Watch a 4.0+ Player in Action! | POV Pickleball Vlog #1

welcome to my first ever pickle ball POV

Vlog my name is Ray and I started

playing pickle ball in March of 2024

with no previous racket sport experience

I'm currently around a 4.0 but below a

4.5 level and I'm going to take you guys

along my journey with this Vlog Series

in this first episode we're going to be

playing above our level in a 4.5 League

at my local indoor pickle ball facility

I'm going to be going over the best game

from the league and giving some tips and

tricks for the players of all levels so

sit back relax and let's see just how

well I can hang with these players

so I typically like to start my games

off by driving the ball and see if my

opponents can handle drives this drive

wasn't that great but we're able to get

the ball back here I tried to drop the

ball in the kitchen which wasn't that

great either but once I see she's not

taking the ball out of the air and

letting it bounce I'm able to come up to

the kitchen putting me in position for

an easy put away at her feet

sorry this is a perfect situation for

when and where to drive the third shot

after the return of serve I knew to

drive the ball because of the shallow

return with medium height making the

ball easy to drive over the net and

giving them little time to react I chose

to drive it straight ahead because my

opponent in front of me was still

running up to the kitchen line meaning

he wasn't established and ready to

handle the drive always aim your third

shot drives at the opponent running up

after returning the ball

me ah my

bad this is another return you should

drive 10 out of 10 times with how high

and shallow it is I could have continued

driving the ball but instead I chose to

drop the ball into the kitchen the

purpose of a drop is to give you and

your teammate time to approach the

kitchen line a good analogy to explain

why you need to get to the kitchen line

is to imagine the court as a mountain

with the net in the middle as the peak

whoever is closer to the net has The

High Ground and therefore has the

advantage because they're able to hit

shots at your feet and at angles around

the

[Applause]

court thank

you since we're up at the kitchen line

as the returning side and they're not we

have the advantage and our goal is to

keep them back and make them earn their

way up this means hitting the ball deep

and voling them out of the air towards

their feet she does a good job getting

the ball back but this clean shot here

called the backhand roll finishes the

point nicely I believe the backhand roll

is one of the shots that got me from 3.5

to 4.0 add it to your

Arsenal come

on

careful all

right the opponents are able to easily

get to the kitchen this rally because of

a pretty short return and a good drive

by the woman I hit a really high

backhand dink which should have been

punished and sped up but she hits a

lofty dink back and I speed it up with

the backhand roll in the middle I chose

going middle because I noticed the woman

wasn't fully committed to covering

middle so this sets me up for a

putaway come on my

bad even though this rally has only five

shots there's a very important takeaway

here called split stepping as soon as

the ball crossed over the net what I

needed to do is called the split step

which to make sure that you're balanced

and ready to attack or reset the next

ball this is a super common mistake that

players of all levels do so be patient

and slowly make your way up to the

kitchen 3 2

1

St the biggest thing to notice this

rally was how my partner and I were

patient on going up to the kitchen

notice how we both stay in the

transition zone until one of us hits a

good reset into the kitchen even though

this ball lands in the kitchen we both

stay back because they can easily attack

the ball off the high bouns I should

have tried to slow it down here with the

reset instead of a counter but I get

pretty lucky

here how about

[Music]

I chose to drive this third shot here

because the return was deep and high a

benefit of driving the third is that you

can make the next ball 10 times easier

to drop if the block is shorter as seen

here I try to speed it up down the line

here but it hits the tape regardless

though it wasn't the best spot to speed

up the ball because the guy in front of

me would have been all over it with his

backand a better location would have

been to go middle since the woman

doesn't look to be covering it that well

with your paddle position

come on my

bad the guy hits an excellent drop to my

backand as a righty and I attacked the

ball off the bounce into the net I don't

think the decision was necessarily bad

but if I can go back I would either

drive it to the guy running up or let

them have the kitchen and simply dink it

back

go sorry my bad my bad I'll give you

that

[Music]

the opponents are starting to get some

momentum and here we make a silly

mistake of who covers middle this is

100% my partner's ball since it is his

forehand and he can put more power into

the ball this rally really starts to

frustrate us and it might be the turning

point in the

game oh good

serve fun fact I just noticed while

editing this that the serve is so out

that's my bad but since the serve is

really good my partner hits a super

short return and is forced to stay back

what I should have done here is

recognize that they're going to Target

my partner stuck in the back and shift

over to the left and cover him in sort

of an eye formation instead I let the

ball pass and we lose the point

59 we're down 5 to 8 now and I make the

same mistake as I did earlier where I

failed to split step once the ball

across the net the male opponent hits a

really nice backhand poke out of the air

which illustrates another important

point if you would have let the ball

bounce instead of voling it that would

have give us plenty of time to get to

the kitchen and be ready taking balls

out of the air takes time away from your

opponents and in some cases makes them

fall right on

their

go sorry

dude oh man you can probably tell who's

going to win this game now this is

[Applause]

spot another really good example of

driving short returns to the person

running up to the kitchen she couldn't

stop her forward momentum in time making

the ball fly way

[Applause]

out go

got

it yeah nice

shot by far point of the match with an

insane finishing shot great hands dinks

and resets by everybody but man I'm

still chasing the ATP from me on camera

how he was able to identify that he

could pull the shot off was by seeing

the ding's speed and landing on the line

in inside the kitchen corner let's see

if this is what we needed to pull it

together and mount it come

back oh good speed

up good Play All Around And while this

drop is really good we should know by

now that this guy has a really strong

backhand flick my partner failed the

split set before his attack and got

jammed up with a chicken wing an

excellent spot to speed up the ball is

your opponent's paddle side hip and

shoulder just like he did

here

go

wow ouch this really put the nail in the

coffin the reason I missed this shot is

my paddle position and anticipation

since her paddle is low and facing

upwards when she hits it the only

Direction the ball can go is up so I

need to have my paddle already in in a

higher position than where it's

at woo that ball was going way out but

we were already cooked by this point

good game all around here are the top

three takeaways from this game for

beginner intermediate and advanced

players number one get to the kitchen

when you serve and keep your opponents

away from the kitchen when you return

remember the analogy of Imagining the

court as a mountain the players at the

kitchen are the ones who have The High

Ground much like Obi-Wan did I have The

High Ground number two split stepping

footwork and balance becomes more and

more important the higher you get in the

game build a habit of split stepping

right after the ball crosses the net

number three backhand roll and flick

turn that backhand into a deadly weapon

like mine and my opponent's I recommend

looking up and doing some drills to get

this shot down I hope you guys enjoyed

the first Vlog and were able to learn

something subscribe to my channel and

stay tuned for the next episode Peace