A Case of the Pop-Ups

with Thomas from The Dink and Jordan Briones of Briones Pickleball

All four players collapse to the net and assume the position. It’s a dink rally.

One dink. Two dinks. Three. Four…and then, a realization occurs: your opponents have decided to target you. And worse, it pays off for them as you pop up a nice juicy one. You gifted them the point. There’s nothing worse.

But the good news is, if you’re willing to self-diagnose and ask: “what is causing me to pop up the ball?”, then there is hope.

A case of the pop-ups is often caused by one of two things:

1. Overextending at the kitchen line. A tell-tale sign of this is that you are taking almost every ball out of the air at the net. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of advantages to taking the ball out of the air (e.g. putting pressure on your opponent, reducing the time for them to react). But if you’re overextending, you’re putting yourself at risk.

2. Late decision-making and/or late contact point. This typically occurs when your opponent is hitting you deeper dinks and playing the ball to your feet. Do you volley? Let it bounce? Maybe even take a step back to buy yourself more space/time. Slow decision-making will kill you here. You’ll face this more frequently in advanced games.

In order to properly diagnose a case of the pop-ups, you need to be in-tune with the symptoms. There’s a great video from Jordan Briones on not only how to properly self-diagnose, but also overcome this serious illness that affects thousands of pickleballers worldwide.

The pop-ups are super contagious and can arise from out of nowhere. It’s possible you’ve had them your entire pickleball journey. Whatever the case, it’s almost Thanksgiving and no one wants to sit next to someone who’s contagious. Especially not in this day and age.

Check out Jordan’s video here. Cure the pop-ups. Don’t put your family at risk.