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A Kansas City nonprofit is sharing pickleball with the world. Most recently, founder Aaron Trost journeyed to Kyiv, Ukraine, to teach the sport to some of the country’s 150,000 wounded civilians and soldiers.

“Pickleball is addictive in a good way. And some people need that break for a couple hours every day." More on Aaron’s story, below.

In This Issue:
— A top 20 pro’s proven singles tips
— Sharing pickleball with the wounded in Ukraine
— Pickleball and protein: Luka Dončić’s off-season fitness plan

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Alec and Stephen Baldwin will partake in a celebrity pickleball event on Lake Skaneateles, NY, to benefit cancer research in their late mother’s name, Carol M. Baldwin. Participating pros include Grayson Goldin, Hannah Blatt and Juan Benitez. You can play, too — but it’ll cost you $1,000.

For Miami-based apparel brand Original Penguin, transitioning from golf to pickleball just made sense. And what better way to enter the market swinging than by outfitting their hometown Miami Pickleball Club? “It's just the right amount of bold — kind of like Miami itself,” says women’s star Mya Bui.

One of the first families of pickleball — Julie, Jack, J.W. and Jorja Johnson — donated $600,000 to a new 12-court facility opening in their hometown of Pittsburg, Kansas. “It’s really special to be here,” said JW at the ribbon-cutting.

Lydia Hirt, VP of Marketing at Life Time, joined the PicklePod to talk about the LT Open, the first-ever pro singles-only tourney with the largest-ever prize: $50,000 each for the men’s and women’s winners. “It kind of caught me off guard,” Zane admits.

Most pickleball enthusiasts avoid singles because of its cardiovascular demands. We like getting a workout, sure, but not too much of one. Running is hard.

Honing your singles game does more than upping your lung capacity, though; it can take your doubles game to the next level. To prove it, try these tips from pro Eric Roddy, a top 20 PPA singles player who’s also scrapped out some gutsy wins lately with his MLP squad the Atlanta Bouncers.

✅ Serving big is paramount. In doubles, a serve is a point-starter, but in singles it often dictates failure or success. You need to change your mindset toward going big or going home. If you’re not missing two or three serves long per game, you’re not serving big enough.

Roddy says: “The goal is to delay or even prevent your opponent from returning and coming in, and the key to executing that is depth.”

✅ Modern paddle technology has made baseline passing shots a part of the game, but it should still be your goal to get to the net first. This puts you in the driver’s seat and means your opponent will be doing most of the running.

Roddy says: “If you do hit a good enough return to follow it in, it immediately puts pressure on your opponent to hit an above-average third shot.”

✅ Shrink every point down to the first four shots. Serve big. Return deep. Now what? Roddy’s primary tip for your third shot is a simple one: Just make it.

Roddy says: “For some reason, we equate having one person opposite from us instead of two as a green light to go for a low margin shot, which leads to errors.”

👉 Read the full article.

If your squats feel wobbly or your feet slide during box jumps, it might not be you. It might be your shoes.

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You can’t outwork bad shoes. These help you try.

When five-time NBA All-Star Luka Dončić was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the LA Lakers earlier this year, much of the conversation was around his physique and lack of overall conditioning.

Debate the merits of that all you’d like, but Dončić appears to have heard his critics loud and clear — and has the biceps to prove it.

He’s spent the off-season getting shredded. Two-a-day grueling workouts. Meal plans bursting with protein. And even some pickleball to mix things up, a sport that seems to scratch his competitive itch.

"There were a lot of angry moments, when we would lose,” he told Men’s Health of his experience on the court. “But I didn’t lose much."

👉 Read the full article.

This weekend, MLP Salt Lake City will close out the 2025 Major League Pickleball regular season.

In addition to all six Challenger Level teams, seven Premier teams will take the court: Utah Black Diamonds, New Jersey 5s, Texas Ranchers, Orlando Squeeze, Miami Pickleball Club, Chicago Slice, and Atlanta Bouncers.

The top 10 teams get to advance to the opening round of the playoffs in San Diego in August. Eight teams have clinched a playoff berth, and the top three seeds are already secured by the Shock, Flash and 5s.

That means there are four teams fighting for the two remaining spots.

We break it all down in our event preview, including team-by-team predictions.

👉 Check it out.

Ever hop on a bike and feel like you’re doing all the work? Yeah, this isn’t that.

The Discover 2 from Velotric is the opposite. You hop on, start pedaling, and suddenly you’re cruising like life just got easier. It’s quiet, smooth, and gives you that little boost without turning into a full-on workout.

Top speed of 28 mph. Up to 75 miles on one charge. And it charges like your phone.

You can use it for the grocery run, the morning loop, or whatever “I should probably move today” moment hits first.

And the best part? It just looks good. Comes in mint, pine green, stone gray, and a deep cherry red that kind of slaps in the sun.

See why people are loving the Discover 2.

A few years ago, Aaron Trost lost a doubles match to Zane Navratil 0-15.

It was around then, he jokes with Zane on this week's PicklePod, that he realized his "mission and purpose in pickleball is probably not going pro."

In 2021, he founded the nonprofit Pickleball Planter, which has since brought him and a bag-full of paddles to countries like Honduras, Hungary, England, Poland, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Most recently, he and about 200 paddles went to Kyiv, Ukraine, to team up with the nonprofit Ukrainian Pickleball Federation.

Trost taught clinics to beginners, youth and veterans. But what resonates with him most is putting a paddle in the hands — and a smile on the faces — of some of the 150,000 people permanently disabled due to the ongoing war with Russia.

“Pickleball is addictive in a good way. It allows your mind to focus on just pickleball,” he told Zane. “And some people need that break for a couple hours every day.”

👉 Watch the full interview on this week’s PicklePod.

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