STOP! Before You Go

#1017: Coach Lisa Palcic urges her students: Don't forget the split step! In the rush to get to the kitchen after serving, people forget to put the brakes on when the opponents hit the ball. Getting to the kitchen from the baseline is best done with a stop on the way there! Embrace the split step so you can handle any shots coming at you in the transition zone — then continue on your journey to where the fun really begins

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Pickleball Obsession. Pickleball Obsession is the first podcast created just for recreational picklers, because the more a rec player knows, the better they'll play. Do you watch pro pickleball on YouTube thinking it will help you? Then wonder why your game doesn't look at all like Annalise or Ben John's? Everybody on a pickleball court is obsessed to some degree. So the Pickleball Obsession podcast is for you, whether you're a social player, out there just to have fun, or a competitive one trying to sharpen your skills and win more. This show will bring you short, useful advice from a variety of certified pickleball coaches that amateur players at any skill level can put right to use. I'm your host, Tracy Hodgsner. You might know me as the pet wellness expert on NPR series and my own pet podcast network, but here I'm no expert, just another admittedly obsessed player, picking the brains of top coaches for advice we can all use. This show is brought to you in partnership with the IPTPA, the International Pickleball Teachers Professional Association, and with the Association of Pickleball Players, the APP Tournament. Sign up at pickleballobsession.net for the weekly episodes with show notes and embrace the obsession. Lisa Palsick, it is so fabulous to have you as a central part of Pickleball Obsession. This book, to those of you who've heard me talk about the complete illustrative guide to pickleball, it's big, it's fat, it's heavy. It's not something you put in your pickleball bag and take to the court. It's definitely something you sit and sip your iced tea with later and think, what was it that happened that I didn't really feel good about? And this book is so great, Lisa, because you also have QR codes, videos of you who is a famous video maker in the IPTPA world, which is the world's most important certifier for pickleball coaches. But you have diagrams, you have drawings, you have words, simple, straightforward, and not too wordy to explain stuff. One of the things I'd like to talk about is the split step, which is something that maybe if someone's taken a clinic or a lesson, someone told them, split step on your way, particularly from the baseline to the kitchen. But it's really about much more than that. And you cover it in many different ways in your book. So how do you like to talk to clients, patients, hilarious patients, pickleball, pickleball people that need a doctor? You're the pickleball doctor.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I do think of myself as a pickleball doctor because I can fix your issues.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yes, I like that. I think that's a really great way of putting it. But this issue of court positioning and when, where, and how to stop before hitting is not well understood.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

No. So, you know, when people first start playing pickleball, they're told by whoever they're taught, get to the net, get to the net. Because if they didn't, most beginner players would be happy to hang back on the baseline, right? So you're yelled at to get to the net. And then what happens is for our 3-0 and typically 3-5 players, they're in such a rush to get to the net that they're not stopping and taking that split step when they need to. Now, the problem with that is if you're not taking a pause when your opponent is about to touch the ball, right? And you're still moving while they're hitting at you, then you're going to place the ball that comes to you in a poor strike zone, which is going to make you feel rushed and crowded. Now, we all know that to hit a good shot that's not a pop-up, and also to hit a good shot that we actually, you know, have a plan for. Like when we approach, we want to keep the ball low. We want to put it at our opponent's feet. We want to put it somewhere where we're not going to get attacked. But if you're simply, you know, hitting your shot from the baseline and then just freight training it to the kitchen line without that pause and split step when your opponent goes to touch the ball, then that would be like imagine if you were watching a baseball game and the batter had to run at the batter's box and then hit a good.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

You know what I mean? That's great. I love that. Yeah. You don't stand at the at the bag and you get to like swing your bat a little bit and wiggle your fanny and put your elbows in or out or whatever batters do. You just make me running and hitting. That's a really great analogy because everybody has played baseball or softball if they're American, or if they're Dominican or whatever, some other it's kind of universal, Japanese. So everyone can understand that. Whereas if you've played tennis, it's a little bit opposite. And you were a top tennis player. I was a pretty strong tennis player. I'm trying to get to that same level of competence and confidence and reliability and consistency in pickleball. But you have to unlearn the idea that in tennis you're flowing forwards, sideways, and backwards while hitting. You're moving through your shot at a higher level of tennis. So that's quite the I mean, your feet are moving through it. Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

So let me just clarify. So the the pause and split step is so that you can see the ball coming off of your opponent's paddle so that you know how to react properly to put the ball in your strike zone. Now, there are some shots, you know, that you may be taking a step and moving through. Like let's say I was hitting an offensive volley and I'm not quite at the kitchen line yet.

unknown 5:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Like that's a shot that I might move through as I'm hitting. But the issue is that you need that split step just so that you can see the ball that's coming off your opponent's paddle, you can put the ball in your proper strike zone, and then you'll be able to accomplish the shot that you're trying to hit instead of just running through something where the ball ends up behind you. Now, here's the issue when you don't split step. If you are continually moving while your opponent's hitting and the ball ends up to your side or behind you, you no longer look at the ball that you're hitting. You're now looking forward at your opponent, and that ball is in a bad strike zone. So your paddle angle is not going to be correct, especially if you're trying to hit, you know, a drop shot or even a drive. That paddle and ball should be in front of you. So when that paddle gets behind you, and again, you're no longer looking at your shot and looking up at your opponent, your ball's gonna go where you're looking, which is right up in the offensive strike zone of your opponent. So that's when you start to see a pickleball game that looks solely reactionary, where people are just swinging with no purpose, right? The balls are just all up here. That's that that is closely related to rushing through shots and you know not pausing and putting that ball in the proper strike zone.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

So it's so there's two things you've talked about that I think are really important to clarify for somebody listening. One is strike zone. Yeah. So when you say that, and then you say the paddle and the ball should be in front of you, this is like elemental to pickleball and something that most people all the way up to 4-0 and above in rec play don't think about. The ball must be in front of you. I've seen people, a couple of marvelous players that work their way up from wherever they were to like high fours just for rec play. And he his name's Tyler, and he holds his left hand, he's a righty, behind his back. Behind his well, I know, but he does it in order to keep this paddle forward. That's why he does it. And I thought that's so odd. And I mean it I he may have phased it out, I don't know. But I it reminded me that the paddle needs to be here so you can see where the ball is. Yeah, as you said, the strike zone, you have to see it. Why can't you see it beside you? Because you're you're not some sort of amphibian with eyes that rotate around to the back of your head, has to be in the front. So that's one main reason for the split step and stopping. The other thing is you said 3-0 to 3-5 that people are rushing. Yes. I'm playing with a lot of guys. Now they say they're 4-0 and above. Right. Who knows? Is it a duper score? Is it a VARES rating? Is it an IPTPA rating? I don't know. But they're good. Are they that good if they were in a tournament where they're going to get creamed by someone who is legit? You know, and like in a duper, which has now become kind of unlegit. Who knows? These guys are running right through the entire transition zone. They're running all the way to the kitchen. And one of the things that is interesting about you saying you're putting it up into your opponent's attackable ball zone, is they don't realize it was their feet that caused the problem. Yes, exactly. They think it's their paddle face, or I swung too hard. They go, Oh, I hit too hard, or I didn't hit enough, or oh darn, it went up in the air. They don't know why. Their feet were moving, right? Isn't that part of isn't that the most wicked thing you can do? Have moving feet in that situation?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah, so what happens, you know, like, okay, so as we we become more advanced players, like you're talking about the 4-0, you know, ish right. Um, you know, we're trying to be athletic and aggressive. And and so we feel like if we're moving faster, that you know, we're gonna play better. And there are some times when, you know, you are gonna speed up and hit a shot, but that's if that ball is sitting up in your strike zone and it's in the attack area, then moving forward through the shot is you know what you should do. But if you're just hitting a setup shot, the strike zone for a setup ball is in front of you and off to your side so that you have room for your paddle and you can use your entire body on the shot. Now, I always tell my players I like to, you know, for right-handed players, the left hand is sort of your ball framer. So like you were saying, this the person that puts the ball behind their back, their hand behind their back. Um, I have the hand out in front so that it trains my eye to frame that ball well to so that I know where am I looking. I'm looking at the shot that I'm about to hit me. And then I'm really seeing the ball all the way off my paddle to my opponent. Now, I was just working with a group this week, and they work with me regularly. Um, it's kind of a blended high three five, low four-o group, and they're they're they're being coached in in in different um clubs. They drive two hours to come see me once a week. Wow. And um, and the the thing is is that you know, in one place they're being told, get to the net, get to the net. No, you have to get all the way to the line. And I'm telling them, no, if if your opponent is touching the ball and you're one foot off the kitchen line, that's where you stop. You know, like it's it's just that's where you stop so that you can hit a better shot. Now, their issue was that when they play rec play, when they take their time and they pause and hit the splits, you know, do the split step and hit the shot, but the person they're playing with is the freight train and think you're exactly not gonna get it, and then they reach over and take their ball. So I was telling them, you have to tell that person, look, I pause and split step when my opponent is hitting so that I put my ball in a better strike zone. I'm gonna get to it, but I also tell them to be very vocal when they play and say, mine as you're coming up, so that your partner, if that partner decided to run in front of you, knows, hey, I am gonna get that ball. I'm just putting it in a better strike zone. So now let me kind of go over, you know, movement forward also, because it's important that if you're the serving team, um, that you move together as the worst possible positioning you can be in on the pickleball court is in a one-up, one back scenario, because that opens up all these different holes and angles that that you can get beat by. So if you're thinking that, oh, my partner's hitting, so I'm just gonna run up to the net ahead of them. Well, if you think about that, you're basically running up blind. So you have no idea what type of shot your partner is hitting behind you. You don't know if they just popped it up and you're dead meat. You don't know if they hit diagonal, so that you need to move to follow that shot, right? So when you are the serving team and you're moving forward, you move forward together based off the shot. You both pause and split step when the opponent is hitting, and then you can follow the shot. Now, if you're one step, two steps in front of your partner, but you can still see what what they're hitting, that's acceptable. But if you are, you know, one up, one back, and you have rushed all the way up there, then then you're you're setting yourself up for failure.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

That is a scenario that I live with pretty much not just on a daily basis when I'm playing, but like shot to shot. And it's very tricky because some pros will say, well, tell your partner to do or not do X. That's not gonna ever work. No, I'm I played 99% with a guy because it's mixed doubles and an open advanced play, two women against two advanced guys, probably not as even, no matter how good the gal is. Right. So you'd also don't tell a guy, please stay back behind the baseline when I'm serving. Now, I do say that when I get a little frustrated, it doesn't work. I like what you said. Tell them what you're gonna do and what and how they need to understand that. Not necessarily respect it, but you are asking to respect the fact you're gonna work your way up, excuse me, with intelligence and thoughtfulness and an intention, not just bolt up. Right. So, you know, and and then you said you're dead meat. And in fact, when that partner who was serving doesn't come up, uh returning, sorry, he's returning, he doesn't come up behind his return, which is dead essential. There's no way about, oh, I'm gonna wait and see how it all turns out. Then he throws the ball up and I'm up there, I get nailed, and the guy who nails me, Albert, is so apologetic. And I said, You don't owe me an apology, my partner does.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

He set up a shot for me to be dead meat.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yeah. So here's the the um, you know, I like to use the R R S S for, you know, when when you're the serving scene, when you're the serving team, I say serve and stay back, but also serve and stay together, right? Yes, and then return and run. So the minute you see your return of serve, you don't watch it, you just go. And then you pause and split step when your opponent touches the ball. Now, if you're smart, if you're a smart player, you're gonna hit the type of return of serve that's gonna get you all the way to the net.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

You know what I'm saying? Like you don't need to hit everything at a hundred miles an hour because a hundred miles an hour comes back at a hundred miles an hour.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

It does.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

So, um, you know, so if you take that down to an 80% level shot that lands, you know, within a foot of the baseline, that's gonna get you all the way to the kitchen line by the time that next ball comes back.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

And and also as as you pointed out, so if if I am the returner and my partner's already up at the kitchen, I have to get up there to keep them company, if you will. But if I hit a hundred mile an hour cross court at the person who served, then they could easily nail my partner who's up at the net.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yep, yeah, or in the feet because you're gonna be stuck in transition area. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

So I think, you know, one of the things that's talked about a lot is the yellow, red, green light in terms of the kind of ball by coaches, they talk about it, the kind of ball that it comes to you in the kitchen and which one you can speed up, and which one you should simply dink, and which one you can put away. I think that the maybe at least the orange or the yellow and red should be used about the split step. The idea that you put the brakes on, you sort of like at a stop sign. Don't do a California rolling stop, which I learned after 23 years of learning living in California, which is kind of like, okay, I see a stop sign. Yeah, I don't see anybody coming. I'm just gonna float through that intersection. That's a illegal in a car, and B, in pickleball, it would cause you a problem. You didn't come to at least momentarily a full stop, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

So I uh like as a kid in you know gym class or PE class, you ever play that red light, green light game, right? So yeah, that's how you tell my players. It's just like that game, right? When when you're you're going forward green light, and the minute your opponent touches the ball, that's red light. That's when you stop. Just like that game.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah, and you stop right then and there. Yes, yep. And that that forces you to focus on the ball.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Coming into your opponent's paddle, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Right? Because that's your moment where the red the light turns red. I'm sorry, officer. What we used to call it a pink light, you know, you drive through the yellow. No, you gotta stop at the red light because a train is coming.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

And right as a railroad crossing, and the train is the ball coming at you, and you kind of blind yourself by not stopping.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah, yeah. And the other thing is by not stopping, when the ball ends up, you know, slightly behind you or whatever, what is there? There's a chain, a bad chain reaction that then happens because now you need to take a back swing to now that shot, right? And we shouldn't be taking back swings. The only time you should be taking a back swing is when you're at the baseline, right? When you're at the baseline, you can take a back swing. But as you come forward, the reason why you want to keep that ball and paddle in front of you is because the ball will then come on your opponent sooner. You're hitting the ball in a better strike zone so that you can actually accomplish the shot that you want, and you can watch the ball off your opponent's paddle and off your paddle when you're hitting. So it's like a good chain reaction when you do this pause and split step. It's a bad chain reaction when you don't.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

So if anybody at a high intermediate or advanced level does this motion after they've set up a bad chain reaction, they go, they go like they, oh, that was me. That was on me. My bad. They don't always understand what set up the bad. Why did their first ball go wild? Now comes down something that you're on the defensive about. Now that you, the the partner had to put another one kind of up. Now it's come, now you're on the defensive again. And in the end, maybe you lose the point. So the partner says, My bad, as if that's gonna solve it. But what was the bad was they didn't stop before hitting. So they were so over-eager, they put the ball up, and again, being a chain reaction, no one really stopped to think what started it.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Right, right. Now, I want to point one other thing out because this is an issue that that happens in pickleball, and that is because we get so used to playing at the kitchen line, we get used to having a straight body. Okay. So when you do pause and take that split step, you want to be facing the ball with your toes and your paddle on the other side of the court. So if the ball is diagonal to you, when you take your paws, your paws is facing the ball, right? So you're at a slight diagonal, okay?

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Right. If it's coming, especially if it's coming cross-court, which would be exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

So you want your paws to be stopped and facing the ball. But when you go to hit the ball, we uh we get so used to having a straight body when we're hitting because we're so but you don't want a straight body when you're hitting a shot. Like there's no shot that's gonna be better because you have a straight body. So depending if you're hitting your forehand or your backhand, or if you're being slammed at, you're going to, you know, either take a tiny step with your right foot, with your left foot, you're gonna shift your hips a little bit. Right. Because you have to make room for your paddle and be able to hit, you know, uh a mechanically proper shot. Yes. Right. So so don't don't think that you know, when you're up at that kitchen line and you learn to contort your body in all sorts of ways, you don't need to do that. When you're further back on the court, you don't need to contort your body. You can step right. That's a great point. Yes, you can step with your shot as you're hitting your shot.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And in fact, one of the things people are taught or or learn early on is when you're at the kitchen, be square to the net, which isn't even entirely true because of the hips. We could do a whole we could do a whole episode on hips. The hips having so much mechanical um influence on where a shot goes and how a shot goes. But this is really great. The split step is something to embrace. So, guys, when you're playing with me, I'm now going to say, Mine, if I'm working my way in, okay, I'm going to say it so that you don't do a major poach because you don't think I'm there yet, because I've paused. And now what happens? You get burned on the other side of you, which happens all the time. Yeah. When they when they do that, and I can see now why they're doing it. They think, well, where is she? I'm coming. I'll get there. Give me a second. Got a split step on the way in.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Thank you so much, Lisa. This is really fabulous. Anyone who wants more of this kind of mechanical, technical stuff, I love it. The physics of pickleball. Get the complete illustrated guide to pickleball. There is really, truly nothing like it. It is so special. Lisa, I look forward to talking to you again soon and playing with you soon. My drive is going to be almost three hours, but I don't do it every week. But I'll I'm it's worth every minute in the car to play with Lisa Falsic. Thank you so much. I can't wait to see you. Bye bye. All right, bye bye. Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm proud of our partnership with the APP, the Association of Pickleball Players, which provides world class pickleball competitions for players of all ages and skill levels professionals, amateurs, and recreational. I'm also grateful for our partnership with the IPT. EPA, which is the world leader in developing standards and certifying coaches across the world in dozens of countries and on every continent, except Antarctica. I hope this show will get you up to the kitchen faster, dink with a purpose, and help you win paddle battles. Please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform and sign up at pickleballobsession.net to get the podcast and the show notes by email every week. Embrace the obsession.