USAPA AMBASSADOR RETREAT JUNE, 2015 PRESENTER: CHRIS THOMAS DEMOS AND CLINICS BASICS 1. Determine type of event demo, clinic, class (group or individual), tournaments; 2. Participant Demographics age range, number of participants, skill type, i.e., beginner, intermediate, advanced or mixed; 3. Contact Info contact info of event coordinator; contact info of all of your team members participating in the event; 4. Logistics--equipment needed to bring or already onsite, such as number of nets (portable or permanent); balls (outdoor or indoor); paddles; tape if you need to do the lines; indoor or outdoor facility; directions to event location; time of event, including any pre-event time needed to setup; will refreshments be provided by host; 5. Activity Outline based on type/duration of activity provide in advance to the event coordinator an outline of your demo/clinic/lesson plan; this would include items such as estimated activity time duration for each scheduled activity, example: 15-20 minutes for general introductions of PB instructor/team members and quick guide to basic rules; plus a 7 minute demo game where attendees can ask questions during breaks in play; 6. Specific Drills/Skills provide an outline of specific skills to be taught as well as accompanying drills to reinforce skill development, example: to develop the dink shot, have drills like walk the line, corners and doubles dink game; 7. Personal Touch introduce yourself, and as needed, members of your team; tell a little bit about yourself in terms of how you got started in PB and how long you have played; after intros, ask the audience a couple of general questions, to get them involved right away, example: how did sport get its name? When was the sport invented? This allows for interaction early on, as you want and encourage active participation (questions), vs. giving a boring lecture. Limit talk, and get players on the court.
8. Participant Names as you, and your team, work with players on the court, try to focus and remember their names, and address them by name, example: Joe, that was an excellent shot 9. Focus on Players these events are for the participant players and not a venue for showing what a super player you are; if you are actually playing in a game with participants, remember their skill level don t go smashing powerful overheads; 10. Flexible Approach if one teaching technique is not going too well, then switch to another, example: working from baseline, cross-court to improve a player s backhand it may be better if you stood at about the non-volley line, cross-court from the student, and toss balls to their backhand, rather than hitting backhands from near your own baseline; 11. Positive Reinforcement verbalize positive remarks, such as good volley or that was a much better ground stroke instead of negative comments; 12. One Skill/One Drill depending on the individual student, the coach should only be concentrating on reviewing/improving one stroke or one item, such as keeping the paddle up during net volleys, and then having a drill to reinforce it; giving too much detail and multiple instructions can overwhelm a student, and lead to frustration; when a student gets it or can achieve success and consistency at one skill/drill, then you can move onto the next skill, such as footwork, or approach shots, etc.; 13. Simple keeping things simple is better; don t over complicate the instruction by focusing too much on things like a student s grip, or the weight of a paddle, etc.
Clinic Outlines 2014 Submitted by: Chris Thomas The following are topics. Each clinic should last 45 minutes. You can have the same clinic, but different audiences. Target group: beginners to intermediate. Instructor opening remarks: Welcome participants and instructor introduction Instructors have different styles/points of emphasis take what works for you PB an easy game to learn, but it takes a lifetime to master Clinic outlines: 1. Title: Land of 1,000 Dinks: Objectives: the dink. Focus will be on foot work, positioning and mental aspect of mastering Skills: Foot work, centering the ball, emphasis on lift Specific Drills: Walk the Line; Corners; Scissors; Doubles and Singles Dink Game Strategies: Keeping the one opponent in doubles in the pickle. Don t change point of attack. Counter Strategy: The Dink Lob.
2. Title: The 3 rd Shot: Objective: Understanding the purpose and strategy of the 3 rd shot. Definition of the 3 rd shot. Skills: Focus on shuffling your feet, centering the ball and lifting ball over the net from just inside the baseline. Keep paddle straight and lift ball up the elevator shaft. Specific Drills: Begin at NVZ line, dink several times, move back 5 feet, and repeat until at base line. Pair off in opposite quadrants. Server serve, receiver return, server hit 3 rd shot, receiver or server then retrieves the ball, do not hit a 4 th shot. Server can hit 5 in a row, and the receiver becomes server and hit 5 in a row; or you could alternate every serve. Then switch quadrants and repeat. Have a short game to 7 with players focusing on 3 rd shot, but this time play the point out to its entirety. Strategies: Reduce power/slam game of opponent; provides opportunity for server team to get to net.
3. Title: Basic Doubles Strategy: Objective: Focus on foot work, positioning and communication. Skills: Importance of hitting down the middle; and counter strategy of protecting the middle. Resist temptation to go for winners. Why the center line is called the doubt line. Always strive to return serve deep down the middle to your opponents. Partner responsibilities re: taking center line and guarding the alley. Why shadowing is critical, not only left/right, but up/back. Communicate on a switch to handle a lob or a short corner drop shot. Show the most energy efficient method of getting back to return a deep lob. Turn and run back and turn again or side step back; do not back pedal. Demo these methods. Effective communication: bounce it mine yours I go. Drills: After basic on court demo, then play 7 point games, with instructor observing, providing positive feedback, and some very brief comments about improvement areas. Strategies: Determine opponent strengths and weak points; is any opponent lefthanded; very important to guard the middle of your court; utilize third shot against opponents, especially from your add court to the backhand of the opponent who is right- handed in the opposite add court; is either opponent weak on going back to retrieve lobs; remember you have two time outs in a tournament game you can use these to stop opponents momentum; just pretend that you and your partner are talking specific strategy.
4. Title: Effective Pre-Net and Net Play: Objective: Effective and efficient body and paddle positioning; staying low/bent-knee at net. Skills: Using concept of clearing the table and keeping low to maximize volley returns with a minimum of effort; reducing the back swing less is more in PB! Keep arc of swing, backhand to forehand and vice versa, within a 180 degree range. Don t squeeze so hard on the handle relax the grip a bit; you won t be as tense. Focus on ball coming off the opponent s paddle. Drills: Players pair off across the net at the NVZ and volley to one another. Then have one pair on one side at the net, and the other at baseline to hit shots. Then reverse the pairings. Strategies: Getting to net/nvz line is important, but not at the expense of running thru the shot. The concept here is: stop/pop/go. Player must stop as soon as they see their opponent is about to strike the ball. Then, continue on to the net. If the ball is mid to high in the air, then player can pop it back. If the ball comes over low, then the next drill re: scooping will handle that situation. Drills: Have players pair off and do the mids-scoop drill. This is half way between the NVZ and the baseline. Although everyone talks about the negativity of being in no man s land the reality is that you will be in there, so you need to learn to deal with it. I prefer to call this the transition zone, as you transition up to the NVZ. Players simply strike ball back and forth over the net to one another, but staying low and learning to scoop the ball up on a very low bounce. This enhances the skill of stopping and hitting, and then continuing to net; as well as not being in a panic when the opponent is about to hit an overhead. If you stay low (butt pickleball), watch the ball come off their paddle, and practice this scoop technique, you be amazed at how you can return that shot, and really demoralize the slammer.
5. Title: Keeping the back hand ground stroke simple: Objective: Many players believe they have a weak back hand ground stroke when compared with their forehand. The focus here is on showing how the player s backhand can become their strongest stoke. Skills: Players have hit forehands thousands of times without thinking about it. But in reality, they are overcoming body resistance by having to follow through on the shot across their body. The backhand stroke is actually a much cleaner and far less demanding shot, as there is zero body resistance on the follow through. The trick is the setup. Drills: Players pair-off in quadrants diagonally across form one another. After instructor has demonstrated the basic technique, which is to think of Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, turn your shoulder; lay your paddle back and low, just like Depp is going to pull his sword out of the scabbard. You have to move your feet, so that your lead foot (right if right handed) is pointing to where the ball is going to land. You then strike the ball on a cross court follow-through (will get to down the line shots later), by pulling your sword out of the scabbard and hitting the ball the low to high across the middle of the net. RIP it if you go over the center of the net, you have the biggest part of the court, corner to corner, to get shot it for a high percentage in your favor. Players can also practice this by dropping a ball out to their back hand and hitting across the court. This is where it s nice to have a bag of old balls to use. Strategies: In the deep baseline position, or a mid-court approach, if you can t dink, then focus on ripping a cross-court backhand over the center of the net. This shot will often catch your opponents off-guard, and at the center, create doubt on which player should return it.
6. Title: Singles Drills: Objective: Emphasis here is on overall stroke consistency and repetition. Not going into detail re: strategy. Drills: Center warm-up Hit back and forth deep and aim for the center line at baseline Quads Cross Court Start off in deuce court and hit forehands back and forth. If there is a short shot, come in and play it out. Then do the same exercise form the add court. Quads-Up the Line One player is deuce court, other in add court. Hit shots up the line. Then move over to other half of court and repeat. One Stationary/One Runner A player stays in deuce court, and alternates hitting ball to opponent s forehand, then back hand. Opponent basically is running, and must return ball to the stationary player in the deuce court. Repeat this drill from the add court. Then players can switch re: stationary vs. runner. Mids As mentioned above, players are half-way between NVZ and baseline. Focus is on staying low, scooping ball back or hitting volleys, and having players shuffle feet left and right to get into position. X s and I s One player will hit nothing but cross courts (X), the other nothing but up the line (I). Both players are of course running, setting and then stroking. Repeat drill by switching X and I responsibilities. Simulated Games Rally scoring to 6; switch sides, repeat; set score at either 10-9, or 8-8 and then finish that game; half-court game, normal or rally scoring, but players must return ball back to opposite quadrant where the serve was from server moves over as per normal when they win a point.