Pickleball protests continue

Time to fire up the stream. Major League Pickleball and the Selkirk Labs Showdown start at 11:30am ET today! Pro pickleball will be broadcasted nonstop throughout the weekend. If you're lucky enough to be in Southern California, then go check out the events live in person.

If you're in the Bay Area, check out National Pickleball's West Coast Classic in Oakley, CA. They offer a full slate of tournaments throughout the country as part of the Amateur Championship Series.

On the Court: Next time you're out there, count your unforced errors. Dinks in the net, missed serves, out balls, etc. It will force you to play smart and allow the game to come to you.

By the way, at the bottom of this issue, you'll see a link to our referral program. We'll add more rewards soon, but it allows you to earn things like an Electrum or Selkirk paddle for referring other readers.

Reminder: it's National Pickleball Day on Monday. Let's get the weekend started, mates.

Get 12X More Touches With a Simple Drill by Shea Underwood

The most simple and accessible way to get better at pickleball is to practice against a wall. When the weather is inclement, there are no courts available, or you can’t find a drilling partner, a wall is an amazing alternative.

Practicing on a wall can yield 12 times more touches!

15 minutes of wall drilling is roughly equivalent to the amount of touches you will get in 3 hours of doubles play. Perhaps more important though is that you can control what types of touches these are going to be. If you want to practice your hand speed, resets, or even third-shot drops, the wall is going to be your best friend.

Setup: The best setup I’ve seen for wall drills is to put a horizontal piece of tape 35 inches off the ground. Create 3 squares evenly distributed along this line.

It can also be useful to tape a non-volley zone line 7 feet away from the wall. You can use the image below for reference.

My 2 favorite wall drills are moving volleys and a dink, speedup, reset pattern.

Moving volley drill

• Hit the ball in the rightmost square

• Without letting it bounce, volley it in the middle square

• Volley the ball again into the leftmost square without letting the ball touch the ground

• Once you can comfortably do this, try to increase the difficulty by going in the pattern: right, middle, left, left, middle, right, right, middle, etc..

Dink, speedup, reset pattern:

• Hit a soft dink to the middle square

• Then let the ball bounce and hit a hard speed up into middle square

• Next, try to reset it softly back into the middle square. Continue this pattern by hitting a dink, speed-up, reset, dink, speed-up reset, etc…

For more drills like these, check out this video featuring Heisman Trophy Winner Danny Wuerrfel and Shea Underwood!

The Most Comfortable Apparel in Pickleball

Activewear designed with adventure in mind. Check out Glyder’s multifunctional apparel that you can wear on and off the court - stay fashionable and comfortable no matter what the day brings.

Weekend Viewing Guide

Bust out the iPad, the laptop and the Amazon FireStick. There is no such thing as too many screens this weekend. Coverage for Major League Pickleball and the PPA's Selkirk Labs Showdown will overlap throughout most of the weekend.

You can catch most of the Major League Pickleball action on the MLP YouTube. The finals will be held on CBS Sports Network Sunday evening.

• Friday: 12 matches of group play

• Saturday: 6 matches of group play and 2 quarterfinal matches

• Sunday: 2 Semi-final matches and the MLP Final

The Selkirk Labs Showdown will be streamed on Selkirk TV, the PPA TV and Tennis Channel.

• Friday: Pool Play, each player will play 4 mixed doubles and 3 gender doubles games to 15

• Saturday: Bracket play through the semi final in men's, women's and mixed doubles

• Sunday: Selkirk Labs Showdown Finals in men's, women's and mixed doubles.

For more information on each event, visit thedinkpickleball.com.

"The Lowest Hanging Fruit in Pro Sports"

A few high level tennis players have crashed onto the women's scene and become podium staples. Parris Todd, Anna Bright and Salome Devidze all started their pro pickleball careers this year and have won multiple titles.

According to Nunnery, this is a course charted to a six-figure income via sponsorships, competing and teaching. Not a bad gig.

There is definitely a window open to get in the game. Some professional women's singles draws don't reach double digits in participants. Compare that to the typical men's draw that has 30-40 participants.

Like he said in the tweet, "it's there for the taking," but you better have some game if you want to make a run at it.

Everything You Need For Pickleball Under One Roof

Rhino Pickleball has paddles, balls, portable nets perfect for players at all levels. They have the best selection of training aids to support player development. Up your game with court markers, cones and other fitness accessories that take drill work to the next level.

Pickleball Protests Continue

At this point it's just as trendy to protest pickleball as it is to play it. A metro Detroit suburb is facing a quarrel over a local country club's effort to build more pickleball courts.

A story we've heard before: there aren't enough courts to match the surging demand in the area. The club plans to build more.

A story we've also heard before: neighbors of the club are protesting the expansion claiming that pickleball is 'too loud'.

This scenario is playing out time and time again across the country. More money more problems. Does that apply here? Well the sentiment is relevant, right? The bigger and more popular pickleball gets, the more opponents it faces. With the good comes the bad.

You can watch the full video here.

Rocky Mountain Highs

The Gates Tennis Center in Denver, CO hosted the Rocky Mountain Championships last weekend. The amateur and pro-level tournament looked a whole lot different this year than it did last year.

The Rocky Mountain Championships were a stop on the 2021 PPA Tour. Ben Johns won the triple crown and named it one of his favorite stops on the tour. Lea Jansen had an all-time grit performance double dipping to win the singles title while fighting flu-like symptoms (complete with an on-court, heat-induced upchuck).

The tournament built local hype last year. It was the biggest pickleball event in Colorado in 2021. They took on MLP as a sponsor this year, but even without the presence of the top touring pros, Rocky Mountain Pickleball held a large event with nearly 1000 players. This could be a unique scenario only fit for Denver or maybe something we see more of in the future.

The multifaceted film, tv and music video director/actor Kyle Newacheck has a new obsession, and her name is pickleball. Hear how he got started playing the game on the set of his new show ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and how he is spreading the addiction with his Workaholics co-stars.

Listen here or watch here.

Headlines & Quick Hits

• How about a free pair of pickleball earrings? Check 'em out.

• Is pickleball's rise a threat to tennis? | Sports Illustrated

• The easiest way to find courts near you.

• My Lou: Pickleball saves a woman's life.

• Pickleball injuries in older adults.

Highlights

• It's better to watch this one in slow-motion so you can keep track of the ball

• It's almost like she wants you to come in. 🪤

• THIS is how you defend an ATP

• A pickleball story as old as time (and the weirdest video you'll watch today)

Homecourt Havens

Sagaponack, NY

Somebody break out the leaf blower. We've got a game to play. This Long Island beauty is the perfect spot to spend the last month of summer.

If you’ve got this one beat or want to show off your own homecourt, send us an email at [email protected].

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