It’s Saturday morning and you know what that means… It’s a PICKLEBALL morning! You wake up immediately excited to get out to the courts and play. You grab your cup of coffee, pack your pickleball bag and you open your front door ONLY to get hit in the face by relentless gusts of wind– Dang it. Immediately your spirit drops, you know that these weather conditions can easily turn what was meant to be a fun pickleball outing into a frustrating pickleball experience. So, what should you do?
Well, if you’re like me… it’s out of the cards completely to not play pickleball at all, I mean we LIVE for these pickleball outings! And the truth is, none of us have the power to change the weather… So the best scenario is to learn how best to manage yourself and your pickleball game when you’re playing in the wind. So here are 3 tips that have helped improve my pickleball game on windy days!
Tip 1. Assess the direction of the wind
The unfortunate truth is– a pickleball is a plastic ball with holes in it which means it’s VERY AFFECTED by the wind. So in order to play in the wind effectively, you’ll first need to identify which direction the wind is blowing.
How to adjust your game if the wind is blowing WITH YOU — or TOWARDS you…
So if the wind is blowing against you (or in the direction moving towards the baseline of your court), the wind will push the pickleball backwards toward & towards the baseline. Also, it’s important to remember that the more loft the ball has, the more time the ball has to be affected by the wind. So each shot could be more or less affected due to the loft that it has (Example: a counter at the kitchen line is going to be less affected by the wind than a high and loopy dink).
How this affects your game at the kitchen line: At the kitchen line, be conscious of the fact that dinks and potential volleys will travel and float towards your more. Meaning, you’ll be able to take more of them out of the air than you normally would.
How this affects your game at the baseline: At the baseline, you’ll need to remember that the wind is pushing against you. It’s going to be important to put a little extra power into your drop shot, use your forward momentum to make sure you don’t hit it into the net. If you feel like your drop shots just aren’t going over, it could be a good idea to drive the pickleball a little bit more.
How to adjust your game if the wind is blowing AGAINST YOU — or TOWARD your opponents
So if the wind is “with you” or blowing in the direction towards your opponents, then wind will push the pickleball away from you and toward your opponents. Also, it’s important to remember that the more loft the ball has, the more time the ball has to be affected by the wind. So each shot could be more or less affected due to the loft that it has (Example: a counter at the kitchen line is going to be less affected by the wind than a high and loopy dink).
How this affects your game at the kitchen line: At the kitchen line, be conscious of the fact that dinks and potential volleys will not travel as far as they normally would. You might not be able to take as many out of the air because they’ll be pushed closer towards the net from the wind. Know that you’ll probably have to let more dinks bounce than normal. The same will be true on loopier or loftier drops coming from your opponents to your side of the kitchen.
How this affects your game at the baseline: At the baseline, you’ll need to remember that the wind is with you and will push your ball towards the opposing side. It’s going to be important to take a little power off of your drop shot so you don’t overshoot them into the attack zone for your opponents. If you’re wanting to hit a drive, make sure to use top spin and be conscious of the wind helping your ball travel. You might want to have less power on it because you don’t want the ball to travel out of bounds.
Tip 2. Give yourself more grace than usual!
This is really important to remember. It can be easy to let the wind get to you mentally as it’s really frustrating when you’re hitting the right shots yet they’re being so affected by the wind and in turn creating errors. But it’s really vital to keep a good attitude and stay calm throughout the game.
You wouldn’t expect that a marathon runner’s finish time who is racing a hilly course in the rain to have the same finish time if it was a flat course with perfect temperatures outside would you? No, because one scenario has so many more elements and obstacles to overcome! Remember that more elements and obstacles you add, the more the outcome is going to be affected.
The same is true with our pickleball performances. Sometimes we compare our perfect condition pickleball matches to our matches where we had more obstacles (whether it be weather, playing with a new partner, playing after an injury) and it just doesn’t work like that. Remember to give yourself more grace while playing in these conditions. The odds are that you’ll make more errors when playing in the wind than playing in no wind. So don’t let that upset you, learn what you can from each rally and move on to then next!
Tip 3. Have a short memory!
Which brings me to my next point. Have a SHORT MEMORY. Someone told me this once and it’s really helped my mentality on the court. Having a short memory means not beating yourself up about a mistake for the next 4 rallies after it. It doesn’t help you to punish yourself about it, you can’t change that it already happened and all you’re doing is keeping yourself from being able to focus on what’s currently happing. So do your best to have a short memory, move on to the next rally and focus on the present point and the present rally. Everyone on the pickleball court is dealing with the same wind and the same conditions so do your best to not let frustration win!
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