Hitting with spin is much harder in pickleball than in tennis. In pickleball, the game is played in a smaller area and hit with less speed, making spin more difficult to achieve.
Now, because spin is harder to get, it can be even more effective to use – players just aren’t used to dealing with it until you get to a higher level of play.
In this video and write-up of our most recent Game Changers webinar, we go over how we can use kinesthetic training aids to learn spin in a quick and efficient manner. Check it out for some great pickleball spin tips.
The following is a transcript of this Game Changers webinar:
Billy:
I wanted to go over a few different products. This being the Topspin Solution. I’d love to hear a little bit about the philosophy behind them. Even maybe some stories about how they were developed, and what type of person would benefit the most from using these.
Kalindi:
So yeah, I didn’t give you a warning about this, but I threw in a mixture of some of my favorite products. Plus, after this, we can get to the new ones.
But I’ve always loved the Topspin Solution, and I think it’s very underrated, but it’s not one of our most brand-new products, but it is among one of our newer ones.
While we did call it the Topspin Solution, we realized afterward that we probably shouldn’t have limited the name to just topspin, because it works great for learning backspin, underspin, and slice.
In this picture…
…you can tell how easy it is to set up. You can put it on a chair, on a cart, on a fence. You can put it high, you can put it low. And each gives you a different spin to practice.
You can see someone at one height practicing a kick serve and someone else working on their forehand.
This is, essentially, like the 2.0 version of one of our original products, the Spin Doctor, which is also one of my personal favorites because it’s how I learned spin as a kid learning tennis. The kick serve is one of my favorite shots.
But with the Topspin Solution, if I had that as a kid, I wouldn’t of had to wait for my next lesson to practice these things, I could have been doing it on my own AND with my coach.
Joe:
Well, it’s actually sad that we have so many people who want to learn topspin, but they truly believe it’s past their capability to learn when really it’s pretty simple… with the right tools.
A lot of coaches will change someone’s grip in order to teach them Topspin, but actually, people will learn it themselves and find the right grip.
So, they can use this little aid and find the right grip for Topspin naturally. Which makes learning faster.
There’s no PhD in Topspin where you need to go to school for 6 years. It’s just not like that. It’s just not that difficult. But using just words does not teach in sports nearly as well as kinesthetic training aids.
Kalindi:
I’ve also had some pickleball players say they’ve used it and liked it. It’s obviously a tennis ball on the device. And in pickleball, you can’t do as much spin. But it’s the exact same type of learning, so this can be easily used for pickleball or other racket and paddle sports as well.
Billy:
That’s awesome. It’s a great little product. This next one is a newer product, right?
Kalindi:
Correct! This one is actually new and not just one of my favorites. I want to show everyone all the time.
We like to keep things fun in these Game Changers webinars.
So the Pickleball Eye Coach is from a partnership we have with Billie Jean King. We sold the tennis version of this product for a long time, and everyone loved it.
But we got a lot of pickleball players asking if there was a pickleball version. So we made it happen.
So the Pickleball Eye Coach can be set up anywhere because the ball is not going anywhere, we’ve seen people set it up in their living room to get their reps in. And with it, you can practice all the different shots in a way that speeds up that mind/body connection for really fasting and long-lasting learning.
This aid also works on training your brain with the rhythm, flow, and tempo of the game. That feel for the game usually only happens on the court, or maybe with a coach or a very realistic ball machine, but with the Pickleball Eye Coach, you can get that deep learning from just about anywhere.
We have a few videos on our website where you can see the eye coach in action.
Joe, maybe you can share a little more about this.
Joe:
Yeah, just to go back over something we mentioned earlier. The Pickleball Eye Coach can be used with a myriad of different training aids at the same time. The Start Rite Grip Trainer and the Angle Doctor would both be phenomenal in conjunction with the Eye Coach.
The best way to learn a technique is through block learning. That’s doing enough of an action in order to really hammer the lesson home.
However, a lot of players don’t enjoy block learning as it can feel repetitive and boring. But with the Eye Coach, players can spend less time in each block, learning skills and techniques faster, which keeps them coming back for more.
Kinesthetic, quick-fix aids like these can save quite a bit of money compared to private lessons.
This extends to coaches, actually. Most coaches rely on verbal instructions to teach their players. But it just doesn’t work on its own. At all. But if a coach were to use kinesthetic training aids, they’d have so many more students signing up AND staying because, with this coach, they get results.
Forming a mind and body connection is what learning is all about. Verbal instruction is very bad at that. Some visual instructions can be a little bit better. But kinesthetic learning, with some visual and verbal instructions as support, is the most effective, fastest way players can learn.
If you play, coach, or even just know someone who plays, take a serious look at the Pickleball Eye Coach. Billie Jean King’s input and experience helped create one of the most beneficial training aids on the market for tennis players, and with the Pickleball Eye Coach, the fastest-growing sport in America has the perfect training aid.
Kalindi Dinoffer is trained in multiple aspects of mindfulness in life and in sports, sharing on her blog MindfulKalindi.com. She is also certified to teach yoga, fitness, reiki, and MFR. Kalindi also serves as VP marketing at OnCourtOffCourt.com, a leading supplier of tennis, pickleball, fitness and yoga training aids and equipment and has been published in Tennis industry Magazine and Pickleball Magazine, and has conducted workshops at conferences around the world. In her spare time, Kalindi plays tennis, pickleball and table tennis and enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and biking and cross country skiing in the winter.
