Health, Fitness, News & Fun for Picklers of All Ages

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• 6 Ways To Turn A Reset Into An Attack

• Why Your Balance Feels Worse In February

• Drill Of The Week: Attack vs Reset Ladder

• 3 Desk Job Stretches To Relieve Back & Neck Pain

• The Best Warm-Up Routine For Pickleball Players

• Agassi Sports Entertainment Announces Plans To Launch World Series of Pickleball

• Johns/Tardio Outclass Johnson/Klinger As Tardio Secures 20th Career
  PPA Tour Title

• From Pro Tennis To Northeastern Law School And Now Pickleball

• Coach Mary: Avoid the “Zone of Death!”

🥷SKILLS

6 Ways To Turn A Reset Into An Attack

Most points at your park do not end with a single big drive. They build through a series of neutral shots: dinks, blocks, and soft resets from mid court. The players who keep winning those rallies are not just “more aggressive.” They are better at recognizing when a nothing-ball quietly turns into a green light.

Turning a reset into an attack is not about forcing speed-ups. It is about reading ball height, your balance, their balance, and using small advantages at the right moment.

Use Ball Height As Your Traffic Light

The first decision is always: is this ball for a reset or an attack?

Think of ball height in three colors:

Red light: the ball is clearly below net height at your contact point. Your paddle has to travel up just to clear the net. This is almost always a reset or neutral dink.

Yellow light: the ball is roughly at net height. You can create gentle pressure with a roll or push dink, but you still need shape, spin, and margin. This is not a flat smack.

Green light: the ball is clearly above net height at contact. You can swing forward and slightly down without first lifting the ball up over the net.

💪 Health & Fitness Section

Why Your Balance Feels
Worse In February

If you’ve felt a little “off” at the kitchen line lately – late to balls you usually reach, wobbling on wide dinks, or catching yourself stepping instead of gliding – you’re not imagining it.  

February quietly messes with balance, even in players who feel otherwise strong and fit. And no, it’s not because you suddenly aged a year. 

Here’s the truth most players miss: balance isn’t something you either have or don’t have. It’s a skill that needs daily practice. Winter steals that practice without you noticing. 

What February Quietly Takes Away 

Winter changes how you move every day. You walk less. You sit more. You drive instead of stroll. You avoid uneven ground. None of that feels dramatic – but it removes hundreds of tiny balance reps your nervous system normally gets for free. 

Balance depends on three systems working together: ankles and hips sensing the ground, your eyes tracking movement, and your inner ear handling head position. In winter, all three get less stimulation.  

Then pickleball suddenly demands the hardest version of balance possible – split-steps, lateral reaches, quick stops, and constant head turns at the kitchen line. 

That’s why balance issues show up as hesitation, late reactions, or that “almost had it” feeling. It’s not weakness. It’s de-training. 

🥷 DRILL OF THE WEEK

The Attack Versus Reset Ladder

This week’s drill is a simple way to train the two skills that decide most kitchen points: speeding up with control and resetting under pressure.

One player applies disciplined attacks. The other must land a true reset that bounces in the kitchen to earn a role switch. That instant flip forces you to practice both mindsets, apply pressure without forcing it, then absorb pace without popping it up.

See how to structure the reps and make your resets actually hold up in real hands battles.

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

3 Desk Job Stretches
To Relieve Back & Neck Pain

⚕️ HEALTH NEWS

The Best Warm-Up Routine
For Pickleball Players

Most pickleball injuries happen in the first few games — when players go from standing still to full-speed movement without preparing their bodies.
A proper warm-up protects your calves, knees, shoulders, and Achilles before the first hard push, lunge, or overhead. It takes a few minutes and can save you weeks off the court.
Here’s a simple routine designed to get your body ready to move safely.

🗞️ NEWS

Agassi Sports Entertainment
Announces Plan To Launch
World Series of Pickleball

Andre Agassi’s name is officially attached to what could become one of the sport’s biggest swings yet.

Agassi Sports Entertainment announced plans to launch the World Series of Pickleball, a Las Vegas–based global championship property, with event architecture support from TEAM Marketing. The vision blends open competition, team elements, major prize money, celebrity presence, and large-scale production under one marquee banner.

See what’s planned, who’s involved, and why this could signal pickleball’s next commercial leap, click here…

 🏓 PRO NEWS

Johns/Tardio Outclass
Johnson/Klinger As Tardio
Secures 20th Career PPA Title

Ben Johns and Gabe Tardio didn’t just win in Cape Coral — they dominated. The top seeds shut down JW Johnson and CJ Klinger in straight games, closing out
Championship Sunday with authority and adding another statement to what’s quickly become one of the most dominant partnerships on tour.

For Tardio, the win marks his 20th career PPA title, tying him for fifth all-time.

Read more about the milestone, the match, and what’s next for Johns and Tardio.
Click here to read more…

👏 COMMUNITY NEWS

From Tennis Pro To Northeastern
Law School To The Pickleball Court

She was a Division I tennis standout, played professionally, then walked away from the tour to become a lawyer.

Now Cynthia Tow McPherson has found herself back in competition — not on a tennis court, but in pickleball — balancing law, family, and a second athletic act she never saw coming. Read how a former pro turned law school leader rediscovered her competitive edge in the fastest-growing sport in America, click here…

🏓 HUMOR

Me At Home,
Me At The Pickleball Court

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

LA CROSSE, WI: Club Spotlight: UWL Pickleball Club
NAPERVILLE, IL: Naperville-Based KidsMatter Sets Guinness World Record For Largest Simultaneous Pickleball Lesson
NORFOLK, NE: Generous Donations Help Create New Pickleball Courts In Norfolk
BALTIMORE, MD: Pickleball Bounces Into Fells Point With Baltimore's First Indoor Courts
NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ: ACE Pickleball Club Is taking Over Huge Space At A Popular N.J. Shopping Center
KULPMONT, PA: Coal Region Pickleball League Spreads Love To Elderly For Valentine's Day
ASHLAND, MO: Teamwork And Rivalry: Southern Boone Hosts Courtwarming Pickleball Tournament


DO YOU HAVE LOCAL NEWS TO SHARE? REACH OUT TO US AT
[email protected] and send us a link to your story!

  💪  Avoid the “Zone Of Death!”

Jill Braverman shares some great information and tips on court positioning. Check out these videos.

· Jill defines the “Zone of Death” as the first 5 feet inside the baseline.
· She never wants to see your feet on the baseline – think of it as the NVZ line.
· Choice one: return and stay behind the baseline, waiting to execute your next shot.
· Choice two: return a drop, drip or drive, and come in past the “Zone of Death” on your way to the NVZ line.
· On your way in, if you cannot get all the way to the NVZ, split step when your opponent contacts the ball. Execute a drop, roll, flick, and come all the way into the NVZ.

When would you stay behind the “Zone of Death?”

When your opponent hits a wickedly deep ball, keeping you back. Try to put topspin on your return from back there, so they cannot attack you above the level of the net. Wait for a ball you can come in on with a drop or drip.

Why is it so bad to be stuck in the “Zone of Death?”
Jill says:

• This is the easiest way to hit out balls! Hard to tell if it will be in or out from that area.

• It is difficult to hit resets from back there.

• It is difficult to hit speed ups from back there.

Jill includes a way to practice with a partner, where the player executing the return will yell “Go!” or “Stay!” This is more advanced, but higher-level players need this kind of communication.

Watch the attached video several times – this is great stuff!

This second video goes into more of the communication aspect with your partner pertaining to the “Zone of Death”.

“Stay or Go!” Really critical to tell your partner what you are going to do with your return. If you are deep, on your back foot, you would stay. If you are moving in, you would go.

Check out this second video, and then go out and practice with your partner!

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