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

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• How to Recover After a Bad Shot Without Losing the Point

• Why Your Calves Cramp (And the Simple Fix That Actually Works)

• How to Maximize Your Pickleball Serve - Pro Tips from Zane Navratil

• Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: How to Prevent Injuries (Backed by Science)

• Pickleball World Cup Partnership

• Humor: When I Google “Recover From Pickleball Injury”

• Chaos Over Paddle Rule Shake-Up Erupts at PPA Cincinnati

• The Best Pickleball Courts in the World, Revealed

• Man Adopts a "Fitness is Fun" Mindset & Loses 85 Pounds

• Coach Mary: Avoiding Common Crucial Mistakes

🥷SKILLS

How To Recover After A Bad Shot
Without Losing The Point

How to Recover After a Bad Shot Without Losing the Point

The rally’s not over—unless you let it be

Everyone hits a bad shot—pros included.

Whether it’s a pop-up, a mishit drop, or a dink that sails too high, errors happen. But what separates experienced players from everyone else isn’t perfection—it’s how quickly and effectively they recover.

You can turn a bad shot into a rally-saving moment with the right mindset, movement, and readiness. Here’s how.

What Counts as a “Bad Shot”

Let’s define the problem.

Not every miss is the end of the world, but these types of shots put you at immediate risk of losing the point:

• Pop-ups at the net or transition zone

• Drops that land too deep or high and bounce into your opponent’s strike zone

• Dinks that float and invite a speed-up

• Attacks that sit up without placement

• Off-balance shots hit from poor court positioning

Even if your shot gives the opponent an opening, the rally isn’t over. It’s how you respond that matters most.

💪 Health & Fitness Section
Weekly Advice To Keep You Fit & Injury Free

How Why Your Calves Cramp
& The Simple Fix That Actually Works

Why Your Calves Cramp (And the Simple Fix That Actually Works) 

You're locked in a perfect dinking battle at the kitchen line. Back and forth, side to side, each shot placing pressure on your opponent. Then – wham – your calf seizes up like someone grabbed it with pliers. 

Game over. Rally over. And you're left hobbling to the sideline while your partner apologizes for your "bad luck." 

Most players assume this comes with the territory – either you're getting older, pushing too hard, or just having an off day.  

But research reveals something different: cramps aren’t bad luck. I was your body warning you about a nutritional gap that affects up to 70% of adults over 50. 

The Banana Myth 

When cramps strike, someone always suggests the same fix: "Eat a banana!" It makes sense – bananas contain potassium, which helps muscles function. But here's what sports medicine research shows: most exercise-related cramps aren't caused by low potassium. 

The real culprit? Magnesium depletion. 

Unlike potassium, magnesium gets depleted rapidly through sweat during extended play. Without adequate magnesium, muscle fibers literally can't relax properly after contracting. That's why cramps often hit hardest after long rallies, not at the start of play. 

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

How To Prevent Injuries
(Backed By Science)

🗞️ NEWS

Pickleball World Cup Partnership

The Global Pickleball Federation just tied its future to the Pickleball World Cup—and the scale is staggering. More than 3,000 players from 60+ countries will descend on Fort Lauderdale this October, marking the sport’s biggest global showcase yet and pushing closer to Olympic recognition.

Read the full story on the landmark partnership and what it means for pickleball’s global stage.

🤣JUST FOR FUN

When I Google “Recover From
Pickleball Injury”

🥷 SKILLS

How To Maximize Your Serve
Pro Tips From Zane Navratil

A safe serve starts the rally. Zane Navratil wants yours to win it. From grip tweaks that unlock spin to the mindset that embraces calculated misses, his playbook shows how depth and variety can pin opponents back and flip pressure in your favor. Even at 9-9, he says, don’t ease up—trust the serve that got you there.

Read Navratil’s full blueprint for turning your serve into a weapon, click here..

 🏓 PRO NEWS

Chaos Over Paddle Rule Shake-Up
Erupts At PPA Cincinnati

What should have been a marquee PPA stop imploded into paddle mayhem. At the Cincinnati Slam, pros were blindsided when long-trusted paddles suddenly failed the new 2025 certification tests—forcing disqualifications, frantic gear swaps, and open fury. The message was unmistakable: no paperwork, no play.

Get the full story on the crackdown that rattled the tour, click here…

🏡 REAL ESTATE NEWS

The Best Pickleball Courts In
The World, Revealed

Pickleball has left the cul-de-sacs and landed in places that feel more like film sets than courts. From a Maldivian garden enclave scented with frangipani to vineyard views in Sonoma and blush-pink surfaces in Bermuda, the game now comes with spas, sunsets, and champagne toasts. These aren’t just places to play—they’re destinations to stage a rally you’ll never forget.

See the full list of courts that turn matches into memories, click here…

👏 COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Man Adopts “Fitness Is Fun”
Mindset & Loses 85 Pounds

He went from late nights, takeout, and a prediabetes diagnosis to shedding 85 pounds—and pickleball was the spark. For Ethan Noblesala, the game turned fitness from a grind into a social habit, building accountability, joy, and a whole new lifestyle. Now he’s not just lighter and healthier—he’s training for the NYC Marathon and launching a fitness venture inspired by his turnaround.

Read the full story of how pickleball powered his transformation, click here…

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

SUN VALLEY, ID: 'A Lot Of Pickleball, But Ae All Love It
SHREVEPORT, LA: Caddo Commission Approves $10M Pickleball Park
VANDALIA, OH: Town Plans To Convert Church Into Pickleball Venue
CALHOUN, GA: AdventHealth Georgia And Pickleball 706 To Host Pickleball For Breast Cancer Awareness
EUROPE: Spain Wins Gold At European Championships
NILES, OH: Indoor Pickleball Facility Coming To Eastwood Mall Complex
PENSACOLA, FL: Pensacola Can't Add Courts Fast Enough
SOUTH JORDAN, UT: Could Utah become the center of the pickleball universe

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

  💪 Avoiding Common Crucial Mistakes

CHECK OUT ELISHA AND JUSTIN FROM PICKLEBALL JOURNEY AND SEE IF YOU ARE MAKING SOME OF THESE 8 CRITICAL MISTAKES

Be sure to watch the video numerous times – It’s a good one!

Serve & Stay! After serving, you step into the court, and you are not ready to react to the return. Remember the two-bounce rule! Stay behind the baseline. It is easier to move in than to move back.

Foot Faults at the NVZ: Players volley, taking the ball out of the air, but they step in the Kitchen either on contact or on follow-through. Sit down, soft knees, balance, and use your hips and shoulders, rather than a step to contact the ball.

Hitting Out Balls: Arrgh! Says your partner! Remember this rule: “Shoulder high, Let It Fly!” Too often we contact balls that are going out. It takes discipline and patience to let an out ball go by, but its a skill we have to develop.

Down the Middle, solves the Riddle: If the ball is down the middle, you must communicate! Talk about this prior to the match. Forehand generally takes it! If you have a lefty partner, make sure you “Respect the X.“ If it is coming from cross-court, the player on the diagonal takes it. If one of you is stronger at the net, be aggressive, and poach or take a ball that is going to your partner.

Don’t Dilly Dally, Get To The Net: Return deep, so that you can get to the net before your opponent receives the ball. If you are the serving team, execute a third ball drop that lands softly in the NVZ so you can get to the net before they contact the ball.

Watch The Ball AND MORE: Use your peripheral vision, and see both of your opponents, as well as the ball. Track the ball with your paddle and shift your weight with your feet and shoulders. Anticipate by tracking the ball with your body, not just your eyes.

Consistency, Placement, Power. Consistency FIirst! Master the simple stuff, then add spin. Keep your paddle in front, use your hips and shoulders, keep your knees soft, balls of your feet. Add spin using your hips and shoulders, not just your arm.

Use Topspin: When you have a return that is short, and you feel you can attack it, do not hit it as hard as you can! Use topspin and hit it three quarters speed. Low to high. We often attack a short ball too hard and it goes out. Stay low, short backswing, and follow-through with your hips and shoulders.

Ed Ju has 6 great videos on drills you can do on your own with just one ball, one wall. There are handball walls at many middle school campus sites, as well as high school sites.
· Your garage or a side wall of your home?
· A playroom or workout room wall inside your home?
· A large table can be placed, with a small table on top, or even better, a ping pong table placed with one end up and one end down.
· There are backboards at some parks. Rancho Mirage Community Park has two backboards that can be used for tennis or Pickleball.
· Purchase a Dink Master, which is a portable wall on wheels that you can use as a drilling partner. I own one!
This first video shows you how to set up a wall for drilling.

Ed shows some great ways to drill on a wall. Immediate feedback is the key training aid.

Ed demos three great drills:

1. Speed up, then block.

2. Bump, then cross.

3. Smash, then deflect. I do theses with my classes!

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