Last night I got a delivery from UPS. I’m an ambassador for Diadem pickleball and they released their version 2 of the Icon paddle. I believe I mentioned several weeks ago that I was nervous about the V2. What if it is different than my beloved V1 Icon? Well, it arrived. I opened it up, tested a few shots and decided quickly, I’m not using it yet.
At first I thought, oh boy! I’m drilling at the crack of dawn tomorrow, I can’t wait to use it! But it’s heavier, and it’s a different material, it is skinnier and it has a longer handle. Trying to make those adjustments just weeks before an event seems like too much to tweak quickly. I’m looking forward to using it, but it will have to wait.
I stuck with the old yellow-stained V1 Icon and did my drilling workout. We did a ton of dinking. I think we played 7 games after we had warmed up in each zone (straight on, backhand, forehand). I attempted topspin a bunch of times but actively using it – using it to finish an opportunity I’ve set up – still isn’t working great.
I had him look at my stance in a scenario I keep getting beat on in games. I’m not going to say what is beating me or I’ll see it even more often, but I was worried that my stance was wrong, or preventing me from retrieving shots. He seemed to think maybe I was leaning a bit too much one way but in those scenarios, you kind of have to lean one way or the other. With that being the case we moved on to a couple of shots he wanted to practice. Overheads and kind of like a volley cut? I’m not sure what to call it. He wants to be able to cut a drive into the kitchen. It’s a tough shot to do and he has it with his backhand. But with his forehand, and especially with what he was trying with his overhead, there’s still some work to get it right.
I was especially nervous about my ability to feed him overheads. Who wants to practice that? But I think I gave him some good ones. He scared the crap out of me one time though. I hit a ball to him, he tried his shot and it went in the net. I bounced the ball to hit the next shot – now trying to hit his forehand – and he apparently decided to retrieve the previous ball, bending down literally where I was hitting. I zipped a ball just past his head and having no idea he had come forward, letting out a yell to warn him. He looked at me like I was crazy, I apologized profusely and also admitted that my ball went out.
We had 4 minutes left so I worked on drops. A lot of them were high and not hitting my target. I don’t mind. I always did the shots I wanted to make the most at the end of a basketball practice. Knowing what I’m doing wrong when I’m tired is super valuable, knowing how to fix it is even better.
I was supposed to take the night off from the ladies drill group but in the text chain they made it seem like they were actually going to go drill and I was up for seeing what it would be like with a smaller group and just me there to help. I wasn’t sure what to expect because they were just kind of getting together and doing their own thing. I thought maybe I’d get to drill with them but we had 6 so I jumped right to drilling games for the 2 people. The group of 4 had created their own routine of things to do.
I recently became an affiliate for the TopSpin Pro. I’ve been using it and I feel like it is making a positive difference with my shots. Because we had a smaller group I brought it with me to see if anyone wanted to use it. When I decided to come up with drills for people to do I figured there wasn’t a need to ask, I’d just make them do drills with it.
It’s hard to judge its effectiveness after 2 drills. I think some people were benefiting from using it; others seemed a little overwhelmed by it. Almost like, what was wrong with what I was doing instead of, oh this is another shot I can use. Regardless, it was a nice change of pace and I’m glad people got to see and use the product.
We played Mortimer to end the evening. It’s such a fun group and that game is just super. I love being able to try shots, compete and laugh all at the same time.
