Let’s take a look at some of the things that Andrea Koop does well. She’s able to win with different women. She’s able to win with different men. She medals in APP tournaments, in PPA tournaments, it just doesn’t matter, she medals. And she doesn’t play full-time either, given that she has a full-time job.
Ok, here’s the match we are going to study: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=4371
We start with a deep return of serve, which keeps the opponents back – and once everybody gets to the kitchen Andrea is not afraid to dink backhanded from the right side of the court, setting up Simone: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=4390
This point is lost, but notice how many times Andrea uses a two-handed backhand … return of serve, blocking, and going on offense: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=4543
Notice how Andrea usually goes cross-court on dinking rallies, but in this case she is on the right side of the court, goes toward the middle, dinks her opponent into a corner and that creates a popup resulting in a point: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=4586.
Andrea disguises the placement of her put away on this point: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=4703. We see this repeatedly among the pros – they present the paddle but do not present the angle the ball will be hit at.
Look at the power she generates on two-handed backhands: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=4724
At the kitchen, Andrea can take balls in the middle because of her ability to create offense with her two-handed backhand. https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=5028
She takes dinks out of the air, putting pressure on the opposition: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=5153
She loses the point, but again, look at how she creates offense with her two-handed backhand: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=5326
They lose the point again, but I want you to see how Andrea steps up and cuts off half of the court as the third shot begins, allowing Simone to take all of the balls as she earns her way up to the kitchen. Most pros use this tactic. https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=5559
Too high 3rds/5ths … pros make mistakes: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=5896
She loses again – but my goodness, she stays in the backhand and comes over in front to Simone to keep engaging in the point (which ultimately haunts her): https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=6334
More offense off of a two-handed backhand: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=6596
Defense and Patience: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=7215
Success starts with offense off of the two-handed backhand: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=7461
On dinking rallies, Andrea frequently takes dinks back-handed via the “respect the ‘x'” philosophy: https://youtu.be/zKKYhCzmbJA?t=7520
The takeaway from our film study? Andrea is able to create a lot of offense off of her two-handed backhand. A LOT of offense! On dinking rallies, she takes a lot of balls backhanded, allowing her to maintain coverage over the middle of the court – she doesn’t easily get pulled wide when on the right side of the court.
Pickleball Analytics! 