Why I Don’t Drill Anymore: A Better Way To Practice Pickleball 

Open play and recently the addition of focusing on one specific shot every time I play. Today, for example I focused on bending my 3rd shot drives over the net with maximum power.

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Super cool to hear someone from PT using this as that’s been one of the fields that has come up in some of the research in past videos as well

I use these approaches in behavioral therapy and adaptive sports - for people with autism

Really happy to hear that. This will be the first of many on the EA. I’ll also be releasing practice design/game videos. Keep me posted on your journey 🙌

Awesome to connect with a grappler! Greg is the man. Amazing to see how it’s being received in the grappling community and the impact he’s had.

Looking forward to seeing how it effects your coaching 🙌

That’s exactly how I felt when my coach Greg would talk about it. It’s like you can’t unsee it anymore. I’m happy to hear this resonates with you.

Thanks for watching, Kim. Definitely a lot to take in in this one.

Thanks for watching 🙌 got more coming

appreciate the comment. Yeah it's interesting, Greg (my coach) and many others who have learned about the EA have mentioned it's similarities to how children learn. Like initially, everything is just based on perception, many things they aren't explicitly taught how to do, they just do it. They aren't explicitly taught because they can't necessarily understand us. And the games based approach also makes learning more fun and engaging for them as well. It's all very interesting as I'm learning more and more. Unfortunately, I don't have anything to offer on the surfing part, haha.

100%. The ball itself is an environmental constraint. Being able to adapt and solve that problem seems to lie within the idea behind EA. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.

100%. Matching the intensity and looks of the live game seems to be a far more effective approach. Your perception becomes attuned to a truer representation as opposed to that lackadaisical warm up you generally see. Something that seems small but is a significant difference with your approach is just the intention behind what you’re doing. Appreciate the comment and sharing your experience.

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment 🙌 agreed. I’ll share some games in the future

Great book. Haven’t read through it all. Also (I believe) I mentioned it in the video on focus of attention. Yes, it's an old concept, even before Timothy Gallowey's time, starting with Nikolai Bernstein and James Gibson.

So I’m glad you commented this. The ecological approach does not discriminate on skill level or experience. I’ve seen it first hand with one grappler in particular, his name is Noah Shaffner out of Standard. He outclasses and submits black belts who trained for 10+ years. Our scoring and/or winning these small sided games. Noah has 2 years under him and is 18 yo now I believe? They call him the purebred bc with no grappling or wrestling experience he was only taught through this method. He doesn’t see “techniques” or mechanics, he sees the problem and affordances and invariants in each problem. I’ve also seen this inversely as well. People who have been taught the traditional approach and then exposed to EA, having to actually break bad habits or as they refer to as attractor states. Issues with the traditional is that people have long been told that there is a right way to do something or their mechanics. But the body self organizes. There’s also nearly an infinite number of way to do something, especially from how the body and muscles activate. See degrees of freedom problem. An issue with the traditional approach is they teach “mechanics” but not the information the individual is to look for. The context is missing. So when they encounter someone who presents a new or novel problem, these individuals tend to ‘reinvest’ (see video on choking), or they try to perform a “technique” into the incorrect context. They weren’t trained what to look for or the why, only the how. Individuals are different, which is why they have to discover their own solutions and how their body and attributes organize around them. This isn’t to say a coach or practice needs to be tailored to individuals, they absolutely do. Also why I advocate for small sides games where they discover than being put in a mold through the traditional approach where someone imparts what worked for them. Regarding varying experience levels, that’s where the varying degrees of constraints and variability come into play. And attuning to the most effective information in the environment. It’s a good point and topic you bring up.

@@buildingpickleball It may take a nonathletic person an extremely long time to learn with that method. I see it working better for people who have had prior athletic training of some sort, and know how their body works. Without a bit of coaching I could see this approach having someone try a bad shot time and time again without any progress. Sound a bit on the frustrating side.. I do see benefits for other players, who know how their body works.

@@dalevoigt8612I agree with you on this one. I’m not a naturally athletic person. I’m awkward, and have a hard time sensing the position of my body in space. I need to learn specific motions and repeat them over and over in order to ingrain them. Something as simple as brushing up on the ball takes a lot of mental work for me. I’m also extremely detail oriented at the cost of seeing the bigger picture. So if I’m focused on what my paddle’s doing, my legs could be doing something completely different. It just takes a lot of work to get all the body parts to work together, and that means a lot of rote repetition. Once the basic skills are developed, then the ecological approach can kick in.

Appreciate you watching and the comment. Really glad to hear the feedback about it being comprehensible. The infinity black diamond. I was using the BnB Filth for probably 6+ months? Tested a ton of paddles and stuck with it but the IBD is the perfect upgrade for me. I’m really impressed with it. Especially bc I couldn’t get into the DBD

@@buildingpickleball I also couldn’t get into the DBD. I just got the IBD and really enjoy the spin and pop. I’m experimenting with lead tape setups to reduce the miss hits. I find that the sweet spot is relatively small, but when you nail it, it feels so pure.

100%. Yeah I haven’t even weighted mine up yet 😳 Where’d you put the tape?

​@@buildingpickleball I started with a 3 inch strip of 1 gram per inch (Pickleball Effect Tungsten Tape) on each side starting at the bottom corners going up. (4 & 8 o'clock). I found this to extend the sweet a spot a bit lower in the paddle and help me tame the beast. My drives were no longer wild and long, clearing the net just by a few inches with great control. However, I noticed that blocks and resets that hit the edges on the top half of the paddle were still dead; usually ended up in the net. Then I added a 1 inch strip, centered on each top corner, and that seemed to stretch out the sweet spot and help with the jarring miss hits. I was reluctant to add too much to the top corners because I wanted to keep the swing weight as low as possible and keep the fast hands that this paddle was designed for. I would like to mention that I had a medium size Hesacore tour grip on the paddle at first. Two things I learned from this... 1) The paddle became heavier than I prefer. The Hesacore itself weighs 0.63 ounce! I began to feel it in my elbow. 2) After I removed the Hesacore and reverted back to its original grip plus an overgrip, I was pleasantly surprised that the paddle felt less muted, increasing my feel for the ball, and best of all the miss hits improved even more so. IMO, the Hesacore is an innovative concept but just not for me. I think that it may be better suited for other racket sports with faster and heavier balls, ie. tennis & padel, where 0.63 ounces would have less effect on the performance of those much heavier rackets. It's all relative.

Oh wow very interesting. Yeah I just had a convo with someone about the hesacore. Based on what you said, I’m not curious about it anymore lol

Yup. Going to get a couple podcasts out here shortly and then will put practice videos out.

thanks, B!

Yeah the intention is definitely a big part. Yeah I'm not 100% sure on the "10,000 hour rule" belief. Because that's basically saying you repeat one "ideal" movement until it becomes automatic and reflexive, right? I think that contradicts believers of the Ecological Approach. They believe in reactive rather than reflexes. Rob Gray mentions "Produce the same outcome by using different movements." It's repetition without repetition. They don't believe that skill is internalized and stored in the brain. Now could 10,000 hours still be applied if you use what you say like intention? I think so. I just don't think it's repeating the same movement. Rather repeat the same problem. Definitely something I'm going to look into though. Appreciate the watch and comment.

Thanks for the thorough comment. I'm not sure I can say this should or could apply to most because many of us (myself included) have been in learning environments where we've been taught to repeat an "ideal" technique taught by a single individual. I think it's worth experimenting and exploring for ones self. 100%, take what resonates with you, discard what doesn't. Myself, I have/am moving in this direction. There's no one way or "correct" way. The idea of the raw drilling and repetition is decoupled and isolated from the context. Regarding your example, why reduce the external stimuli? The environment and the task and what you're perceiving is what is providing you the information to get low and underneath the ball, or to rotate. Not to say this can strictly be done through games. I think this is where the Constraints Led Approach can come into play. Look into Rob Gray's CLA for baseball pitcher releasing arm too quickly and adding a ball underneath their arm. Possibly a similar approach could be used for rotation, just not sure what that would look like at the moment. I believe the EA sees 'muscle memory' a little differently. Rather than automaticity and reduction of conscious thought and as if some permanent change happens, our body and relationship with the environment will always be this dynamic and ever-changing thing. Just not sure it's something we set and forget. You can watch the video on Choking and some of the research (again, not saying this applies to everyone) where explicit instruction causes reinvestment vs implicit development. Bad habits arise whether it's the traditional or ecological or any approach. If I ever said that this approach is bad-habit-proof in the video, then disregard that. They refer to these as 'attractor' states, just a propensity towards a behavior, which can be positive or negative. I think the EA is one way to address it by emphasizing the coach and learner to take a look at the environment, task, or constraints (of the individual). And rather than explicit instruction on how to fix it like "move your elbow like this", then you use constraints which limit the possibility for that action and will encourage the learner to try something else. But yeah bad habits can happen either way, someone can watch a video and a bad habit will arise. I think there's a higher likelihood a bad habit will arise from the approach where 1 individual is telling them how to do something based on their experience and their inherent traits and imparting that onto someone else and telling them to repeat it out of context (which is most of what this video is trying to inform). Versus the EA where they (coach and learner) use task based games for the individual to self-organize their own movement solutions to the task and constraints. Not that they'll get it right the first time or that the coach will have the perfect game, it'll require iteration. But it's the idea that they're making decisions for themselves, they're perceiving the environment and looking for the information that guides their action, and ingrain that rather than a technique. Grilling (or task based games) and constraints led approach is one way to help identify and address any bad habits. The idea of automaticity is interesting. I'm not sure we want full automaticity? And reflexive? Rather we want reactive, where decisions are still being made? Yeah I've seen people address the rote repetition and drilling in a way that they say it depends on who's doing it, right? Like a highly experienced player may have different intentions and focus vs a novice. Appreciate you taking the time to comment. I had to take time to think about this one and hop on my laptop to type this one out.

Oh wow, thank you so much.

Yessir!

Hm I haven’t heard of it yet 🤷‍♂️

100%. I’ve seen some of it in your content. Looking forward to seeing more 🙌

I had been thinking this over and realized I wasn't having trouble because I don't understand the context and problem fully and maybe this thought process might help you. Where is the problem in the footwork? Is it linear or lateral footwork? Is it because they're too close or too far from the ball? Are they not moving at all? All of these would create different task based games. I'm also not sure how they're currently practicing and what needs to be changed. Sounds like the games may need to focus on variability in movement.

@@buildingpickleball Great insight. I could setup a few pylons and create a game where they have to dink to small area and the other player must stretch them left then right. Another variation would be to setup the stretch pylons about 3 or 4 feet off the kitchen, and they would have to go slightly backward with good footwork to get the ball.

Thanks for watching and the comment. Curious, what do your practices look like?

appreciate the thorough comment. Not entirely sure if we're disagreeing or not here but the belief of Bernstein and supporters of EA is that there is no one ideal technique. Every single individual has intrinsic features and properties that make it nearly impossible to perform the exact technique repeatedly, see 'degrees of freedom' problem. Rob Gray once stated 'who cares how it's done if you get the desired outcome'. Regarding what is most effective? Absolutely. To hit a backhand slice there's no doubt there has to be a downward motion on the ball. There are invariant properties. But the issue isn't that, it's this idea of reinforcing an ideal technique and how to explicitly perform it versus using cues, constraints, variability, and teaching the individual to attune to the environment as the starting point rather than recalling the technical steps from this idea that skill lives in the head and comes from this top down approach. What they're harping on is that there's a difference between technique and skill. And that skill isn't performed in a vacuum. And that it's less about the 'how' and rather the why.

Small sided games, task based games, differential learning, constraints led approach < I guess many ways to look at it but yeah the use of these game based approaches. I don't think I ever completed Inner Game of Tennis but I remember it resonating with me. I think there's truth to watching others because of 'mirror neurons'. Recording and watching yourself is definitely a useful tool as well. As far as I know, I don't think it's a replacement? Yeah more of an alternative to the technique based repetitive drilling.

@@buildingpickleball thanks! Looking forward to The next videos on this

Neither do the hi-chewssss

Out of all that that’s what you took away?! Hahaha jk. I didn’t want to make it seem like it’s some spiritual anecdotal experience thing.

Do you ever meet people who are so unobservant or so unaware of physics that they dont even know the possible solutions to the problems that you might identify for them?One example: i play with a highly educated, very intelligent 3.5 player over the last 3 years who just noticed that some of the tennis players drives have a strong arcing trajectory. Still not sure this player would have discovered topspin had i not shared Zane Navratil's "why pros dont slice anymore' video. How do you approach this given there are people who come to pb with no sports background?

Definitely, that sounds like me when I started. It’s almost like just understanding cause and effect. Hmm first thought is seeing if their gaze is even looking at the opponents body language, the movement of their paddle, and the ball trajectory. We know an invariant property of topspin is a low to high movement. No matter what, that has to be done in order to create topspin. There was research about how expert performers gaze remains on a few concentrated areas longer than novice who have sporadic gazes, more spread out. I say that because if this person doesn’t have the background, they may not have developed that perceptual relationship with their environment yet. Next, try to create games that add constraints to help them understand the relationship to what they’re doing and the effect it has. Games (generally speaking) just have so much going on and things to pay attention to, we want narrow their focus to that problem that’s happening and repeat exploring the problem. I’ll think on what this game could look like.

@@jmcloughlinhonestly, if you’ve played pickleball for 3 years and don’t know what top spin is, you’ve probably been playing with old ladies the entire time lol

​@@adamheath4599 You may want to reread my comment. I know what topspin is. As to the the age and gender of some of the folks i play with. I'll plead the 5th. The funny thing is that the person im referring to who never recognizes topspin has a devastating drive and putaway but no shape on shots.

Thanks for watching and leaving this comment. Depending on the task, your individual movement solution can be a constraint. But I think what you’re getting at is a constraint in the sense of practice design? Absolutely a constraint can be used to help develop a weak part of someone’s game because it will restrict certain possibilities for action allowing the performer to find a more effective option on their own. Does that help?

@@buildingpickleball yes sir thank you

Absolutely. Happy to help.

I think skinny singles is okay towards the tail end of practice, as a way to apply what was focused on in the small-sided game in the bigger picture. It’s just so broad. Really depends on what the intention is? What is the individuals focus, what are they trying to achieve or work on? Big fan of skinny singles.

Thanks for the comment. Yeah I’m looking forward to releasing the videos as well. His games are fine, they’re just situational. There’s no real constraints applied. What I notice with this is people fall into just trying to win rather than explore. There’s no constraints to force people to explore, to make mistakes. These are just situational games that mimic the live game without having a specific focus to differentiate it as practice, as an environment to learn. I don’t see any real intention or attention, focus. Winning can certainly be an end objective but there’s so many variables, what are we really trying to achieve or develop? If the end objective is to just purely win, what I tend to see is people exploiting their strengths. Which is okay, it’s just different. You miss some of the nuance.

That hichew life 🤘

👈 this guy. I’m over 45 and playing the long game. I’m not in a rush to be 4.0. Just want to get there in time to compete at 4.0 when I’m in the 50+ bracket.

Average age of a pickleball player according to APP research is a youthful 34.

Could you share one drill or channel? I’ve seen the same 20 drills on every RU-vid channel. Phenomenal video by the way.

🥹 been waiting for someone to notice him 🙌