These aren’t unique photographs or area of interest methods. These are the bread-and-butter methods that separate gamers who plateau from gamers who maintain climbing.
Tanner Tomassi simply dropped a gem.
Over the previous two years, he is created greater than 750 pickleball movies. Some went completely viral. Others? Effectively, let’s simply say they did not fairly land. However this is the factor: as an alternative of transferring on, he determined to return and recreate his seven most viral movies with all the things he is realized since then.
The result’s a masterclass in methods to really enhance your sport, whether or not you are simply beginning out or already crushing it on the superior degree.
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The Actual Story: Evolution Over Perfection
What makes this video totally different out of your typical “10 suggestions to enhance” content material is the underlying philosophy.
Tanner is not pretending he had all of the solutions two years in the past. He is displaying you that pickleball is a sport the place even the individuals creating content material about it are continuously studying, continuously refining, continuously getting higher.
That is really refreshing in an area that may generally really feel like everybody’s acquired all of it found out.
The seven movies he recreated cowl the basics that journey up most gamers, no matter talent degree. These aren’t unique photographs or area of interest methods. These are the bread-and-butter methods that separate gamers who plateau from gamers who maintain climbing.
1. Prime 3 Serving Errors Killing Your Recreation
Let’s begin with the serve, as a result of actually, it is the place all the things begins. Tanner identifies three important errors that newbie gamers make virtually universally.
Mistake one: Standing utterly sideways. Once you’re lined as much as serve together with your shoulders and hips going through perpendicular to the court docket, you are mainly handcuffing your self. You possibly can solely generate energy out of your arm, which implies you are leaving critical velocity on the desk. As an alternative, level your lead foot towards the place you need the ball to go. Your shoulders and hips will naturally flip to your goal, and all of a sudden you have acquired your complete physique working for you.
Mistake two: Forgetting about physique weight. That is the place a whole lot of gamers miss the mark. The serve is not simply an arm motion. It is a full-body movement. You could rock again, interact your again leg, and drive via the court docket. Examine that to only standing there and attempting to muscle it together with your arm alone. The distinction in energy is evening and day.
Mistake three: Contact level. The place you really strike the ball issues far more than most individuals suppose. Let your arm relaxation naturally at your aspect, get into an athletic stance, after which attain. That is your candy spot. Too far again or too excessive, and also you lose the flexibility to get behind the ball correctly.
Repair Your Pickleball Serve Eternally: The three Errors Holding You Again
Achieve constant, easy energy in your serve by fixing these three important errors seen at each degree. APP professional Kyle Koszuta reveals you the way.
2. The way to Cease Your Dinks from Popping Up
The dink is pickleball’s most necessary shot, and it is also the place a whole lot of gamers develop unhealthy habits early on. Tanner breaks this down into three actionable items.
- First, consider your dink as a push, not a success. This can be a mindset shift. Once you’re on the web, you are not doing a mini tennis stroke. You are pushing. Think about you might have two balls stacked in your paddle, and also you’re pushing via each of them moderately than flicking at one. Your wrist stays locked. You are extending via the shot, not flicking.
- Second, attain to your opponent with a closed paddle face. An open paddle face sends the ball up. A closed paddle face retains it down. In case your paddle is angled correctly and also you merely attain towards your opponent, ending out in entrance, the ball stays low and lands within the kitchen the place it belongs.
- Third, and that is the psychological sport: let the ball hit you. Do not go to the ball. Have a easy, gradual movement whether or not the ball is there or not. Most gamers see the ball coming and attempt to load up and assault it. That is when issues go sideways. Keep low via the complete shot, maintain your paddle out in entrance, and you will have an ideal dink each time.
Keep away from These 3 Lethal Errors to Grasp Aggressive Dinking
The aggressive dink isn’t about overpowering your opponent. It’s about creating stress via placement, utilizing deception to maintain them guessing, and understanding when to assault versus when to reset
3. The WORST Shot in Pickleball (Drop Volley Mistake)
Here is the place Tanner will get slightly spicy. The drop volley, when executed poorly, is genuinely one of many worst photographs you possibly can hit in pickleball.
Image this: you are on the kitchen line, your opponents are on the baseline, they hit a 3rd shot drop to you. As an alternative of hitting it exhausting to maintain them again, you get cute and take a look at a drop volley into the kitchen. If it isn’t completely excellent, you have simply handed your opponents a free ticket to the kitchen. You went from having the benefit to being again at impartial.
The one time a drop volley is smart is that if your opponent is hitting off their again foot from method behind the baseline. In any other case? Apply stress. Hold them again. Do not give away the benefit you have labored to earn.
4. The way to Deal with Heavy Slice Returns
Slice returns are annoying. They’re finicky. They’re designed to mess together with your timing. However Tanner’s acquired a system.
- You can not brief hop a slice. Proper when the ball bounces is the worst time to hit it. As an alternative, let it attain its apex and begin to decline. That is when it is transferring slowest. Place your physique again to wherever the ball bounces so you may get behind it with time to spare.
- Exaggerate getting beneath the ball. With slice, all that spin naturally pulls the ball down faster. You wish to faux you are digging with a shovel. Get low below the ball. That is essential for dealing with slice correctly.
- Here is the key. If slice is coming at you and also you wish to skip all of the technical stuff, simply drive the ball at about 70% energy. Your opponents will volley again the subsequent one, which utterly eliminates the slice. Slice is finicky and sensitive. You possibly can simply drive that spin proper off. Simply watch out and drive slightly larger than regular.
Why Skilled Pickleball Gamers Deserted the Slice Shot in 2025
The slice didn’t die as a result of it was a foul shot. It’s gone extinct as a result of the sport has developed to favor the quick tempo facilitated by topspin.
5. The way to Hit a Backhand Flick Just like the Execs
The backhand flick has a status for being considered one of pickleball’s hardest photographs. Tanner says it is really method easier than individuals suppose.
Begin with footwork. Flip your ft slightly sideways so you possibly can interact your total physique, your obliques, your abs. In case your ft are sq., you are solely utilizing your arm, which feels awkward. Flip sideways and all of a sudden you may get all the things into it.
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Second: positioning. After you hit a very good aggressive dink that you simply suppose your opponent will pop up, lean in and wait. Your paddle head must be down and your elbow up. The error most gamers make is hitting a very good dink, standing there, after which reaching multi functional movement when the pop-up comes. You could already be out in entrance.
Third: the precise putting movement. It is like throwing a Frisbee the other way up. Take a look at your wrist. You are going via the ball, not over it. That is the entire thing.
6. How Execs Defend In opposition to Assaults on the Kitchen
This can be a positioning lesson disguised as a defensive technique. When you understand an assault is coming, what do you do?
The second you see a useless ball was hit, take one or two steps again behind the road. This provides you a lot area and time to react to the opponent’s assault. As an alternative of guessing which method it is coming, that three ft of distance means that you can learn and assault or learn and reset their shot. It is a sport changer that almost all gamers utterly overlook.
Tanner demonstrates this with a associate, displaying how backing up offers you the flexibility to step in, learn the shot, and assault it. When you keep on the road, you are mainly hoping for the very best.
7. The way to Hit a Forehand Drive with Topspin
The forehand drive with topspin is an influence shot that requires three easy steps.
The 1st step: by no means hit this shot if you’re stationary. Because the ball approaches, you wish to be entering into it together with your lead foot. That physique weight switch offers you further drive past simply your arm.
Hit a Devastating Forehand Drive: The Hip Rotation Secret That Modifications All the things
As the sport evolves and gamers get extra expert at dinking and web play, the flexibility to place away a ball with tempo and management separates the nice gamers from the nice ones.
Step two: your paddle tip must be down. Swing from low to excessive and end over your shoulder such as you’re answering the telephone. The error gamers make is having their paddle sideways or ending over their shoulder with out that low-to-high movement. You want the paddle down and that upward swing.
Step three: level on the ball together with your off hand. This will get your shoulders concerned and helps with energy era. You would be amazed how usually gamers swing with out pointing, which simply appears awkward. Level on the ball, maintain your arm near your paddle, and growth. You’ve got acquired a correct forehand drive with topspin.
The Larger Image: Why This Issues
What Tanner’s actually doing right here is displaying that pickleball enchancment is not about studying new methods. It is about mastering the basics and understanding why they work. These seven methods are the muse that all the things else is constructed on.
When you’re struggling to interrupt via a plateau, likelihood is considered one of these seven areas is the place you are leaking factors. The excellent news? They’re all fixable with targeted observe and the proper psychological method.
