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

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• From Reset to Attack in 3 Shots

• How Summer Play Is Quietly Eating Your Muscle

• DRILL OF THE WEEK: The Fifth Shot Funnel
  (The Most Overlooked Shot in Pickleball)

• Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: Rope Cable Kickback (Fix Your Tricep Form)

• Shock Avenge Dallas Defeat, Sweep Mad Drops to Take First Place at MLP St. Louis

• Little House on the Prairie Cast Reunites For Pickleball Game

• Federal Agency Opens Investigation Into JOOLA Paddle Claims

• HUMOR: If Pickleball Was A Nature Documentary

• Coach Mary: Try These 5 Tips To Level Up

🥷SKILLS

From Reset To Attack In 3 Shots

Most players treat defense as a temporary problem.

The ball gets sped up. They're stretched wide. Their opponents have the kitchen and momentum. The only goal is to survive long enough to get back into the point.

That's understandable. It's also why so many points are lost.

Strong players think differently.

When they get put under pressure, they're not simply trying to stay alive. They're already looking for the sequence that allows them to take control back.

The mistake many players make is believing offense happens in a single shot. In reality, momentum often changes through a sequence of shots.

A good block creates a reset. A good reset creates a neutral ball. A neutral ball creates an opportunity.

Three shots later, the team that was defending is suddenly attacking.

That's the counterpunch game.

The First Shot: Absorb The Pressure

Most counterpunch opportunities begin when your opponents attack first.

💪 Health & Fitness Section

How Summer Play Is Quietly
Eating Your Muscle

The period between mid-June and mid-July are when most picklers over 50 quietly start losing muscle. Nobody notices, because nothing feels wrong. You’re playing as often as ever. You feel reasonably good. Your game seems fine. 

It shows up in August. 

The muscle math changes after 50 

After 50, the amount of protein your body needs to trigger muscle protein synthesis — the process that repairs and maintains muscle after exertion — goes up. You need more to get the same repair response you’d have gotten at 35. 

This isn’t about bulking up. It’s about maintaining the muscle you already have. Every split-step, every lateral drive, every sustained dink battle requires muscle that has to be rebuilt after the session. If the raw materials aren’t there, the repair is incomplete. 

What summer does to the equation 

Two things happen in summer that most players don’t consider together. 

First, appetite drops. Hot weather suppresses it reliably. Players who eat easily in January are sometimes running 500–700 calories short in July without noticing. That gap comes partly from protein. 

🥷 DRILL OF THE WEEK

The Fifth Shot Funnel Drill

The Fifth Shot Funnel: The Most Overlooked Shot in Pickleball

Ask most players what shot they practice, and the answers are predictable: drops, drives, dinks, serves. Meanwhile, one of the most important shots in the rally gets almost no attention. This drill flips the script by focusing on the shot that often determines whether you actually make it to the kitchen.

Learn how the Fifth Shot Funnel trains the overlooked shot that can make your entire transition game more reliable.

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

Rope Cable Kickback
(Fix Your Tricep Form)

🏓 PRO NEWS

Shock Avenge Dallas Defeat, Sweep
Mad Drops To Take First Place At
MLP St. Louis

St. Louis had spent the first two MLP events knocking on the door, third in Dallas, second in Columbus. Back home, they finally broke through, sweeping the Los Angeles Mad Drops in the same matchup that slipped away from them on opening weekend.

See how the Shock flipped the script on LA, and the unlikely pre-match ritual players credit for helping spark the run.

🗞️  NEWS

Little House On The Prairie
Cast Reunites for Pickleball Game

 🏓 PADDLE NEWS

Federal Agency Opens Investigation
Into JOOLA Paddle Claims

A patent fight with some of the biggest names in pickleball just landed on the federal government's desk.

On June 4, the U.S. International Trade Commission opened a formal investigation after JOOLA alleged that a number of imported paddles infringe patents related to its "propulsion core" technology—the internal construction that can influence power, feel, and vibration.

The list of companies named is significant. It includes brands familiar to many Fit Pickler readers, including Franklin, Engage, Diadem, Paddletek, Proton, ProXR, and several others.

It's important to note that this is the beginning of the process, not the end. The ITC has not determined whether any patents were infringed. The investigation will now move forward through the federal review process.

Still, this is worth watching. If JOOLA ultimately prevails, the remedies it is seeking could potentially affect which paddles are allowed to be imported into the United States. That could have implications for product availability, pricing, and future paddle design across the industry.

Patent disputes aren't usually front-page pickleball news, but when multiple major manufacturers are involved, the outcome can ripple deep into the pickleball world.

You can read the official U.S. International Trade Commission announcement here:
https://www.usitc.gov/press_room/news_release/2026/er0604_68696.htm

🏓 HUMOR

If Pickleball Was
A Nature Documentary

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

ENCINITAS, CA: Bobby Riggs Seeks Permits for Pickleball Conversion
BOISE, ID: Boise Pickleball Club Evicted — Members Were Charged the Day It Closed
MEDFORD, OR: Community Celebrates Grand Opening of New Pickleball Courts in Medford Oregon
CARVER, MN: Carver's Creekside Park Caters to Pickleball Enthusiasts and Dog Lovers
VALENCIA, CA: Dink for Cause Holds 5th Pickleball Tournament For Blood Disorder Patients
DUXBURY, MA: Pickleball Recycling Program is a Big Dill
LOS ANGELES, CA:  Angelina Jolie and Son Pax Put Their Game Faces on During Celebrity Pickleball Charity Event


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

  💪 Try These 5 Tips To Level Up

Try these 5 tips to level up

You've reached a bit of a pickleball plateau. You're at a level where you feel comfortable, but you can't seem to improve and jump up to that next rung on the ladder. Maybe you're a 4.0, but 4.5 seems out of reach.

Online instructor Tanner Tomassi shares his insight on the five ways to uplift your game by correcting these specific things.

Tip 1: Better decision-making
• Don't: If you are pulled wide, try to dink it back crosscourt. Do: Instead, dink middle, and give yourself time to recover. Cut it off, go middle.
• Don't: Attack balls that are at your knees and below in the transition zone. Do: Reset instead and wait for an attackable ball. Do not be uncomfortable!
• Don't: When there is a dink battle at the NVZ, don't speed up when in anxious, panic mode. Do: Speed up when you are in full control and your feet are set.

Tip 2: Apply Pressure and Keep your Opponents Back
(The pros do this, and we need to do this too!)
• Do not use your wrist to just hit a "Baby Flick".
• Close your paddle face, use your shoulder, and swing low to high, creating a ton of topspin.
• Keep them back by hitting to their feet.

Tip 3: Proper Footwork
• Move your feet!
• Body weight behind the ball!
• On third shot drops, stay low, and momentum is forward.
• You should not rise or be on your back foot!

Tip 4: Knowing When to Choose to Attack!
• After you hit an aggressive dink, lean in, and be ready to attack the next ball.
• Take dinks out of the air if possible!
• Reach bump! Your paddle should be floating in the NVZ. You can attack or reset in the air.

Tip 5: Capitalize on Good Drops by your Partner! Apply Pressure!

Not Yet a Subscriber? Click Below to Get Our Newsletter Every Week - Its FREE