I just don't get people who show up to the courts and do this stuff. Is it just me?

It is definitely not you. I could understand mixing it up with mid/high W.X levels and the next level up of low/mid Y.Z. If there is more than 1 full level difference then you are completely right that the highest level person on the team then just doesn't get to play and what is the point of that for *either* team. Heck I like playing against a strong team as long as my partner is similar or higher than me. That is a challenge to improve and win points against them. I also like playing strategic people and not just bangers.

I could also see/think it would not bother you (certainly not me) if they want to split people up where everyone in the group is at pretty close to the same level.

Also some days you could just line up 8 people at the same level and rotate while other days you mix it up with folks within 1 to 1.5 levels. Let others think what they want. As long as you are mixing it up some times and helping others and the game grow then you are all good.