How to Find Your Opponents' Weak Spots
As recreational players, we go onto the pickleball court to have some fun, get some exercise, and socialize with other players. Still, it's a great feeling to win, especially when playing against a tough opponent. One thing I learned in an interview with Shea Underwood, an aspiring professional, is you can give yourself a better chance by doing two things.
The first is you need to understand why you are hitting shots in different situations so you can secondly develop a systematic approach to finding your opponents' weaknesses.
As an example, think about why you hit a cross court dink to your opponent. When Shea was asked that question by senior pro John Sperling, he found it difficult to answer. Shea said, “He asked me, Shea, why do you hit cross-court dinks? And it just stumped me. I mean, that's the right shot, right? I hit that shot because it's an angle. I don't know if that's just the right shot to hit in that situation, but the reason you hit a cross court dink or John's rationale for hitting a cross court dink is because I want to give myself the middle.” In other words, the cross court dink pulls your opponent out wide. As a result, your partner should be covering the line and you can move toward the middle of the court. Then your opponent has to choose whether they are going to hit the tough down the line shot or go cross court and chance hitting a pop up to you in the middle.
Once you know why you are hitting shots in specific situations, you can begin to develop a system. If you play the same people quite often, you likely have an idea of your opponents' weaknesses. Sally doesn't like it when I hit a low hard return with lots of slice. George has a weak backhand and is not consistent when he dinks. The challenge comes when you are playing against a new opponent. Since you may not get much information during the warm up about your opponent's weaknesses, you need to have a system and know where you are getting your points. Try placing a dink to their backhand. Yes, they hit it back to you without an error, but did they look comfortable? Hit a lob early in the game and see how the opposing team covers it. Are they able to hit an overhead for a winner or do they have to run to the back of the court and hit a drop shot? Ideally, you should use your system to identify weaknesses during the game, giving you a greater chance to win more points and the game or match.
