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

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• The 5 Mistakes Advanced Players Learned to Overcome

• Sleeping 7 Hours & Still Waking Up Tired

• DRILL OF THE WEEK: The Wall “Height Ladder” Challenge

• Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: 2 Moves That STOP Sciatic Pain Fast

• Three Game-Changing Pickleball Skills For Beginners to Learn Now

• DUPR And Data Are Powering Pickleball's Operating System

• Playing 3 Times A Week... Good or Bad?

• USAP & Numotion Partner To Advance Wheelchair Pickleball Nationwide

• HUMOR: No Pickleball Today!

• Coach Mary: How to Play & Win With A Weaker Partner

🥷SKILLS

The 5 Mistake Advanced
Players Learned To Overcome

There’s a stretch in pickleball where improvement gets quieter.

You’re not missing serves. Your drops are landing. You can hold your own at the kitchen. From the outside, your game looks solid. But the results don’t quite match the effort. You’re winning some games, losing others, and it’s hard to pinpoint what’s actually holding you back.

At that level, progress doesn’t come from adding more shots.

It comes from cleaning up the habits that quietly shift rallies away from you.

Mistake 1: Attacking Before You’ve Earned It

There’s a natural urge to take control of a point, especially during a dink exchange. You see a ball that feels slightly elevated or a little loose, and you go. Sometimes it works. But over time, it creates more problems than it solves.

Stronger players are much clearer about what counts as an attackable ball.

Attackable = above net height, in front of your body, within your strike zone (roughly waist to chest), and hit while balanced.

If one of those pieces is missing — the ball is dipping, drifting too far, or forcing you to reach — the better play is to stay patient.

That patience isn’t passive. It’s selective.

💪 Health & Fitness Section

Sleeping 7 Hours &
Still Waking Up Tired

Sleeping 7 Hours and Still Waking Up Tired? Here's Why 

You sleep 7, maybe 8 hours. You wake up and still feel like you borrowed someone else's body. 

Your timing is off. Your legs feel heavier than they should. By the second game of open play, you're not quite late—but you're not quite there, either. A half-step slower than you know you can be. 

Most players assume the problem is hours. Get more sleep, problem solved. But that's the wrong number. 

The Number That Actually Predicts How You'll Play 

The number that matters is sleep efficiency—the percentage of your time in bed that your body actually spends in deep, restorative sleep. 

Most adults land around 85%. That sounds decent. But it means roughly 1 in 7 minutes you're in bed, you're awake, restless, or drifting in and out of shallow sleep. Your body never fully gets there. 

A research team studying elite athletes found that a simple bedtime habit pushed that number to 93%. Players were awake 47% less during the night. They woke up fewer times. They logged a full extra hour of actual sleep—without adding a single hour in bed. And they reported noticeably better morning alertness and less fatigue. 

The habit: two kiwis, one hour before bed. 

🥷 DRILL OF THE WEEK

The “Wall Height” Ladder Challenge

Wall work gets a lot more useful when the target keeps changing height. This ladder drill forces you to move from low, safe net clearance to shoulder-height control, so you stop grooving one comfortable ball and start learning how to adjust your paddle face on command.

Climb the wall ladder and see how well you can control height, not just keep the rally alive.

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

2 Moves That STOP
Sciatic Pain Fast

🥷 SKILLS

Three Game-Changing Pickleball
Skills For Beginners To Learn Now

Most players don’t need more flashy shots, they need fewer bad decisions. Kyle Koszuta’s three-skill framework focuses on something far more useful: knowing when not to attack, where your safest pressure points actually are, and how to mentally recover fast enough to stop one mistake from costing three more.

See the practical court strategy and mindset shifts that can sharpen your game faster than endlessly chasing new techniques.

⚕️ HEALTH NEWS

Playing Pickleball 3x Week
Good or Bad?

Playing pickleball three or more times a week was linked to higher mental well-being in a survey of 1,667 players, with longer sessions showing a similar pattern. The caution is that recent injuries were tied to lower scores, which matters in a sport people often play more because it feels so good.

See what the study found about frequency, session length, and the downside that can interrupt the benefits.

🗞️ NEWS

USAP & Numotion Partner
To Advance Wheelchair
Pickleball Nationwide

Wheelchair pickleball is getting a bigger national stage, with USA Pickleball and Numotion backing new championship events, mobility support, and dedicated divisions at Nationals. The partnership is aimed at giving adaptive athletes more visibility, better access, and a stronger competitive pathway.

See how the new national championship and Nationals divisions will expand wheelchair pickleball across the country.

🤣 HUMOR

No Pickleball Today!

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

CONWAY, SC: PB Tournament in Memory of Two Children Raises Money For Charities
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL: Residents Pan Pickleball Plan At 'The People's Beach'
CUPERTINO, CA: Cupertino Takes Steps to Limit Pickleball Noise
TOLEDO, OH: Toledo Launches Summer Pickleball Clinics For All Ages
WILLIAMSVILLE, NY: PB Tournament Raises Funds For Make-A-Wish Foundation
MEDFORD, OR: America's Pickleball Boom Reaches Oregon With Massive New Complex
STATE COLLEGE, PA: Former Penn State football Player To Open Pickleball Club
CALABASAS, CA: Hollywood Celebrities Smash at 'Emmys Pickleball Slam' To Drive Funds For Television Academy


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

  💪 How to Play & Win
With A Weaker Partner

Check out the attached videos from Tanner, Mari and Zane. This is a sensitive subject, so let’s get into it…

Tanner has a great chapter in his book (page142) on this topic.

Unless you play with the same people all the time, eventually you’ll be paired with a partner who isn’t as skilled as you. You get on the court, and you realize that your opponent is going to avoid you and target your opponent.

This might lead to you getting frustrated, trying to take over the game, and forcing shots that you would not normally take. You go for winners early, instead of playing good Pickleball.

Winning with a weaker partner is about adjusting your strategy.  Help your partner play their best game and make smart decisions.

Strategic Suggestions:

·    Keep it simple.  Do not put your partner in difficult situations.  They already feel pressured!

·    Tell them to focus on one thing:  keeping the ball in play.

·    They do not need to execute perfect shots.  They just need to keep the ball in play, with low, controlled dinks.

·    Stack, if you know how to execute this positioning without stressing your partner.

·    They do not need to go for aggressive thirds or speedups – just focus on continuing the rally.

·    When your partner keeps it in play, your opponents do not get free points!

Position Yourself to Help:

At the NVZ, position yourself near the centerline and make yourself more of a threat.  Creep closer on dink rallies.  Your partner will have to cover less area, and you can help dictate play.

Keep the ball deep on returns, so your opponent cannot target your partner.   Slow and deep is better than hard and shorter. Return deep to the middle, so your opponent cannot commit early to target your partner.

Encourage and Support Your Partner:

Rather than trying to coach your partner, or rolling your eyes, or poaching too much, or getting frustrated, if they miss a shot, say “No worries, we’ll get the next one.”

Do not Give Up!  No negative comments, or intentionally giving away points to get the game over.  Be the partner that everyone wants to play with!

If they hit a good serve, return, third or dink, be sure to acknowledge them!  “Great shot!”  If they get tight, remind them to: “Just keep the ball in play and let them make mistakes.” A more confident partner will perform better and will not second guess themselves.

Finally, remember we all started out new.  Someone helped us, mentored us, encouraged us, and helped us get to the next level.  Pay it Forward!

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