Everything Keeps CHANGING! Pickleball's Progression

The wood paddle experiment in Sacramento delivered on many fronts: there was drama, upsets, and uplifting victories. The tournament provided us with an opportunity to pay homage to the game’s origins with old-school equipment, even if the level that was displayed was anything but old school. I, personally, was very impressed with the level of play on display, and figured it presents me with the perfect opportunity to discuss how the game has changed in only the few years I have been playing!

Some expected the wood paddle tournament to bring pickleball back all the way to 1965, the year it was founded. Think fully continental grips, exclusively slicing/hitting flat, and few to no speedups. The game has changed a lot since then with the infusion of new technology, but the past week only emphasized that the major source of improvement in our beloved sport is not tech-based, but actually related to the athletes themselves figuring out and constantly pushing the limits of what is possible and ideal. The meta is ever-changing!

Gradually, more and more aggression has seeped into the doubles game. Now we see topspin, roll volleys, powerful swing volleys, speedups below the net - things that before were unthinkable, even sacrilegious. Anna Leigh has told me that when her and her mom started playing, everyone told them their constant aggression wouldn’t work, but one coach at a clinic told them to stick with it as it worked for them. Who was that coach? None other than her current mixed partner, Ben Johns. Thankfully, they stuck with their natural strategy and not only dominated the women’s game for a stretch, but revolutionized it entirely.

Here’s a match they played versus Catherine and Jessie in 2019!!! Interestingly enough, most of the balls were actually hit to Anna Leigh rather than Leigh. Today, that’s kind of a crazy thought. There’s tons of old footage out there of the Waters playing years and years ago, and it’s all super interesting. They’ve always been inventive! Here’s AL hitting a lefty forehand speedup.

Pickleball today is more dynamic, athletic, and complex than it ever has been, and I don’t expect that trend to slow down as the game expands and becomes truly international. It’s still the fastest growing sport y’all!

It’s crazy to think about just how much pickleball has changed since I started playing in October of 2021. Four years is right around the corner! It’s genuinely so strange to me that a lot of people are starting to view me as a veteran of the game. In Malaysia, where most people have been playing less than a year, my saying 4 often prompted shock and awe, and I would think “you think that’s long?! Go ask Ben and Tyson how long they’ve been playing”😂😂. Y’all are making me feel old!

There have been many micro-shifts, and some macro-ones in my time. Some of the most notable micro-changes include:

ATPs and ATP defense both improving naturally go hand in hand. When I started playing pickleball, ATPs were rare, and them being returned was FAR rarer. It’s like everyone would just panic and often not even move when the shot was available to their opponents. It’s like I wrote in my piece on panic, the only way to conquer it is through exposure, and pros have been exposed to a lot more ATPs in recent years, and as such their defense has improved. I’ll now watch matches (specifically men’s doubles matches), in which the main source of offense a player is looking for against an aggressive dinker is the ATP (think Connor Garnett, Federico Staksrud).

When I started playing pickleball, I had no desire to learn how to hit a one-handed backhand flick, as did most women. I simply thought of myself as a 2-handed player on my backhand wing. Lea Jansen was the only player at the time consistently flicking and doing it well, and I (and many others), simply thought she was special for being able to do that. I don’t mean to imply Queen Lea isn’t special, but it’s crazy to think that it went from being something relatively rare/unheard of to now being noted on a scouting report as something someone lacks.

The last micro-change I will write about today applies to how players “sit”, or what they do when they expect their opponent is going to attack them. When I started, I always “sat backhand” in mixed doubles and always would slide towards my sideline to give myself the space to swing. Today, this no longer works. Doing that every time in mixed will get you eaten alive- being predictable is the enemy. Women are far shiftier and will mix up what they expect- if you’re someone who always slides for a backhand, I recommend working on mixing in some hard forehand counters.

For every small change in the game at the minute-level, there is an accompanying (or multiple accompanying) shift at the broader scale. Some of the biggest themes I’ve noticed in pickleball in my short time are:

In this newsletter, I am not going to cover these topics super deeply simply because it is nearly 3AM (I can’t sleep, but should try😅) and because I have to have content to write about for you guys in the future!!! Can’t give away everything now! Let me know which topic I should prioritize getting to you guys!

The rise of the 2-handed backhand and being dangerous from every position go hand-in-hand, but it felt wrong to not write about or address the significance of the 2-hander by itself. What was once a shot only hit by a few women and Riley Newman is now something that pretty much every single player will hit on occasion. Guys who have never put two hands on anything have literally taught themselves an entirely foreign movement pattern simply because it is so essential to have as a weapon and option. It allows for a more aggressive dink, a more threatening speedup, and, of course, allows a player to be more dangerous from a spot they perhaps previously weren’t. Modern pickleball is all about creating constant anxiety from every spot on the court, and the two-hander is a critical part of that.

Another major shift, especially in men’s doubles, has been the change in meta. Before left-side players took 70%+ of the court, but now it’s more 50/50, and on occasion is even more of a 40/60 split. Where once left-side males were in high-demand, it’s now the opposite. There are only a few guys that can play the right side in this alpha manner, and they are heavily sought after. There’s no better evidence for this general shift than Ben splitting with Collin in favor of playing with Gabe Tardio. Ben/Collin literally created what they thought was the optimal, perfect system to “solve” pickleball, and they had to admit they were wrong. Don’t know if there’s a player more different from Collin than Gabe😂.

Each of the macro-shifts deserves its own piece, and I promise I will write on those eventually. However, I want to leave everyone with one parting thought- has Ben slowed down our game’s evolution? You’re probably confused, but hear me out.

Visually, though he is anything but, when Ben plays pickleball he looks lazy. His movement efficiency is insane and reflects his cerebral nature. But imagine you’re a young guy and you watch the GOAT in 2019 and that’s how he plays - he rarely speeds the ball up off the bounce, has no 2-handed backhand, and takes 75% of the court. Old-school Ben did all the things I just discussed as being, well… old. I wonder if we would have gotten the likes of Gabe Tardio, Christian Alshon, and Hayden Patriquin, and other newer, dynamic superstars sooner if our GOAT had been someone else with a flashier style. We’ll never know, and by no means am I dragging Ben here, I just think it’s an interesting thing to ponder. I might not be the player I am today had I not been able to watch ALW and see that constant aggression could work. Regardless, Ben’s adaptability and willingness to change his game is something that, IMO doesn’t get enough credit and has kept him at the top. He may have slowed us down, but we are still right where we need to be!

See everyone on Monday where I will recap PPA Vietnam and perhaps cover one of these macro shifts if you guys are interested! (: