Reducing Unforced Errors

Everyone makes mistakes. Making fewer mistakes than your opponents will go a long way toward the goal of winning games. Here are some tips.

Recording your games is perhaps the best way to figure out what is going on and why you are making the mistakes you are making. You don't need fancy recording equipment. Most phones are adequate. You also don't need to live stream your matches if you don't want to. If you do livestream your game on social media, you can download it (instructions in the linked article). Having a record of games can be useful if you ever decided you want to edit them or do other kinds of data analysis, etc.

If you have some games recorded, here are things you can begin to look for. The method I recommend is to watch your match all the way through while making some casual notes or observations. If you think you see a pattern emerging, Focus on that pattern with some actual numerical data.

Start your game(s) over and begin a tally. Here are some types of focus areas you might choose to count.

When in the point are the mistakes happening?

This is the first piece of the puzzle. Where are most of your mistake occurring? The serve? The return? Approach shots? Maybe the pattern is the type of shot. Figure out if there is some pattern, then you can begin to assess the reasons and work on fixing the problem.

Serves

If you don't get your serve in, you can't score. Serves are important. Were your serves too aggressive? Do you have service yips? If your serve is giving you problems, it's something you can practice, even by yourself. If you are still having problems, (the yips can last for weeks or even months for some people) getting a lesson from an instructor who can work on it with you can help (I know a guy).

Return

As important as the serve is, your opponents don't score if you mess it up. On the other hand, if you are having trouble on the return, that's a quick way for your opponents to rack up points.

Maybe you are standing too close to the baseline. Maybe you aren't moving to the ball quickly enough. If you are moving to the ball and making contact with it in front of your body, you should be able to control your shot well enough to get it back to your opponents.

Approach (3rd, 5th, etc)

The third shot can be a tricky son of a gun. If this is where your problem lies, you are in good company. Practice is key here. Make sure you are getting the ball over the net; better too high than too low. For drills on the third, check out this article.

The 4th shot

This shot isn't discussed as much in pickleball, (No Fun Zone article on the 4th shot will be published here soon!) but it is a common source of unforced errors. Common causes include:

• Failure to get all the way to the net after the return
• If your opponents can hit the ball at your feet, that spells trouble
• Make a note of where you were on the court after a point ends, especially if you were receiving the serve. If you didn't get all the way to the kitchen line, why not? What can you do to fix it?
• Trying to be too offensive when your opponent sent a quality drop shot
• If you are at the kitchen line and hit your 4th shot into the tape at the top of the net ...or out of bounds, odds are the shot your opponents hit forced you to make contact at or below the net.
• Recognize a quality drop. Ease off and keep the point going than to give the serving team a point.
• Paddle direction on impact
• Are you popping the ball up or deflecting the ball in unintended directions?
• Prep for the ball as it travels toward you so you make contact in front of your body
• The direction your paddle is facing at the moment of impact is the direction the ball will go when it leaves your paddle
• Less swing is needed for fast balls; the more you swing, the more difficult it is to control the direction. Keep things compact. Volleys at the net can just be a block rather than a swinging stroke.

Types of shots

Drives

Are your drives going out of bounds? If you are hitting the ball out, maybe you are trying to hit drives from mid court. Drives are more likely to go out if you are hitting them from the transition zone. Are you hitting into the net? Get your shots over the net. At least make your opponents have to deal with it and have to decide whether they should touch it or not.

Drops/Dinks

Practice will help here. Practice and more practice. If that is not helping, take a lesson. A lesson may also be a good idea before you commit time to practice on your own if you are not sure about your mechanics. Practicing the wrong mechanics may be counter productive. Goal number 1: get the ball over the net and in the court. Goal number 2; make life difficult for your opponent. Confidence in your dinks and learning to be offensive in your dinks will help reduce your unforced errors and help keep pressure on your opponents and off of you.

Another common problem with dinking is impatience. Are you getting bored or anxious when you are engaged in dinking? Trying to be offensive with low balls can cause problems. Balls that are hit hard from below the net at or near the kitchen line will often sail out or go into the net. Cut back on those errors by exercising patience and by putting pressure on your opponents. Make them move and waiting for them to give you a ball that rises above the net so you can hit down.

Lobs

First, how often are you lobbing? If you are lobbing frequently and your lobs are going out, maybe it's time to work on some other shots. Lobs are fine, but they are most effective when they are unexpected. And lobs that sail out are never effective. If you are playing a game and hit 2 lobs that don't work, stop hitting lobs. I am not saying don't use lobs ever. I'm saying they can be risky, and if they aren't working, you need other shots in your arsenal.

Blocking

I haven't written too much about blocking, but I will say more in the future. Since this is my first mention of blocking here (I didn't even include the term in my glossary article! Fail.) I need to define the term. A block shot is when your contact with the ball is not intended to impart pace on the ball, but more often than not, to absorb pace, slow it down, and to send the ball on a downward trajectory. That is the intention. The execution can sometimes lead to errors.

The angle of the paddle should be more level or maybe slightly open (angled up) depending on where your opponents are located on the court, how low the ball is, and how fast it's coming at you. Grip strength is key with blocking because you want to take pace off the ball. That means a loose grip so the paddle absorbs the impact of the ball. However, if the blocking action drop the ball into the net on your side or worse, into your side of the kitchen, that's too soft.

You don't want to pop the ball up because quick opponents will rush in and pounce on a floating ball. Find an happy medium. Deflecting the ball on a cross court angle can also help give the ball more time and space to descend safely on your opponents' side of the net.

Other Causes of mistakes

Shot selection

This is a common problem. Many times a player will opt for a shot that is too aggressive or low percentage. These choices can also be habit forming, especially when you find success with them every so often. That crazy 1/20 shot that lands perfectly in the corner of your opponent's kitchen with a topspin drive from the baseline can feel so sexy when you hit it. But when you miss that shot the other 19 times, it's not as cool. Those shots are fun. Stupid drop shots and dinks are less sexy, but they get the job done. Welcome to no fun pickleball. Haha.

Bad setup

Court movement is frequently the underlying cause here, and a small mistake on one shot can lead to more problems as the rally develops. Work on your footwork. You can even put your paddle down and practice moving up the court with mimed strokes and split steps to engrain those movements into your muscles until it feels natural.

Stroke mechanics

What parts of your body are moving when you are executing your swing, and where are you making contact with the ball? You want to make contact out in front of your body. You want quiet wrist and elbow and the movement to be from your large muscle groups; legs, waist, and shoulders. Keep your swing compact and push through the ball. Having trouble? Take a lesson. Sometimes you just get to a point where you need someone to help you sort out the issue or to give you insight into what is happening.

Frustrated by opponents' ability to deny your finish

You have your opponents on the run, you got the exact shot you were looking for to put the ball away, you smash a beautiful put away... and your opponents got it back. You smash again, they scramble and get it back. Don't they know it's over? Smash! ...into the net or out of bounds. I've also seen cheeky drops that were intended to just drop into the kitchen when opponents were scrambling to get to smashes at the baseline, but the sassy drop didn't quite make it over the net. In any case, you had the upper hand in the rally and you let it slip from your finger tips.

Playing against scrappers who don't know when to give up can sometimes lead to errors. Be patient and don't allow their relentless efforts to cling to the point frustrate you into making a mistake. Respect their efforts and tenacity, but keep the point rolling. If they manage to reset and reengage in a dinking rally, wow. That's tough. You are playing some skilled opponents. Good on you for getting them to a point of desperation at one point in the rally. Work to make it happen again. Keep controlled pressure on them. Sometimes people are so relieved that they managed to weather the storm, they let their guard down and get an unforced error after getting to all the difficult balls. Let them make those unforced errors.

Nerves

This happens most often in a tournament or league game setting. When you feel like you have some jitters, take a time out. Here are some ideas you can try while you are on a time out.

You can also try some deep breathing or meditation. Find a way to get out of your head and into the moment if you can. I don't usually feel jittery at tournaments anymore, but it happened to me recently at a big tournament. We took a time out. I sat down on the ground, closed my eyes, and just did some controlled breathing for a few minutes. That was enough to calm me down. We didn't win, but it wasn't because of errors caused by my jitters after that.

Pickleball is often won by making small adjustments on the court. You can't control every factor. You are going to lose some points, you are going to lose some matches, and you are going to lose some brackets. Take your losses and learn from them. Find out where you can make improvements and work on those facets of your game for the next tournament.

I hope this was helpful. As always, thanks for stopping by.

David