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Fix Your Footwork, Improve Your Whole Game
Middle Magnet Drill, New Feature: Gear Reviews, Hip Mobility, MLP Draft Changes, Feeling Stiff After a Game, The Pickleball World Cup & More
FIT PICKLER
July 30, 2026
Health, Fitness, News & Fun for Picklers of All Ages
What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:
Fix Your Footwork, Improve Your Whole Game
Why You Feel Stiff the Day After Pickleball
DRILL OF THE WEEK: The Middle Magnet Drill
Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: Can You Pass This Hip Mobility Test?
Big Changes Coming In 2027 To MLP Draft Process
NEW SECTION: GEAR REVIEW: CRBN 1X 16mm Paddle
Pickleball Inc. And Pickleball World Cup Unite To Expand Global Competition
Ben Stiller’s Latest Pickleball Comedy Serves up a Huge Streaming Surprise
HUMOR: When My Return Actually Clears The Net
Coach Mary: A Block Volley and Punch Volley Tutorial
🥷SKILLS
Fix Your Footwork,
Improve Your Whole Game
🎶 Put Your Hands On Your Hips… 🎶
Watch almost any group of pickleball players, and you’ll hear plenty of advice about swings.
“Keep your paddle up.”
“Shorten your backswing.”
“Brush up on the ball.”
Those things matter. But there is another reason shots break down that players often overlook: their feet put them in a bad position before the paddle ever starts moving.
Many players spend hours trying to improve their drops, volleys, drives, and dinks without realizing that the real problem isn’t the shot itself. They’re reaching instead of moving, swinging while off balance, or making contact too close to their body because their feet never got them where they needed to be.
Good footwork doesn’t just make one shot better. It makes almost every shot easier because your feet determine where you contact the ball, how balanced you are when you hit it, how quickly you recover afterward, and how much time you have before the next shot arrives.
💪 Health & Fitness Section
Why You Feel Stiff
The Day After Pickleball
Who Said You Don’t Get Board Playing Pickleball?
You wake up the morning after pickleball and every step reminds you that yesterday was a good day on the court.
Your legs feel tight. Your hips are slow to loosen up. Getting out of a chair takes a little more effort than usual. It is a feeling almost every player recognizes, but it does not always mean the same thing.
Sometimes it is normal muscle soreness after exercise. Other times, the stiffness has more to do with what happened after the last game than what happened during it. Understanding the difference can help you recover more comfortably and get back on the court sooner.
Why It Happens
Pickleball asks a lot from the body. Every game is filled with quick starts, sudden stops, lunges, squats, and changes of direction. Even players who are on the court several times a week can wake up feeling stiff after a particularly long or demanding session.
One of the biggest reasons is simply doing more than the body has recently been asked to do. Maybe the games were especially competitive. Maybe friends kept arriving and it was too much fun to leave. A normal 90-minute session quietly turned into three hours.
That does not necessarily mean an injury occurred. It often means the body is working to recover from a workload that exceeded what it had been prepared for.
🥷 Drill of the Week:
The Middle Magnet Drill
Now That’s an Attractive Shot!
The middle is one of the safest targets in doubles, yet many players chase the sidelines instead. This drill shows why the seam between two opponents creates hesitation, jams their next shot, and often builds pressure without taking unnecessary risks.
Learn how the Middle Magnet Drill helps you recognize the moving seam and use it to win more doubles rallies.
🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA
Can You Pass This
Hip Mobility Test?
🏓 PRO NEWS
Big Changes Coming In
2027 MLP Draft Process
Major League Pickleball could look completely different in 2027. Proposed draft rules would force every team to release its 2024 players, including stars like Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns, while new spending limits could break up today's superteams.
See how the proposed salary cap, right of first refusal, and draft changes could reshape every MLP roster.
⚙️ GEAR REVIEWS
CRBN 1X 16mm Paddle
NEW FROM PICKLER JUNCTION: The Pickler Junction Team’s reviews go above and beyond a simple thumbs up or thumbs down. They pull together independent testing, verified buyer feedback, community opinions, and objective performance data to show where the CRBN 1X 16mm shines, and where it may not be the right fit, depending on how you play. Note: Review will list MSRP, link will show sale price if available.
Shopping for new pickleball gear? Reply here and we’ll tell The PJ Team what to review next!
🤩 ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Ben Stillers’ Latest Comedy
Serves Up A
Huge Streaming Surprise
Lobbing To #1
A movie about pickleball wasn't expected to top the streaming charts. But just days after its release, Ben Stiller's The Dink climbed to No. 1 on Apple TV+, beating out several big-name films and giving the sport another mainstream moment.
See why The Dink is finding an audience, who's in the cast, and how critics and viewers have responded.
🏓 PRO NEWS
Pickleball Inc & Pickleball
World Cup Unite to Expand
Global Competition
PPA Tour professionals will soon be able to play for something bigger than a tour title. A new partnership with the Pickleball World Cup removes the restriction that kept eligible pros from representing their countries, opening the door for national-team competition beginning in 2027.
See how the deal changes the World Cup, expands pickleball’s global reach, and moves the sport closer to its Olympic ambitions.
🤣 HUMOR
When My Return Actually
Clears The Net!
🧭 COMMUNITY NEWS
RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS
KANSAS CITY, KS: Kansas City Hosts PickleCon With New Prize Money Opportunities
DELAND, FL: Former DeLand Theater Transformed Into Indoor Pickleball Club
NORTHBROOK, IL: Major League Pickleball Tournament Comes To Illinois - Meet Chicago's Pro Team
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO: Tingstrom Family Turns Love Of Pickleball Into Avenue For Veterans, Wheelchair Athletes
SIOUX CITY, IA: P.M. Pickleball: Riverside Courts Now Shine After Dark
SCOTTSDALE, AZ: Center Court Pickleball Club Expands Valley Footprint With 2nd Scottsdale Venue
VISALIA,CA: Dill Dinkers Picks Visalia for First California Indoor Pickleball Club
ASHEVILLE, N.C.: Harrah’s Cherokee Center to host 5-day Blue Ridge Pickleball event
DO YOU HAVE LOCAL NEWS TO SHARE? REACH OUT TO US AT
[email protected] and send us a link to your story!
HOLDING COURT with
COACH MARY
💪 A Block Volley And
Punch Volley Tutorial
This week we are offering a quick lesson on block volleys and punch volleys at the net – you need these to defend against bangers. And for advice we turn to a new online instructor I've found recently in Cori Elliott.
If you find her tutorials on YouTube, you'll see she is usually working with and teaching another player, which is great as you can put yourself in the shoes of the student.
For punch volleys, Elliott emphasizes using the off arm and the upper part of your body to execute the shot. The shot is from your core, not your arm. Extend out, not up.
Another tip from Cori is to emphasize the tip of the paddle is up, and you are incorporating your core and shoulders, with your off arm going back as you contact in front.
Cori does a great job showing how her student adapts and starts using her core, off arm and chest to execute the punch volley.
And as for my two cents, you want to have several options, or tools in your toolchest when you are at the net. Reset softly into the NVZ sometimes, block volley if needed, and punch volley when you have a ball you can attack. Now go out and get someone to drill with you!