Gladiator Pickleball
Getting Ready to Win: The How
Warmup
Warmup?
Who the heck
cares about warmups!?!
Let’s go!
Let’s get on with it.
Let’s play some games
and see who’s got what.
Let the bell ring.
Let’s duke it out.
I’m out to see
if I can knock you out
with one punch!
This is the attitude
of many amateur Pickleballer.
This is
perfectly natural,
perfectly normal,
perfectly understandable,
and perfectly good.
This is a normal start
for how people approach the game
when we first start to learn the game.
We want to prove to ourselves
that we can do it, too.
Why do we want to prove it?
Because we’re not sure
if it’s true.
If we were sure,
we wouldn’t feel the need
to prove ourselves.
As I said,
this is all normal & good.
No problemo.
What can be sad, however,
is for someone to be stuck
in this mode forever,
stuck in the mode
of trying to prove to oneself & others
that, indeed,
I can do it!
Look, ma… no hands.
I did it!
That means I can do it!
Woopy!
This is like seeing a child
never growing up.
Year after year,
in the same elementary school,
never graduating
but becoming an expert
in elementary school curriculum.
They can tell you
about elementary curriculum
better than the teachers.
They know everything!
Except how to graduate.
Ground Hogs Day
Pickleball style.
Woopy!
Not.
When we tire trying to prove to ourselves,
when we tire of the same old drama,
the same old manufactured dramas,
the same old artificial dramas
that has nothing to do with
playing to our full potential,
then our boredom can motivate us
to shift from proving to preparing.
Proving is for show.
Preparing is for dough.
Egos prove.
Athletes prepare.
Prove what?
That I can win.
Proving to win
vs.
Preparing to win.
May sound similar,
may loom similar,
but very different.
One is real.
The other a copy cat.
Provers are trying to prove
that they’re real.
How?
By acting.
How can you be real
when you’re acting?
Right?
The proving mindset
keeps players at lower levels,
because we can only prove
that we can play
against weaker players.
But against stronger players
the proof vanishes.
Unable to cope,
we stick to lower level players
against whom we can prove:
Yes, I can.
Those who focus on practice & preparation,
also known as training,
have no problem
playing with more advanced players
because more advanced players
can be the God-send
to help me train better,
to help me improve.
I have no need to prove myself
against the God-send.
My desire is to use
the God-send to help me improve.
My focus is on proving
that I can train,
that I can improve,
that I can make my game
better than my game yesterday.
Not that I can play today
the way I want to play tomorrow.
Just acting like I know how to play
like I’ll be able to play tomorrow
without practicing the shots first
is how amateurs do it.
That is why they are amateurs.
If I know how to train,
I know how to improve my game.
If I know only how to prove,
I know how to show off my game,
not improve my game.
After a while,
after a year or two,
everyone will see
I’m all talk,
but not much else,
playing the same game
year after year,
saying the same things
year after year.
Ground Hogs Day.
The Sage
In my
not at all illustrious,
but still personally glorious,
career as an amateur gladiator,
the most significant and
influential book has been
Brad Gilbert’s Winning Ugly,
co-written with Steve Jamison.
The influence
that Brad’s book
has had on me
was precisely what
Brad intended,
no doubt.
That is genius,
a sage at work,
using the laws of Nature
to do his bidding.
All he does is plant a seed,
a vision.
Nature does the rest.
A sage.
What was this vision?
What was the vision
that influenced me,
the aspiring,
dreaming,
hungry,
amateur athlete
looking to unlock
the secret of everlasting victory?
The mindset,
the mental outlook,
the worldview,
of top athletes
who have successfully
competed amongst
the best of the best,
the creme de la creme,
the idols,
the gods.
Mundaneness of Preparation
What I saw
through Gilbert’s words
was how practical
and unromantic
his approach was
compared to the way
I was approaching
the game before.
Before,
before Brad’s words,
I was all about
proving that I can
out on the court.
Every time I stepped out
onto the court,
I was huffing & puffing
trying to prove to everyone
that I can.
Like Thomas the Train:
Yes, I can.
Yes, I can.
Now, I see
that I was trying to prove
to everyone because
I knew that
I couldn’t prove it to myself.
That is,
I knew that I could not.
After,
Brad’s book,
I went
from trying to prove
to trying to prepare.
Now, I’m
less about proving
out on the court
and
more about preparing
before
I get out on the court.
Really,
there is little
that I can do
by the time
I’m on the court.
All my opportunities
to learn to do
something different
happened before
I stepped out on the court.
By the time
I’m on the court,
it’s too late.
At that point,
the best thing to do
once I’m out on the court
is to sit back
& enjoy the fruits
of my preparation.
Let the body do its thing.
Let the body dance the dance
that we trained it to dance
before
we ever stepped out
on the court.
Now,
come warmup time,
I’m focused on preparing
my body & my mind.
Why?
Because that is my job.
That is the job
that I trained to do.
I don’t know
if all my training
is gonna work.
That’s why I’m here
out on the court,
to find out.
To find out,
I need to prepare
my body warm & loose
& my mind relaxed & comfortable.
I need to get into a state
where I am ready
to rock ’n roll
& dance the night away.
Now,
when I step out on the court,
I’m trying to see if I can,
trying to see if I will.
I am more in
a mode of discovery,
less & less in
the mode of proving.
Discovery is offensive.
Proving is defensive.
What’s more,
I now have something to discover.
Having trained,
I’m now busy trying to see
if my training has had any affect
on my performance.
Too busy to be nervous
about anything.
Have you ever been
so focused on what you needed to do
that you lose yourself?
Yet,
when you look back,
having focused on
just doing your job,
you accomplish
what once looked impossible!
The house is clean
once again!
The project is done!
On to the next!
To be able
to focus on one’s job
to a point where
one loses oneself,
one has to know
EXACTLY
what one’s job is.
This is training:
learning one’s job
&
learning to do it well,
so well that you can do it
with your eyes closed.
Training is learning
1) what your job is,
&
2) learning to do it so well
that it becomes automatic.
With automaticity comes magic.
Freedom!
Yeah, baby.
Back to Brad
What Brad showed me
through his description
of his preparation for a match
was how the best of the best
prepare for their matches.
Professional athletes,
like soldiers,
take their jobs very seriously.
Those that don’t, don’t survive long.
Brad showed me
being meticulous & practical,
was key to preparing
like top athletes.
Hidden Value
A great warmup routine
is not the same
as winning games
after the warmup.
On the other hand,
learning to execute
a complete warmup routine
with control & style
is probably the single most effective way
that 99% of amateur can improve their game.
If you can’t do it
during the warmup routine,
you probably shouldn’t expect
to do it successfully
during the game.
But
if you can do it during warmup,
your chances of doing it
during the game
goes up like a rocket.
Also,
at the amateur level,
just winning
the warmup competition
can go a long way
in intimidating
the opponents
who have no clue
what to do before a game.
We can win games
before the game even starts,
by psyching our opponents
into thinking
that we know what we‘re doing
and they don’t.
They don’t have to know
that we don’t have a clue, either.
We’re just doing our job,
just doing
what we trained our bodies to do.
And now,
it’s time to do the warmup job.
That is all.
We’re just dummies following rules,
rules that we made up
and practiced during practice.
That is all.
While
our opponents are busy
watching us warmup together,
we’re busy
warming up our bodies & priming our minds
for the game.
Which horses
would you put your money on?
The watchers or the doers?
The doers,
that be us!
The Ugly Athlete
The thing about Brad Gilbert
is that he is
not a natural athlete.
Brad ain’t no phenom.
Brad won no major championships.
The reason why
Brad had to win ugly
is because he’s not capable
of winning beautifully.
Ugly is the best
that Brad can muster.
That said,
it takes a genius
to win ugly
when you have no right to be
out on the court in the first place.
What Brad is a Champion of
is that he got the most out of
what his body had to offer.
He took what he had,
the body that he had,
and used his head & discipline
to achieve something
that no one with his talent
should be able to achieve.
A guy like Brad
doesn’t belong on the same court
with legends like Boris Becker.
Yet, Brad was a pain in the neck
for everybody on the tour,
especially Becker.
Brad was the guy
everybody hates to play
in the circuit
because he does not
give you free games.
And if you have a weakness,
He has the nose & the brain
to smell you out & make you pay.
The Brilliant Coach
I feel very much like Brad.
I related to Brad, the ugly winner
who was not gifted
with a great athletic body,
just a great athletic brain.
Especially now,
as a walking wounded with a bum knee,
I feel like Brad who has to win ugly,
who has to squeeze every ounce
of what my body has left to give,
to be competitive out on the court.
Brad’s words give me hope.
If I use my head & discipline
I can find a way
to squeeze the most out of my body,
to squeeze more from my body
than my colleagues,
those in my age group.
This way,
as my generation gets older,
year after year,
I will rise to the top
continuing to improve my game,
while everyone else’s game
will be going down
as a result of their aging bodies.
That is the reward
for being able to
train my body & my mind
to perform under pressure
better than others,
to move my feet
better than others,
to strike the ball
more consistently than others.
This does not mean that
I have to beat any particular person,
or be better than anybody.
In fact,
I don’t.
I am trying to see
if I can beat yesterday’s me.
I am trying to see
how good I can be.
For those with
similar aspirations,
I am sharing
the influence that Brad has on me
because, for me,
it worked.
No, not easy.
But all common sense.
With the inspirational words
of Brad Gilbert,
I was able to taste some of the magic
that Brad intimated in his book.
At the end of this article,
I have included excerpts of
Chapter 4 from Winning Ugly.
If you’re a reader,
I highly recommend Brad’s book:
Winning Ugly.
It is a classic in the annals of
sports philosophy & literature.
I am confident that
Brad’s common sense
but comprehensive approach
to squeezing all that he can
out of his not so phenomish body
is the perfect example to learn from
for Pickleball Gladiators,
especially competitive senior Gladiators
who may now have to learn to win
a little uglier than we used to.
Gotta tell yah,
it’s working for me.
Appendix: 4
The Microwave Warm-up:
Defrost Your Strokes Quick
from Winning Ugly
by Brad Gilbert
with Steve Jamison
As you move through the pre-match preparation to the beginning of play, you come to the last important element before the match starts: warming up your strokes. Most recreational tennis players waste or minimize this part of the pre-match routine because they don’t understand how much it can contribute to winning.
Here’s a fundamental rule for me: Have a plan. Each stage of the match should be recognized as having some potential for helping you achieve victory. Having a plan helps ensure that you accomplish it. Knowing what you want to accomplish during the warm-up will get it done.
Two Extremes:
Both Wrong
There are two kinds of warm-ups I see with club players: too much or not enough. Some players come out and warm up for a month. Are they hoping they’ll suddenly get better? It’s not going to happen in the warm-up. Are they afraid to start the match? Are they trying to lose weight? Whichever it is, you know the type (and I hope you aren’t one of them). They go out on the court and for twenty minutes they work on all their strokes… with your help!
Don’t let your opponent use you as a human ball machine. When you’re ready to go, get started. Tell your opponent you have to leave a little early. Tell them you want to make sure you can get the match finished. Or agree in advance on how long the warm-up will last. Don’t let them drag you through their practice session. They can practice on their own time. This is a warm-up. Besides, putting you through all of that doesn’t help your game.
Most players, however, hate the warm-up. In fact, generally the worse the player is the less they warm up. It’s like phys. ed. in high school, something you do to graduate. Their warm-up is wasted and the opportunity is thrown away. They rush through it and hit their favorite shot a few times, ignore their weaker ones, and move into the match. If you’re sloppy, rushed, and careless during this valuable period immediately preceding the match it’s guaranteed to carry over into the match itself. The player who’s prepared can take advantage of one who doesn’t fully utilize the warm-up period.
The warm-up is your final opportunity to set the stage for getting off to a good start, to get a jump on your opponent that can affect the entire match and get you ready to play your best. Have a plan for this period and execute it. Here’s how to do it.
The Plan:
Short and Simple
The warm-up doesn’t have to be long, but there are three things you want to accomplish with it:
1. Continue the physical warming up of your body and mind that began with stretching and pre-match planning and visualization. 2. Get your eyes and body working together for successful stroke production, which includes managing nerves.
3. Learn as much as you can about your opponent.
The tour players come out on court already warmed-up. What happens in front of the crowd just before the match is the very last bit of preparation. It helps with the butterflies and loosens everyone up a little. But for you the warm-up on court is probably the entire preparation. So make it count. It’s why the sandbagger who warmed up with his club pro before the match had such a tremendous advantage. He was up to speed and off to the races four or five games before the pigeon woke up.
How to Defrost Your Strokes
in Seven Minutes and Forty-Five Seconds
Here is a very specific warm-up procedure guaranteed to set you up correctly for the match, both physically and mentally. When you go on the court, use it. Your opponent will probably go along with anything you say if you’re nice about it. You may choose to use your own variation.
That’s fine as long as you remember to cover all these strokes and to have a regular routine you follow in doing it. The pattern you establish adds to the process of telling your mind and body that tennis is on the agenda.
Ninety Seconds:
Volley to Volley
You want to get the eyes and hands working together. Don’t run out on the court and start banging groundstrokes. Especially if you’re a B or C player and especially if you haven’t played for several days.
It’s dumb to start hitting the shot that requires the most movement and uses the biggest muscle groups first when you haven’t played in a week. If you’re playing all the time it’s different. Then you may want to start with the groundies and later move on to volleys. Most players aren’t so lucky, however.
Tell your opponent you want to hit easy volleys back and forth, both of you inside your service boxes four or five feet from the net. It’s just a little wake-up call for the old eye-hand motor function.
Believe me, it works. It gets your eyes watching the ball and your racket hitting the ball with the least effort and best chance for good contact. Your opponent is going to make a face when you start it. Forget the face. They have no plan and are only proceeding by habit of laziness. This is a real help in establishing a good rhythm for yourself (and, unfortunately, for your opponent, too).
Pop the ball back and forth to the backhand and forehand. Stay on the balls of your feet. Just make good contact. It gets your eyes tracking the ball so that the sweet spot of your racket gets a little use.
Four Minutes:
Groundstrokes the Correct Way
First thing to remember: Try and hit your initial groundstrokes deep, just inside the baseline. In fact, if the ball is a little long, great. Aim for just inside the baseline. Try to hit your first six or seven shots with plenty of depth. Don’t let a ball fall short. Pay attention to what you’re doing. If a ball lands in or near the service box, correct it and go for that baseline.
Why? Nerves tend to shorten strokes and shots. Get the stroke extended by hitting deep. It sets an early pattern of hitting to the back of the court, which is one of the single most important habits you can have. In your match it’s better to hit one out of five shots long than four out of five short. So start hitting deep early.
Remember, you’re not trying to impress your opponent with power in those groundies. Start out nice and easy. Work your way up to speed (which won’t happen until the fourth or fifth game). It’s very important to establish a comfortable and effective rhythm initially. Club players love to start the warm-up by flailing away immediately. Avoid it. Go easy. Let your body come up to speed in a comfortable way.
DON’T CHEAT
During most warm-ups the average player will run around their weakest side on groundstrokes (the backhand) about 70 percent of the time. I’ve seen players warming up who actually caught the ball instead of taking a swing at it on their weak side. They love to hit what’s comfortable and avoid what isn’t so comfortable. If you count the times you actually avoid hitting from that side it would surprise you.
In fact, you should be doing just the opposite: run around the stronger side when possible. Hit your backhand as much as you can. Get it fired up. Get used to hitting it. Believe me, if your opponent is smart you’ll be hitting it plenty once the match begins. So don’t ignore it. Give it at least equal time. It’ll pay off short term and long term.
One of the reasons you see a big difference in a player’s weaker side and stronger side as they keep playing over the years is this: they are constantly looking to hit the shot they like and avoid the shot they don’t like. It feeds on itself. Over the months and years a player lets the weaker side kind of wither on the vine. Lack of attention equals lack of effectiveness.
In a match it might make sense to run around it. In the warm-up give the weaker side a little real attention. Among other things it will build up your confidence. You’ll get used to hitting it. And the warm-up is a regular, no penalty opportunity to work on it.
Thirty Seconds:
Overheads
Overheads get ignored in the warm-up, especially by B and C level players. Here’s why. It may be the shot you hit worst and hate most. Nobody likes to look bad in front of their opponent. Nobody likes to look bad in front of themselves. That overhead can make you look real bad. It’s the most difficult shot to time right, especially when you’ve just started. So a lot of players just don’t want to mess with it. What do they do? They wait until it counts to hit their first overhead. This is not intelligent. They figure it’s just easier to skip it entirely. Don’t.
The overhead warm-up does two things. Obviously, it warms up the overhead. But it also starts warming up your serve. It gets you doing all the things you need to be doing during the serve: looking up, following through, transferring your weight. It gives you just a little more time to bring the serve up to speed. Your objective is modest. Just make solid contact on the swing. Don’t worry about power. Don’t worry about great angles. Just take a relaxed cut at the ball and don’t get fancy.
Fifteen Seconds:
The Toss
As the toss goes so goes your serve. When was the last time you actually practiced your toss? Before you serve, practice your toss four or five times. Just focus on doing it smoothly and putting the ball where you want it. Toss it up. Then catch it without moving your feet. It’s a great way to improve your serve with very little effort. (And during the match if your serve starts to give you trouble, slow things down and take a couple of practice tosses. I’ve found it helps to get things back on track. If your toss is all over the place it’s impossible to have a reliable serve.)
Finally, on this much overlooked but crucial part of the game, don’t be afraid to stop your service motion if the toss is terrible. Catch it! Toss it again. Club players will chase a bad toss into the locker room trying to salvage it.
One Minute:
The Serve
I want you to hit four serves to both courts, both wide and down the center. Most club players tend to hit just to the deuce court. I want you to hit to both courts for this reason. The service warm-up is aimed primarily at setting up a good comfortable motion for yourself early in the match so you don’t needlessly double-fault.
Hit your initial serves with an easy, relaxed motion. Keep your wrist very loose — almost floppy. Hit your first three or four serves with almost a lazy motion. Aim for the service line or beyond. Then gradually increase velocity.
You want to help yourself as much as you can for that first service game. You want to be comfortable with the stroke and you don’t want to be serving to the ad court for the first time during the match, so serve to it in the warm-up.
Thirty Seconds:
Service Return
When your opponent is hitting serves during the warm-up, don’t catch them, hit them back. Practice hitting their serve with a good service return. I believe it can be one of your most important weapons and it is seldom worked on. Work on it. And work on it in the warm-up. Hit some focused, rhythmic, and connected returns. Remember, this is probably the shot you’ll hit first (especially if you follow my later advice). The time to get it going is in the warm-up.
That’s the “quick-and-slick-it’ll-do-the-trick” 7-minute-and-45-second Microwave Warm-up. Yes, it may take a couple of minutes longer if your opponent wants to hit some overheads or anything else. But your game, at least, will be ready to roll. Do this and you come out hot (or at least warm).
Learn About Your Opponent:
The Quick Study
Another objective during this final stage of the pre-match opportunity is to see if your opponent is showing you anything about their game you can use against them. This is important with someone you haven’t played before. Here’s how to do it.
Hit a ball down the middle. Which way do they step? Do they run around the backhand? If you’ve never seen your opponent before, they’ve just told you something; namely, they favor one side over the other.
When they’re at the net volleying, throw a surprise lob up. Do they cover smoothly? Are they quick or clumsy with their footwork? Also, when they’re at the net, hit a ball low to their feet. Do they bend their knees or do they drop the racket head (the lazy man’s volley). During the rally pay attention to how they move and how they strike the ball when they’re moving. Are they sharp on one side and inconsis- tent on the other? Do they hit one shot more than another-slice, topspin, or flat? Do they take big, looping strokes or short, compact strokes? Remember the following Gilbert Golden Rule: The strokes that are prettiest in the warm-up are the ugliest under pressure. Never be too impressed by what you see in the warm-up. But do remember any little problems or glitches in their strokes or movement that you might want to exploit in the match.
