Bernard is not only a great pickleball player, he is smart, great instructor, nice person & is also a wonderful salsa dancer!!! 💃🕺👏

Wow, the guys from Dallas were so good, the guy in black his name is Dallas and his partner name is Warren. Dallas has an amazing third shot drop and as you said, he would hit that corner every time. You had to be so careful with the forth shot because Warren was ready for any week shots. Your analysis was spot on, thanks for doing. A great job. Thanks for what you do for the Pickkeball community. I will be watching

That was a pleasure to watch. I loved that point about hitting your return while you are moving forward. Bernard does that so well. From the time he hits his return until he's at the kitchen is maybe one second. Too many people hit the return standing still or moving backwards - and there is no way to get to the kitchen line before the third shot is on its way. Great stuff!!

Love your critiques and how you point out the ways to improve

I'd like to post one of my games for you to review, but I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough disc space for you to talk about all of my mistakes! 😁

regarding the great topspin analysis in the 9 to 10 minute section, i think a significant amount of the topsin results from spin continuation. Bernard is receiving a cutspin delivered ball , which tends to dive when hit. IOW, hit a cutspin/backspin floater stroke into a wall and you will see it gear downwards once it hits the wall, a topspin delivered stroke gears (bounces) upward when it hits the wall. One thing about being a high level player is that they either conciously or subconsciously take this into account hitting strokes.still being in my first year of pickleball, when i hit balls out sometimes, i say to myself, i forgot to consider the incoming spin , it is not yet second nature or subconcisous to me like accounting for how foul balls can spin back towards the field or the catcher when hit at great speed. Bernard has also closed the paddle surface toward the ground somewhat , but has a great wiping motion at the same time. Rory, thanks for slowing down the analysis of this as it helped me to analyze this in slow mo and see how he is holding the paddle and wiping it and receiving the incoming stroke (well that's my take on why he has such topspin on that point)

10:06 I'd say Bernard's partner was in the right spot. When the ball is that far to the sideline prior to being struck, the partner needs to protect the line.

Fab match and Gr8 commentary. ✅

These guys are very solid. You again referred to the baseline as a the "service line". There is no service line in pickleball

At that level you can't even slightly pop it up.. Kind of scary with a CRBN paddle, prob the 13mm, waiting to pounce on it.

not necessarily an impt comment, but at the 5:50 or so mark, there is a lob that he goes back fast and makes a get, it is in by maybe an inch or 2, then about 10 seconds later, a similar lob of similar height and length and you see him not making similar effort to return the ball, he looks at the partner (bernard) who calls it out -since he didnt hustle back he has no chance to return. watched several times and the ball appears to catch the line to me- I'll grant that the center of the ball does not appear to land on the center of the line.... balls deform when they land, so any part of the ball that is on the line will, should catch the line. i always call these in, but i am surprised that when i play, so many people call shots out that appear to catch the line (the more competitive people are, the more i notice such calls, btw). just curious to others thoughts... good match and good comments on it Rory.

Player court positioning at its best .

the guy's shirt is green not blue...

Can barely see the ball, cannot tell quality of shots.

I love your videos but you cut high level players way too much slack. They suck sometimes too. Fair is fair even if these guys are 5.0 players. So I'll give you some good natured ribbing about all the stuff I would expect you to say. Examples: The very first play, the green guy moved up after the serve when he should have stayed back. He then had to back up to get the third. Coming in early was a 2.5 decision, at best. 1:50 the far white shirt over-shaded too far to the centerline, which allowed an easy pass by Bernard. You cannot be out of position. that's 3.5 at best. 2:30 the green shirt should have reached slightly and pounded a forehand winner earlier, but instead waited for it to get lower and he just took it at the kitchen line with a waist-high medium-paced backhand. That was a 3.0 decision. When you have a chance to put it away, you need to put it away. 3:28 green shirt come in too early after the serve and has to backup AGAIN. 2.5 play. 3:34 the far white shirt got greedy and hit into the net. Should have kept the dinks going. Don't give your opponent free points. 4:11 bernard missed a speed-up into the net. 3.0 at best. 4:23 far white shirt saw a bad reset from his teammate, but did not back up at all to get ready for the slam. lazy 3.5 move. you should not stay in transition in that situation. 4:44 far black shirt barely gets his serve past the kitchen. is he even trying? 4:47 far black shirt hops during his 3rd. terrible form. you cannot properly control your shot when you hit like that. 4:49 far black shirt gives a gift to Bernard. he should have put a soft, shallow dink to his own side of the kitchen. instead he put a nice fluffy dink up high and too far past the centerline so Bernard could pick from two easy putaway spots ... either the gap between the players or to the near sideline. that's a 3.0 dink at best. 5:32 when an easy return comes to the far white player, As a 5.0 player he should certainly be able to get his 3rd shot drop into the kitchen. there was nothing particularly challenging about the return he was facing. 5:41 the far black player steps way off the kitchen instead of taking the dink out of the air. At the 5.0 level, you have to constantly be finding ways to take more time away from the other team. 5:48 why did both players chase down the lob? that's bad communication. You have GOT to communicate. 7:16 For the fourth time in only a few minutes of play, again the green player moved up after the serve. He really needs to break that terrible habit. It takes no athleticism or particular skill to remember something so simple. I'll tease you more, later. Time to head out to dinner with my wife for my 33rd wedding anniversary. Love you, Rory! ok I'm back for more - get ready haha 8:35 the bad hippity-hop footwork on the 3rd leads to an easy putaway 4th shot. if you get your footwork right you'll land more of your drops. 8:52 the far side needs to communicate so they don't both chase lobs. And when you do chase lobs back to the baseline, it's almost always better to let them bounce instead of taking them out of the air while you're still on the move. 10:01 this was a failed drop. he didn't get back far enough so his feet in the right position so the ball got behind him. It ends up with way too much height at the apex, which sets up the other team for an easy finish. 12:37 near white player completely forgets to stay back after the serve and has to move backward to get the 3rd. that not only makes it harder to get a good 3rd, it also makes it much harder to get to the kitchen quickly. 12:43 great leave by the near side black player. that ball was out. Bernard needs to be more patient and wait on the ball so he doesn't go early and pull it wide. Most power players need to be a bit more patient, and this is a case in point. 13:19 the green player cannot seem to stop himself from coming forward after his team serves. 14:02 even though these 3rds are dropping into the kitchen, at this level they are going too wide, and better players will be jumping the corner to erne these drops. If they drop them a few feet closer to the centerline, they'll be unattackable by higher level players. 14:10 you cannot miss such easy dinks. That is 2.5 play right there. 14:12 again the server comes in and has to get back for the 3rd. this is very basic stuff, folks. Now he is stuck back there because he has zero forward momentum after his shot. That lets the other team put extra pressure on his team. 14:36 he misses an easy dink on the 4th and creates a pop-up that is too juicy to resist, and the game is over.