Pickleball Obsession
Pickleball advice and insight for recreational players who want to play better and understand the game. Hosted by obsessed amateur Tracie Hotchner, each episode delivers short, useful answers from certified pickleball pros that actually apply to your game.
Pickleball Obsession
Your Footwork Determines Glory or Disaster
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#1018: Coach Leia Miller emphasizes how important footwork is in pickleball, and undervalued from beginners to advanced players. She discusses the proper stance, the significance of planting before hitting, and the dangers of crossing feet or backpedaling. Miller explains how good footwork is the basis of injury prevention, is central to controlling shots, maintaining stability, and is fundamental to overall success on the court.
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 Hotner. You might know me as the pet wellness expert on NPR, Sirius, 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 Tournaments. Sign up at pickleballobsession.net for the weekly episodes with show notes and embrace the obsession. Leah Miller, you now have taken on 400 people at a pickleball club in the Berkshires, many of whom are beginners. And I'm wondering, because you play at a high level and you also give private lessons at every level, what is what is one of the sort of seminal topics that you want to make sure people develop a good skill? Now, this would obviously apply to better players who never had the pleasure of working with a coach and being taught about footwork because I think that is a basic that's easily overlooked. So talk a little about our feet and where they should be and where they shouldn't be.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. I love this. So my big three things that I really try to instill in my students and even my fellow like teammates that I play with are three things, right? But feet first, patience, finesse. If your feet are in the right position for the shot, you have the patience for the ball to come to you and you can finesse your body, your success of hitting a good shot goes up tremendously. So starting from like if you're serving, you your where is the strongest part of your body? Your legs and your glutes, right? So if you're in more of a lunge, you know, for a serve or a drop, right? You're in that forward motion, you know, if I'm right-handed, so my left foot would be forward. I have room to bring my paddle back, and then I can lift and push. Then I split step, which then I say you're in a squat position, then you're ready to jump either way that you need to.
SPEAKER_00That's that's a very good thing. So it's the the one foot forward and the other back, and now you've gone forward and now you have split stepped, you have stopped. So I think one of the things that people don't do enough in pickleball is be still in their feet when they're going to hit. There's a lot of people move.
SPEAKER_01Yes, a lot of people move through the ball. What I mean by that is they're not, I always say plant before you hit. If your body is stable, you're gonna have more control of that shot. And watching the ball hit the paddle. So many people, if your feet are in the right position, you're stable, you're ready to have control of that ball. Now, now it's just muscle memory from the waist up. Now your body's gonna know what you have to do. If your feet are in the right position and you can just glide through the shot, split step again, gain control of your body. So momentum keeps that ball keeps that weight going forward, and that's when you lose control of the shot.
SPEAKER_00I guess I think one of the things that's unusual as a sport, a dynamic sport in pickleball, is that you must have still feet when you're hitting. Because if you think of, I don't know, tennis, for example, or ping pong, people are often leaping their their they shouldn't be one-footed. There's been some talk about some of the professional female tennis players hitting off of a back foot and the other leg kind of windmilling, they say. That would never work in pickleball. But the idea, even that at a moment of contact, you're in motion. Now you think, well, I want to be athletic, I want to be fluid, I want to get up to the line, but that works against you. So that footwork should be still feet when you hit. Is that something you try to drill into people?
SPEAKER_01Correct. And even so then when you get to the kitchen line, uh, you have 10 feet of court to work with, right? A lot of us play doubles, you know. So I think of you have 10 feet of court to work with, right? I call it sliding and gliding along the kitchen line. Like you want to be on the balls of your feet. Like and here's a lot of things. A lot of my clients are older too, and I say, Well, I can't get low, I can't move that fast. Then give yourself a little bit more, get a little lower so you can lift the ball. If your feet are in the right position and you're not flat footed and standing back, even that slight tilt forward allows your body to move better. I call it the Grand Canyon. When your legs are spread out like this, then we start reaching. When your feet are not in the right position, that's when we want to defend ourselves and the octopus arms come out.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I love that. That's so funny. So many ideas in those comments. So you don't want to be the Grand Canyon with your legs too far apart, but you also don't want your feet close together.
SPEAKER_01No, because then you're a you're a setting target and you can't move out of the way for the drillers. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00Yes, or the bangers. The bangers, yeah, the lobbers because exactly stuck. So when you have gotten up to the Novali zone, the kitchen, your feet, you should be on the balls of your feet, not your heels. You should be slightly, slightly leaning forward. Your knees should probably be bent and might have to bend more. But how far apart would it be? Hip width, shoulder width, how far apart?
SPEAKER_01So, me personally, I like to tell people in athletic stance. My athletic stance might be a little bit different than yours. Wherever you're comfortable, where you feel like you can jump off to the other side if they go to your backhand. Or another big thing also is having a planted foot. So many people backpedal, right? So if you were going to lobby or come at me, or like that ball I thought I could take out of the air, if I plant my left foot, drop my right, I'm still square to my target, and I use my body weight to come back up, and then I'm ready for my next shot. It's called the one-two. You have your first shot, then you're ready for your second.
SPEAKER_00And that happens because your feet are planted. Correct. And then we defend ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas if you were in motion, I mean, you can I one way that people can, I think, see or check themselves is by looking at other people. When they've made it, the other person's made an error, whether it's your partner or someone across the net, if you have a moment to see were their feet still, were they planted? A lot of time they're not. So you can just say to yourself, as a way of teaching yourself to plant those feet before you make contact, that that person was in motion while he's exactly.
SPEAKER_01That's why what one of my favorite clinics I like to do. I some people I've gotten 50-50 bat feedback from this, is I like to have five or six people in a clinic because when the four people are playing, the two on the side, I can coach them through and be like, hey, see how your teammate just did that? Yes. And I'm a very visual person, and I feel that's why I've been successful in my coaching, is because I'm a seer-feeler-doer. Like I want you to be able to feel it because once you build that muscle memory and see the success of when your feet are in the right way, you don't need so much power. It's the finesse of it. It's use, it's it's such a cheesy and cliche thing to say, but it's satisfying when you hit a good shot and your body's in the right space. When your feet are in the right place, everything else is so much easier.
SPEAKER_00That's a really good point. Um, footwork when you're going to take a ball out of the air, a lob, probably, because that footwork speaks to the issue of stepping back with one foot, right?
SPEAKER_01Correct. A lot of people backpedal. You want to do a drop step because you want to still be able to see the ball. So maybe I've I actually saw one of my dearest friends, she tried to get a lob, she backpedaled, and she broke her wrist, and I was so devastated. And she was like, Leah, I know I didn't move my feet, you know, and that's the first thing she said to me, and then she we started crying because I felt so bad for her. But I was like, See, I told you we have to work on your footwork. Like, my big thing is injury prevention. Yes. I try to instill that so deeply because I want to see people playing into their 70s, 80s, 90s. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00So So because when you fall and you're older, your bones are more breakable. I mean, that's sort of what it boils down to. Um younger people can stumble and fall, and either they have better balance, or if they fall, they bounce. You know, they're more bouncy when they're younger. So what so footwork about going back for a lob, that's one that every coach wants people to not go backwards like stumbling backwards. They want you to pivot and put if you're righty, step back, a step back with your right foot, correct?
SPEAKER_01It's a yeah, it's a so you drop step, right? And then you would slide back. You would slide back. So I try to use terms that click with people. Because if I just say you got to go backwards, some people are like, okay, I'll do this. Right. I've been very careful and cautious of the terminology that I use because what might click for you might not click for me. That's you know what I mean. So as a coach, it's really satisfying to see that. I say it all the time, that aha moment. Yes. Like, oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. Oh my gosh, I was in the right position. I had more time than I thought because my feet were in the right position. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you can't just scramble backwards with both feet. It just doesn't work. Even though it's a small court, there's not time to, and it just doesn't work sort of um, I don't know, ergonomically or something. The body isn't isn't set up to like lean all the way backwards to get it. They you have to turn sideways and do that drop step. Um what about the crossing over of the feet? That's something you shouldn't do in tennis either. But people coming from tennis, we can get away with that. We were able to get away with it, and you cannot in pickleball.
SPEAKER_01Well, and again, you know, the court's 44 by 20 feet. You don't need it's not that big of a space. So again, having soft knees, being on the balls of your feet, being in your athletic stance. And another big thing too is with the footwork, is if you track that ball with your paddle, your brain is thinking from here, here to your feet. Then your feet are like, okay, I'm in the right position. Now I'm ready for that ball. So it's your reaction time too. Training your feet to be in the right position is going to set you up for a better shot selection mentally and that muscle memory.
SPEAKER_00So you're, let's say you're on the left side of the court and you're a right-handed player and somebody sends the ball to your backhand. Yep. One of the first things that people do, and I think it can make you even fall down, yeah, they cross their feet. They take their right foot on the pedal side and they cross it over. And then you're stuck. I mean, even if you could get the ball that way, now you're stuck. There's no sliding, there's no gliding. You are committed to being cross-legged over there.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. So then, even if lefties or righties, you know, where if wherever your backhand is, you've got to um have an anchored foot. Have that one anchored foot drop step the other one, so then you have room to bring that paddle back, so then you can bring that other leg out, and now you're in your split stance, ready for your next shot.
SPEAKER_00But I've even seen people cross over. I did it myself until I got, you know, brow beaten out of it. I'm kidding. But you know, various coaches said, hello, you just cross your foot. I'm going for an out wide forehand, and my left foot wants to cross over to get me a little closer. It's not legit. You can't do it. No leg crossing, no foot crossing.
SPEAKER_01Correct. And it's the muscle memory, it's agility, it's understanding you how your body works, though, too. So even if it's smaller steps like little slides, or you know, I'm I'm vertically challenged, I'm only 5'3. So, and I like to stay a little lower because then I'm more air like closer to the ground and it's easier for me to shift back and forth. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00It does. And by the way, when you play her, it's she comes across as sort of like six three. So I just want you to know we could do a show on vertical challenge, and it really is a mindset. And the power of the legs and the power of the mind. And the other thing Leah does is smile a lot, no matter what's happening. So it's so disarming you think, wow, this big, sweet person. I had no idea you were 5'3. That's a well-kept secret. But you know, people can seem bigger when they play correctly, they have more control of where they are on the court and how it's going down. And I think footwork has a huge amount to do with it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's one of the biggest things that I feel that I get a lot of, and I'm a very humble person, but like I have a some people are like, your footwork is just fun to watch. It looks like you're dancing on the court. You know what I mean? Like, because I make it look smooth. And don't get me wrong, it's not always perfect, but I come from basketball, I come from volleyball, I come from softball, like being in that athletic stance and really training my feet to be in the right position. I don't like being too close to the ball. I'm not a power hitter. I'm more of the finesse player. I use this analogy all the time is I'd rather be the Scottie Pippen into your Michael Jordan. I want to be your setup girl. I want to give you that yummy put-away shut, right?
SPEAKER_00I had no idea that's what they did in basketball. So I'm really glad to know you. I I'm I I am Scottie Pippen on the court. Once in a while, I'll put a ball away, but I feel like, hey, I should have just that. That belongs to my partner. But it doesn't. If you earned it, you take it, girl. Thank you. Yeah, you can set yourself up too. All right, court work really matters. So I think a great way to learn is what Leah said. Look at other people. You don't have to be uh, you know, a trained coach, although it's good to have a trained coach and get into any clinic or camp or lesson you can. But if you notice people making an error that didn't make complete sense to you, why did that error happen? Well, it's probably the footwork. So and they were probably moving. It's as simple as that. Don't move move after.
SPEAKER_01Plant before you hit. If you take anything out of this podcast right now, plant before you hit and make sure you're in the right place, your feet are in the right place. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Leah Miller. You're in the take care. Thank you, sweetie. Have a good day. And you. 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 IPTPA, 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.