5 MAIN Reasons 3.0/3.5s Pop Up Blocks (& How To Keep It Low Instead)

today we're going to talk about the five main reasons why you pop it up with balls that are hit hard towards your body and what you should do instead to keep it low and prevent repetitive attacks I'm Nicole Havlicek this is prime time pickleball we've helped thousands of players improve their pickleball game and we can help you play your best game too so be sure to hit that subscribe button and also that notification Bell icon so that you don't miss out on any future videos okay so today we're going to be talking about when you

get attacked at the non-volley zone line and primarily on balls that are coming in this range so they've been hit low crossing the net and hard you're going to want to block those because that's the that's the best defensive play if they're high you can counter attack but that's the subject of a different video we're going to talk about getting attacked in this range here because that's typically where the attacks are coming if they're coming hard and high unless they have a tremendous amount of topspin they're going out so we're not going to worry about

those as much right now I see a lot of people having trouble with this block here that comes in this area which is much more common and also actually easier to defend so we want to clean that up first before we worry about anything else and we want to be strong blocking from this area so that we can get out of trouble and also Mount our attack back on them so the reason that blocking in this area is actually easier than this higher block is because of this region here you'll see a lot of people

wanting to attack the hitting r arm shoulder which is a really smart play we're not covering that today we're just covering this area here because it's also extremely common and I see a lot of people messing this up even though it is easier because it can be defended pretty well comfortably with forehands here and back hands here okay so and also when I say block you're doing a reset and what a reset is is your the incoming ball is a lot of pace and you're taking all that pace off and dropping it in or near

the kitchen to force them into a low contact because your ball is soft and it's going to bounce low and stay short in the court and that's how you're going to reset the point so that you don't continually get attacked okay so a blocking reset shot the first main problem that I see on these blocks here in this area is that players are trying to block that shot when it comes into their body with their forehand okay this is much more difficult than a backhand block so I'll often see them even you know coming up

they're laid on the split they get attacked in the body and then they're doing this kind of thing and it just goes badly okay no matter where you are like in this range up towards the non-volley zone and even further back you're going to be wanting to block your body with your backhand so anything from here on over this way that's a backhand a lot of people think that it's an even distribution from here to this side forehand and here to this side backhand that's not true at all you want to be blocking this range

from like your right hip and over this way all the way over there if you have to reach that's a backhand okay so it gets divided like that here to there backhand here to here is forehand okay you can even go as far as blocking here with your backhand that's more comfortable than this all right so when you've really here to there you can you can block the forehand here this is kind of a decision range here if you want to do a backhand or a forehand this is okay and over here is the forehand

so keep that in mind it is not an even distribution I don't want to see players blocking here with the forehand but I see it so often because people are more comfortable often on the forehand side but that's going to limit you from progressing if you're enjoying this video please go ahead and hit that like button and subscribe to this Channel and also hit that notification Bell icon so you can be notified anytime we release a new video okay number two is being too jerky with your body movement during the block now I understand they're

coming with power and your reflexes to kind of resist it but you have to train yourself to stay calm and relaxed and not to be doing this as it comes at your body okay you just want to you don't want to use too much body you're not going to go like this you're not going to go like this or like that you're going to stay calm keep keep your body stable as you can and then just block like this okay just put your paddle there put your paddle there put your paddle there put your paddle

there very smooth soft efficient motions they have to be quick but they have to be minimal okay that's the key so you don't want to be retreating and even if you aren't retreating you don't want to have too much going on because remember you're blocking an attack can be coming again so you don't want to be out of position with your body enough to recover there's not a lot of time okay so it's going to help your shot and also your subsequent shot so it's ideal if you keep your body movement to a minimum and

then just block with your hand and your arm as much as possible you'll see that when you're watching the pros they're not jerky they're as still as they can be but they have to be fast yet still and that leads us right into number three which is don't have too much tension in your body when you're here and you're being as still as you can be yet fast you also have to have softness throughout your body if you're tense you'll be more likely to be jerky number one but also when you're tense and even if

you're not jerky the ball is going to rock it back off your paddle and you're not wanting to do that you're wanting to block it and reset it in the kitchen and in order to do that you have to take some Pace off the ball and you can't take Pace off the ball if you're tense okay they'll get maybe get another high one and you'll pop it up right so if you're tense you're much more likely to pop it you want to be soft get that paddle face angle right block and just kind of let

let it bounce off your paddle especially as if it has a lot of pace on it and you have to absorb a little bit with your hand and your body okay you'll see a lot of people just be very still and as the ball comes they just relax let the paddle and the body absorb the shot and drop it in the kitchen okay it is an advanced skill but it is highly trainable you have to have limited tension in your body and number four is making sure that your paddle face is not too open okay

obviously if it's open that's going to send the ball high okay if it's too open and too tense it's going to send the ball even more high so you could you could do a lot of things right but if your paddle face is a little too open that's going to pop it up so you're gonna have it a lot more level than you think it may be slightly open but it's not going to be very open and then with your soft body your limited flinching and your correct paddle face motion you're just going to let

that ball bounce off the paddle and it's going to drop into the kitchen so if you're finding that it's going too high but you feel everything else is right make sure that paddle face is not too open that's one of the main reasons players pop it up they're not closed enough no we're not gonna have it closed down but it is going to most in most cases be slightly open and the fifth reason that we're going to cover today which is a big one is that you don't want to be counter-attacking when you should be

resetting okay okay typically when the ball's coming here or lower you're going to want to reset when it's here you can maybe counter attack depending on where they are if you feel you can get it done on them great in this example Ryan it's a cross-court dink that seems to go a little higher than he intended Alex decides to attack straight ahead to Michelle who feels she has a high enough contact to counter-attack so she does Katie hits a reset block that goes a bit higher than she intended Michelle follows up with an attack that

ends the point okay but often I'm seeing counter attacks from here unless you can do topspin that's not a good idea or here you want to be really picky about when you're counter-attacking with the grit on paddles getting more and more with tossman coming into the game more and more certainly you can counter-attack more but I'm often seeing flat counter attacks no Top Spin and you're just giving them high contacts and if they don't mind the pace they're going to have high contacts to punish you repeatedly with okay you want to learn how to reset

these balls it is a key skill if you want to move up in levels okay there's no way around that if you seem to be popping it up a lot with resets from this area then check these things and fix them and your resets will be so much better when blocking shots in this mid to low range as helpful as we think the tips we're sharing in today's video are there's more to achieving success on the doubles Court want a complete A to Z step-by-step blueprint for playing winning doubles pickleball check out our dominating doubles

system today go to doublesystem.com to learn all about it if you enjoyed this video please like comment and share for more Pro Player pickleball tips techniques strategies and more on how to take your game to the next level please visit primetimepicable.com you'll find a clickable direct link in the video description below thanks for watching we'll see you in the next one and until then Happy pickling much of this footage was captured at the Oakland Hills tennis club in Oakland California a big thank you to them for the use of their amazing facility