The Singles Playbook (Part 1) feat. Fear the Fro

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to Pickleball Cheat Code, the show for competitive pickleball players who are looking to level up their game. We focus on advanced strategies for experienced players, stuff only the pros really know. I'm Brodie Smith, a 5'5 plus level coach and a player, and I'm here with again a very special guest, Mr. Kevin Sati, a.k.a. Fear the Fro. What's up, y'all?

[00:00:23] Today, we're going to be breaking down everything you need to know on how to improve your Singles game from our very own Singles Specialists. And then at the end of the episode, we'll be covering why Singles is so good and important for your Doubles game and why it translates so well. If we've done anything to improve your game, please share the show with your Pickleball community.

[00:00:54] Pickleball Cheat Code Kevin, as we chatted about a little bit and touched on in our last episode, you're known as a Singles Specialist. I mean, I'm assuming the answer comes from you being a tennis guy, but what made you really want to dive into the Singles world and make that your focus in the sport of pickleball? And why do you love singles in general? Yeah, I mean, a lot of it does come from tennis.

[00:01:19] I mean, it's no lie that when I first got into pickleball, doubles was so foreign to me, the way that it was played, the dinking especially. um, so I honestly was about to quit the sport, if I'm being honest, when I first started until I learned about singles being a thing. And I was shocked why it wasn't more popular. Um, but yeah, it comes from tennis.

[00:01:43] Uh, but main, I love singles because at the, at the base of it, it's, it is so tiring. And so, um, it feels a lot more rewarding for my body and for myself feels like more of an exercise.

[00:02:03] And I guess, honestly, I just find it more fun, uh, when it comes to, I feel like it's more about your athletic ability, um, and your, your reach and, you know, something that I think benefits me as a player. Um, but yeah, I mean, I'd say it definitely comes from tennis, uh, primarily and kind of how I've played sports in general. Uh, doubles was initially a little bit too slow.

[00:02:28] And as I kind of learned the upper level of, of, of doubles, I've, I've started to enjoy that as well, but that's, and we, yeah, we will touch on how the singles game has helped my doubles game tremendously. Yeah. No, I definitely want to get into that. But before we do factor fiction, serving and returning is the most important skill in singles. What do you think? Ooh, you tell me I'm not, this isn't, this is your world. You know, I don't know. I I'm a, I'm a light singles guy. You're the singles guy.

[00:02:58] You tell me, I'm going to say the most important. I'm going to say fact. Oh, okay. I'm going to say fact. Let's go. That's big serves. No, both. I mean, both sir. I think there's so many. So, you know, your drive game and your, even your net game. You know, your game are just so important. But the serve and the return set both of those up.

[00:03:28] A hundred percent. When done correctly. You can have, you know, the best volleys in the world. But if your return is in singles specifically, right? When you, if your return is too slow, too shallow, to not enough topspin on it, not enough pace. It doesn't matter how fast you can get to the net, as it does maybe more in doubles. You're going to get, you're going to get killed. But, but most of these guys that, you know, passing shots or even drops.

[00:03:58] And so I, yeah, I'd definitely say fact. And then for, for the serve, you should be going for your serves. I mean, I always, and I'm, you, I'm sure everyone's heard that everybody talks about this. You should be missing some serves when it comes to singles. Like you should be absolutely going for your serves because the, the better players that have good returns, if you don't have a good serve, um, they're coming up to the net and And then you're cornered and then you're cornered and you're having to hit, you got, you're

[00:04:27] having to be Chris Hayworth, um, to, to get past a lot of these guys. If, if you have a serve that's, that's weaker. So are you stepping in? Cause a lot of, uh, one of the new metas I'm seeing in pickleball is like, I think Eric Onsen's was, was huge for this too. Is that, that huge step through serve. You take like three steps back behind the service line and then you're loading through it. I know Annalie's doing it too. I think Ben's doing a little bit of it too. Are you using that in your singles game at all? No, uh, no.

[00:04:55] So I, so I started as not doing that at all. Then I would say two, three months ago, I started stepping into it. Um, and then I just found that for me, it, it didn't help as much for me because I serve with a, a, like a full Western grip. And for me, I like being stationary, but, but I think the reason they do it is, I mean, you get more power, right?

[00:05:22] Your, your momentum going into the shot, you get more depth and I do it a little differently. I will load up my right leg. I would essentially stand in like an open stance, uh, uh, position and really bend down and kind of try to push up and shift my momentum, uh, through the shot, trying to generate as much power. But I, I, I focus so much on like the arc, uh, because of the top spin with the grip I'm

[00:05:51] able to serve. Um, and I could be wrong, but I think most of the guys you mentioned, they, they do have more of a Eastern, um, serve. I don't think, I don't know. Interesting. I feel like I, I thought most did, I mean, I know, I don't know the answer. I know you do. I thought it was more Western for some reason. I thought a lot of people did that. Or I guess a better question is, do you think most pros have a different grip on their serve than they do on every other shot? Like if they're going a little bit more, um, Eastern, Western and kind of leaning, leaning

[00:06:19] into that for top spin, I feel like I've seen that pretty often. And then they should have back on their continental or their, yes. Yeah. I see what you mean. Like their version, they're more extreme on their serves versus what the, I would say. Yeah. I think most pros are probably doing that. Even I think my service it's, I mean, my, my drives and my, really my forehand drive is the only extreme shot I think that I have. Um, everything else is like Eastern, um, kitchen game drops and whatnot.

[00:06:47] Uh, but yeah, I'd say, I'd say that's pretty accurate, but, but to, to, to your point and to help, I guess the viewers watching, I think stepping through is, is a very, I w I would definitely try it. And I would definitely, uh, I think for me, because again, 20 years of, I have a 20 years of tennis background. The way I hit forehands is the same way that I serve. And so I do it too. And it's, it helps with my consistency. Um, just making sure I have the same shot every single time. Exactly.

[00:07:15] So I'm kind of the same as you for that. But like you said, like there's no right or wrong answer from that. Cause the people that are stepping through it are hitting the shit out of it. So it's scary. I mean, the, the, the players, I played a kid named Dylan Lewis in Atlanta and he was, he, he had a very flat serve and I thought, Oh, this is going to be easier to deal with. I'll just kind of, you know, top. But this guy is like three feet behind the baseline and he's stepping. And I, I'm like, I don't, it's just a bullet.

[00:07:43] And I'm just like, I can't, I can't take my swing. I can't. And so it is, I think there's a lot of benefit in stepping through your serve. And honestly, if I had more time to drill, like, or if that was like a really big focus, if my serve was weaker, I think I'd probably implement. And I tried it. I did try it. And I just think it wasn't for me, but I do think it's worth trying because I think it does benefit most people. Um, so one thing that I found that I find really interesting about singles, even more

[00:08:09] so than doubles, obviously doubles strategy is huge. Like double, that's what's so fun about pickleball. There's just so much strategy into it, but even me being like a doubles specialist and that's being my, my favorite thing about pickleball, I think there's more strategy and strategies more impactful in singles. And that's something that I've noticed. I don't know if you agree with that too. It looks like you do, but it's so crazy. Cause when I, I've noticed that, you know, you can make some adjustments in a doubles match. Like, Hey, let me drive here. Let me drop here.

[00:08:37] Let me switch locations and things will change a little bit. But if you switch up one thing in singles, like maybe you're like, you know what? I'm going to return down the line only that can change a match night and day. It's so weird how these little things can change the outcome of a flow of a match, pacing, momentum. So I wanted to run through a few, a few areas of the singles game and kind of like help create a playbook, so to speak with your advice.

[00:09:01] So first area that I wanted to tap into with that being said is return of serve. What is your philosophy and thought process on return of serve locations? For example, down the line, obviously you can go straight at the player or cross court. And then you have somebody like Chris Hayworth who says, I'm going straight for their dominant shot. I'm going to their forehand. It's all over the place. What are your, what are you, what's your philosophy? What's your take on that? Where do you typically like to go?

[00:09:29] So I'm excited to talk about this. It's called singles. I think about this so much and I've shifted my opinions on this several times, but for return of serves, I've come to the conclusion that you want to return to ball location wise. And we're going to, we're going to just assume that your goal, unless you're Chris Hayworth is to get to the net and control the, control the net.

[00:09:56] I think hitting a ball to the middle of the court on your returns. So straight to the middle is, is usually my number one go-to when I start playing my matches. Now, and then feel out from there and then adjust. Because like you said, then you have to shift and adjust. Because if I'm playing Chris Hayworth, if I hit the ball to the middle of the court, he can pass me from that. I mean, any, any time. If you're playing me and you return to the middle of the court, I actually struggle passing

[00:10:27] through the middle or when the ball's in the middle and you're up at the net, I struggle. And most people do creating angles, right? And you, and then you, what you also learn is when you return the ball to the middle of the court, you learn which shot they prefer to hit because it, and most of the time it's, it's forehands, but you'd be surprised, but you'll learn because they're hitting from the middle of the court. They have time to either hit a forehand or a backhand because they're already standing there. So you learn, okay, they, it looks like he's going around his forehand.

[00:10:56] He's not choosing to hit the backhand as much. So then you'll learn, okay, maybe I should attack his backhand more just throughout the point, not necessarily on a return. But you're taking away a lot of angles. You're forcing them to play a softer game. And, and, and that can, that can be a benefit, but you do pick up a lot from how they like to play. If you see that they like to play like a cat and mouse game and you're someone who may like me, for example, I don't feel very comfortable at the net as opposed to someone

[00:11:25] who might like a double, like more of double specialists are actually going to feel a lot comfortable, more comfortable just getting to the net and playing that game. I might hit more angles on my return. So like Chris, right? Like I might return cross court to your forehand because when I come into the net, I want you to try and pass me because I don't like to catch balls below the net. I like to catch them all in my strike zone on the volleys. So I might purposely choose to give you a shot that has more angle and almost bait you

[00:11:54] into hitting a drive so that I can kind of block and swing out there. Like I'm hitting like a half volley tennis. And that's assuming they don't have a good cross court drop, for example, right? Yes. Yes. Exactly. That would be the counter to that, right? In terms of like the rock, paper, scissors of singles, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So I think middle to figure out their strategies. Okay. Down the line to make it, if you want to be optimal in coming up to the net, it's like, I mean, you're already covering kind of that side of the court. And then, I mean, and this is true too, right?

[00:12:24] Like you said, singles, I think strategy works so, like changing one thing can change everything just because every player has like, I mean, the amount of variables that, hey, he might be really good on, you know, passing me down the line on his forehand. But if I hit it from a different angle, he might not like that as much. Like those little things you have to think about that I think changed the game entirely. As an example, I played this guy.

[00:12:50] He was a, I mean, like a, I don't remember his name, but he was a 5'5". This was in Colorado a couple of days ago. We were about even and I was returning the ball. I was just kind of returning the ball to the middle. And I mean, he just kept dropping the ball and I couldn't, I kept getting under the ball and missing it into the net. So I changed my strategy and said, okay, let me give him, let me give him a little bit

[00:13:16] more angle and let me give him a little bit less depth. So I actually hit the ball shorter because he, so just to test and see what he does. So anytime I gave him angle, he liked to drive the ball. If I gave him more angle and I kept it shorter, he did, that's where I found he was, he wasn't as efficient. He didn't feel, he couldn't drive the ball because you're shorter in the court and I keep him low. So you can't drive the ball from, from so close in the court. And that's where I found his kind of weak spot.

[00:13:45] So a lot of times I'll, you know, I'll go from my Western returns to literally holding a continental grip and just chipping it into the court, coming up to the net and essentially forcing him to try and, and so you try to put them in awkward situations where they may, they don't drill. Nobody drills that for singles. So, so yeah, you're, but yeah, you're right. I mean, they might have a good drop, so you have to, uh, but I'd say mid, if you, if you're not sure where to go, return the ball to the middle.

[00:14:12] Um, even if you're trying to stay on the baseline, honestly, it just gives you more of a, I mean, less angles for them to hit on. Yeah. It's just simply less angles. Yeah. And then if not, I feel like the worst would be cross court a lot because yes, you're, you're giving him so much angle that, that, and then also if you're going to try to close right on that next ball too, you're running across the court, which opens up kind of everything. But if you're going down the line and then you're going to crash, you're giving them less single to work with in that regard too. Yeah.

[00:14:41] And you're giving them like, like, like you're giving them one option or really you're giving them two options, but you're covering one of them. Whereas if you're hitting cross court and you're following that ball, they can break your ankles and go back cross court. And you don't know, like, I mean, they might go either way and you're, and you're in the middle of running. And so you're having to, Oh, they might, you know, the whole left side is open. So I got to really cover it. But then the, Hey, they drop it cross court or they drive across court. Exactly. So, and so that's a big thing.

[00:15:08] Whereas if you, if you've returned a ball middle or line, middle usually a line more so to, I guess, make it a little bit more predictable. Then yeah, you, you just, it's a little bit more, like I said, it's more predictable to cover, cover the net. Yeah. I, I struggle more when people just try to go at me straight up because people know my backhand isn't nearly as good as my forehand. My backhand drive isn't great at all, but it's not that hard to run around it. So when I'm going and running around it and I'm loaded up in a position on the left side

[00:15:37] of the court and I'm sitting there and I can go down the line, inside out roll, whatever it may be. It's a deadly spot to be in. And it's like, I think they got me, but it's like, no, you don't have me. I actually don't have you. Yeah, exactly. No. And yeah, and maybe we'll touch on it later, but having a weakness in your game is, is, is one of the most underrated weapons. That's a bold take right there. No, let's dive into that. Okay. Having a weakness is a weapon. All right.

[00:16:07] I mean, I kind of get it from what I just said in a way. You kind of, you kind of what you just said. Yeah. So my backhand is similarly to you is, is on, on a pro level at least is something that gets attacked 24 seven. Mm-hmm. So because that is my weakness and it's, it's one of the most obvious weaknesses that I have, it makes it an obvious choice for the opponent to go to. So everything I do when I'm serving, when I'm returning, when I'm, uh, uh, come, you know,

[00:16:37] crashing the net, whatever it may be. I am, I know that they are going to do whatever it takes to hit the ball to my backhand. So because I know where they're going, I can plan around and my biggest weapon is my forehand. And I've, so going around my backhand, like you said, and you know, them coming in and, and I'm already sitting on the left side of the court in a long, you know, after I've served the ball, I'm already sitting a little bit more to the left of the middle.

[00:17:04] And if they go to my forehand, I love my running forehand. Oh yeah. Uh, if they go to my backhand, well, I got the angles. Maybe you got the angles. Exactly what I saw. Exactly. And it's what I saw coming. Um, and so I think I don't tell people to like not care about it, work on your weaknesses, but don't underestimate that how much having, you can use your weakness to kind of, um,

[00:17:31] um, understand, um, what your opponent is going to do. Cause if you have a, like a, a all around great player, they're tough to play against, but they don't, you're more unpredictable to them because you're going to be trying to come up with different ways to, I mean, just move them around the court and, uh, you know, but they, you being, you having a obvious weakness makes you, makes it easier for you to have a plan for what you're going to do.

[00:18:00] So that's kind of the way that I've, that's helped me recently to perform, uh, against some really, really good players. Like they'll be attacking my backhand for the first half of the match and like, okay, well, they're going to my backhand every time. So I'm just running around everything and hitting, you know, look at Jack sock. I think he's a good example. I mean, somebody, I mean, he's a pro, so I can't say his backhand is bad, but in comparison to comparison, if you're looking at his backhand is the weaker shot and you could see all the pros are targeting his backhand.

[00:18:28] Um, and so I, I, does he work on his backhand? Probably. Um, I don't know how much Jack drills. Honestly, his tennis background is so fricking, I, he looks like he just walks out there and just fricking runs around every, you know, play, he's just playing tennis out there. Uh, but, but I think his forehand is such a big weapon that, that, I mean, he's able, I mean, you see how far he's able to get in these tournaments just, just off of playing around his backhand. He doesn't need to have a backhand. That's all I have to do.

[00:18:54] I mean, that's, that's led me to two, I've done two PPA singles tournaments ever. One was a four or five and I got silver and then one was a five Oh and got silver. This was a couple of years ago. And it was all from just running around my forehand and just opening up angles. I'm telling you, dude. And then I think I was going to say in the four or five, I get to the finals and I go against Rafa Nadal. And then that's how I figured out who Rafa was. I had no idea who he was. This was like two and a half years ago. Maybe he didn't know what level he was. So he went and did four or five. Sure. Wiped the floor with me.

[00:19:23] I was like, that's when I, that's when I realized the levels of just like, just the levels that there are in singles. I was like, maybe, maybe I can get into single speckable. And I was like, Oh my God, I'm, he like put a cap on it. He, he, I think it was 11, three, then like 11, one or something like that. It was so funny. I was like, dude, this guy's unbelievable. I mean, that's yeah. Rafa Leonard. That's crazy. Rafa, you're the goat. That's awesome. But yeah. Okay. Let's talk about crashing though.

[00:19:52] So this is interesting as well. Cause I feel like one of the metas now that we're seeing is a lot of players just stay baseline and they just grind it out and grind it out. Cause people are getting so good at passing shots. Um, but it really depends at what level we're talking about, whether this is the top, top pros in the world that are just going to be sitting, hitting these passing shots cause they're so good. But most players aren't that good at passing shots, especially for like, you know, all of our listeners and myself included, like I'm not playing five, five plus level singles players.

[00:20:21] So in that context, you know, what is your strategy there and what's kind of your advice and philosophy behind crashing? Are you, is your goal to return and get in every single time? This is, it's a tough conversation. This is a tough topic. Um, I'm always going to say it depends on your opponent, but, um, even the, the way I look at it, you have some anomalies, right? You have Chris Hayworth and you have Hunter Johnson.

[00:20:51] I'd say those are like the two, um, you have, I guess, Roscoe. Roscoe is, he's a beast. Um, yeah. Um, and then, but even Roscoe, I think he plays more net than Hunter and Chris. Um, but outside of that, if you look at, I think we have to ignore the anomaly. I mean, those are, that's such a good thing to point out, but for this, we, we have to ignore it. Cause this is what I look at all the time too. I'm like, God, they're just staying back. And I was like, wait a second.

[00:21:21] I'm not Roscoe. I'm not, I'm not Hunter Johnson. Exactly. No, it's exactly. And I'm, and I'm, I'm bringing them up because you have them, but then you have Federico Staxrud, who is, I mean, he, he has amazing drives. He's not, he's a really good hybrid player. I think he's a great example of, he's somebody that I think I've been looking up to when it comes to modeling my strategy, cause he can play the baseline game and he will, but he will still, you could see that his main goal is, it's getting to that net.

[00:21:50] And I would just say, if you're playing somebody who's not that great at passing, I think, I think your goal should be, um, or honestly, most of the people watching your goal should be to hit a great return and come into the net. I would still say that that is by far on a three Oh to eat. I would even go as far as five Oh level. I was about to say a five Oh, probably three Oh to five Oh level.

[00:22:15] I think if you can get to the net efficiently, you know, hit good returns, um, that is still going to be the number one way to play pickleball. Now you have to look at your game too, right? Like I love my drives. I mean, that is something that, but, but even I have to be honest with myself and understand that I'm playing guys that are a bunch of these guys are like six two and, and, and, uh, or just, just really good at covering the net, um, and playing at the net. A lot of these guys come from doubles.

[00:22:45] So I understand that like the percentages are always going to be higher for the person coming up to the net versus the person trying to stay on the baseline. So throughout the point, it may not be right off the return, maybe hit a third or fourth shot. Um, yeah. Do you, do you come in more often right after that return? Like, are you just hitting and running? Cause some people do that. They just hit and run at the same time. Yeah, they do. Um, that causes a lot of errors for people too, cause they're so focused on that run. Yeah. And they get ahead of themselves. Yeah.

[00:23:11] And I always make the analogy of, uh, it's like an NFL wide receiver. You have to catch the ball and secure the ball before you run your route. As if a receiver tries to catch and run the route at the same time, that's where they fumble. That's where they drop. So it's the same thing. It's like hit your shot first, focus on that kind of separate the movements and then let your momentum carry you in, you know, right after that. Yeah. Because if somebody hits a crazy deep serve, you don't like you're, you're, you're done. Like if you try to come up on that, it's, it's over.

[00:23:37] So I think having the mentality of the quality of the shot, the quality of the return is much more important than the speed at which you get to the kitchen. Um, because if I hit a really good return and pull them off the court or whatever, it's deep low ball, I can still hit this ball and then start kind of running in and I could stop and somebody, uh, Connor Garnett does really well. He doesn't do, you don't get all the way to the kitchen. You can stop.

[00:24:07] Oh, not like a little past the transition zone and it's, you can essentially explode into the ball wherever they try to hit it. Right. And so instead of getting all the way to the kitchen and this is why I think fed is really good. He is good at, he'll get all the way to the kitchen and his movement side to side is absurd. Um, whereas somebody like, even if like when you watch Chris Hayworth, the little, the few times that he does come into the net, he doesn't get all the way to the kitchen.

[00:24:34] He gets like a couple of feet behind the kitchen and every volley that he's hitting, he's essentially like exploding diagonally and cutting the ball off. So you get that extra time forward though. Right. Like he's into it, right? Into it. And this comes from like a tennis, uh, a little bit of a tennis, like, cause in tennis you're, you're really kind of moving, um, Oh yeah, that's true. Into the ball a lot and you're cutting off the angle. So while you're giving them more angle, you're giving yourself a lot of space to kind of explode

[00:25:03] and cover that angle and time as well. So I've played around with that a lot. I always prioritize stopping and giving myself time to react over trying to get all the way up to the kitchen. Cause a lot of times you play guys and that's when you're going to get caught a lot. So my philosophy is you still, the issue should still play to get to the kitchen line. Um, but, but like it's, it has to be like a hybrid. And I would almost say when you, when you're returning the ball, focus on hitting a really

[00:25:31] good return before you're, you're kind of, um, moving into the shot and you get better at like, uh, under like, you know, some people are, you're playing somebody who has maybe a weaker serve and you might stand, uh, I don't know if you, you know, Troy Aiken. Oh yeah. Uh, so yeah. So the Troy who just won the, the challenger. And I was watching, you know, I was watching some of that and, and you watch him play. I mean, he talks about this a lot too. He's, he's returning from way back and he steps into his returns really well.

[00:26:00] Um, but if, if he, he's able to recognize like, Hey, the ball's bouncing on that line. I mean, he's, you know, they're serving the ball straight to the, to the baseline at my feet. He can hit that return and say, okay, that that's not a ball I'm going to come up on. And he stays back. Um, but he's also, when you get that short return, you're able to like capitalize and kind of move, uh, through the ball as well. So it's very situational, but yeah, I could talk about that all day.

[00:26:26] I mean, it's just a placement of the ball and all that, but I think, I think my, what I've been doing is I'm only crashing if I feel like they're going to be off balance. That's, that's just my like little rule of thumb that I've been following with not too much thought behind it. And it's kind of, it's effective enough because there's so many times where I'm like, Oh, I just ripped the shit out of that return. And then I'm approaching and I'm like two steps away from the kitchen and I still get past and I'm like, dude, what's going on? It's like, is it, I can't tell if it's my, my footwork and net coverage where I'm just

[00:26:55] like not moving side to side athletically enough, or if it's like, I genuinely should not have come in. And it's hard to discern the difference between those two situations. Yeah, no, it is. I think somebody that has shown the importance of balance at the line is, uh, Tama. Oh yeah. Skateboarding balance. No, no, no tennis. Yeah, dude. I know. And surfing. I think he also does that. Yeah, that's right. Um, um, I mean, no tennis background. This kid is generally coming up on return.

[00:27:25] His serves are not huge, uh, in comparison to, I mean, he's generally coming up. So like, you don't have to rip these balls and come in. Um, I think placement matters a lot. And I do think that there are wrong and right times to come up to the net, but I think there's also optimal ways to move at the net, like how you cover the court. And a lot of that comes from like where you're returning, if you're returning to the middle of the court, you're going to be able to cover that a lot better.

[00:27:53] Um, but then again, you watch, you know, a lot of people try to neutralize Chris Hayworth by returning everything to the middle of coming up, but they get destroyed anyways. But again, that only works for him. Yeah. Right. So I think it's still important to, uh, the, the tournament I played in, I played a challenger in Newport. Um, I played against Will McKinnon, McKinnon, is that how you say it? McKinnon? Yeah. McKinnon. I played against Will McKinnon. And, and one thing I told myself that tournament, and we kind of talked about this in the last

[00:28:22] episode, um, is I'm going to come into the net no matter what. Um, and I came up to the net when I shouldn't have, I came up to the net when it made sense. I, I just told myself, just go up. And I learned a lot about reading the ball, reading the player's tendencies. If you're, if you're only coming up once, that's not enough of us. And then you get passed and then you're like, okay, well that was, that was too good. He passed me. I shouldn't come up. It's not enough of a sample size to say like, this guy is just a beast.

[00:28:52] Most people are passing you 10 times in a row. For sure. Cause there's so many times where I'm coming in and I feel like I'm a soccer goalie taking a PK and I'm just like, I have to just completely guess one way or the other. I'm like, God damn it. Yeah. I'm right. I'm like, um, and it's like, you have to come in more times to understand like their specific tendencies, like how they hit this ball down the line every time or day, you know, cool. I shouldn't return to the forehand side. Let me try the backhand side. Let me go to the middle.

[00:29:18] Let me, so I still think it's very important to try and get to the net, um, in singles. Here's another question I just thought of. Cause you're talking about, uh, Thomas balance. Here's something that I don't do ever. Cause I just never got comfortable with it from not having a tennis background. How often are you sliding and how important is sliding? I don't slide. I'm like, I like have to run through my shots. Cause I have, I feel like if I try to plant my foot and slide that my whole leg will snap in half is what my, what's what my brain tells me. Right, right. So tell me what are your thoughts on that?

[00:29:48] Oh man. Um, I slide very naturally from tennis, um, because I played tennis on clay courts a lot. Um, so like that, that's kind of where I got it. Obviously Thomas sliding cause he's skateboarding. Um, I, I wouldn't say it's like a, something you need to drill or, or like necessarily add to your game if you don't have it.

[00:30:13] Um, but, uh, if you're, if it's natural to you, it, it, like it's super, here's, here's the way I would compare it. I usually don't slide at the kitchen. I slide on the baseline. Um, so when somebody is coming in, um, and, and hitting to my forehand, instead of running and trying to like sit in like a perfect open stance, like low position, trying to hit

[00:30:39] like a downline pass, all I have to do is slide because I'm splitting my legs, which brings my eye level down, brings me below the ball. And so I feel like I can really brush up on the ball when I, it's, it's an off balance position. Uh, but in reality it's, I'm actually lowered to the ground below the ball, able to do a lot more from it. And I personally find that to be the biggest benefit of sliding. Uh, maybe, I mean, when you're hustling, it could be pretty nice to, to, to, I mean,

[00:31:07] you're sliding, you kind of, it's like a natural stop as opposed to like taking a lot of stutter steps after you're done stopping. I'm doing and I'm just like, I feel like a Flintstones character that I'm still moving my feet or whatever. It's crazy. So I mean, like I'd say it's a lot of, like you could, I mean, dude, drill it. I've never like tried it. I've never tried it. So I had a kid that was insisting on me teaching him how to do it and I taught him. So this is what we did.

[00:31:32] I actually took him out to a tennis court, um, um, on a, it was a clay tennis court and he, I just had him slide. Like I told him, Hey, how do you do it? Just slide and just, you know, showed him how to do it. And eventually he kind of picked up on it and then he tried doing it on, on like a pickleball court. It was a little scary to watch, but, but he didn't eventually kind of pick it up. And I think he's going to end up kind of, I think he'll end up doing a lot more, but

[00:31:59] there, there is a way to like, I think drill it and get, get it done. But I, I think it's much more, I think it's easier to drill like stopping your footwork and, and like balancing your, like learning to balance off of the footwork you already have, I think Tom is a great, like we look at Tom and he's like an anomaly when it comes to balance and, and like, he's able to hit shots that look like he's off balance, but he's not. But it speaks to the importance that how important balance is.

[00:32:28] We can't balance ourselves like Tom, but we can learn to balance ourselves because we see that he's showing how important balance really is. I mean, he's all over. He doesn't even look like he's that fast. He doesn't even look like he's trying hard. He doesn't, he's a 10th of the size of Roscoe. He's the size of Roscoe's hand and he's still, he's still somehow covering the whole court. I don't get it. It bothers, it bothers my brain. I don't get it. It bothers, it bothers me just as much. And I'm, and I'm watching these guys like 24 seven trying to understand.

[00:32:56] And, and he covers the net like he's seven feet tall. It makes no sense. I'm just like, what? How? Is he like shuffle step, doing like a shuffle step and then it's like a drag? Like what's his footwork like? Do you think? Yeah, I think he is. I think he's like, like a Hayden shuffle, like, and then like a plant and then our stretch. Yeah. Like, and like, I do this a lot on the baseline, but it's like, you're, you're, you're, you're almost slowing yourself down.

[00:33:24] Like you couldn't get to the ball without sliding most of the time. Like it's, it's actually, it's, it's a slow, you are usually close enough to where like, you don't need to slide, but then you'll have those extra like steps at the end. Um, that in like my, in our heads, it makes more sense to just slide there. And then you're, you slide. It's like a perfect timing. You slide and now you hit the ball and you're already in your plant. Your feet are already planted to get back to the middle or get back to position. But yeah, I think he is doing like, you take a lot of small steps right before you slide

[00:33:53] and then you take that big, uh, stride. Um, because it, it, it just, I don't know. It helps the recovery. It's so natural. I don't even really think about it. If I'm being honest, it's crazy. It's crazy. But Tama is even crazier. I don't, he slides at the kitchen line and he, he, what's impressive about him is most people can only slide with one foot. I can only slide with leading with my right foot. Yeah. So I, and then to the back, like if I slide on the back inside, it's usually in a closed stance. Like I have to lead with my right foot.

[00:34:21] Whereas Tom is really good at doing open stance, like both ways. He's able to slide. He just stays square and stretches. I can't slide with my left foot. I, like I've tried and I'm scared, like I'm just as scared as you are to just slide. I can't slide with my left leg. I just can't do it. So have you, have you tried it? Have you tried drilling it? Like even on clay courts and it still doesn't, you know? Yeah. I just, it's like a mental block, right? It's a mental block for me. Cause maybe I'm just so used to just closing it and yeah, it makes sense. It's drillable. It's definitely drillable, but I don't think I've tried it enough.

[00:34:49] I probably have to spend like a week sliding on that. Do you, do you think the return on investment for you to do that would be worth it? Like Jenny, or like you said earlier, it's kind of like a nice to have, but not a need to have. But obviously you already have on the right side, which is probably more important. So it's less nice at that point. Definitely nice to have. I don't think it's like useless. I think. Yeah. I think if you want to drill it and you feel like it's going to be a nice addition, like it's nice to have.

[00:35:17] So I, like, I think if you have time in your hands and like, you don't, I mean, you're not training to be a pro and you don't have like a, I guess a limited schedule and there's not other things that are a lot more important for you to work on. Like why not? I think it'd be a fun, like it's a fun thing to learn. Um, I wouldn't be, I don't know. I'm not opposed to that. That's why it's like the kid that asked me to learn it. Like I wasn't, I was like, yeah, let's do it. Why not? Yeah. So I think it's bring him home to his mom and he has a broken ankle. And she's like, what'd you do? I was so freaking scared.

[00:35:45] I was like, dude, his parents are not going to be happy with this. Um, okay. That is part one of the singles pickleball playbook. Stay tuned for next week. As we get into part two again here with fear, the fro. Thanks for listening and share the show with your pickleball community. Thanks everyone.