Scrapping

Sometimes all you can do is send the ball back. Your opponents have you scrambling and reaching just to get a paddle on the ball. You're on defense and just trying to stay alive. Scrapping is all you can do sometimes to keep your team in the point.

The ability to make your opponents hit one more ball means they have one more chance to make an unforced error. The best scrappers not only force their opponents to hit another ball, but they slow things down, regain their position and balance, and reset the point so their opponents' advantage is defused.

Let's talk about the progression of a point in which a team ends up in "scrapping mode".

The shot that sends you scrambling

The shot that typically puts a team in scrapping mode is usually either an angle shot that slips past you or your partner or a shot into a gap between you. If you film your games (you should film and analyze your games if you are serious enough about this sport to read blog articles), this is the most important thing to study. How did you get into trouble to begin with? But no matter how good you are, this will happen at some point if you are playing challenging opponents. In the moment, you won't have time to think through all that.

Get to the ball.

A desperate stretch to put a paddle on the ball

Your main goals at this point should be

1. get the ball back over the net and make your opponents hit it one more time
2. regain your balance so you are ready to move to cover the next ball they send
3. (if there is time) regain your position on the court.

 The type of shot you hit will likely help or hurt your odds of surviving the rest of the point.

• Drive (don't do it)

This option is often tempting, but it is ill-advised, especially if your opponents are comfortably set at the net watching you run down their good shot. You have likely been pulled out of position, you may not be facing the court, and if they are standing at the ready at the net, your only hope of success with a drive is that they mess up. Driving the ball takes time away from you to recover. You have little to no room to pass them because they have likely closed off the angles to the back of the court. And because you are out of position, there is a lot of space left on the court for them to hit into. Don't drive the ball at your opponents when you are scrambling. Even if it works against some opponents, you will have decreasing success against higher level opponents and it will form a bad habit.

• Drop

Hitting an unattackable shot into your opponents' kitchen that forces them to hit up has advantages because they can't attack it, it is a slower ball and it will give you more time to recover, regain your balance, and get your feet back under you. But at this point, you are probably not in the best position with regard to your orientation to the net and court, your balance, and your momentum to be able to execute a precision shot. If you think you can pull it off, great. This is not a terrible option. Your ability to execute this shot will depend on variables like, how good their shot was, how far did you have to run to get it, are you stretched and reaching, or balanced, and how well can you execute drop shots when you are hitting from ideal conditions. If you can't hit consistent drop shots when you're balanced and making good contact from a normal position on the court, you have little to no hope of executing under stressed circumstances (practice your drop shots ...a lot).

• Defensive lob

If you can toss the ball up high into the air, you will have more time to fix improve your balance, position, and momentum. A lob gives you the gift of time. If you got pulled off the court, get back to the court. A deep lob helps to pull your opponents off the net. Even if they are hitting an overhead, the extra time you gain from a high lob should help you recover enough to defend and move to the next phase. If you successfully pull your opponents off the net and all the way back to the baseline, you need to run back to the kitchen line. Congratulations, you have turned your defensive position into an offensive position.

Retreating to gain time

There are some people who will tell you never to back off the kitchen line, but if there is ever a time when it is appropriate to do so, it is in this situation. Backing up creates space between you and your opponents. That space equals time. It gives you time to react and time to move to cover court real estate. You don't want to be moving when the ball is hit, so move between shots. You also don't want to stay back. All of your subsequent shots should be attempts to regain the net. You are playing defense when you are off the kitchen line. You want to get your team back up there so you can play offense.

Resetting the point

Every shot after that initial defense is about regaining the net and re-engaging your opponents. Serial lobbers often just continue lobbing at this point in rally. That can work if your opponents move well and have powerful overhead shots and/or they can hit angles, you are playing into their strengths. You will need other tools to finish a point against advanced players. This is where your drop shot practice pays big dividends. 

Take pace off high balls, feed the ball into your opponents' kitchen, force them to hit the ball up from below the top of the net. However, that is not enough. While you are executing those shots, you need to get yourself and your partner back to the net. If one of you stays behind, there will be gaps between you that your opponents can exploit and cause trouble again.

A drive can work here too, especially if you have been forced back near the baseline or if you get a higher ball in the middle. But any time your opponents are at their kitchen line, and you are not at your kitchen line, they have a positional advantage. Hitting fast driving balls at them works best if they miss hit and give you a floating ball that you can attack (shake and bake). The second-best scenario is if your opponents just block, meaning you will have to move in and hit a low ball, but from a position nearer to your own kitchen line, hitting an unattackable drop shot will be easier. Don't make the mistake of running after this shot and trying to attack from below the net midway through the transition zone. A ball hit with power from that position is likely going to go out or into the net. Use this position to reset the point, neutralize your opponents' advantage of being at their kitchen line, and get yourself and your partner established in a dinking rally again.

Work the point (until you gain the advantage)

So often, when players successfully weather the storm and reset the point, as soon as they get to the net, they try to attack and win the point. This is a great way to flush your defensive victory down the toilet. Haha. Be patient. Re-engage in a dinking game that forces your opponents to move around. Work to create gaps and stress them until they hit an unforced error, or they give you an opportunity to hit a winner off a high ball or through a gap. 

Take a look at this rally between Riley and Lindsey Newman vs Ben Johns and Simone Jardim from 2021. It's an awesome example of scrapping to stay in the point, regaining the net, and finishing off an attackable ball. The link will take you to the exact rally. If you click to watch in the article below, go to the 11 minute mark.

Ben Johns / Simone Jardim vs. Lindsey Newman / Riley Newman -- PPA Newport Beach -- Pro Pickleball

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Looking for a private or team lesson in the Central Arkansas area? Reach out to David Stefan or No Fun Pickleball on Facebook. We're pretty sure it's the same guy. No one has seen them in the same place at the same time. 😁