October 17, 2025 • 17 mins
The often-overlooked art of strategic awareness refers to the mental readiness that helps you anticipate what’s unfolding on the court. In this episode, I'll explain how strategic awareness sharpens your decisions and calms your mind under pressure through three key scenarios—the stay-back returner, the lobing opponent, and the stack-unwind formation.
Show Notes: https://betterpickleball.com/266-strategic-awareness/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.I hope you're having a great week.
This week's podcast, we're going to betackling some strategic awareness ideas.
Oftentimes on the podcast, we spend a lotof time on perspective, on bigger
picture understanding of the game.
I think that's an awesome use of our time.
Every once in a while, though, we want toget into some strategic stuff, basically
(00:28):
mental part of it in terms of being awareof situations and how it's
going to help you strategically.
That's what we're goingto do in today's episode.
I have three different areasthat we're going to be exploring.
Before we do, a couple of shoutouts.
I appreciate the rating and reviews.
And then a couple of pieces ofhousekeeping, and then we'll
jump dive into the podcast.
(00:49):
So first of all, thank you.
Let's see your RIFF comments fromN2 something.
The information for Sam was spot on.
Taking a deep breath before I Myserve really improves my accuracy.
If I make a mistake, it isusually because I rush my serve.
It's fair.
Oftentimes, the RIF has a hiddenjewel that comes in handy.
We try.
(01:09):
And then this one's from Megan.
Thank you, Megan, for leaving this.
Therapy for my mental game.
When I started, pickleball, I quicklydiscovered that my mental
game was really beating me.
This podcast made an amazing difference.
I thought I had it conquereduntil I played in a tournament.
Now I know that this is an ongoingbattle that I need to regularly work on.
I listen to this podcast on the way to theand when I'm walking
(01:30):
my dog, most every day.
Don't know what I'm going to do whenI've listened to all of the old episodes.
I have a suggestion for you in a second,but I'll cross that
bridge when I get there.Thanks for continuing to do this podcast.
It's my pleasure, Megan, and thank you andthe other listener for your
comments, for your feedback.
I have a recommendation for you, if youwant to continue to build, the book.
(01:54):
It's titled, Pickleball Therapy, the Book.It's available now.
It's a digital form We'llput a link in the show notes.
You can also go to betterpicklebal.
om and get your early copy.
You'll be one of the first players tounderstand these new approaches, these
different ways of thinking aboutthe sport that will really help you.
And what we like about this process,too, is we're all a work in process.
(02:18):
I am, you are.
But one of our students wrote in a post inour online community recently
talking about how, I believe it'sHow they were basically hearing
stuff from professional athletes in othersports and football and things like that.
That's all about the win and having theRicky Bobby mentality.
(02:42):
If you don't know what that is, you'llfind out in the book or
you've seen the movie.
But having that mentalityand just saying those words.
And so it was a really nice post.
Great question.
Articulated some different waysthat others use the mental part.
I'm going to be addressingthat next week's podcast.
The reason I bring it up today is becauseit is a journey for all of us.
(03:05):
Like Megan said, it's never-ending.
And we're always society, friends, the waywe interact, the way others interact with
the sport will have an impact on how weinteract with the sport,
at least in our mind.
We have to beconscientious of this and also be on
(03:25):
guard, if you will, to these outside,potential outside influences that can
take us to a place that wedon't want to be with the sport.
Anyway, so that's coming up next week.
But I wanted to mentionthat because of the journey.
And also, I invite you to get the book sothat you can take advantage of
those sooner rather than later.
We will have a print version of the bookcoming out before the end of the year.
(03:49):
Exact date, TBD, but I anticipate in thenext 30 days or so, we'll have that
lined up with the Amazon situation there.
They're the ones that really control thatecosystem, so that'll be where it'll be.
All right, let's dive intothese three different areas.
And I want to talk about strategic.
This is strategic awareness, right?
(04:10):
So this is where you'rebasically preparing yourself mentally to
anticipate better by your awareness ofwhat's going on from a
strategic standpoint.
And we're going to lookat three different areas.
The first one will applymostly direct play.
The second one will apply to any levelof play when you deal with this player.
And the third one will be an advancedconcept that has to do with stacking wine.
(04:33):
But even if you don't stack a lot or youdon't play a lot of stackers, just having
this understanding of how this workswill help you think through it.
That's really the key.
All right, let's diveinto the first one here.
The first one here isthe stay back returner.
What happens here is you're in a recsituation, open play, and you're playing
(04:54):
with a returner that doesn't come forward.
Now you're on the return side, you're theother player, you're not returning serve,
and you're playing with a partnerwho does not come forward.
Now, we've talked about this before insome other contexts,
but not here this way.
It's a question of strategic awareness.
You understand strategically that the bestplace for you to play
(05:15):
is up at the non-volley zone line.
That's why you're there as a non-returner.
That's why you go upthere and stand there.
You're the only player on the court atthe beginning who can be there, right?
And so you go up there because it'sstrategically more advantageous to you.
But sometimes you're going to play withplayers who don't have the same
strategic awareness that you do.
Now, that is another layer ofstrategic awareness for you.
In other words, you're aware that you'replaying with a player who either doesn't
(05:38):
appreciate it or, for whatever reason,can't get up to the line
before the foreshot.
So the question now is, what do you do?
Now, the strategic thinking here is, if Istay up at the line
and my partner stays back,what's going to end up happening in a lot
of situations is the opponentsare going to come forward.
So now the serve team is going to come upto their line So it'll be you alone at
(06:02):
your line and the two players on theserving team
be ganging up against you, if you will, ontheir line, and your partner back at the
baseline or somewherein the transition zone.
Now, think through that in terms of howthat rally ends that you're going to like.
The answer is not many situations,because likely what will happen is your
(06:24):
partner is going to lay the ball up.
It's going to basically lift the ball.
Then if your opponents know what they'redoing, you're going to
be the one to eat it.
You're going to get the one with thesma-you're going to get the sma at you.
So from a strategic standpoint, isthat how we want to play this game?
I would submit to you the answer is no.
And then you get into a situation or aquestion of what can you control there?
(06:47):
You can't control yourpartner necessarily.
So what can you do?
Well, from a strategic awarenessstandpoint, you can back up, right?
You can back up all the way backto wherever your partner is.
So if your partner wants tostay around the baseline, great.
You want to take a step inthere, that's fine, too.
Somewhere around there, it's fine.
(07:07):
But you're going to be in rough contactwith your partner in terms
of the depth that you're at.
What that does is it allows you to notbe the one getting smashed with balls.
And if you do get smashed with the ball inyour direction, you're back,
so you can defend it better.You can just keep the balls in play.
You also get more shots, right?
You get more opportunities to touchthe ball and things like that.
(07:28):
So that's an example of how you think ofstrategic awareness, how you apply, I
should say, strategic awareness to yourplay in open play or rec play situations
where you don't have control overeverything that's going on in
the court, and there are going to be timeswhen you're going to want to
stay back with your partner from astrategic standpoint because it is better
(07:51):
than you staying up and then staying back,which is, we refer to that in our
coaching as Islands of Despair.
It's the worst formation and apickleball, one up, one back.
We're talking about a standard formation.
You're not like where you're attackingor taking advantage of an opportunity.
That's fine.
But if you're just staying constantly oneup, one back, one up, one back all the
time, that can be a very difficultway to play this sport of pickleball.
(08:15):
That's a strategic awarenesssituation for you there on open play.
The second one I want to address is morebroader application, and this is when
you're facing potentially a lopper.
Here, you can go through, andall of these we can go as
complex and deep as we want to.
We're going to keep it mid-level here.
(08:37):
As I go into this, I do want to let youknow that at the end
of October, I'm having.
I don't remember the exact date, but Iknow it's after this podcast,
but shortly after this podcast.
But I have a strategy clinic where I'mgoing to teach you how to read the room.
And this is a good example here in readingthe room when you're playing
against a potential lob situation.
So when you think about lobers, how doyou tackle lobers from a strategic
(09:01):
awareness standpoint?
Well, first, and I know this is going tosound super simple, but listen, I played
with players who half a game in,they'll be like, Oh, you're left-handed.
And no criticism, right?That happens.
But that's not even seeing that I'm aleft player after however many rallies.
So the first step is being awarethat you're facing one or two lobers.
(09:24):
They don't come out to thecourt in disguises and stuff.
If they're lobers, they're lobers.
And let me be clear, I'mnot criticizing any lober.
I think lobbying is fine.I played this morning and I lobed plenty.
So you're facing a lober.
Then the second thing you're going tolook for is, where do they lob from?
Forehand or backhand?What do they prefer?
Third thing is, Baseline,non-volley zone lop.
(09:46):
What part of the court do they lop from?
Front or the back or anywhere?
Some players are like, I can lop fromanywhere on any side, so I'm probably
the most dangerous type of loafer.
But most loavers who you're facingprobably prefer one side, forehand.
Usually, forehand is morecommon than back-hand lobs.
Usually, it's a fore-hand lob,and they have a preferred spot, whether
it's lobbing from the non-volleyzone line or lobbing from the back.
(10:10):
That's strategic awareness.
Then what type of balldo they like to lob?
Then what you do is, this is the idea oftalking about reading the room, where you
basically read thosepieces coming together.
It's almost like you're sitting outside onthe pier or something, looking across the
water, and you see a storm rolling in.
(10:31):
You see lightning in the sky, you see darkclouds, maybe you see bands of rain, maybe
you start feeling the wind, maybe you gotyour phone and there's a weather app, and
you're like, Okay, probably going to rain.
Maybe let me get off this pier.
Really no different whenyou're playing pickable.
So you're looking out there and you seethe storms are gathering,
the clouds are gathering, you hearthunder, you see a little
(10:54):
flashing in the sky.
Might be a lot of coming your way.
The Piecing these parts together in termsof the players are lober,
they're getting a ball on the side theylike, they're getting the
type of ball they like.
And then you can look also at their body.
What's their body look like?
Does it look like a lobbying position?
Most lobers lean back a little bit.
(11:16):
They open their body up a little bit tolob because it's easier to lob,
usually from that position.
We open up a little bit, andthen you're able to hit that lob.
So you can start reading those pieces, andthen you can take action
sooner rather than later.
As opposed to waiting for the lob tobounce behind you before you get it, you
can start fading off the line alittle bit to squeeze their space.
(11:38):
You can tell your partner to go cover it.
You can communicate sooner,all these types of things.
If you read the rooms sooner.
So that's the second one Iwanted to share with you.
And then the last one I want toshare with you is a Stack Unwind.
Let me lay this out for you.
So this is a stacking attack concept,and this is, again, strategic awareness.
(11:59):
This is being aware of what your opponentsare likely to do and then understanding
how to attack it strategically.
You're playing against stackers, and theyare doing what's called the
unwind on the return side.
They're returning, and theneither they're going to...
It could be an unwind or it could be anoff-court stack, but basically,
(12:20):
the returner is going to go diagonal.
There's going to be an opening there astheir partner who's up at the non-visal
line either slides over orcomes in from the outside.
Most of the times these days, you'reseeing more of these switch stack.
That's why it's an unwind, as opposed tothe old-school one player off
the court coming onto the court.
If you don't understand this part of thestory, don't worry about it too much,
(12:43):
but it's basically how you can...
It's two different ways of stacking.
The key to understand is that when there'sa stack on the return side and they're
trying to unwind it, so they're trying tobasically come into
the position opposite where they'rereturning, they're going to have to run a
long distance, longer than normal, andthere's going to be a gap in the court as
they do that, as they switch sides, and asthe other player either comes in or comes
(13:07):
over, there's going to be a gapthat's going to be in the area where
the returner is heading toward.
So think of if the returner is returningfrom the even side and they want to go to
the odd side, that's their stack,then the odd side will be open.
So that'll be the right side for you, theleft side for them, and then
flip it around the other way.
If it's the other way, then you're goingto be open on the left, they're right.
(13:30):
And so why that's important to youstrategically is because when they're
doing their unwind,you don't have to really see it too
much or think about it too much.
You just basically hit your ball into theopen area, into the potentially open area.
They may have closed the space.
But you have an opportunity there whenthey're doing a stack unwind
to attack the opening.
And I tell you that if you watch probatches, you see this happen a lot on
(13:54):
stack unwinds, where there's a lot of...
The scoring rate reallyincreases on the stack unwind.
I don't have an exact figure for youbecause it's a statistical nightmare to
figure that out, toget enough information.
But I can tell you anecdotally, I'veseen it happen too often and too free.
It also the story makes sense,because there's a gap.
The other players are attacking thegap because they know there's a gap.
(14:15):
And then that gap creates a decrease inthe defensive capability
of the return side.
And so then the serve side'schances of scoring go up.
I would bet dollars to the ownersthat the data would prove that out.
I'd be very confident intesting out that hypothesis.
But conceptually, the idea thereis it's strategic awareness.
(14:38):
It's basically going in with anunderstanding of what's happening on the
court, preloading your strategy beforethis ball gets served, and having that
strategic awareness, whether it's how'syour partner playing on the return
side when they're returning?
What are the chances of getting lobed?
The second thing we covered, and then thisone here, where am I attack
(15:00):
opportunities when I have a stackunwind happening on the other side?
Recognizing a stack unwind, knowing whereI'm going to hit my shot
to put pressure on them.
Those types of strategic, being strategicawareness along those lines can really
help you play better, pickleball, becauseyou have an understanding of how the
(15:23):
opportunities and challenges presentthemselves, whether it's to you, like the
challenges to you would befacing the laver, a thing.
And the opportunities present themselveswhen your opponents
are on a stack on wine.
So that's an example of an opportunitythat you can be aware of on
this strategic awareness.
And having that awareness,it's a very nice sense of calm.
It gives you an ability to readwhat's happening on the court.
(15:44):
It's like you're watching a show or amovie, and you can follow the storyline.
You're watching it, you're like,Yeah, I follow the storyline.
I know what's happening here.
I don't know if you saw the movie Thesixth Sense with Bruce But if you haven't
seen, I'm not going to ruin it for you.
But basically, that's one ofthose movies with a twist, right?
(16:05):
And what's interesting about that movieis, and if you haven't
done it, check it out.
So if you haven't checked itout, check it out, period.
The sixth Sense with Bruce Willis in it.
But If you've watched it, watch it again.
Because the second time you watch it, onceyou know the twist, you hear everything
and see everything differently.
It's the same thing here, right?
The better you get at reading the roomwhen you're playing pickleball, it's like
(16:28):
you already know what the twist is beforethe twist happens, and you get ahead
of it and take advantage of it.
Hopefully, that helps you with yourstrategic thinking, which is
obviously part of the mental...
It overlaps athletic pillarand strategic pillar.
It's strategies, but it's also using ourmind to get ahead of them and to give us
some clarity when we're out there playing.
(16:49):
So hopefully you enjoyedthis week's podcast.
If you did, please consider rating andreviewing it like the two listeners
that I shared earlier with you.
If you want to check out thebook, check out the book.
It's I will now.
And if you're into game breakdowns andunderstanding how to read the room,
please join me for our Strategy Clinic.
And I think it's in a few days, butthere'll be a link here, or
(17:11):
you can go to betterpickleball.
com and find the StrategyClinic and sign out for it.
So I hope to see some of you there.
Otherwise, I will see you in thenext episode of Pickleball Therapy.
One last thing, if you enjoyed thepodcast, share with your friends, because
if you enjoyed it, they will, too.
Be well, and I'll see you next week.
Hello and welcome to Pickleball Therapy,the podcast dedicated to
your pickleball improvement.I hope you're having a great week.
This week's podcast, we're going to betackling some strategic awareness ideas.
Oftentimes on the podcast, we spend a lotof time on perspective, on bigger
picture understanding of the game.
I think that's an awesome use of our time.
Every once in a while, though, we want toget into some strategic stuff, basically
(00:28):
mental part of it in terms of being awareof situations and how it's
going to help you strategically.
That's what we're goingto do in today's episode.
I have three different areasthat we're going to be exploring.
Before we do, a couple of shoutouts.
I appreciate the rating and reviews.
And then a couple of pieces ofhousekeeping, and then we'll
jump dive into the podcast.
(00:49):
So first of all, thank you.
Let's see your RIFF comments fromN2 something.
The information for Sam was spot on.
Taking a deep breath before I Myserve really improves my accuracy.
If I make a mistake, it isusually because I rush my serve.
It's fair.
Oftentimes, the RIF has a hiddenjewel that comes in handy.
We try.
(01:09):
And then this one's from Megan.
Thank you, Megan, for leaving this.
Therapy for my mental game.
When I started, pickleball, I quicklydiscovered that my mental
game was really beating me.
This podcast made an amazing difference.
I thought I had it conquereduntil I played in a tournament.
Now I know that this is an ongoingbattle that I need to regularly work on.
I listen to this podcast on the way to theand when I'm walking
(01:30):
my dog, most every day.
Don't know what I'm going to do whenI've listened to all of the old episodes.
I have a suggestion for you in a second,but I'll cross that
bridge when I get there.Thanks for continuing to do this podcast.
It's my pleasure, Megan, and thank you andthe other listener for your
comments, for your feedback.
I have a recommendation for you, if youwant to continue to build, the book.
(01:54):
It's titled, Pickleball Therapy, the Book.It's available now.
It's a digital form We'llput a link in the show notes.
You can also go to betterpicklebal.
om and get your early copy.
You'll be one of the first players tounderstand these new approaches, these
different ways of thinking aboutthe sport that will really help you.
And what we like about this process,too, is we're all a work in process.
(02:18):
I am, you are.
But one of our students wrote in a post inour online community recently
talking about how, I believe it'sHow they were basically hearing
stuff from professional athletes in othersports and football and things like that.
That's all about the win and having theRicky Bobby mentality.
(02:42):
If you don't know what that is, you'llfind out in the book or
you've seen the movie.
But having that mentalityand just saying those words.
And so it was a really nice post.
Great question.
Articulated some different waysthat others use the mental part.
I'm going to be addressingthat next week's podcast.
The reason I bring it up today is becauseit is a journey for all of us.
(03:05):
Like Megan said, it's never-ending.
And we're always society, friends, the waywe interact, the way others interact with
the sport will have an impact on how weinteract with the sport,
at least in our mind.
We have to beconscientious of this and also be on
(03:25):
guard, if you will, to these outside,potential outside influences that can
take us to a place that wedon't want to be with the sport.
Anyway, so that's coming up next week.
But I wanted to mentionthat because of the journey.
And also, I invite you to get the book sothat you can take advantage of
those sooner rather than later.
We will have a print version of the bookcoming out before the end of the year.
(03:49):
Exact date, TBD, but I anticipate in thenext 30 days or so, we'll have that
lined up with the Amazon situation there.
They're the ones that really control thatecosystem, so that'll be where it'll be.
All right, let's dive intothese three different areas.
And I want to talk about strategic.
This is strategic awareness, right?
(04:10):
So this is where you'rebasically preparing yourself mentally to
anticipate better by your awareness ofwhat's going on from a
strategic standpoint.
And we're going to lookat three different areas.
The first one will applymostly direct play.
The second one will apply to any levelof play when you deal with this player.
And the third one will be an advancedconcept that has to do with stacking wine.
(04:33):
But even if you don't stack a lot or youdon't play a lot of stackers, just having
this understanding of how this workswill help you think through it.
That's really the key.
All right, let's diveinto the first one here.
The first one here isthe stay back returner.
What happens here is you're in a recsituation, open play, and you're playing
(04:54):
with a returner that doesn't come forward.
Now you're on the return side, you're theother player, you're not returning serve,
and you're playing with a partnerwho does not come forward.
Now, we've talked about this before insome other contexts,
but not here this way.
It's a question of strategic awareness.
You understand strategically that the bestplace for you to play
(05:15):
is up at the non-volley zone line.
That's why you're there as a non-returner.
That's why you go upthere and stand there.
You're the only player on the court atthe beginning who can be there, right?
And so you go up there because it'sstrategically more advantageous to you.
But sometimes you're going to play withplayers who don't have the same
strategic awareness that you do.
Now, that is another layer ofstrategic awareness for you.
In other words, you're aware that you'replaying with a player who either doesn't
(05:38):
appreciate it or, for whatever reason,can't get up to the line
before the foreshot.
So the question now is, what do you do?
Now, the strategic thinking here is, if Istay up at the line
and my partner stays back,what's going to end up happening in a lot
of situations is the opponentsare going to come forward.
So now the serve team is going to come upto their line So it'll be you alone at
(06:02):
your line and the two players on theserving team
be ganging up against you, if you will, ontheir line, and your partner back at the
baseline or somewherein the transition zone.
Now, think through that in terms of howthat rally ends that you're going to like.
The answer is not many situations,because likely what will happen is your
(06:24):
partner is going to lay the ball up.
It's going to basically lift the ball.
Then if your opponents know what they'redoing, you're going to
be the one to eat it.
You're going to get the one with thesma-you're going to get the sma at you.
So from a strategic standpoint, isthat how we want to play this game?
I would submit to you the answer is no.
And then you get into a situation or aquestion of what can you control there?
(06:47):
You can't control yourpartner necessarily.
So what can you do?
Well, from a strategic awarenessstandpoint, you can back up, right?
You can back up all the way backto wherever your partner is.
So if your partner wants tostay around the baseline, great.
You want to take a step inthere, that's fine, too.
Somewhere around there, it's fine.
(07:07):
But you're going to be in rough contactwith your partner in terms
of the depth that you're at.
What that does is it allows you to notbe the one getting smashed with balls.
And if you do get smashed with the ball inyour direction, you're back,
so you can defend it better.You can just keep the balls in play.
You also get more shots, right?
You get more opportunities to touchthe ball and things like that.
(07:28):
So that's an example of how you think ofstrategic awareness, how you apply, I
should say, strategic awareness to yourplay in open play or rec play situations
where you don't have control overeverything that's going on in
the court, and there are going to be timeswhen you're going to want to
stay back with your partner from astrategic standpoint because it is better
(07:51):
than you staying up and then staying back,which is, we refer to that in our
coaching as Islands of Despair.
It's the worst formation and apickleball, one up, one back.
We're talking about a standard formation.
You're not like where you're attackingor taking advantage of an opportunity.
That's fine.
But if you're just staying constantly oneup, one back, one up, one back all the
time, that can be a very difficultway to play this sport of pickleball.
(08:15):
That's a strategic awarenesssituation for you there on open play.
The second one I want to address is morebroader application, and this is when
you're facing potentially a lopper.
Here, you can go through, andall of these we can go as
complex and deep as we want to.
We're going to keep it mid-level here.
(08:37):
As I go into this, I do want to let youknow that at the end
of October, I'm having.
I don't remember the exact date, but Iknow it's after this podcast,
but shortly after this podcast.
But I have a strategy clinic where I'mgoing to teach you how to read the room.
And this is a good example here in readingthe room when you're playing
against a potential lob situation.
So when you think about lobers, how doyou tackle lobers from a strategic
(09:01):
awareness standpoint?
Well, first, and I know this is going tosound super simple, but listen, I played
with players who half a game in,they'll be like, Oh, you're left-handed.
And no criticism, right?That happens.
But that's not even seeing that I'm aleft player after however many rallies.
So the first step is being awarethat you're facing one or two lobers.
(09:24):
They don't come out to thecourt in disguises and stuff.
If they're lobers, they're lobers.
And let me be clear, I'mnot criticizing any lober.
I think lobbying is fine.I played this morning and I lobed plenty.
So you're facing a lober.
Then the second thing you're going tolook for is, where do they lob from?
Forehand or backhand?What do they prefer?
Third thing is, Baseline,non-volley zone lop.
(09:46):
What part of the court do they lop from?
Front or the back or anywhere?
Some players are like, I can lop fromanywhere on any side, so I'm probably
the most dangerous type of loafer.
But most loavers who you're facingprobably prefer one side, forehand.
Usually, forehand is morecommon than back-hand lobs.
Usually, it's a fore-hand lob,and they have a preferred spot, whether
it's lobbing from the non-volleyzone line or lobbing from the back.
(10:10):
That's strategic awareness.
Then what type of balldo they like to lob?
Then what you do is, this is the idea oftalking about reading the room, where you
basically read thosepieces coming together.
It's almost like you're sitting outside onthe pier or something, looking across the
water, and you see a storm rolling in.
(10:31):
You see lightning in the sky, you see darkclouds, maybe you see bands of rain, maybe
you start feeling the wind, maybe you gotyour phone and there's a weather app, and
you're like, Okay, probably going to rain.
Maybe let me get off this pier.
Really no different whenyou're playing pickable.
So you're looking out there and you seethe storms are gathering,
the clouds are gathering, you hearthunder, you see a little
(10:54):
flashing in the sky.
Might be a lot of coming your way.
The Piecing these parts together in termsof the players are lober,
they're getting a ball on the side theylike, they're getting the
type of ball they like.
And then you can look also at their body.
What's their body look like?
Does it look like a lobbying position?
Most lobers lean back a little bit.
(11:16):
They open their body up a little bit tolob because it's easier to lob,
usually from that position.
We open up a little bit, andthen you're able to hit that lob.
So you can start reading those pieces, andthen you can take action
sooner rather than later.
As opposed to waiting for the lob tobounce behind you before you get it, you
can start fading off the line alittle bit to squeeze their space.
(11:38):
You can tell your partner to go cover it.
You can communicate sooner,all these types of things.
If you read the rooms sooner.
So that's the second one Iwanted to share with you.
And then the last one I want toshare with you is a Stack Unwind.
Let me lay this out for you.
So this is a stacking attack concept,and this is, again, strategic awareness.
(11:59):
This is being aware of what your opponentsare likely to do and then understanding
how to attack it strategically.
You're playing against stackers, and theyare doing what's called the
unwind on the return side.
They're returning, and theneither they're going to...
It could be an unwind or it could be anoff-court stack, but basically,
(12:20):
the returner is going to go diagonal.
There's going to be an opening there astheir partner who's up at the non-visal
line either slides over orcomes in from the outside.
Most of the times these days, you'reseeing more of these switch stack.
That's why it's an unwind, as opposed tothe old-school one player off
the court coming onto the court.
If you don't understand this part of thestory, don't worry about it too much,
(12:43):
but it's basically how you can...
It's two different ways of stacking.
The key to understand is that when there'sa stack on the return side and they're
trying to unwind it, so they're trying tobasically come into
the position opposite where they'rereturning, they're going to have to run a
long distance, longer than normal, andthere's going to be a gap in the court as
they do that, as they switch sides, and asthe other player either comes in or comes
(13:07):
over, there's going to be a gapthat's going to be in the area where
the returner is heading toward.
So think of if the returner is returningfrom the even side and they want to go to
the odd side, that's their stack,then the odd side will be open.
So that'll be the right side for you, theleft side for them, and then
flip it around the other way.
If it's the other way, then you're goingto be open on the left, they're right.
(13:30):
And so why that's important to youstrategically is because when they're
doing their unwind,you don't have to really see it too
much or think about it too much.
You just basically hit your ball into theopen area, into the potentially open area.
They may have closed the space.
But you have an opportunity there whenthey're doing a stack unwind
to attack the opening.
And I tell you that if you watch probatches, you see this happen a lot on
(13:54):
stack unwinds, where there's a lot of...
The scoring rate reallyincreases on the stack unwind.
I don't have an exact figure for youbecause it's a statistical nightmare to
figure that out, toget enough information.
But I can tell you anecdotally, I'veseen it happen too often and too free.
It also the story makes sense,because there's a gap.
The other players are attacking thegap because they know there's a gap.
(14:15):
And then that gap creates a decrease inthe defensive capability
of the return side.
And so then the serve side'schances of scoring go up.
I would bet dollars to the ownersthat the data would prove that out.
I'd be very confident intesting out that hypothesis.
But conceptually, the idea thereis it's strategic awareness.
(14:38):
It's basically going in with anunderstanding of what's happening on the
court, preloading your strategy beforethis ball gets served, and having that
strategic awareness, whether it's how'syour partner playing on the return
side when they're returning?
What are the chances of getting lobed?
The second thing we covered, and then thisone here, where am I attack
(15:00):
opportunities when I have a stackunwind happening on the other side?
Recognizing a stack unwind, knowing whereI'm going to hit my shot
to put pressure on them.
Those types of strategic, being strategicawareness along those lines can really
help you play better, pickleball, becauseyou have an understanding of how the
(15:23):
opportunities and challenges presentthemselves, whether it's to you, like the
challenges to you would befacing the laver, a thing.
And the opportunities present themselveswhen your opponents
are on a stack on wine.
So that's an example of an opportunitythat you can be aware of on
this strategic awareness.
And having that awareness,it's a very nice sense of calm.
It gives you an ability to readwhat's happening on the court.
(15:44):
It's like you're watching a show or amovie, and you can follow the storyline.
You're watching it, you're like,Yeah, I follow the storyline.
I know what's happening here.
I don't know if you saw the movie Thesixth Sense with Bruce But if you haven't
seen, I'm not going to ruin it for you.
But basically, that's one ofthose movies with a twist, right?
(16:05):
And what's interesting about that movieis, and if you haven't
done it, check it out.
So if you haven't checked itout, check it out, period.
The sixth Sense with Bruce Willis in it.
But If you've watched it, watch it again.
Because the second time you watch it, onceyou know the twist, you hear everything
and see everything differently.
It's the same thing here, right?
The better you get at reading the roomwhen you're playing pickleball, it's like
(16:28):
you already know what the twist is beforethe twist happens, and you get ahead
of it and take advantage of it.
Hopefully, that helps you with yourstrategic thinking, which is
obviously part of the mental...
It overlaps athletic pillarand strategic pillar.
It's strategies, but it's also using ourmind to get ahead of them and to give us
some clarity when we're out there playing.
(16:49):
So hopefully you enjoyedthis week's podcast.
If you did, please consider rating andreviewing it like the two listeners
that I shared earlier with you.
If you want to check out thebook, check out the book.
It's I will now.
And if you're into game breakdowns andunderstanding how to read the room,
please join me for our Strategy Clinic.
And I think it's in a few days, butthere'll be a link here, or
(17:11):
you can go to betterpickleball.
com and find the StrategyClinic and sign out for it.
So I hope to see some of you there.
Otherwise, I will see you in thenext episode of Pickleball Therapy.
One last thing, if you enjoyed thepodcast, share with your friends, because
if you enjoyed it, they will, too.
Be well, and I'll see you next week.
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