The Importance of Watching Pickleball Game Film
If you’re reading this article, there’s a very good chance that you’ve had the pleasure of watching professional pickleball. Isn’t it amazing how practiced and intentional every movement looks? The level of play from the pros is simply different. The serves are consistent, their dinks have finesse, their third shots are fluid, and just watching their games inspires us to go and play some pickleball. Yet when we get to the court, we serve it into the net, we pop up our dinks, we struggle hitting third shots, none of our attacks work, and we have no idea why!
Film review was an integral part of my college football experience at Georgia Tech. Each day before practice we would spend an hour critiquing film. We would look at film of the game we played that Saturday, film of our opponents in the upcoming week, film of our latest practice session, and even film of professionals in the NFL.
Finding a way to record yourself and analyzing your game film is one of the least utilized, but most effective ways to elevate your level of play. Most other sports have figured this out and use film critique as a common practice. The late great Kobe Bryant had this to say about film study,
“Film Study is all about detail. From a young age – a very young age – I devoured film and watched everything I could get my hands on. It was always fun to me. Some people, after all, enjoy looking at a watch; others are happier figuring out how the watch works. It was always fun to watch, study, and ask the most important question: Why?” -Kobe Bryant
“Why am I hitting the ball into the net on my serves?”
Maybe the film will show that you are dropping the ball too low to the ground, and as a result your contact point is super low.
“Why am I popping up my dinks?”
Maybe the film will show that you have a large wind up or a exaggerated follow through, and as a result the ball tends to jump off the paddle a little too high.
“Why am I struggling to hit third shot drops?”
Maybe the film will show that you weren’t properly utilizing momentum transfer and you were leaning backwards when hitting the shot.
“Why are none of my attacks working?”
This is my most recent ‘Why’. As I have risen in the ranks, attacks that used to net me points are now resulting in me losing points. The film review in my most recent YouTube video enlightened me to the fact that I was hitting all of my off-the-bounce speed-ups cross court towards my opponent and putting my partner in a TERRIBLE position.
My partner and I went 2-2 in the men’s 4.5, 19+ division at the 2021 PPA Atlanta Georgia Open. At times, it felt like I was doing nothing wrong, but we would still lose the point. The film told a much different story. My impatience and poor shot selection no doubt contributed to our loss. You can watch the full film analysis below.
