Barbara Wintroub
While I was watching the five-hour final of the U.S. Open from my sofa, I paid attention to the players’ ability to move and hit the fuzz off the ball on each shot. They use their legs and body rotation to get their power. Like golfers who ground their lower half in order to coil and uncoil their upper half. When I watch pickleball players hit most bend at the waist and use their arm instead of bending their knees, especially on the dink. Many lean forward to hit, which causes them to be off balance for the second and third shot.
To see how strong your lower half is sit in a soft chair and try to get up without using your hands. Next, try to hover over the chair before sitting or rising off. This exercise will give you an idea how strong your legs and buns are. Next, sit on your coffee table or something lower to the ground (Eg. toilet) and do the same exercises. Do 10 or 15 sit-to-stand exercises slowly. Finally, sit on a bench, take your paddle back as if you were hitting a forehand, rise off the bench as you rotate and swing the paddle, thus using your abdominal and leg muscles to hit the ball. Do this exercise on the backhand side also. I guarantee if you do this exercise 10 to 15 times you will certainly feel worked in your whole body.
Now, stand at the no-volley line facing the net and pretend you are sitting in a chair. As you continue to sit (squat) at the line, sidestep along the line in both directions as you pretend to dink the ball. Your legs and bun muscles will get quite a workout and your balance and ability to hit a better dink will increase. The idea of these exercises is to keep the top part of your body directly over the lower half of your body using rotation and leg strength to hit the ball with conviction from the baseline and with accuracy from the “kitchen” line.