Poached: Sarah Ansboury Clinics a Hit in New Jersey

SARAH ANSBOURY CLINICS A HIT IN NEW JERSEY

By: Kim Smith

You could feel the excitement and anticipation as players gathered together to participate in a clinic with Sarah Ansboury at the Colts Neck Racquet Club in Colts Neck, NJ. In order to help 72 local pickleball players improve their games, Sarah put on six 2 ½-hour clinics and a semi-private clinic over the course of two days earlier this month.

The first takeaway for me was Sarah and her wife and teaching partner, Linh, are like energizer bunnies. I was amazed at how much enthusiasm they each put into every clinic and how they were able to go all day without any breaks. They both shared a lot of very useful information and what might be somewhat new techniques for many of us. There were a few players who left saying that their head was spinning as they were trying to think of all the new things that they want to incorporate into their game.

More than dinks, drop shots, drives or any other particularly pickleball strokes or techniques, the clinics focused on being aware of your body on the court and using it to your best advantage. One of the biggest lessons with which I walked away from the clinic was the importance of balance. Someone described pickleball as a cat-and-mouse game.  As you watch the way Sarah moves on the court, you can definitely see she’s playing that game. Wouldn’t we all love to move the way she does!  She spent quite a bit of time talking about movement, balance, and positioning. She started each clinic by asking questions about engaging different parts of your body, keeping the paddle in the ready position, and always being centered so that you’re ready for anything.

She also spent time on dinks, playing the ball in the neutral zone, and trying to use your shoulder as opposed to your wrist and elbow while dinking and hitting drop shots. Sarah shared with us one of her favorite training tools, which is a weighted training baseball.  She demonstrated how she just tosses it back and forth, catching it out in front of her, and extending and following through as she throws it across the net to her training partner. She said that using the training baseball helps her work on the motion she wants for the dinks and drop shots because it engages her shoulder. If I recall correctly, she said she does this while standing on a balance ball. She didn’t demonstrate that, but I would’ve loved to have seen her do it. Maybe she will put a video of her doing it online. Needless to say, I don’t think that is something I will attempt to try!

Sarah had us work on getting into the ready position at the kitchen line and tracking the ball with our paddles. We also worked on the drop shots and coming up to the NVZ line. Most of us were used to coming to the NVZ line after our drop shots and doing a split step and a complete stop when our opponent made contact with the ball. Wrong! Sarah taught us we should be doing a rolling stop, and not a complete stop, as we make our way forward. She also talked about moving smoothly to the line, rather than hitting a return and rushing the net, as many of us do.

Linh was a big help as she went around to each of the courts and helped players with their balance, positioning, and shots. A college soccer and rugby player, she gave us all hope as she told us she went from a 3.0 player to 5.0 player after fighting with but accepting many of the techniques Sarah was teaching.

I am looking forward to trying to incorporate some of the things I learned from the clinic into my game.  Sarah mentioned that we will probably all get worse before we get better…but at least I will now have an excuse for when I play a lousy game!

I highly recommend a Sarah Ansboury clinic if she comes to a location near you; the focus on awareness of movement and engaging your core and the appropriate muscles should be at the foundation of anyone’s pickleball game.

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