A beginner pickleball camp on indoor courts in Westbury, paced to where your game actually is, whether this is the first paddle you've held or your tenth time on a court still trying to put the pieces together.
Most beginner clinics assume you already know what the kitchen line does and what a third shot is supposed to do. This one starts at the part of the game you actually have questions about, then takes you a clear step beyond it. Coach Don Phillips watches every player and fixes one thing at a time until the afternoon starts to feel less like guessing. And because the courts at Pickleball Smash-It are indoors at the Samanea mall, the camp runs the same whether Saturday brings sun, rain, or a heatwave.
Freeport, NY · IPTPA-certified coach
Don is an IPTPA-certified pickleball teaching professional from Freeport, on Long Island's South Shore. The IPTPA, the International Pickleball Teaching Professional Association, doesn't hand that certification out: it takes a 12-hour course, a written exam, and a 4-hour on-court evaluation in front of an assessor.
He coaches the way this camp is built: fundamentals first, one fix at a time, and real games before the afternoon ends. Four hours with him and the rules stop being a list you memorized and start being a game you play.
And he's local. The courts you'll learn on are twenty minutes from where he plays and teaches every week, which means the person coaching you knows exactly what Long Island beginner pickleball looks like, because he's standing in the middle of it.
On Saturday, August 22, that’s the coaching you’re showing up to.
Grip, serve, dink, kitchen. The four things that make everything else in pickleball possible, drilled in that order.
Don watches every player and names the single adjustment that matters most right now. Then you drill it until it holds.
The afternoon ends with guided games, because playing real points with real people is the entire reason you came.
The other players in the room range from first-time paddles to a few months in, which is the part nobody warns you about beforehand: the day moves a lot faster when no one is pretending to know more than they do. The first half hour is built to settle the nerves. Your coach walks the room, watches your warm-up rally, and starts naming the small things your body is already doing that will become the bigger things you fix later. By the end of that half hour, you've stopped wondering whether you belong here.
Then the drilling starts, paced in small blocks so the group can rest, watch, and try a thing five different times before the next thing. Your coach moves between the courts, watching every player's reps, calling out one specific adjustment, walking away, watching again. The drills change to match what the room is actually doing, not a printed script.
The last hour is live games with corrections in real time. Four players per court, small games, scoring not really the point. The patterns from the drills start showing up under pressure, sometimes well and sometimes not, and your coach is courtside calling out what to try next. By the time you walk off, the swing feels like yours. By the time the plan lands in your inbox a week later, you know exactly what to keep working on at the courts near your house.
Your coach adapts the timing and drills based on what the room needs. The curriculum is the structure, not a script.
Looks like a casual rally. Isn't. Your coach is watching grip, where your feet end up, and the way your body twists when the ball goes wider than you expected. The notes start before drill one is even announced.
The shot you've seen on TikTok where the ball barely clears the net. It's also the single most important shot in pickleball at every level. Cross-court, straight-on, forehand, backhand. Where the ball goes when you do it right, and where it goes when you reach. By the end of this block, the soft game starts to make sense.
After you serve and the return comes back, one shot decides whether you get to walk up to the net or stay stuck at the baseline trading hard hits. This is that shot. Drop mechanics, when to drive it instead, and how to know which the moment calls for.
Once you're at the net, the rallies get fast. A volley is hitting the ball before it bounces. A reset is the soft-hands move that calms a fast ball back into a slow rally. This is the block that makes you look composed when the pace picks up.
Both serves you'll actually use, both returns you'll actually need. Deep, placed, the same every time. Drilled in pairs with a target on the court so you can see whether you're hitting it or just guessing.
Real points, real partners, real pressure. Four players per court, small games, fast rotations. The patterns from earlier start showing up in your live play, and your coach is courtside calling out what to try next.
You smiled and said maybe next time, because you weren't sure your serve would actually land in the box. You've watched four pickleball tutorials on YouTube this month, and you can hold the paddle right, and you know what the kitchen line is now, but when you walk onto a real court the whole thing falls apart and you start reaching for balls you shouldn't be reaching for.
Most beginner clinics don't fix that. They stuff sixteen players onto two courts, hand out generic drills designed for everyone and built for no one, and the coach spends half the morning explaining the rules to people who already know them while you stand on the back court hitting forehands into the net.
Saturday, August 22 is built to fix exactly that. By the time you walk off the court at 4:00 PM, the swing that's been fighting you for months will have started to settle, and you'll know what the next thing to work on actually is.
You walk onto your local court a little before sunset. Three of the friends who invited you to play a month ago are already there warming up. The first ball comes back to you on a return, and instead of reaching for it the way you used to, your feet move first, your paddle stays low, and the ball lands deep in the corner where you actually wanted it to go.
Your friend pauses for half a second before saying “when did THAT happen?”
You don't tell them yet. You keep playing. The third shot drop you spent forty-five minutes drilling on Saturday lands soft. The kitchen rally goes twelve balls and you end it with a cross-court dink you didn't know you could hit until two days ago. Later that night the group chat from camp lights up with photos and someone asking when the next one is.
That's the difference between who you are right now and who you'll be on Monday, August 24.
Your third shot drop, your kitchen volley, the one specific shot you came to camp wanting to fix. By the second hour the coach has named it. By the third hour you're hitting it under pressure and it's still landing where you wanted it. That's the shot that quietly wins you the next six matches you play.
Most newer players play one gear: every ball, full tilt. That's why every third shot ends up in the net or out the back. Your coach catches it in the first rally and starts naming it as you go. By the second hour, you're choosing which balls to attack and letting the bad ones go. By the third hour, the game has slowed down enough that you can see where to stand, where the open court is, where your partner is. It stops feeling like the game is happening to you.
Three drills, your specific patterns, with reps and frequency. The kind of document you keep open on your phone at the court because you finally know what to work on next instead of guessing.
Eight players, four hours, two courts. By the end of the day you've traded numbers with three people you actually want to play with. The group chat starts before you get home.
The next Saturday at your usual court, a rally where your partner stops mid-game and asks what changed. The pace doesn't break on you anymore. The third shot lands. That's the moment a RallyUp camp is built for.
None of these cost extra. All three are included the moment you reserve your seat.
Your coach watches your game on camp day and sends you a written plan within 7 days. Three drills built around the patterns they saw in your specific play. The kind of plan you keep open on your phone at the court.
Lifetime access to the RallyUp Players community. Players from every camp are in there. Find someone to hit with, drill videos, and the group chat from your camp day.
If life happens and you can't make camp day, your seat credit travels to any future RallyUp camp anywhere in the US. No expiration. The seat is always yours, just on a different Saturday.
A private full day with a head coach runs $2,500. We took the same drilling progression, capped the court at 8 players so you still get eyes on your swing, and packaged it into one day.
Honestly didn't expect much. Walked off knowing exactly why my dink keeps popping. Grip change. That's it. Wish someone had told me a year ago.
Indoor courts on the second floor of the Samanea mall in Westbury. Sun, rain, or 95 degrees outside, the camp runs. Where Saturday, August 22 happens.
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Show up, do the work, and leave with a swing that's starting to feel like yours, a written plan from your coach in your inbox a week later, and a group of players you'll actually want to see again. Saturday, August 22 at Pickleball Smash-It. When the 8 seats are gone, they're gone.
Reserve your seat for $249 →We add new camps every couple of weeks. Drop your email and we'll send the date the moment it's open.