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

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• How to Stay Patient in Long Rallies

• How Your Vision Shapes Your Pickleball Reactions

• DRILL OF THE WEEK: The Third-Shot Landing Zones Drill

• Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: Lateral Quickness Drill

• Top Seeds Dominate At The APP 2026 Detroit Open

• NEW SECTION: GEAR REVIEW: JOOLA Scorpeus Pro V Paddle

• Retirees Are Building New Identities on the Pickleball Court

• Why Pickleball Is a Masterclass for Life as an Entrepreneur

• HUMOR: Me & My Bestie After Scoring Against The Boy

• Coach Mary: No Fourth? Try These Three-Person Drills

🥷SKILLS

How To Stay Patient
In Long Rallies

Long rallies create a strange kind of pressure. Nothing may be going particularly wrong, but after the ball crosses the net enough times, somebody starts feeling as though something needs to happen.

A safe dink suddenly gets sped up. A player tries to squeeze a ball down the sideline. Someone who has been defending successfully decides to attack from below the net. The rally ends, but often because one team became tired of waiting rather than because a genuine opportunity appeared.

Patience in pickleball does not mean keeping the ball soft forever. It means being willing to continue making good decisions until the rally gives you a reason to make a different one. That becomes especially important as rallies get longer and the temptation to force something begins to grow.

Stop Counting How Many Shots You Have Hit

One reason players become impatient is that a long rally begins to feel unusually long while they are inside it. After six or seven dinks, they start thinking they have waited long enough to attack.

💪 HEALTH & FITNESS
How Your Vision Shapes
Your Pickleball Reactions

A ball coming across the net does not become a forehand, backhand, speedup, or dink when it reaches the paddle. Your brain has been gathering information about it since it left your opponent's paddle.

How quickly you see that information matters.

Reaction time in pickleball is often treated as a matter of quick hands. That is only part of the process. Before the body can respond, the visual system has to locate the ball, follow its movement, recognize changes in speed and direction, and help the brain determine where the ball is likely to go. At the same time, players are trying to remain aware of opponents, partners, court position and open space.

That is a lot of visual information packed into a very short period of time.

Reaction Starts Before You Move

During a fast exchange at the kitchen, there may be very little time between an opponent's contact and your own. The body cannot wait until the ball is halfway across the net before deciding what to do.

🥷 Drill of the Week:

The 3rd Shot Landing
Zones Drill

Getting a third-shot drop into the kitchen is only the first step. Once you can do that consistently, where the ball lands starts to matter just as much, because a drop to the middle, crosscourt, or straight ahead can produce very different fourth shots.

Learn how the Third-Shot Landing Zones Drill helps you practice those targets on purpose and figure out which placements create the best next ball.

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

Lateral Quickness Drill

🏓 PRO NEWS

Top Seeds Dominate at
the APP 2026 Detroit Open

The APP’s first-ever Detroit Open brought plenty of expected names to the top, but not everything followed the script. Kat Stewart strengthened her grip on the singles race, Jack Munro and Richard Livornese Jr. kept rolling in men’s doubles, and one mixed team knocked off the top three seeds on the way to gold.

See who dominated in Detroit, where the biggest upset came from, and which players left with multiple titles.

⚙️ 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 theJOOLA Scorpeus Pro V Paddle 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!

COMMUNITY NEWS

Retirees Are Building New
Identities on the Pickleball Court

Retirement doesn't just mean leaving a job behind. For many pickleball players, it also means finding a new identity. New research suggests the transformation isn't driven simply by spending more hours on the court, but by something much deeper.

Learn what researchers found helps retirees build purpose, connection, and a new sense of self through pickleball.

🗞️NEWS

Why Pickleball Is A Masterclass
For Life as an Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur who recently joined a pickleball league found the nerves on court felt surprisingly familiar. Missing a serve, hesitating over a shot, or clashing paddles with a partner started to look a lot like the uncertainty of launching something new, making decisions under pressure, and learning when to act.

See the three pickleball lessons she says translate directly to entrepreneurship, from handling fear to knowing when patience and communication matter more than forcing the point.

🤣 HUMOR

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

BAKERSFIELD, CA: Thrive And Purpose Foundation Hosts First Pickleball Tournament To Raise Money For Area Seniors
MASHPEE, MA: After Years Of Complaints, Mashpee Instituted A 'Quiet Ball' Rule On Pickleball Courts. The Backlash Has Been Noisy.
MILWAUKEE, WI: Think You Can Beat Your Alderperson At Pickleball? Here's Your Chance
NORWALK, CT: Norwalk Senior Center Announces Second Annual Pickleball Tournament Fundraiser
SURPRISE, AZ: Woman Will Be Inducted Into The Pickleball Hall of Fame
HOUSTON, TX: Houston Nightlife Veterans Serve Up A New Pickleball Bar In Spring Branch
FORT WORTH, TX: Big Ticket: Cowtown Classic Returns
HONOLULU, HI: Pack Your Paddle: The Honolulu Pickleball Tournament Worth Flying To


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

  💪 No Fourth? Try
These 3 Person Drills

There can come a time when you want to get some pickleball action in whether it's to play, practice or run some drills, but you only have three people. Your fourth person is going to be 45 minutes late or says they can't come at all.

There is no reason you need to wait for your fourth player to arrive to drill, practice or play. I am regularly incorporating three-person drills into my own workouts. That means more touches, and more accuracy, since the two players must hit to the single players’ side of the court.

Options:

1. Dinking only 2 on 1. Cutthroat.

2. Dinking 2 on 1 – add speed-ups and attacks.

3. 2 on 1 with the single player in the transition zone to start, then they can move in.

4. 2 on 1 7-11, with the single player up, or harder version, the single player is back.

5. Australian, or regular game 2 on 1. The two players must hit to the side the single player is on.
   
   One of our favorite online instructors Jordan Briones has a 2-on-1 drill I like.

It's a 2 on 1, with the single player in the transition zone. He must hit three resets before he can come in. Play it out, first one to 5 wins.

If the single player misses, they rotate.

Another online instructor Ed Ju has a 2-on-1 drill in which all players at the NVZ. The single player must cover 60% of the court. After 2 dinks, get ready for a speed up!

Online instructor Coriellottpb has a three person drill in which it's 2 on 1 with all players up at the NVZ, playing it out after a courtesy dink feed. Players will each get to be on their own – play to 7 points.

And follow that up with 2 on 1 playing 7-11, with the single player back, trying to execute a 3rd and follow it in.

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