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It’s time. Voting is officially open for The 120/Life Dink Awards, pickleball's official fan-choice awards recognizing the top players, people, organizations, and moments of 2025.

Paddle of the year. Breakout men’s and women’s player. Most influential voice. Top content creator. We’ve got it all. But it’s up to you to decide who takes home the hardware.

In This Issue:
— Beloved pro announces retirement
— Parris Todd issues public statement
— Anna Leigh spotted sporting Nike

Let’s go.

Parris Todd has issued her first public statement since being fined and suspended by the UPA. “At no point was it my intention to submit inaccurate or incomplete information when requesting to participate in this event,” she said. Read more.

Ryan Fu took to X to weigh in on the hand speed debate: “60% of hand speed is just anticipation of ball — 40% is actual reaction time.” To be sure, court positioning is critical for consistently winning firefights. But 60%? Feels high. What do you think?

Longtime CRBN-sponsored pro, and favorite among players and fans alike, Vivienne David announced her retirement from pro pickleball yesterday. She won 23 career PPA Tour medals and played in MLP from the very beginning. Congrats on one hell of a career, Viv.

Brand-new PicklePod co-host Nico the Lefty showed his true colors this week in a new, recurring segment called “Pickleball Court,” where the guys debate who’s right or wrong in common rec-play scenarios.

In this edition, he and some 5.0 buddies were using advanced open play for some tournament prep when a measly 3.0 asked if he could join. Access: denied. Who’s in the wrong?

Don’t fall into the trap of setting a bunch of pickleball resolutions you’re going to forget about in a month. Drilling five times per week? Hitting legs in the gym more? Yeah, you’re not gonna do that.

Tanner Tomassi has another way.

Rather than obsessing over what skills or shots you can add to your arsenal, focus instead on two bad habits you can remove.

Like these two common rec player ailments…

🚫 Stop speeding up everything. Just stop.
✅ Tanner’s advice is simple: don't even think about speeding up the ball until you’ve hit at least ten quality dinks. This forces you to develop patience and wait for a ball that actually deserves to be attacked.

🚫 Stop eye-rolling your partner into the next court.
✅ When you make your partner feel like every mistake is the end of the world, they’re going to play worse. Subtract the negativity from your side of the net and you’ll be amazed at how much better the team performs as a whole. And how much more fun everyone is having as a result.

If you can commit to removing your two worst habits from your game, you'll find you're letting the game come to you rather than trying to force it. Just like that, you're a more enjoyable partner and opponent to play with. And trust us, that counts for a lot.

➡️ Watch the video.

Yeah, we’re zooming in on the bottom of the shoe for a reason.

The Franklin ACV Pro was built for real pickleball movement. Its aggressive herringbone tread pattern delivers serious traction so you can explode, stop, and switch direction fast.

When your shoes grip like this, the rest of your game just clicks.

Check out the ACV Pro from Franklin Sports and feel the traction difference.

Voting is now open for The 120/Life Dink Awards, the sport’s first and only fan-choice awards, where players, creators, and moments are decided by the fans who actually live the game.

You nominated. We counted. Then counted again. And now, it’s time to vote.

From breakout pros and fan-favorite creators to the best facilities, podcasts, and paddles in the game, this year’s ballot reflects just how big (and loud) pickleball has become.

Take this year’s Fan Favorite Pro category, for example. Competition was stiff to crack the top five… did we miss anyone?

If you love this sport as much as we do, this is your chance to exert a little influence, to impact the future of the people, brands, and moments that matter to you most.

Oh, and you could win a free paddle of your choice just for making your voice heard.

➡️ Cast your vote now.

Yes, a club in Boca Raton, Florida, posted a video showing what was definitely Anna Leigh Waters swinging what certainly appeared to be a Franklin paddle wearing what was almost definitely a smattering of Nike apparel, including a particularly fly pair of Nike Zoom Challenge pickleball shoes.

Were they supposed to post this for all the world to see? Definitely not. Has it since been scrubbed from the internet, lesson learned? You betcha.

The only real news here is that we now have a somewhat grainy picture of what ALW's pickleball future could look like. And make no mistake, it looks good.

But her new deal is not yet finalized. We have that on very good authority.

So let's all pause and appreciate this for what it is: Franklin and Nike are probably frontrunners at this point, given PPA Masters is coming up and it seems likely this announcement will happen before then.

The ramifications of a brand like Nike betting that big on the future of pickleball would be massive. But it’s not a done deal. Not yet.

➡️ MLP teammate of Anna Leigh, Zane Navratil, gives his thoughts.

The Nike sightings got everyone talking.

And while we wait to see how things shake out officially, Midwest Racquet Sports is already running up to 50% off select Nike apparel and footwear. If you’ve been eyeing a refresh anyway, this feels like a pretty good window to jump in.

Speculation aside, deals are deals.

Listen, we know we’re giving a lot of airtime to Anna Leigh’s pending paddle and apparel deals. But if you care about the growth of this sport, you should care about this.

Anna Leigh is pickleball’s undisputed superstar, the winningest, most marketable player we have, and maybe ever will. And this deal will almost definitely span three years at least, maybe considerably more. The point is, it’s the biggest partnership deal the sport has ever seen, and is likely to see for a very long time.

On this week’s PicklePod, Zane Navratil and new host Nico the Lefty are joined by The Dink’s founder Thomas Shields to discuss what could be pickleball’s first $10 million deal.

That’s not it, though. The guys get into a bunch of other topics, like:

➡️ It’s a wild ride. Tune in now.

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