When winning the coin toss or after scoring a point, your team has the advantage of deciding where to roll the pallino. Are you just grabbing and rolling or do you think about position and strategy before you do?

Here are some ideas you may want to take into consideration before the pallino roll takes place:

1. Where is your team’s strength?
   • Consult with the players on your end and determine where they’re comfortable rolling. If you can’t agree on a location, whoever decides may want to throw first.
2. Where is your opponents weakness?
   • Take note of where your opponent has been rolling and consider doing the opposite. Take every chance you can to make them uncomfortable. If they miss a roll, you could be playing 4 balls to 3!
3. Who should roll the pallino.
   • Take advantage when you can and have the player who rolls the pallino go first. They will have a great idea of speed control. If their intention is to throw short but the pallino rolls to the middle, they can take the error they made and apply it to their first ball.
   • If you’d rather be assured of the pallino location after the team decides where it should be, let the player that’s most comfortable with that distance roll.

Wherever the pallino is rolled, make sure your first ball is short of it. This will ensure you do not hit the back wall (if it’s a long throw) and you are able to be knocked in. Balls that roll past the pallino over a few feet may look close, but they are basically out of the frame (unless a raffa shot is executed).

After all said and done, you may have your own idea of who, what, where, when and why but it’s important to think of multiple ideas and choose the one that you and your team are most comfortable with.

Please stay healthy and safe. We look forward to the end of this crisis and  hope to see you back on the courts. For now, keep dreaming of your next Bay shot