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The Cinderella Sliders are your 2025 Major League Pickleball Champions. In a three-match throwdown for the ages, Columbus, Ohio’s hometown team outlasted the favored New Jersey 5s in front of a packed house in NYC’s Central Park. A storybook ending for the underdog team few expected to be there.

In This Issue:
— Study sheds new light on pickleball injuries
— Power-ranking top foam paddles
— How ‘The Chosen Ones’ won MLP

What a finish.

It used to be stickball. Now resourceful New Yorkers are taking a new sport to the city’s streets. In its purest form, pickleball can be played on any slice of concrete with a few paddles and a ball, and a makeshift net. Like this West Village alleyway.

If you’re looking for some candid insights and opinions on the world of professional pickleball, allow us to recommend newly minted MLP Champion Lea Jansen on X. Plenty of pros have opinions, but Lea takes it to another level. Like this very spicy take on Zane Navratil’s sideline chirping.

Does switching hands give you a competitive edge, or is it a crutch for poor footwork? Unless you’re Jack Munro, this isn’t a skill. You’re just being lazy. Best to break the habit now before it holds you back from reaching your full potential.

Our Courted social pickleball event series pops up at Big City Pickle in Chicago’s Fulton Market this Saturday from 2-6 p.m. Come eat, drink, and play… and maybe meet your new pickleball bestie in the process. Use code DinkFam for 50% off your ticket while supplies last.

During a PicklePod Q&A session, Zane was asked about the best location to reset, cross-court or middle?

He’s fine with it from the transition zone. But “from the kitchen line, never reset. Stop resetting. Resetting is crushing your game. You should just counter-attack instead.”

What’s the difference? And how can you start countering more yourself? We’re so glad you asked. A “counter” or “counter-attack” can take many forms. What matters is that it applies pressure.

✅ If you can reset, you can probably hit a more aggressive volley instead. Angle your paddle face down, keep a firm wrist, and punch the ball toward your opponents’ feet. This is far more difficult to defend than a soft, dead dink.

✅ A slide step is your best friend here. Rather than letting the ball come into your body, take a quick, hard step away from your dominant hand to clear your paddle from your torso. Now take a full swing.

✅ Or, mix in an offensive lob from the kitchen line to break your opponents’ rhythm and push them back to the baseline.

Just remember: A counter doesn’t have to mean a speed-up. It’s any shot that forces your opponent to move, scramble, defend, or block. This is modern pickleball: Offense wins games.

➡️ More from Zane.

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➡️ The Dink fam gets 20% off with code NEWSLETTERS20.

In an odds-defying playoff run that pitted them against the #1, #2, and #3 seeds, the Columbus Sliders put it all together on Sunday, winning the 2025 Major League Pickleball title against the favored, Anna Leigh Waters-led New Jersey 5s.

It all started when the defending champions Dallas Flash opted to face the Sliders over the Texas Ranchers. The implications were clear: Dallas felt they could roll over the Sliders no problem. But “The Chosen Ones” had other ideas.

The 37-year-old captain Andrei Daescu. OG ultra-competitor Lea Jansen. Ohio-native and 19-year-old crowd-favorite CJ Klinger. And surging superstar Parris Todd. You could practically see the chip on their shoulders during each and every point.

“Dear Slider Nation,” the team posted to X. “We write this with full hearts, still in awe of what we’ve accomplished together. From the very beginning of the finals, we were called the underdogs, the chosen ones, the Cinderella Sliders — but it was your energy, your voices, and your belief that turned that story into a reality.”

There wasn’t an empty seat in the heart of Central Park as MLP history was made over the weekend.

➡️ Read our full event recap, including highlights.

In case there’s any lingering doubt, allow us to clear the air: Foam cores aren’t the future of paddle technology, they’re the current gold standard, favored for their ability to blend performance, power, and durability.

It’s no wonder seemingly every popular paddle brand either has one or is rushing to get one to market.

To help get your minds around all the madness, Louis and Justin from Pickleball Pursuit pulled nine of the top foam-core paddles together and ranked them according to pop and power.

We won’t spoil it, but the guys agree on the top four, listed below in no particular order:

➡️ Watch the video.

The NOBULL Rec is built to handle whatever your day throws at you: lifting, errands, even a casual night out.

Clean design, dependable comfort, zero fluff.

And for the next 24 hours, you can grab two pairs for the price of one.

➡️ Get two NOBULL Recs for $99 - Use code 2RECS2499.

The problem with current pickleball injury statistics is they’re reported from the emergency room. But how many people do you know who have suffered an on-court sprain, strain, or worse but never saw a doctor about it? Yeah, a lot.

New research from Saint Louis University surveyed 1,800 players nationwide ages 18-102. The results can help us better understand who’s getting injured, what’s hurting most, and how different types of play can translate to a greater chance of something going wrong.

A few key findings:

So, if you’re over 30 and hitting the court multiple times per week, you might want to start adding in some extra warm-up time or hitting the ice-bath post open play.

➡️ Read the full findings.

A review from the Dink Fam...

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