Well only a few more day of pickleball play for me. I'll be heading to get my matching knee replacement on Friday.
Just want to thank everyone for the well wishes and remember to paddle up and toe the line until I return. Watch out when I do. It will take a few months and won't be solid until the summer but with a great Doctor and PT punishers I should be good to go. I'll be working on the site and some new stuff while rehabing the next few months so I'm not out just down for a few. Keep it up and put 'em down. Wish me luck Don't forget to check out Great Lakes Regional Facebook and My Pickleball CPR Group.. Have fun pickling:) I've had the privilege the past few weeks to give some clinic time to some great people over at the Solon Recreation Dept. There are 24 young seniors who are working to improve their game play. From beginners to intermediate players they all come with a paddle in hand ready to learn something new for the day.
In each one-hour session, I start with the basic principles of the skill of the day and continue to stress the safety issues of moving around the court to avoid injuries. Then its onto paddle position, footwork and move into skill and multi-player skill drills. Using several of the drills from the book we progress our drilling from close at the net to deeper attacks away from the net. I believe and have learned from my own play, coaching, and teaching experiences that starting close and moving away gives the player success from the start. Starting deep becomes frustrating if they have poor skills or poor habits, to begin with. Once the drill is in action we progressively move from one drill to the next and then into game situational play by the end of the hour. Since we don't have enough courts and an overflow of players we play ERRO. This is when the extra person stands out and when an error is made they substitute in for the person causing the error. It works great and moves players in and out more fluently than standing and waiting for a complete game to end. All the players of the same level seem to gravitate to each other, which works out well when needing 'like' skill levels. It gets frustrating for those with higher skill as it does for those with a lower skill level to try to play competitively or keep a rally going in a drill. So far all is going well. What I do know is that if you are going to have a clinic for beginners it should be for beginners. You can make the drills more effective and slow them down enough so that they can learn. The same goes for an intermediate or advanced group. Keeping them separate will enhance everyone's play. Even with that, the excitement of the players is fun to watch and teach too. I love it when that lightbulb of AH HA! comes on and the skill level jumps another notch. I look forward to my last session with the Solon seniors and hope they have enjoyed the sessions as much as I have. Be well and Paddle Up! |
AuthorHello I'm Claudia and I love Pickleball.. Archives
September 2017
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