5 Hacks to Finish More Points

If you're like many players, you've understood the objective in a paddle point and you are being consistent. You can get the ball in, but you are struggling to actually finish the point. In this video, we're going to give you 5 hacks or ways that you can finish more points. It can be really difficult to be consistent and to win points, and so often when players start, they start paddle by hitting the ball hard and being aggressive with their smashes, and they make lots of errors. And then you learn to be consistent, which is the right thing to do, and to be patient within the point. But then you get to a stage where you play players and you think, I could have finished that point earlier. And what happens is they end up lobbing you, you go back and you end up several shots later losing the point, and you think about a missed opportunity within that point. Players often mistakenly think that it is purely their technique that is meaning they are not finishing points, and they go away and think, right, I need to hit more kick on my topspin smash, or my vibora needs more bite, or I 'Need to hit my volleys faster,' and that's not actually true. What you need to do is focus on these 5 areas. One of them is a bit technical, so we'll go into that, but the rest are tactical or focus areas that can help you finish points. The first tip is to use the middle. Now, this might sound really obvious, but the pros are hitting their volleys down the middle. They might serve to the side and they hit the first volley middle, or they use the middle to create space. If you want to finish the points, you need to create space on the court, and the best way to do that is to play your volley down the middle of the court, forcing one or probably both of your opponents to go towards that ball, and therefore you have space to hit into. When it comes to the target areas for the shot down the middle, sometimes players get this wrong and they try and hit fast and deep, and the ball bounces off the glass and therefore is easy for the opponents. But really what you want to do is, particularly if you're volleying or hitting a bandeja or slow vibora, you want to aim this shorter up the court in this zone in front of the service line with a little bit of slice, keeping the ball low so that it's forcing both your opponents towards this zone. But also importantly, they are having a shot where they are contacting the ball below net height, therefore in a weak position. Tip number 2 is anticipate what is going to come next. If you were to pause the screen and you see them in that position, could you tell by their body position and their racket position what shot they're going to hit next? And that is what we've got to start doing. We've got to start anticipating or estimating what shot is going to come next so you can already start preparing for that. If they are going below the height of the ball and they look like they're going to swing up to it, probably it's going to be a lob or a higher shot. If the racket's a bit closed, their body weight is back and they're scrabbling for it, then maybe it's a lower ball that you might be able to come forward and be more aggressive. Part of this anticipation is also planning where you are going to hit that next ball. And if you've created space, use the space. So you've hit a lovely shot down the middle, you've created the space in the corner, now use that space that you have created. I so often see players just playing lots of balls down the middle and then waiting for their opponents to reset themselves back in the corner and then hit to the corner. Do it straight away. You've created the space and then apply pressure by hitting the ball into that space. Tip number 3 is keep really intense with your footwork. So often players will set a ball up and they'll put their opponents in a difficult position, and then they think the job will be done, and they kind of stand there, the heels go down, and the ball comes back And if your heels are down, it means that you can't quickly move to it and cut the ball off and get there fast and take time away from your opponents. So keep active with those toes. You do a split step when they contact, and if the ball is soft and it's floating and you can attack it, if you move to meet the ball, that is covering an extra couple of meters. That's giving them less time. It's going to be easier for you to hit into the space. And so much of it is just really simple. It's just simple fast feet activation. And what you want to do is be like this all the time, not just on this ball but on all of your shots. Now we put together a Faster Feet for Paddle footwork course. So for all of our members that sign up, you immediately get our Faster Feet for Paddle, and that is the first thing you see, because regardless of your level, your footwork is what's going to be controlling your game, both defending and attacking. So if you sign up thepadelschool.com, you'll get it straight away. They're follow-along videos where you follow myself going through 4-minute, 8-minute, 12-minute footwork exercise videos you can do off the court, and that means it's muscle memory when you step onto the court so you don't have to think about it. Because in this position, you've set the ball up, you've got them in trouble, you want to think tactically, strategically. You don't want to have to think about your feet, but here you need really active feet to step up and put them under pressure. Tip number 4, and this is the more technical one, And this varies depending on the shot, but if I look around clubs and I look around players, I see that they're not actually coming down on the ball. I look at the overheads, for example, and the vibras or the more aggressive overheads, and they're actually kind of having the elbow down and going up to the vibra. And if you go up to meet the ball, and it's the same with the volley, if you go up to meet the ball on contact, it means that the ball will be bouncy at the other end. And so a simple thing for more finishing volleys or more finishing overheads is trying to remember that you need to go from above the ball down. Yeah, and if you're trying to hit a slice volley, you want to open that racket face slightly. But think to yourself, I need to start above my contact, and that way I can come down to meet the ball. That way the ball is going to go in a downward direction to the other side. Now obviously you need to clear the net, so you don't want it to be too directly down, but you want to come from above the height of the ball down to meet the contact. Open the face for that little bit of slice. Same with the vibora. If you go up to meet the ball, the ball is going to bouncy on your vibora. So you want to really hit slightly above to down. Now the vibora is a slightly more horizontal shot, but still, if you want that ball to go down, you want to actually be on a slight downward path when you come to the contact. So Just remember that, particularly with the volleys, try and get that racket above the height of the ball so that you can come down on the ball. That is going to make it more aggressive and more accurate at the other end. Tip number 5 is commit 100% to the decision that you make. So many players make this error and they end up pushing the ball because they are between shots. They think, oh, should I do bandeja or vibora? And they do something in the middle, or they might say to themselves, right, I'm going to hit this volley into this corner. Oh no, maybe I should hit middle. And then you hit something in between and it ends up being a push shot that your opponents easily get back, or even worse, you make a mistake. So make a decision and commit 100% to that decision and go for it. It's better, and I would rather you as a player go for a decision, make the wrong decision, but at least you committed to one decision, and then afterwards you could say to yourself, "Ah, you know, in that situation, I should do this next time," and therefore you've got something to fall back on. If you don't make a decision, then you've got no reference point for the next time you are in that situation. Something to bear in mind is as you go up the levels, you need to be more patient when trying to finish the point, and therefore you need to hit more setup balls. You are still doing the same thing where you're hitting to space, being really active with the feet, anticipating what's going to come, but you probably just have to hit that many more balls because they are better at defending. That's why the pros have rallies of 30, 40, 50 shots, because they are trying to find a gap or an opening in their opponents. If you're someone who wants to start improving your game from today, we actually created an Instant Advantage bundle, which is the Faster Feet for Paddle course, which is the footwork course, as well as a ball control course, as well as how you can build consistent confidence within your game. If you sign up today, and the link is up in the corner there, then you get access to all of those to kickstart your paddle journey.