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

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• The Art Of Playing The Middle

• Why Most Players Use the Wrong Fix For Fatigue

• DRILL OF THE WEEK: Figure 8 Footwork Flow

• Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: This Core Exercise Is Underrated

• Major League Pickleball Competition Changes For 2026 Season

• Selkirk’s High Tech Paddle Lab Sneak Peek AND Their High Dollar
  Investment Making Big News

• Drew Brees and Other Celeb Investors Back New Racket Sport Typti

• Western-Themed Indoor PB Complex Stampedes Into San Antonio

• HUMOR: Showing Up To Play Pickleball vs. Leaving

• Coach Mary: How to Drill to Defend Against Kill Shots!

🥷SKILLS

The Art Of Playing The Middle

Most players understand that the middle is a valuable target in doubles. But knowing where to hit isn’t the same as knowing why it works, or how to use it deliberately.

The middle isn’t a bailout and it isn’t a default direction. When used well, it controls angles, forces hesitation, and keeps you in command of the rally. When used poorly, it sits up and gives both opponents time to reset and attack.

Learn to target the middle on purpose.

When players talk about “the middle,” they don’t mean a painted line or a fixed spot on the court. The middle is the shared space between your two opponents, the area where responsibility overlaps. It shifts depending on positioning, movement, and court geometry, but its power comes from the same place every time: neither player fully owns the ball.

If a shot makes both opponents hesitate, even briefly, you’ve found the middle.

Playing the middle well isn’t about blasting the ball straight down the seam. It’s about understanding when the middle gives you the highest margin, and how subtle positioning and footwork turn it into pressure.

Why the middle creates pressure
The middle works because it exploits shared responsibility.

💪 Health & Fitness Section

Why Most Players Use The
Wrong Fix For Fatigue

If your energy crashes mid-session but you’re not sure why, we recommend Advanced Mitochondrial Formula for daily cellular energy support.

More on that in a moment. First, let’s solve the tired problem: 

When players say “I’m tired,” they think it’s one thing. But fatigue is actually two separate systems – and mixing them up is why some players never feel fresh. 

One kind is breathlessness. Gasping between points. Heart pounding. Can’t catch your breath even though your legs feel fine. 

The other is energy depletion. Breathing easy but legs feel like concrete. Brain foggy. Everything moving in slow motion. 

They look similar. They both feel like “I need to stop.” But they come from completely different systems – and they need opposite solutions. 

Mix them up and you’ll keep spinning your wheels no matter how much you rest or push. 

Why Most Players Can’t Tell the Difference 

Most players lump all fatigue into one category: “I’m tired.” So they apply the same generic fixes – rest more, hydrate during the game, maybe grab a snack. 

Sometimes it works. Often it doesn’t. 

🥷 Drill Of The Week

The Figure 8 Footwork Flow

This drill turns simple kitchen dinks into a moving puzzle.

You keep the rally calm while your feet trace a figure-8, forcing you to recover to ready position after every shot instead of reaching or leaning.

Run it for a few minutes and you’ll feel why balance — not speed — is what keeps volleys and dinks from falling apart when you have to move.

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

Try This Underrated
Core Exercise

🏓 PRO NEWS

Major League Pickleball
Competition Changes for 2026

Major League Pickleball is shaking up how teams are built, how points are earned, and how the season unfolds in 2026. From roster flexibility and free agency to a reworked standings system, the league is clearly pushing toward a more strategic and high-stakes format.

See what’s changing—and why it could fundamentally alter how MLP teams compete next season.

🗞️  NEWS

Selkirk’s High Tech Paddle Lab
Sneak Peek & Their High Dollar
Investment Making Big News

Selkirk is doing things to pickleball paddles you wouldn’t believe. Inside its Idaho HQ, paddles get blasted at high speeds, smashed by a machine nicknamed Thor’s hammer, and run through CT scanners to see what’s happening inside after impact. It’s loud, extreme, and way more mad-scientist than sporting goods factory.

Step inside Selkirk’s lab and see how pickleball gear gets tested to the breaking point,
click here…

Other Selkirk news this week: the company just took outside investment for the first time, a clear sign that pickleball’s biggest brands are entering a very different phase.

Here’s what Bluestone’s $30M bet tells us about Selkirk’s next move — and the sport’s growing business stakes, click here…

 🏓 PRO NEWS

Drew Brees & Other Celeb Investors
Back New Racket Sport Typti

A new racket sport is trying to slip into pickleball’s wide-open moment — and it’s bringing a serious celebrity roster with it.

Backed by Drew Brees, Tennis Channel founder Steve Bellamy, and more than 80 high-profile investors, typti blends elements of tennis and pickleball and is designed to run on the same courts.

Here’s what makes it different, who it’s really targeting, and why some think there’s room for one more paddle sport. Read more here…

👏 COMMUNITY NEWS

Western-Themed Indoor
Pickleball Complex Stampedes
Into San Antonio

A new Western-themed pickleball destination is riding into San Antonio, blending climate-controlled courts with a bold, personality-driven vibe. Outlaw Pickle is aiming to be more than just a place to play, leaning hard into community, design, and atmosphere from day one.

Check out the pics, Click Here…

🤣 HUMOR

Showing Up To Play
Pickleball vs. Leaving

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

MINNESOTA: Deaf Community Invites Others To Join Social Events Pickleball
POST FALLS, ID: $5M Flying Pickle Landing In PF
HERRIMAN, UT: New Indoor Pickleball Facility Opened Saturday Jan. 17th
CARLSBAD, CA: CA Homeowner Is Fighting A $2.4 Million Fine Over Beach Access And A Pickleball Court
BOCA RATON, FL: New Covered Pickleball Courts at Patch Reef Park
OXFORD, MI: Pickleball: A Craze Sweeping UM
GREENVILLE, NC: Pickleball Serves Up Community, Social Connections
GRAPEVINE, TX: Pickleball Goes High-Tech At Crush It! Sports Lounge


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

  💪 How To Drill To Defend
Against Kill Shots!

Back To Callie Smith This Week 
She has short, concise videos.  In this one, she demonstrates how to drill defending against a low kill shot at your feet from your opponent.

1. You will position yourself in the middle of the transition zone.

2. You will feed an “Oh Crap!” to your drilling partner, which is a pop-up or easy high, attackable ball to the person positioned at the NVZ across from you.

3. The drilling partner will take that high ball, and they will drive it with an overhead or a hard volley down at your feet, between your knees and ankles.  (This is a good drill for this person to work on control and accuracy with their overheads and attacks.)

4.  You will then position yourself low, forward, opening your paddle face, softening your grip, with both arms out in front.  Callie uses two hands on the backhand side, which should give you more control.

5. Callie is attempting to return a ball into the Kitchen, so that she does not get attacked again and again.

6.  Watch the video several times, paying attention to her body and paddle position, and how low she gets.

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