Hey Team! 🙂

This upcoming week is a BIG week for me! I’m competing in the APP Newport Beach Open 🏝️ with someone you might recognize. 🤭

Kyle “ThatPickleballGuy” Koszuta

He’s a fantastic player and content creator! I’m excited to take the court alongside someone I KNOW who puts just as much work in as I do. 💪🏋️‍♂️

Hopefully, you’ll see us on the broadcast or, better yet, on Championship Sunday going for gold.

In today’s email:

• 🤫 EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: How to hit a 2h backhand drive

• 🧠 Feed your pickleball brain

• ⏱️ Get your 60-second fix

• 🙋‍♂️ What I’m working on right now

PS - Thank you so much to all of you who referred people to my newsletter!

The first ten that referred ten or more received an email with details on how to claim their FREE Virtual Coaching Session with me. Please reach out if you haven’t yet.

New referral program rewards are coming soon - and I promise you’re going to love them!

On to your exclusive video!

How to Hit a 2-Handed Backhand Drive

The two-handed backhand was the shot of the year last year in pro pickleball as many players discovered the benefits of having one. In this exclusive newsletter video 🤫, I show you exactly how to develop one that will strike fear in your opponents.

Here are some key takeaways from the video:

🤝 Get a grip

For two years, I gripped the two-handed backhand completely wrong. Once I realized how to grip it correctly, it changed everything. If it’s good enough for Anna Leigh Waters, it’s definitely going to work for me and you.

🫸 Extend through the shot

The biggest mistake you can make is lifting up as you make contact with the ball. This causes a ball that’s hit too high and soft. Instead, you want to extend your arms through the ball to create power and depth.

🏋️ Get low and stay low

Finally, you must get low with your knees and STAY LOW! This is how you generate even more power and keep your swing compact.

🔔 Practice

The best part about practicing this shot is that you don’t need someone else to practice with and you can do it anywhere – even on the basketball court like I am in the video. 😄

Grab a few balls and toss one up so it bounces on your backhand side. Practice extending through the ball and staying low as you do it.

You can even practice freezing 🥶 at the end of the shot to ensure you’re in the proper finishing position. 📸 

Just make sure you hit the ball at a wall or a fence so you don’t have to chase it down the street. 🏃‍♂️‍➡️

How to handle 4th balls

In this video, I give you the keys to hitting fourth balls that will put more pressure on your opponent, preventing them from scoring. And, if you can’t score, you can’t win. 👏👏👏👏

Let’s learn to attack those fourth balls…

IN UNDER 60 SECONDS 👈

Play Cut-Throat Pickleball to Make Drilling Harder

My training this past week was INTENSE. 🥵

I put an extreme focus on point construction and point development. Way too often, I see myself taking opportunities that don’t fully present themselves. 🎁 ❌

Ultimately, I am getting myself in trouble with poor speedups. 🥺

The best drill to work on point construction is a three-person kitchen drill. This will help you develop points and see patterns in real game scenarios. 🤯🥳

It’s called cut-throat pickleball. 🔪🫣

To do it, put two people on one side of the kitchen and one person on the other. Play a game or kitchen drill like you normally would, but the two people can only hit the ball to the half of the court the one player is on.

This forces those two players to be more accurate, and it helps the one person act like they are playing with a partner. Play games to 11, and anything goes…except maybe lobs. 🙄

You will be SHOCKED at how much work this is and how good you can get at point construction when there are fewer gaps to hit the ball into. 💪