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Viral Moment of the Year. Most Influential Voice. Best Pickleball Content Creator.

We’re back with a fresh batch of 120/Life Dink Awards winners, this time in the Media category. And we’ve got the GOAT of 60-second social media clips to help us do the honors — and impart a little wisdom along the way.

In This Issue:
— Is gaming good for pickleball?
— Where to aim a low speedup
— Big golf brand debuts first paddle

Let’s get into it.

Good news for anyone putting in the hours on Fortnite: the fast-twitch muscles and pattern recognition required for elite gaming could actually translate to a better pickleball game. At least, that’s Zane’s theory. Allow him to explain.

All you rec play heroes, listen up: if you’re in the heat of battle and see a ball land perilously close to the line, please, we beg you, don’t automatically call it out unless you 100% saw it out. If the tables were turned, you’d want that called in your favor.

The 2026 Major League Pickleball season gets underway at the end of May, and the team-by-team schedule just dropped. If you follow a certain team, or want to see if the action is coming to your home court, now’s the time to start making plans.

PPA action is underway in Cape Coral, Florida, and a few pros have been spotted sporting new paddles, most notably a host of JOOLA athletes like Ben Johns, Federico Staksrud, Lea Jansen, and Tyson McGuffin with the unreleased Pro V. Anna Bright gives us a quick taste.

Here's a habit that feels natural but absolutely backfires against solid opponents: attacking a low ball and sending it straight at a player’s chest.

Sure, it might work against beginners, but better players have devastating counters ready. When you hit the ball right at their body, they'll inevitably punch a powerful counter back at your feet. Point, over.

We’re not going to tell you not to attack anything below net level — that’s the old way of thinking; the new meta is all about calculated and unpredictable aggression.

Yes, you can send it. But like anything good in life, the payoff requires patience and discipline.

✅ If the ball is really low, like brushing your shoelaces low, you’re probably better off dinking it back. Aim middle if you’re really in a pinch. That’s your safe zone. If you can take it out of the air still, a well-aimed lob can create a heap of chaos.

✅ If you're going to attack, find an uncomfortable spot rather than aiming directly at their torso. Think about hitting toward their forehand hip or shoulder, both spots that will force an error or a weak return.

✅ The goal here is to make them work for their counter. The point of a speed-up isn’t an instant winner, it’s a set-up for the following knockout blow.

Unpredictability is your friend in pickleball, and that includes being aggressive on balls previously considered too low to attack. Just make sure you’re attacking the right spots.

➡️ Watch the video.

You know the one.

You’re at the kitchen.
Ball speeds up.
You plant to react — And your shoe hesitates.

That tiny half-second matters.

Midwest Racquet Sports carries the pickleball shoes built for those movements — the quick plants, lateral bursts, and awkward resets we all live in.

If you’ve felt that “almost lost it” moment, this is where you start.

Shop Midwest’s wide range of pickleball shoes and use code THEDINK for 15% off.

We’re rolling on with more winners of the 2025 120/Life Dink Awards, this time in the media category.

To help us announce this batch of awards, we had pickleball content GOAT Tanner Tomassi join us on this week’s PicklePod. He’s nominated for a bunch of these categories, after all, so it felt only right to invite him to get in on the fun.

Here are this week’s categories:

Maybe next year we’ll add a “Best Pickleball Newsletter” award. Just a thought…

➡️ You can watch the guys do the honors on the PicklePod, or just see the full list of this week’s winners, all right here.

The pickleball paddle market is heating up, and it's not just the usual suspects anymore.

Golf brands are making a serious play for market share: Callaway has its first-ever paddle dropping today, and there's serious buzz that Ping might be joining the pickleball paddle game too, according to Zane Navratil. Mizuno already had five paddles USAP approved last year. And PXG is in the mix already, too.

That’s all well and good, but the question now becomes: will these golf brands succeed where tennis companies struggled?

Head, Babolat and others have tried to break into the mainstream pickleball paddle market with mixed, mostly lackluster results.

Zane thinks it’s possible:

What about you? Can you picture yourself swinging a Callaway paddle during your next open play?

➡️ Learn more.

Some brands only talk to 5.0s.
Some only talk to beginners.

Luzz does both.

New to the game? They’ve got beginner-friendly builds that won’t fight you.
Playing tournaments? Their pro and frameless models are built for higher-level control and feel.

You don’t have to outgrow the brand to level up. You just grow within it.

Explore Luzz paddles and use code THEDINK for 15% off.

Your pickleball paddle could very well be core-crushed. Before you roll your eyes and scroll on, hear us out.

According to Chris Olson from Pickleball Studio, this is a real problem that's been going on for years, and he should know – he's played with literally hundreds, if not thousands, of different paddles. And he plays in competitive tournaments all the time.

✅ Core crushing happens when the polymer honeycomb core of your thermoformed paddle breaks down over time. As you play more and more, the material deteriorates, and your paddle starts hitting harder and harder. Basically, as it loosens up, or crushes, the greater "trampoline effect" it's likely to exhibit.

Eventually, it can reach a point where it wouldn't pass an official certification test.

The scary part? A lot of players don't realize their paddle has this issue, so they keep using it in tournaments, none the wiser.

Here’s how to check your own paddle, right now:

➡️ Watch Chris demonstrate.

A review from the Dink Fam...

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