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In Long Beach, CA, one late-night pickleball session ended with more than 20 police officers showing up and handing out citations like they were lollipops. Turns out, midnight might not be the best time to crank the tunes and fire up some open play. Talk about ball-busters.

In This Issue:
— First look: JOOLA POWER FX
— A raucous Sunday at PPA Arizona
— Set your paddle up like a pro

Buckle up.

Something about the calendar flipping over into September has the PPA pros bringing out their best new duds. And PPA Mesa did not disappoint. From Parris Todd to Chris Haworth, here’s who wore it best in the desert.

Patrick Mahomes. Drew Brees. Tom Brady. Josh Allen. The list of former and current NFL stars with investments in pro pickleball is long and legit… and growing all the time. We round up the headliners here.

Net cord etiquette in pickleball is kind of weird. Nobody intentionally hits a drive or dink that clips the tape. But when should you apologize? And when should you not? And is the whole practice a bit antiquated at this point?

JOOLA just dropped some deets around its first-ever full-foam paddle, the POWER FX. The surprise launch drops nationwide September 30 and will retail for just $180. We’ve got the full specs and more photos, right here.

Do you buy a paddle new and just play with it as is, stock out of the box?

Yeah, you’re doing it wrong.

Or, more specifically, you could be getting a lot more out of your paddle. The two easiest upgrades involve customizing the grip and adding some weight where it matters most.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but here’s how Richard Livornese does it. The dude is an expert-level coach and a top pro on the APP Tour — he and Jack Munro just took gold together, as a matter of fact... their fifth straight victory.

1️⃣ Remove the stock grip. This gives you a clean slate to get the handle thickness exactly how you like it. Richard adds one overgrip super tight, then a second on top, but looser. Find your perfect feel, then repeat it for every paddle.

2️⃣ Add perimeter weight. Think of your paddle face like the face of a clock. For max balance, try adding three grams of weight on each side, at 3 and 9 o’clock. Want more power and plow-through? Move the weights up. Prefer balance and spin? You guessed it: move ‘em down.

These two small changes can dramatically alter how your paddle plays and performs. The better you get, the bigger impact that can have.

➡️ See the setup.

The Boomstik gives you power all day. The OMNI lets you tune it.

It’s the same deep, unmistakable pop from Selkirk, but now you dial in how it plays. The OMNI's MOI weights slide down for control, up for power, or sit centered for a bit of both. Notch marks on the face show you exactly where they land.

No more picking a paddle and hoping it fits your game. Tune it until it does.

It's still loud, lively, and a genuine head-turner, and in a colorway that breaks from the black-red-white.

Shop the Selkirk Omni and use code ADV-THEDINK to earn $40 back at checkout.

The PPA Tour’s second event of the season was full of surprises.

For starters, a trove of top talent wasn’t in the mix, including Anna Bright, Gabe Tardio, Hayden Patriquin, JW and Jorja Johnson, and others.

Thanks to a pact between ALW and AB not to play without each other, that meant an automatic shakeup in women’s doubles. And thanks to a stunning defeat of Ben Johns and Federico Staksrud in their first match together, the road to gold in men’s doubles was also clear for some fresh faces.

Championship Sunday was a spectacle of new matchups and surprising results. In the end, here’s who took the top spots:

🏆 Men’s Singles: Chris Haworth def. Federico Staksrud
🏆 Women’s Singles: Anna Leigh Waters def. Kate Fahey
🏆 Mixed Doubles: Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters def. Christian Alshon and Rachel Rohrabacher
🏆 Men’s Doubles: Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu def. Yuta Funemizu and Nico Acevedo
🏆 Women’s Doubles: Rachel Rohrabacher and Parris Todd def. Tyra Black and Meghan Dizon

A few other talking points:

That’s a wrap from the desert. Next stop on the PPA Tour: The Las Vegas Open.

➡️ Your full PPA Arizona recap, right here.

More than 20 police officers reportedly broke up a late-night pickleball session, issuing tickets and raising some questions about whether the show of force was justified or a bit-heavy handed.

According to a Reddit post, the incident went down at the DeForest Park Pickleball Courts in Long Beach, CA, around 11:30 pm.

One of the players involved described it like this:

“I kid you not, 20+ police officers came out and blocked the exits with their cars until every single person in the courts/soccer/basketball area was cited. There were probably at least 30+ people waiting to be cited until we were allowed to go.”

Commenters were quick to point out that playing pickleball at a public park close to midnight is rather excessive, especially in a crowd so big when loud music was reportedly involved.

According to the Long Beach Post, more than 40 citations were written for "loitering or remaining at a park after hours."

➡️ Fair or foul?

Your DUPR isn't lying to you. It just might not have enough data to tell the truth yet.

If you're not logging games consistently, your rating could be sitting a full level below where you actually play.

We broke down what 3.0 through pro actually means on the court:

See where you actually stand.

Former UFC champion Sean O’Malley was spotted taking in some action at PPA Mesa.

When he’s not grappling in the ring, Suga Sean can be found at The Pickle Dojo in Peoria, AZ, where he’s a co-owner with fellow professional fighter Tim Welch.

The dude is a bona fide fan and student of the game. And not just doubles; he was locked in on the singles match between Federico Staksrud and Hunter Johnson.

➡️ Fight’s a fight, right?

A review from the Dink Fam...

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