How I helped a 4.7 DUPR get to 5.0+ in one training session #107

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, it's your coach Jordan Briones and in today's podcast I'm sitting down with Sammy Lee. Three years ago he actually tore his ACL playing basketball and that's how he found Pickleball. Now he's a 4.7 DUPR player and he loves the game so much that his goal is to make Pickleball content full-time. We're actually going to try something new on this podcast. I want you to get to know the player behind the rating, how they got here, what they're working on, and also what they think is holding them back.

[00:00:29] And then we'll end up watching their actual game footage together and see what we can find. So today you'll hear Pickle Lee's story and then we'll break down his game and give him a plan to improve. As always I think you'll pick up a few things that can really help your game as well. Now let's jump right in. All right Pickle Lee what's going on man? Not much how's it going for you?

[00:00:54] Good man. I'm here in Arizona. I don't know if you know that. I actually don't know a ton about you but we'll learn a lot about you and your game and then we'll get into kind of some thoughts that I have for you and as you're improving. So where are you located at man? Atlanta, Georgia. Oh wow. Have you been there a long time? Yeah my whole life so haven't moved out yet.

[00:01:21] Oh wow. Cool man. So do most do most players or people call you Pickle Lee or where does that come from? Well I was just trying to think of like a username at first when I first started content and I guess now it's probably like if they know me from Pickleball they'll call me Pickle Lee but if it's before that they'll call me Randy so.

[00:01:43] Oh okay cool. Cool man. So why don't you share a little bit about your Pickleball journey. You know everyone has kind of how they got into the game, why they got into the game. I think listeners would like that and then we could dive into kind of strategically and tactically your game. So go ahead man.

[00:02:06] Sounds good. So I started playing around three and a half years ago. I was playing basketball every day and I tore my ACL unfortunately and didn't get surgery. I was still trying to play basketball but I'll keep getting injured. I was just too addicted so I just tried to play every day still even when I was like recovering. But my mom, well first of all life I was playing at lifetime fitness and then they took away one of the basketball courts to replace with Pickleball

[00:02:35] and at the time I was like okay well I already take away one of the courts. But then my mom started like playing and was like you should play this and then it was pretty good. I was using it for rehab at first but then I got kind of good in comparison to everyone else so I was like oh let me just start switching over to Pickleball more and more and then eventually I made the full switch. So here I am today. Wow man that's awesome. So you never got surgery on your ACL? I did a lot of rehab myself

[00:03:02] and got back to you know playing but I think basketball was just too contact dependent like I can't I can handle all the normal motions but if someone like runs into me midair you know then it's hard to for me to like brace that versus Pickleball is more like I can you less like what's called unanticipated like contact. Yeah yeah. Maybe my partner just runs into me for whatever reason but

[00:03:27] yeah that's pretty rare. Yeah I actually played basketball in high school so I really like that sport so that's awesome. Yeah man so what other viewers might not know is that you're a content creator as well. So we could talk a little bit about that but you're known for your short term short form content so what what brought you into that and like what can you say about the

[00:03:53] content on the Pickleball side? Yeah at first I was running starting like a tournament business so I was just doing a lot of short for like short form content to like you know promote that just like whatever it's like relatable just to spread awareness I guess and then eventually I started liking doing it more and then just started making more content. I do a lot of random stuff too so I do

[00:04:16] on my YouTube I have paddle reviews I have like other like more tip videos I started doing more fitness content because I lost 50 pounds recently so. Wow is that is that mainly due through uh is that on Pickleball or because of Pickleball? Um mostly diet so oh really I think I gained a lot because basketball is a lot more cardio yeah I think eventually I just gained a lot of weight that

[00:04:44] yeah throughout over the years and then tried to lock in a little bit so started dying it again. Yeah that's awesome cool man so how would you uh let me ask you this how would you describe your Pickleball game like currently are you a super offensive are you more more just a consistent player what would you describe yourself? From the clips that I post online people usually think

[00:05:10] that I'm like a tricky like you know player which I would say I have those shots I like the high off-speed speed ups a lot that's why I usually do that usually works um but I think in general my general philosophy of Pickleball is just minimizing unforced errors and like waiting for the right ball so that's I typically try not to miss too many like thirds or dinks and I have pretty good hands so I

[00:05:38] usually can counter if they just speed up like a just a you know normal dink so that's how I usually play but I would say I would I'm not the most powerful player I don't think I have the tennis background to just generate a bunch of power but working on it. Yeah awesome man cool so um yeah you said you're doing Pickleball content and you're currently uh I think you told me a 4.7 duper right?

[00:06:04] Yes unfortunately I dropped this year after playing more tournaments but I think I got better at least. Yeah no that's great dude cool man so we'll get into your game and we'll uh kind of look at some some things that maybe you can think about or work on um before we do that have you gotten any coaching at all um throughout this journey from you for you um when you started and getting kind of

[00:06:32] even approaching that 5.0 have you gotten any coaching at all? Not like true coaching like multiple sessions I guess I I um collabed with a few pros like Juan Benitez and like um Luke Pham and they gave me some tips here and there but not like a serious coaching every week or anything like that. Got it got it got it and and what's the what's the best tip that you've received that's really

[00:07:01] stuck with you just personally in your own game whether it was one of those guys or something in your journey? Hmm I don't know I I watch a lot of YouTube videos like I watch a lot of your videos especially when I first started so I have a lot of just general good Pickleball tips but I think my favorite was when um Juan Benitez taught me the high speed up the off-speed one and then that's

[00:07:26] what I've been using like so much and it just still works so I think that's my favorite tip because I can like it's a shot that people don't really expect and then just yeah it still works yeah yeah dude yeah I haven't thought about that one in a while well maybe we'll talk about that cool man um yeah so that no it was uh great to kind of hear your story a little bit um maybe we'll dive into your

[00:07:50] your game and uh we'll kind of point to a few things now you did send me a couple clips um I picked the second one that you sent and uh and then we'll look at that sounds good all right so here we go so why don't you tell me a little bit about this this is um you can see the clip here but um where is this a tournament or is this a uh kind of just round robin kind of rec game or what is it

[00:08:18] yeah it's a tournament we got me and my partner got the first seed so we're playing a like round of 16 um game that we they probably went like fourth seed so okay we're probably favorited and I you want me to spoil it or do you use me no no no we'll we'll go on we'll go on from here it's fine uh yeah yeah and then you know I was watching a little bit your your partner is a really good

[00:08:43] left side player too we'll talk about that do you usually play the right side or do you kind of switch it up I think if I think my partner is a better like left side player I'll do it but if they make more mistakes than me I typically like playing left so just whatever will minimize the mistakes overall I guess yeah okay but I think he has really good power and put away so it's it makes more

[00:09:08] to go left usually yeah okay so we'll get into it and the reason why I kind of started it here because you guys got up to a big lead uh and then the other team made a big run and maybe we'll see some things all right so here we go let's see here okay good serve all right so just uh just like

[00:09:37] before you serve what kind of what are you thinking on on your serve and and how like what's your mindset like getting through transition just like not on a general level um I think I probably need to think more about my serve I'm just trying to get it somewhat deep but I'm not like I'm not trying to push it too much like yeah to get out I guess so I probably could go bigger on my serve in general

[00:10:05] but yeah I'm just trying to get it somewhat deep and in okay especially on the tournament yeah yeah so pretty good serve here and you went with the the top spin drop here when a little bit high but um you know I think that like you said you have good resets and uh I do like how you're you're stopping and you're splitting early which is really good how do you feel about your your reset game in general

[00:10:32] in transition I think it's probably one of my stronger aspects I typically I'll get every ball back usually sometimes maybe it's high and I can't do the next one but if they hit it in my general area I usually get it over the net so I think and then if it happens to let it bounce then it's easy way to the kitchen yeah no that's really good yeah so again a little bit of a even high reset there

[00:10:58] um and then your partner misses a drop but no worries we'll we'll keep moving on to the next point one of the things that I I did kind of like appreciate and and like I was watching some clips before this before your game is how relaxed you look you know just uh normally and uh you're not at the kitchen line and you don't feel it doesn't look like you're super sporadic which I think is a good

[00:11:22] thing yeah people usually comment that I um have no emotion when I play so I mean I try to be consistent so I don't want to like you know yeah yeah play too out of my normal so yeah all right let's move on here okay good reset there all right do you ever analyze your games and matches like this by the way

[00:11:50] or not not a ton I'll look over it but not as in depth as this one yeah okay so here we got your partner obviously with a super good forehand um really big forehand shots here he's going for a drop here I really like how you're coming in on this ball because you know it's a pretty low one and then you

[00:12:13] can kind of try to find something to pick off and then this is again I really like to see early split steps and in transition um it looks like that you have really good awareness on on your fifth ball and how high they're taking it right so I like how you really balance you get this next ball here now here um the one thing here you can see he kind of speeds up through the middle

[00:12:39] and you know this is that ball that kind of is you start to lose control here yeah on that ball so one thing I just would suggest here especially when you're kind of resetting cross and here's kind of the one disadvantage for hitting your fifth resets cross court you got a shade middle like pretty hard so okay you know one thing I you know kind of would suggest and you'll see this

[00:13:06] typically at pro level play but you could just reset to the inside foot or reset more middle here right and then it opens up less angles and you can get in a little easier yeah I think I was probably not thinking too much about the position of my reset I was just kind of going like general cross court but yeah I was definitely not ready for the middle speed up I think I was in this point I was probably

[00:13:30] still analyzing my reset and not thinking about the speed up at all so yeah yeah so again you know one of the things that I do or I try to keep in mind um and it's just easier for me I found like if I kind of just hit more of my resets straight straight on or more towards the middle then I have to move less right if I if I hit my resets cross court um that's okay too like the situation where I would reset cross

[00:13:58] cross court is where I know like maybe that's the weaker player or I want to get it to um a place where it's less attackable right but um let's say both of these guys at the net are good from both wings right yeah this is probably where I would take a middle and if you are going to reset cross court you just kind of make sure you're closing hard middle here uh either with the two-handed backhand or your one yeah so I heard I'm not sure what's the right way but I heard there was

[00:14:28] one tip where resetting cross court will has more space for you to reset in so it's better percentage wise but what are your thoughts on that yeah so it's the same thing um as like a cross court dink um with when you're dinking or when there's just when you're going cross court you have more margin and more room for error as as surface area um actually I've I've gone to this uh

[00:14:56] conversation in length with a lot of players here but when I'm getting attacked down the line so for resets I think it's a little bit different so let's kind of just go back here your partner kind of hits a high drop but you're ready when I'm hitting a reset and the ball is coming straight towards me I found for myself it's just easier to send the ball kind of like back to that general area than trying to

[00:15:21] finesse it and and change direction on the reset which is very doable um so it is right in a way you do have more room but then you know you're also thinking about your court positioning and everything I think most players if you watch uh the top pros they get this ball this ball's going more towards the middle okay so something to keep in mind so would you say more middle and not in front or would

[00:15:50] you still say in front and middle yeah I would say um there there's a range here so anything to avoid the Ernie first but if we look at this ball here again as you're resetting it here I'll put my cursor down but anywhere kind of middle of your of this side right to this left uh left foot of the cross court player okay and then that's the safest place there's not a lot of angles and you can still get

[00:16:15] the ball down so you still have like eight foot feet of room that's super safe and it's it's high percentage away from the Ernie and away from the cross court where you have to cover middle really hard yeah I definitely went a little too cross court and open too many angles there yeah yeah so it just makes it easier but good stuff let's get to the next point here because I think this is where they

[00:16:37] make a run okay two we buy your partner super good two we oh okay yeah I think you called that ball out one of the other things that I really like is uh I think your returns I really like your returns how you get momentum in and you know that high finish this is how I kind of hit my returns so I really

[00:16:59] like how you're putting pressure there um I think yeah pretty good fourth there and that ball was out we'll get to the we'll get to the next point here because I think this is where your team makes a little run here okay so good return there I really like your ball movement here super good thanks a

[00:17:29] little early speed up from your opponents but uh I really like your topspin things too I think you do a good job of creating a lot of space here um you've probably worked on your footwork and your spacing I'm sure but I like you going up the line and leaning in and taking it across so would you say your your offensive dinks on your um on your forehand side is something that you've been working on

[00:17:56] um I think not necessarily but I think I don't miss too many I just try to hit it into good spots and I think I may go I may not be the best if it's a aggressive ball I won't I'll usually try to reset it every time but then if it's a dead ball I'm pretty good at topspin things in general yeah it's

[00:18:18] really good all right so we'll we'll get to the next point again really good return there really good stuff and I like your counter here I like how you're um covering middle too you know one of the things that players don't don't do a ton is when they return cross court they don't cover middle as hard um because obviously your partner here has to cover line um I do think like again I don't know

[00:18:47] how big your partner plays on the left but I even think you could even be a little bit bigger here as I watch this again right but your partner isn't covering line as much so I see why you're there but typically here I'd like to have my left foot even closer to that line to cover cover middle drives so me me covering more middle you said yeah and again you know I think that I think your partner

[00:19:16] is playing a bigger left right now but I do think like in this situation he's he's leaving he's leaving some line open which yeah you know at this at this level he's he's forcing them to kind of hit a small margin shot so I think it's fine but again you know like you can see how you're a little bit reaching on this uh backhand volley and just to hit a more solid volley maybe more power if you were

[00:19:43] just a little bit closer to the center line gotcha something I would I would suggest but still super good shot all right I would say in general I do have a bigger issue of playing big because I don't play too much mixed in general and I feel like I'm not good at if my partner is getting targeted I'm not I really can't get out of that usually at my current level so I think that's part one thing to notice

[00:20:09] in general okay cool yeah one of the things to experiment with too like I really like playing the right because I I play a pretty big right but especially when my um when my partner's not up at the net I think something to be said and something you could practice on whether you're you know whether you're on the right or the left side but you know as they're returning and coming

[00:20:32] in one of the things that you can do is just actively play a much bigger bigger left or right when they're coming in and that's something that's helped me as I'm like you know even just playing rec games yeah yeah all right so good serve there great drop there those are good reset things there

[00:20:59] okay so um you know there was some times here where you're you're pulled out and I can tell like you've you know you have a pretty high IQ of the game like any shots like this you're like resetting middle I really love that um were you going for kind of a speed up right here on this next wall you think like this one right here I think I was going for a middle dink but let's see yeah this was just maybe

[00:21:26] I'll I don't know did it clip the net I think it might have clipped the net no I think it just yeah I think it just went high oh yeah so I don't know I think that maybe it was a speed up yeah sometimes it's like a little bit of an indecision kind of here you know one of the things that I kind of try to tell myself like you know and I've seen you already have these two shots I think

[00:21:52] you have really good um awareness and mentality at the at the line when I'm leaning in like this like hey I'm trying to hit a good spot like I'm going for a wing I'm going for something um if I feel like it's too low or or I'm outstretched then I'm just gonna go for like you know maybe a cross-court dink or maybe a roll dink but you know we all from time to time get caught in a little bit indecision and that's just to me this is what it kind of looks like you kind of change your mind or

[00:22:21] what we're sure yeah I thought I was probably going for a speed up there because I saw the ball was attackable some kind of so yeah he just was on it yeah yeah that's good man okay here we go we'll go to the next one here good topspin draw I love that inside dink I've seen this too um even in that

[00:22:52] is how much you're attacking that inside foot is that something that you're doing like uh because you're thinking about it or is that is that just a spot that you like to go to like regardless I typically well as a when I play left I don't like when my partner goes way too cross-court and then if it's high then I'm just like get caught off guard because I can't cover that so I typically like

[00:23:16] the target inside foot or middle in general yeah but I think I may be going there too much sometimes but yeah you let me know no yeah I think that uh again for most players I think that's a great place to start um you know in tournament play or high level play I think just attacking that inside foot for that right-handed player early on is really good and we could even see this you'll see in a couple

[00:23:45] seconds here you'll even see this right side player try to run around his back end now as he's trying to create so you know if you see your opponent doing that a ton and putting a lot of pressure on you that's when I would start to pull it across but maybe um maybe you know just not going to the same place more than two or three times unless it's really working right so like if we watch this point here great inside foot dink you have them on defense another one beautiful shot there

[00:24:15] and here's another one and then it's this one here see how he's already in position like holding his position and now you're kind of giving him an opportunity to kind of create from here which he ends up doing and hits a chicken wing so you know kind of just the awareness of where your partner is sometimes it's hard to see in real time but again as he's like moving more over

[00:24:39] left he's kind of creating more so that's the one time where I would maybe hit you know maybe two or three and then I'd probably move it get him on position and then again keep hitting the inside foot one of the things that I'm kind of looking at is his positioning in general and how how strong of a right side he's playing like if he's playing more centered and home and then I have his partner

[00:25:03] playing bigger right then his inside foot is more available but like let's say if he's playing super big here his inside foot is just a smaller target and then as he moves over like these are all good balls but as he's here now right this is when I kind of want to take start taking across does that make sense yeah I think I just didn't well when I typically play um I'm usually the more consistent

[00:25:30] dinker so I usually just hit the same spot and they'll eventually pop it up but I think he was playing well that game and also I think I just target middle a lot just when it's the safer option but I guess I didn't account for him playing so big in the middle because like the last second to last dink I think he hit a good aggressive shot right here yeah and I was I was kind of just trying to reset it back yeah yeah you think I should just try to reset it back cross court or no I mean no I think

[00:26:00] no you made the right play I mean he had you on defense um already but like yeah I mean that that shot he hit was just a good shot yeah it's probably the ball before that so like right here okay I think that I think this one here is manageable right you're not you're not super in a defensive position because of his positioning maybe this one you take cross but because you hit one more now now you're on d again now you have that one is a short hop um half only so that one you

[00:26:30] have to kind of reset middle right so do you think the ball before I probably should have moved better and hit a cross court yeah okay yeah as I see my especially when you run into right side players that like to play big and also also especially when they're like flicking out of the air like let's say if this guy's like you know um playing like a a tardio on the yeah on the rider for example you

[00:26:57] know as as he squeezes and squeezes you know as I start to see this positioning this is when I just try to try to move them out at least one time um or I can you know another option is kind of trying to hit more to this guy's inside foot make him hit a forehand and then let's say you were to hit it to this this guy here in the black from here he would probably you know send it out wide and then you get out of that pattern so right now like this guy is like you know just putting a lot of pressure

[00:27:27] on you you're hitting good dinks quality dinks but again to get out of the pattern we either send it over here or we or we make the guy in front of you hit a forehand yeah gotcha yeah so but really good stuff dude let's watch a couple more here okay so a little bit of uh just error there by your

[00:27:49] partner but no worries is he a tennis player by the way your partner yeah okay I could tell yeah

[00:28:02] no he's got some good shots okay so it's three six now ball there that's a good ball see but see I like this um this is a good kind of sequence here which I really like here so here we got a good top

[00:28:28] spin drop um sorry top spin dink down the line and then we have an inside dink there kind of kind of right in between them you know so I really like this play and then if you look at this this second second dink after this this is the one that I like because you you're hitting it more towards this player look again your cross course playing players playing really big right so we have this player

[00:28:55] here I really like this ball because you know it's forcing this player to play right instead of him pressuring you all the time yeah and then and then now regardless whether he goes um kind of inside out or here now you're in control and lean in right but you just quite didn't get it to bounce but this is like a great setup for you and I I take this all day I like that ball and soon as you see see this

[00:29:22] guy put his head down you're leaning in with your backhand so or with your forehand here so this is a really good positioning but we just got to get that ball to bounce okay right so anytime you know this is a big tendency of mine too like I I'm trying to be so aggressive with my dinks but one thing that I try to remind myself especially if I have a lot of space because I know you see it here you have a

[00:29:47] lot of space you know I'm going for priority one is to get it to bounce as you know I'm not trying to go for as much spin and as much um pace as possible right if I could just get it to bounce this guy's now going to be hitting a reset dink middle which maybe pops up and one of you can attack but like that's the right mindset there yeah I probably went for too much top spin yeah and that's a

[00:30:13] again pretty good I mean really good um the defense here on this uh dominant side attack here and I think you had this ball kind of just missed it so yeah not really good stuff okay so we'll hop in

[00:30:32] good balls there great reset dink there okay yep yeah you're hitting a ton of middle balls man yeah so I think that the the recognition kind of the same thing that we're seeing here and and just to kind of back up here you're you're hitting a lot of high high quality balls

[00:31:02] right but I think it's kind of recognizing when you should pull it out wide and when you should actually use your cross courts because for the most part and what's interesting dude is most players don't play this big on the right side yeah so like the the strategy that you're currently using actually is very good and would work against a lot of players but if we have situations like this this

[00:31:29] is when we just need to be comfortable whether it's top spin or a shovel or anything just to get them off the middle because like uh that's a good dink there and again here and and I he's probably playing with this either a because he's not getting a lot of balls or maybe he or b he's just trying to insert himself and that's the kind of player he is but when somebody is this far over it just it

[00:31:56] shrinks your middle target like pretty small right so again I don't mind the middle dinks but when when that target is so small and you're compressed here because you can't you know you can't dink line right so and then you have so much congestion here so this guy's leaning in for a flick every time too and that's the thing too that has changed the game in the past five years or so the backhand flick

[00:32:22] right when players have that you know you're you're limited to again if I'm in a defensive position like this and I think you're fairly balanced right if we just look at your positioning like it's actually a higher percent shot I know you have the control to even hit more of a dead or shovel dink here than probably trying to get it to bounce here because now he's flicking and this guy if he takes anything out of the air you guys are kind of a little bit in trouble as you have to kind of

[00:32:49] defend out does that make sense yeah I think for me I definitely practice my I don't practice right side dinking too much so I think naturally I'm just better at middle dinks yeah which is why I went for that I think I was probably scared of popping it up if I went across because I have less reps of it but yeah it's probably yeah I need something to work on yeah get that no for sure

[00:33:18] yeah yeah that's good yeah and then also um you know because I've seen you dink with topspin here I've seen you kind of shovel you have you have a lot of good tools but you know even yeah even if you take it with a slice or a shovel cross I think that would be something to work on yeah yeah all right so

[00:33:37] let's uh a little bit come back here let's kind of watch a couple more points here like that ball like that's the one that we want to hit more often and you do a good job here right I mean this is crazy this is super big right right that he's playing but that like anything like that even that I mean that that dink wasn't that aggressive but it's bouncing and it gets them off the middle

[00:34:05] and it just creates movement and if you look at this now now we have like you know we have something to work with right we have we have a gap we have something and that gives you the point there so um yeah just kind of be more aware of like where your your opponent's positioning is um and you I'm sure you do the same thing when you have a big left side player right you got to hit behind

[00:34:28] them and you're you're kind of seeing you know where the holes are at I think this is definitely the first game I played with someone who was playing that big of a right so I think yep definitely a good learning experience yeah yeah but footwork looks good I don't mind the lob you know if that's a I actually I actually lob pretty often uh when I'm when I'm super balanced here but you know kind of

[00:34:57] when I'm I'm falling back and off the bounce that's probably that's this is probably not the best time to to do it yeah I like to lob more out of the air on my on my offensive lobs um I don't know what you do but I've been trying to I do think that's a better lob I just haven't worked on it too much yet out the air lobs yeah I think that was a great shot yeah that was a great attack there uh seven five

[00:35:26] you guys are in the lead now good get there okay what do you think about this pool here uh definitely too high I was going for a through the middle because I was pretty open but then um it definitely was not high it was way too high yeah so I mean actually really great counter from

[00:35:52] your opponent there but you know one of the things that I try to teach players and I do um for myself if I if I feel like I'm being rushed or if I feel like I I'm forcing the speed up at all that's kind of not the position that I want to be in um obviously I gotta I gotta take what I can but this one to me feels like you know you're being pulled out wide and then you're seeing a quick hole and then you're

[00:36:20] kind of pulling it right it's kind of like a last minute kind of choice and I actually don't think your spot was bad I mean you're going kind of to the forehand side but yeah the big thing is it was just a little bit high yeah I think I definitely was a little more trigger happy given it was a closer game and we had a big lead so I was trying to yeah work some stuff out but uh didn't work no man that

[00:36:48] was good that's good and you had a chance on that next one but uh yeah your your opponent just made a really good counter there all right here we go it's a great return by your partner there good ball that's the one too and here's the combo too when you're playing um someone on the big right again

[00:37:17] but this is a beautiful kind of combination and this is exactly what I would do here so I go inside foot here right and again this is a low enough it's a good dink and then you lean in and pull them out like this is what that's that's what you where you want to get them every single time so that's that's the one I'm always looking for so even if you don't go across on this first one I think this is a perfect

[00:37:43] play against players like this you go here and then you try to find it out of the air so what you do here I know you you know you're not thinking about this in a real game but this is exactly what we want to do that's like perfect execution and then now we have them on defense and then we have something to work with so really good stuff yeah and then here's a let's see let's see what happened here

[00:38:12] so we got he hit a great yeah great shot there but yeah I just I think this was also the first game where I was getting targeted like pretty heavy I would say the other games it was more so my part I think I play better in general when I get less balls and just I'm just the one creating offense yeah but when I'm taking all the balls I don't usually play that way well don't have as many reps doing that so I do think just them keeping

[00:38:42] attacking like that you know corner I just didn't have the best shot to get out of it so what do you recommend on like placement yeah so again we talked about middle dinks you know and then mixing it up with the cross dinks I think super important the other thing too that I really try to do and that I'm thinking about it now if you're the one getting targeted you're getting every ball to you right so

[00:39:08] it's actually really critical that you're trying to find as many balls out of the air and save yourself save yourself some half volley so like this one so great ball here that's one shot here this is two so after this one here this is kind of one where I I especially on this positioning right like again a lot of congestion here this is that one where I want to really try to lean in and

[00:39:35] take this one again lean in take it out of the air here or lean in and take it out of the air across but again you kind of let this one bounce and if you see it like I think you could definitely take this one out of the air it's bouncing on that line you know okay so kind of just trying to do a better job of you know kind of recognizing when you can take that ball out of the air especially when they're

[00:40:00] kind of lifting like this you know I'm trying to just take a little bit time away and then kind of move my opponent do you think I'm my positioning is okay or am I playing too middle or no I think for for this exact situation positioning is great I think it's just intention here right you're you know if I if I feel like um they can't you know they're not in the best position to speed up because

[00:40:26] you hit a good thing this is pretty low like this is when I kind of want to be looking to lean right and just because of just miss that one missed opportunity there now we're kind of forced to shovel here and then you just shovel it a little bit high high right so but here let's go to the end here I think uh spoil spoiler alert you guys are up now but here let's uh watch a couple of these

[00:40:54] points at the end so good return by your partner there great balls let's see where you go here okay and then you definitely bail yourself out there with a good counter there yeah so just a little bit of a high ball a little jumping uh jumping to your back end but it worked that was good all right here we

[00:41:19] go good serve great get great get by your partner a little bit long there or wide here we go is there a reason why you guys didn't stack here or you're stacking the opposite way well I noticed that I was getting you know most of the balls and I think my offense out the air is better on the left side

[00:41:47] so I was just trying to we were trying to switch it up and then yeah that's how our lead back because I was able to just out dink the other guy with my like two-handed backhands yeah that's good I guess that's a pro of me being able to play both sides yeah do that but that's really good I think I was definitely more like defensive on the right and then when I was on the left I could just do a little

[00:42:13] more offense yeah no it's really good man yeah it's actually a good uh read there it at least gives them something to something different to look at and if this guy is playing you know still a big right he's gonna have to deal with a different kind of strategy or different dinks by your partner so that's really good good to be there just moved out the way good stuff man so you know um

[00:42:42] let me see here stop the share screen okay so dude a couple things that I really like I your return game is super good I think your counters are are very very strong um I know that you don't you said you might not play as much uh right side but you know a couple of things that we went over are kind of just recognizing when to dink middle when to pull pull out wide or even go a couple down

[00:43:11] the line um I think in general for player for teams that more so play like more traditional or more towards the middle of their side and they're shading the the middle dinks that you're hitting are very very effective um when you have players that are squeezing playing a big right or a big left that's when we kind of want to make some more adjustments and kind of want to open up the court and the thing

[00:43:40] you you know this and you know the listeners can understand like when you're in a tough position you have to reset metal it's still the smart play um I do think there's a a sentiment now it's something I'm kind of working on now because the game has changed and also the the play in the the play is just getting so high and with new skills but there is players now um you'll see ben johns do it and a lot

[00:44:07] other players they're they're even half falling and and resetting off tough um tough positions but they're actually hitting those dinks cross court now right you'll see some of them do that so I think it's something even in my game that I want to be working on but all things considered and generally you're gonna have to reset middle um balls because because it's the most safest place so um knowing that when you're getting pressurized you know you can lean in more and start to take it

[00:44:35] out of the air and take it away from your opponents and kind of just knowing how big your opponents are playing when there's more space you know just just move them off if they're that's one thing I like to like think about if if they're giving me that space I'm gonna hit to the space right unless like that you know I can't get that ball down or that you know obviously they're baiting you right but

[00:44:58] if you can hit good quality balls to that space then maybe you go a couple to them right or in the middle again and then hit to the space again but you definitely um the more you go to the same spot the more comfortable your your opponents will kind of get to dictate but if you kind of move it around a little bit more then it helps a lot do you think it's like I should be working on like a slice

[00:45:25] or like a shovel cross court dink more often than a top spin cross court dink or do you think both are like pretty much the same like same amount of practice or because right now I probably don't practice like either that much I usually just practice I don't I don't do too much dink drills recently but oh really yeah I usually like if someone wants to dink I would like you know I just we'll just play it out and then I usually hit middle and it usually works so that's why I got it

[00:45:55] doing it yeah you think I should purposely work on more slice cross court both or you know yeah great question so um currently right now I'm I'm training my son because he's playing a lot of tournaments but uh we just worked on this yesterday um but you know you need you need your outside dink I call them outside dinks like from the outside of the court right let's say you're on the right side

[00:46:21] and you have balls on your right or you're on the left side balls on your left on your outside dinks you definitely want to have your options for your offensive dinks and then your defensive dinks or we'll just call them defensive and or kind of just neutral dinks so you you know I've already seen your game I mean you have good offensive dinks you know on the right side your top spin that's your go-to

[00:46:46] on the left side is your two e so those are dinks that you want to be hitting all as much as you can but obviously when you're on balance in good position so you're also you also got to train when that contact point is outside of you and I know you know this but but I would actually for you I would suggest yeah I would train it's it's separately so like um I have somebody dinking cross court with me let's say I'm on the right side and I'm rolling as much as I can I'm rolling either

[00:47:16] wide or I'm rolling towards the middle right and I call it you know we have a framework for it but I call it my my wide wide rolls like that's my one and then the inside foot is that two so like from the right side I'm practicing my one and twos like I'm going back and forth and then I do the same thing with kind of like a shovel or just a neutral lifting and I train that same thing so that ball's on that

[00:47:42] right and I go for my one and I go for my two and then and then when you get in a game you can really quickly like switch back and forth right you can from like when you need to be more consistent and just like lift it or when you are gonna be like rolling the ball so um yeah I would work on both but especially the outside balls right you gotta be able to kind of have a neutralizing dink because

[00:48:10] you're not going to be able to to dink with topspin on every single ball not in today's game it's really hard yeah I think I just actually didn't practice much of the wide slice dinks so or like that's not targeted towards the middle so I need to work on yeah I think that's definitely something to work on yeah man yeah I'm surprised I mean at the level you're playing you're playing at a very very high level I mean I think I would I would guess that you you practice a lot of dinks normally in

[00:48:40] your game yeah I mean I like the speed up drills like you just dink and then just try to reach in for everything to speed up so that's why I usually do but that's kind of front if if I have a drilling session which is maybe like for dinking probably maybe once a week twice a week max then I'll maybe hit a couple but I usually try to play like games because I try to farm content on my you know

[00:49:03] yeah stuff but yeah cool cool man well yeah I would suggest uh yeah I mean as you're growing your game I get the whole content side um you know one of the things too kind of just as a suggestion you can start to maybe the content won't do as as well but you can at least do a little bit of it you could just do some some drilling content and and and make that part of your drilling too right yeah um but uh

[00:49:31] yeah then yeah man I mean you have you have a lot of skills you have a lot of great shots and I just think that you know you spending a little bit more time on those things could help a lot yep appreciate the feedback man yeah man you have any uh any other questions for me or how what did you think about kind of just breaking your your game down kind of slow like this and in person what did you what are some things that you learned I think I definitely did not realize like I probably before watching it

[00:50:01] I'll I didn't realize that my strategy was just like would work on most players but then because he was so like right side or like a big right and I normally don't play that I just didn't realize how like opened like this cross court was and I needed to do the slice you know cross court dinks and that's

[00:50:25] why I don't practice so definitely know what I need a drill now yeah man yeah cool man well yeah uh randy I really appreciate it dude um and uh maybe we'll get an update uh from you on a future podcast or we'll maybe break down some film again man yep sounds good man yeah dude thanks so much and uh yeah anything to or share where people could find you or anything like that

[00:50:51] yeah you can find me on pickle lee on most social medias so youtube instagram tiktok stuff like that yeah thanks again man and uh viewers thanks so much for watching hopefully you learned a lot and uh see you guys on the next episode yep thank you see ya