Sun, 09/13/2009 - 23:04 — Gale H. Leach
The Best Ways to Practice: Hitting toward or away from your opponent
The other day, we were talking about how we practice. As with everything else about pickleball, there were different opinions, but the most interesting discussion was about whether you should hit the ball toward your practice opponent or away from him or her.
 
Carrie said she recently practiced with a partner who believes that if you hit a ball to your opponent in practice, you are training your brain to always hit the ball to your opponents and it will become a habit. In matches, this partner said, you will be conditioned to hit to your opponents even when you want to hit the ball somewhere else.
 
This brought up a lot of controversy. Marie said it was nonsense. How were you supposed to learn to do something if your practice partner wouldn’t hit the ball to you? She said practice means repeating something until you can do it well. If your practice partner always hits the ball far away from you, how can you improve?
The Best Ways to Practice: Hitting toward or away from your opponent