From 3.5 to 4.0: Congratulations, You're No Longer Allowed to Blame Your Paddle

Every 3.5 player knows the feeling.

You drive home from open play convinced you're better than your results.

You hit a couple beautiful winners. You speed up a ball and catch someone leaning the wrong way. For a few moments, you look like the player you're trying to become. Then you lose 11-7 to the 4.0s.

The biggest difference between a 3.5 and a 4.0 is not new, exciting shots. In fact, it's something far more simple and far easier. It's the ETP– extend the point.

Extend the Point

If you've ever watched a 4.0 game after finishing your own rec match, you've probably had the same reaction I did:

"Wait, that's it?"

Nobody is diving through fences. Nobody is hitting impossible angles. Nobody is producing a highlight reel.

The ball just keeps coming back. A little deeper. A little safer. A little smarter. The point lasts longer than you're used to. And somewhere around the seventh or eighth shot, somebody finally makes a mistake.

A funny thing happens when you start paying attention to your own matches.

You realize that most points don't end with brilliance. They end with impatience. A return into the net. A rushed volley. A speed-up from a ball that wasn't attackable. A dink that tried to be too perfect.

The sport has a way of rewarding restraint and punishing ambition.

The biggest thing that you can do to take your self from a 3.5 to a 4.0 is learn how to ETP and keep the ball in play for longer. Want to know a dirty secret? The average pickleball rally lasts just 6-10 seconds. At the 4.0 level, most of your points will be 8 shots– take out the serve, return, and a third shot drop or drive, and you're looking at just a few balls!

If you can learn to keep yourself in the point, you're looking at winning double the amount of rallies you previously did. So, what does this mean in practice? Here's our list of four tips for aspiring 4.0s on how to ETP.

• Don't get trigger crazy– you don't need to make the winner, go for the hardest shot and swing for the fences. You need to out-do them.

• Move with your partner. So many points at the 3.5 level are lost because partners don't follow each other on the court, opening up lots of space for the opposing team and generating new openings on the court for cutaways. If your partner is moving to the left, follow them slightly, and vice versa.

• No more sexy sidelines. So many 3.5s try to go for too much on their path to 4.0, leading to a lot of mistakes. Whether it's trying to hit a nice down the line ball that goes slightly out or angling away too much on an overhead, when aiming for too much, it's easy to miss. To get to a 4.0, switch to higher margin shots, where you can be aggressive but stay in the point.

• If you don't get the third shot, you have to move. This is a big one. If your partner gets the third shot, whether they're driving or dropping, at the 4.0 level, you need to start to move to the kitchen line. This gives your opponent less of a visible window to put the ball away!

  The best 4.0 players aren't necessarily the most talented players on the court. They're simply the players who refuse to leave the rally first.

  The next time you play, forget your rating. Forget the score. Forget the winner.

  Ask yourself one question:

  How can I stay in this point one more ball?

  That's ETP. And that's how you become a 4.0.