When playing pickleball, there is no way to avoid hitting a bad 3rd shot from time to time. It’s ok, it happens to everyone…even the pros.
As long as the ball went over the net and is in bounds, you’re still in the point and there is still something you can to to get out of it.
So, you’ve hit a bad 3rd shot and now you’re being attacked by your opponents as they try to put the ball away and win the point.
Your best option is to hit a reset shot. All that means, is that wherever you are in the court, you hit a soft shot that drops into the kitchen in much the same way as you would try to hit a 3rd shot.
You are going for the same effect, which is to hit an unattackable ball and follow it into the net.
It’s the right play, but it’s easier said than done. We got the help of Pro player and National Champion Daniel Moore to show us how to best train the reset shot.
Check out the video above and the blog below…
Today Daniel is going to share with us the correct technique to use when resetting the ball after your opponents have attacked you.
He’s also going to show us some drills on how to master this shot.
Here’s What Daniel has to say..
Today we’re going to be doing the reset shot from all the way back at the baseline and from starting from no-man’s land.
Basically the scenario is you’ve hit a third shot drop that’s not the best and your opponents are now driving it at you and they’re attacking.
You’ve got to try to take their pace, slow it down, and get it back into their kitchen so that you can come up all the way to the net. It’s a pretty hard shot.
It’s not always going to be successful and it might take more than one attempt. You might hit it too high the first time so it might be on your second or third try that you actually get it into the kitchen.
But, if you can keep practicing this you’ll be able to get back into the point even if you don’t hit a perfect third shot every time.
Technique
First of all you need to be really low. Getting your knees bent is really key. If you’re standing up straight you’re not going to be able to get down to hit that shot. So get your knees bent!
You want to be low down and then most of this shot is going to be on your backhand side. The reason is they’re swinging really hard at you and you don’t really have time to the decide if you’re going to your forehand or backhand.
So, most of the time, you’re just going to be ready on the backhand side and you’re going to kind of “hockey goalie” the ball back.
You’re blocking that ball using their pace to send that ball over the net.
There’s not much of a swing required. You’re just trying to get it a bit high over the net so that it dips down into their kitchen and they can’t keep attacking.
We’re going to do some drilling now.
Drill #1
For the first one I’m just going to be standing approximately two steps inside the the baseline and Jordan is going going to drill it at my feet. My return can be a volley or I can hit it off of the bounce.
I’m just going to try to keep the ball in play as long as possible.
Jordan can hit it pretty hard at me.
If you hit a volley just try to get lots of height on the ball.
Normally, I would come in after I hit this but right now we’re just drilling the reset.
I’m getting nice and low.
It’s actually often easier to take it out of the air because the bounce introduces all kinds of inconsistencies and the ball can skip or has spin on it. I think it’s better to actually take it out of the air if you can.
And remember too that normally after you hit this ball, if it’s successful, you’d want to run all the way in to the net behind it. But, for the sake of the drill I’m just going to stay back and try to get as many balls into the kitchen as possible.
Jordan drills it at me I’m ready on my backhand just getting it back hoping that he can’t keep attacking me.
It’s important to remember that if it’s too high never give up because you’ve got two people on this court that’s not that big. Most of the time you can get a paddle on it and if you can hit it back in their kitchen all of a sudden you’re back in the point.
Drill #2
For the second drill I’m going to start all the way back at the baseline and I’m going to try to work my way into the kitchen.
Again, normally if I hit one successful shot into his kitchen or somewhere where he can’t attack me then I would be all the way in to the kitchen. But, for the sake of the drill, I’m just going to take one or two steps at a time until I get all the way into the kitchen.
It’s kind of like shooting a basketball from all different places on the court.
I get practice hitting that ball from everywhere. Getting control from every on the court.
I’m going to start by hitting a ball that’s pretty high and Jordan’s going to be able to attack it. I’m just going to try to keep controlling it back to him while slowly working my way into the kitchen.
Take a couple steps in each time.
I’m going to take four or five shots to try to get into the net and he’s going to keep attacking me.
Be ready to block.
It’s really important to always have your weight going forward even if you don’t hit a perfect shot.
You want to still take maybe a small step or two in just to have that weight going forward and that will transfer into the ball which will help the ball carry over the net.
If you’re leaning back, that paddle face goes up, the ball flies straight up and you’re going to get attacked even more.
So, you want to make sure you’re leaning forward, get low, and keep moving into the ball as you hit this.
You’ll see this in game scenarios – when somebody’s in trouble, especially at the high level, they can get out of it if they can hit this reset shot that we’re talking about here.
Want to travel and play pickle ball with me (Daniel)?
I take people on high quality pickleball vacations around the world. We go to Japan, Spain, Thailand, etc.
We have lots of other things coming up so check out our website at https://pickleballtrips.com
We’d love to have you on a trip!
Thank you to Daniel for sharing this great instructional information with us.
