What Steve Nash can teach us about pickleball

Hey!

Steve Nash is one of the greatest players in NBA history.

Even if you’re not a basketball fan, you had to appreciate his game. He was not the tallest guy on the court (he was three inches shorter than the average NBA player). He wasn’t the strongest or fastest.

But he had basketball IQ.

He developed skills that no one else had, and that’s how he played at a Hall of Fame level for 18 years.

Some of those skills, he discussed in a sit-down with another NBA Great, Lebron James.

As a former basketball player turned pickleball pro, I can appreciate how the skills he discussed translate to pickleball.

Here are 5 Steve Nash-inspired skills you can master if you’re not the biggest, fastest, or strongest player on the court.

#1 - “Ask Questions of the Defense” aka Keep Your Opponents Guessing

There’s something called the “Nash Dribble.”

This is where a player dribbles the ball under their own hoop, along the baseline (similar to how a hockey player might take the puck around the back of the other team’s goal).

Not a lot of players can pull this off because they get anxious, they panic.

Kind of how when you’re dinking with someone and you just keep dinking to the same spot repeatedly. You’re not thinking about how you can create offense from this position; you’re thinking, “Don’t screw this up.”

Instead, be like Steve Nash.

If you want to practice this, here’s a drill:

Dink to the same spot 3 times in a row, then change pace or location and see what starts cracking.

#2 - “Mastering Angles” aka "Exploit Court Geometry

Steve Nash couldn’t jump over people, so he beat them with angles instead.

What does that mean?

Basically, imagine running to a spot, but there’s a 6’9” Lebron James trying to get to the same spot before you. You have two options if you’re not faster than him: either you pick a new spot, or you take a better angle to get there.

This is what most people don’t understand about “speed.”

It’s not always about how fast you are. . . It’s about the path you take to get there.

For pickleball players, this means:

Use sharp crosscourt dinks, inside-out thirds, off-speed drives, or shallow resets to stretch and displace your opponent.

Think of court space as real estate: if you earn the kitchen line or a weak middle dink, don’t just give up the advantage. Extract as much value out of it as you can.

Attack an angle, speed the ball up, or slow it down–each of those is a weapon in your pickleball arsenal.

Here’s a drill idea to practice this:

Drill third (or fifth) shot drops that land near the sideline. Really try to nail the corner. Don’t be afraid to mess up - this is what practice is for. By landing your drops near the sideline, you take time away and open up middle attacks (because they have to go out wide to get the ball).

#3 - “The Setup is Everything” aka Build Patterns

Being a smaller guy on the court, Nash had to get creative with his pick-and-rolls.

A pick and roll is essentially when one of your teammates “blocks” a defender so you can get past them. You can see it in the first part of this gif 👇

Nash knew that if he was going to successfully block someone bigger and stronger than him, then he needed to set it up right.

The same is true with pickleball.

Oftentimes, we think the point is won on a putaway or the final shot of a rally. When in truth, the point is often won (or lost) the shot before.

It happens when someone:

Moving people around on the court, forcing them to be on their heels, or catching them leaning one way can elicit popups and bad shots.

Then, the ball gets put away and the point is over.

The next time you play, start to notice these things. After a rally ends, think about the last 2-3 shots, not just the last one.

Which one of them actually caused the point to be won or lost?

This is how you see things differently.

Let’s keep going. . . I hope someone is still reading :)

#4 - “Play with Relentless Pace” aka Cause Pressure Through Your Tempo

The Phoenix Suns (Nash’s team) were successful because they pushed the pace of the game. Their opponents became gassed by the fourth quarter.

In pickleball, controlling the tempo of a game means applying pressure not by rushing around but by:

Ultimately, you want to move the ball around faster than your opponents can reset their feet.

Sometimes when I tell players to be aggressive or add pace, they think that means hit the ball quicker or stronger. . .

Wrong.

Think: “Fast decisions, not fast hands.”

An example of this could be to quickly reposition yourself after a good third shot drop and be ready to pounce on your opponent’s indecision or miscommunication.

#5 - “Deception is a Superpower” aka Disguise Your Intentions

Nash was great at making defenders look silly with hesitations, fakes, and timing changes.

So many players play the game - basketball or pickleball - at the same speed. They always drop the same way, drive with the same pace, and hit dinks with no real intention at all.

But they could be doing so more with each of these shots.

For example:

#6 - “Be Simple, On-Time, and Accurate” aka Win with Clean Execution

A fast mind is just as important (maybe more so) than fast hands or feet. Nash’s game was built on rhythm passes and fast reads.

He needed to read what a player was going to do before the player even knew he was going to do it.

You can do this in pickleball by:

Adapt the mantra:

Early + Simple = Deadly.

Finally, it’s worth saying. . .

Nash wasn’t bigger, faster, or stronger - he just thought deeper.

He was on another level.

And that’s something every single one of us can do better at.

You don’t need better, faster hands - just better decisions.

Learn to see the point, not just hit the ball.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. . . that was a LOT.

But this is how deeply you need to think about pickleball if you truly want to improve your game beyond the physical skills you have.

And, if you’ve made it this far, and loved every minute of it. . .

Come nerd out about pickleball with over 1,000 other pickleball-obsessed players inside ThatPickleballSchool. You can start a 7-day free trial and learn to see the game deeper than anyone else on your court.

And if Steve Nash ever reads this, I have an open spot on my home court waiting for him.

He may have to kick some kids off of it first, though.

Because life is more fun when you’re good at pickleball.

-Kyle

P.S. Right now, we’re in the early stages of planning a fall retreat for members of ThatPickleballSchool. It’s happening in late October in Phoenix. More details to come, but you have to be a member to be a part of it.

I’m not sure if that’s something you’re into, but if it is, we’ll have more information soon.