Love your videos! Very instructive! I make the same errors and get very frustrated. It’s very useful to see this and learn! Thank you!!

I agree completely, these are the best videos. I recommended them to many people. Love the way you honestly break it all down. Keep them coming!!

Thanks for the commentary. I feel like, as a beginner, unforced errors are the stories of my life. My hands just don't put the ball where my mind is telling it to. 😁

Your honesty is awesome. You are not running for political office. Keep up great work

I appreciate your analysis. I'm learning a lot! 👍🏻

Rory, I had to watch this twice ... once with your commentary muted. We don't agree. IMO, Team Visor took advantage of Team Multi-color's poor tactics. And the Team Visor players each moved more athletically and better than Team Multi-color. What astounded me was how many times Orange should have moved to ... attack ... cover middle ... poach the slow soft balls ... and didn't. The second half of that game Orange simply fell apart; her shot selection seemed to be "opposite" of what it should have been too many times. (It happens.) I think Orange needs some lessons and drilling to specifically UNlearn her (obvious) tennis skills. Her strokes are too long and flowing, preventing her from transitioning from one shot to the next. Rainbow's shot selection was only marginally better. I do think Team Visor would have fared much better had they moved to the NVZ quickly. They seemed to rely on their quickness too much ... but it worked. Rainbow and Black Visor 3.5 Orange and White Visor 3.0 At 13:17 Black Visor lobs over Rainbow's BH shoulder. You exclaim, "That lob is not gonna work!" But it DID work, Rory. Rainbow got all tangled up and missed the overhead. (You called it another unforced error. It was a forced error.) Same thing at 17:01. White Visor lobs (A good lob!). Rainbow hits a forced error (which you call unforced). Again at 20:04. Rainbow hit a GOOD lob. White Visor made a very good stretch overhead to keep the point going. Then Orange should have dinked on White Visor's side for the point. instead Orange hit a soft deep ball right to White Visor, allowing her to take charge of the point.

Very illuminating video. I love your channel!!

Great channel- I’ve been playing for about 2 months and this is helping me understand the proper strategy. One question- I know you should always try to get to the kitchen line but when should you start backing off the line? For example maybe your forced into a more defensive volley. My go to reaction is to get to the kitchen line right away but sometimes the more experienced people I play with tell me to move back in some cases and I get confused.

I think I like it best when you are frustrated - lol - you don't want to rewind the play it over again and I like it more. This is probably the best pick apart of all of 'em all, lol.

Come on. The White team, I’m pretty sure that’s JDub’s mom. She medals all the time in Pro Senior. And the team that lost is also Pro Senior and won a silver that tournament.

Am I the only one who hears Rory’s voice while playing pickleball?

Learning so much from your content. Thank you.

Don't think I've ever heard Rory get so in the match where he was getting frustrated at the play. I'm fairly new, probably a 2.5 but I felt the ladies, at various times, hit the ball well. Not sure if a 3.0 can do some things that Rory suggested/demanded lol. Had to laugh a few times as last night was my second time with the ladder and if he saw how bad I played he would have had me thrown off the court. I always feel that watching matches that are above my rating I can relate to and always learn from.

Good call-outs on this. I am getting hooked on your videos. Confused as well on the "Pro" designation.

I always tell my students to watch games and see the tendencies of players. Watching is as important as playing. It's unbelievable how many shots are passed up or how many broken strategies are used.

Yup. Sucks to have the proper positioning down so much better than the other team, only to lose due to unforced errors. I've watched a couple of your episodes now and enjoy the breakdowns. One suggestion- in addition to pointing out the errors, I'd also recommend taking more time to point out solid technique as well, so that you have an even balance and less negativity for your viewers.

Great camera angle on that video. Can a player really get “held in the back of the court”, or is it also them simply failing to move to the kitchen line ? Thanks.

Its always about the unforced errors for sure

Team white 3.0, other team Orange and Rainbow 3.5. Love these videos. Thanks!

"Pro" in this case is just the DUPR level that these individuals are playing at (5.0+), which classify them as part of the PRO status (albeit at the bottom of the spectrum) Each person in this video have a DUPR above 5.0, so they clearly have had the results to give them the rating, but according to the play and unforced errors they have plenty of room to improve.

I think the lady in black visor from the white team is the better player than her partner, they seem to popped the ball a lot though and yes the colorful team like you said should put it away and could have won the game! Thank you , I enjoyed your video because I like to analyze my mistake when I play . I’m 68 grew up playing badminton and play tennis until 2 years ago switched to PB, due to the lack of indoors court in our small town. We do have 3 indoors courts in the winter and 8 outdoors in the summer at our Rec Center.

If they were such diff ratings they would have gotten pickled. When it’s this close they are same level. They made up for it with other great shots. There is no way they are 3.0 🙄

Fun & exercise, thats what its all about You win & lose no biggie

At 13:55 the lady in orange is on the correct side (rainbow lady served out at 13:40) that wasn't the issue. Watch again, her serve is not in (goes wide) that's what was called.

Great calls

All of these players have a rating of a low 5 to high 4.

the most glaring fault to me is lady in white cap not getting to kitchen in a ready or set position....this is all due to her moving slow and reacting late. but sometimes opposing players hit their returns back hard and or fast barely above the net as well as moving towards the kitchen and hitting their return shot all in tbe same movement.alot of good players return serves and hit the shot as they move to the net.making a hard hit return and hit while moving to kitchen paralize the server.but when that happens thats when they need to adapt,and make the easy change of doing one thing that will solve the issue.return her ball with more ark on the ball as well as slowing it down and hitting a deep shot 1 foot off back line to the in side backhand leg...giving her plenty of to i.e to get to the kitchen..the girl has got great reflexes ...im surprised to see her level of stupidity and lack of understanding of strategy 101. the team that spends the most time at the kitchen in set position,will win overall usually.especially when the time spent there is lopsided for one team. kitchen kitchen,get to the kitchen .....#1 goal if you wish to win or be good.....

Looks like the ladies in white are better athletes and it’s making up for their unfavorable positioning.

You should have mentioned that these are top senior pro female pickleball players in the country with Julie Johnson (white visor) being probably top 3. So 3.0, 3.5, 4.0? Really?

The lady in rainbow got caught backing up off the NVL hitting a backhand while moving. Her backhand sucked too

How could the final score be 11-10?

26:20 How can the final score be 11-10? Don't you have to win by 2 points? Sorry if I'm nit-picking (instead of net-picking...lol)

Unforced era…? Surely not talking about an “era” of unenforcement. Possibly “unforced error”?

Rory - I’m late to the game on this video. Like others, I feel like you were a bit too hard on these players, particularly the team in white. I think you underestimated how good the returns were from these players, especially the team in colors - making 3 shot drops even more challenging. Those low slices with pace are not easy to drop into the kitchen line. But yes, hitting to the player’s feet that is back is a good strategy and sometimes they deviated from that tactic. And the foot speed was slow at times for the player wearing the white visor. But I can assure you, this is much higher level than 3.5. Both of these teams would likely pickle your run of the mill 3.5 team, at least where I am from.

I'm with Rory on this one, very poor play for the professional level you would expect from these particular players given their considerable pedigrees. Maybe wind/extreme heat or humidity was a factor? I felt the analysis was spot on and not sugar coated which is justified as these are professional level players. Respectfully disagree with Mark, they would not "destroy" many of us on the court (including Mark himself).

It looks like 3.5 recreational game at the senior community center. 😅

I would rate them 3.25. Both teams were very inconsistent in their play. Some good points followed by bad points. The woman in orange had one BIG problem--she didn't keep her eye on the ball. This was especially true on her serve which was VERY lackadaisical. The white team that had trouble moving up reminds me of former tennis players who are used to playing from the backline. This may also explain why they didn't play a soft shot very often. I am willing to bet they are former tennis players who are new to pickleball. You are right that it was frustrating to watch.

oh yeah team white is a 3.3.if they do 1 thing and hit their return serves slower with ark allowing time to get to kitchen set,then i think that may put them i n the 4.1 spot rainbow team was a solid 4.1(i always rate unofficial ratings to any demimal points from 0 to 5)

I would suggest the orange/rainbow team is a 4.0 or 4.5 and the team in white is a 3.0, maybe a 3.5

What do u mean ‘put it away’?

Rory, At 4:15, you say the lady in the white cap is lazy for not moving up fast enough and is totally out of position. Your comment is not only harsh, it is also not accurate. She looks like she is running to me then stops where she should, split-steps and misses an excellent shot by her opponent near her feet on her non-dominant side. It happens. The lady with the white cap is an excellent player. You repeatedly judge player’s return of serve based on whether or not they get all the way to the NVZ line and you judge drops based on whether or not they bounce in the kitchen. Neither is correct.

Rory, I really like the format you are pursuing. I've watched dozens of your videos. Sorry to say, but the tone of the narration has gotten too judgmental and negative for my taste.

easy to say than done. typical lol. should be more resonable

Here's a fun and great way to improve your hand-eye coordination when you are by yourself and not at a pickleball court... kzfaq.infoor3HrL-KQQc

Sometimes the ladies are afraid to go up to the Kitchen line thinking they are going to be hit in face.

I feel that black visor is the weakest player. I feel that white visor is not very strategic in her thinking. The two white players need to work a lot on court positioning. I would not rate the white top players above the 3 something level. The color top players deserve a higher ranking and might warrant 4.0 rating.

It doesn’t seem to matter what these women do. If they don’t hit the perfect shot it’s an unforced error. There were some great points here and there are some quick exchanges where they’re reacting and you can’t believe they didn’t hit the perfect shot to the perfect place. If one side loses a point it’s because they did something egregious, not because the other side executes well. I guess you don’t get views if you don’t pick apart every stroke. I realize that’s the point of the channel, but every video sounds the same. I don’t know if you have done it before, but perhaps you can video one of your own games and we can see you critique that.

I think rainbow shirt girl is not the quality of her teammate. The orange shirt lady is quality. The match was won by pure athletic ability. Maybe shouldn't have but they are very good athletes saving many points and keeping rallies going which allowed for the errors.

the white team for sure are maybe 3.0...the multicolor team looks like 3.5 or 3.75 but Orange is having a case of the yips and just had a bad game, it happens.

The reason the better team lost is that neither of them actually has the skill to put the ball away from the net. Not enough power, not enough placement. When they had sufficient time to dink the ball very short, they did, but any sort of pace took away their ability to capitalize on their superior position. It wasn't so much mental errors, it was not having those put-away shots in their arsenal. The white team was decent enough at retrieving weak overheads and punch volleys to keep the ball in play. Putting away a kill shot when your opponent stays at the baseline is not something everyone can automatically do. It takes practice which these women obviously had not spent time on.

This is 4.0 play at best

I would think the white team is 3.0- 3.25. And the other team 3.5

3.5

3.0 players maybe even 2.8 on the white team

Hey Rory you’re being a real jerk in this video. What if these players are tired from playing all day all weekend and can’t afford to be sunk into their knees for 30 dinks.

After enjoying several of your videos, this one is too judgmental and is kinda mean. Is this an early vid of yours? I’ve seen plenty of coaches go “brutal honesty”, but it’s not helpful for most players and isn’t entertaining for casuals.