Today I drilled with Will Howells, a player that was drafted to the New Jersey 5s. It was very eye-opening to see the level of play at the very top of the game. 👀🏆

The takeaways from our drilling session were these key points..

1️⃣ You would expect the play to be super fast and very hard to handle. It was actually the complete opposite. Of course he can hit the ball hard on serves, drives, etc.. What impressed me is the extreme discipline and consistency. Instead of him trying to be a human highlight reel, he RARELY missed shots that he shouldn’t. Meaning, he did not miss dinks, drops, or resets. 🥇👑

2️⃣ Great Decision Making - Where I noticed he excelled mostly was this. After 10 dinks, there’s a switch in my brain that’s telling me to speed it up, lob it, do something stupid, etc. For him, there is no switch. He is comfortable hitting 1000 dinks, keeping his composure throughout until he gets the right ball. When he does, he makes you feel it. 🧘🥷

3️⃣ The Strategy - What was an interesting take from Will that I never really thought about was this: He said, for the top 10 players in the world, hardly any of them win by outright aggression. They all play super controlled and only attack balls out of the air. Of course there are outliers, but, looking at Ben Johns, JW Johnson, and Federico Staksrud. They all follow a similar strategy, they will infinitely dink until they get the perfect ball to flick out of the air. They hardly attack a ball off of the bounce. It’s significantly easier to win points attacking your opponents out of the air. This is where I noticed there was a separation with me. Ever since this training session, I have forced myself to be more patient only waiting for the perfect opportunity. I made it a mental point to not bail out my opponent with foolish decisions. 🧠🏆🔑

4️⃣ Less is more - Instead of trying to be a highlight reel every point, play with extreme caution and focus on making your opponent play one more ball. It’s very hard to use deception and trickery against top-tier opponents. It’s best to keep it very simple until you get the opportunity to strike. 🔪🩸

5️⃣ Go for it on the serves - No holding back, if you can rip the serve, you’re setting your team up for an easier approach to the kitchen, or quick point. Most opponents are nervous in tournaments, you can take advantage of this by making them feel the pressure with a hard serve. Don’t throw a lollipop letting them off the hook. 🪝🍭

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