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

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• What to Do When You’re Being Targeted In Pickleball

• Strength Training for Easier Movement on the Pickleball Court

• DRILL OF THE WEEK: The Transition Reset Circuit: Learn to Get Out of No-Man’s Land

• Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: Prevent Knee, Hip & Ankle Injuries With These 2 Moves

• Can Pickleball Help Prevent Frailty as We Age?

• NEW SECTION: GEAR REVIEW: Titan ONE Pickleball Machine

• MLP Pre-Season Power Rankings Versus Final Regular Season Standings

• Pickleball Meditation and Snakes and Ladders

• HUMOR: When My Return Actually Clears The Net

• Coach Mary: The Dink Movie Reviews (SPOILER ALERT)

🥷SKILLS

What To Do When You Are
Being Targeted In Pickleball

There is a moment in doubles when a player realizes something has changed. The opponents are no longer simply playing the point. They have decided who they want hitting the ball.

Every return seems to come back to the same side. Dinks keep finding the same paddle. Drives are directed at the same player. Even balls that could reasonably go either way seem to have one destination.

Being targeted can become frustrating quickly, particularly when it starts to feel personal. But targeting is simply a strategy. Opponents believe repeatedly involving one player gives them the best chance to win the rally. The best response is to recognize what they are doing and make that strategy less comfortable.

First, Make Sure You’re Actually Being Targeted

A few balls in a row do not necessarily mean opponents have made a tactical decision. Court position, shot selection, and normal rally patterns can naturally send several consecutive balls toward one player.

💪 Health & Fitness Section

Strength Training For Easier
Movement On The Court

Pickleball players usually notice a loss of strength on the court before they notice it anywhere else. Getting to a wide ball takes an extra step. Staying low during a long dink rally becomes uncomfortable. After two hours of play, recovering back into position takes noticeably more effort than it did during the first game.

Those changes are easy to blame on footwork or conditioning, and sometimes they are part of the problem. Strength also plays an important role. The legs need enough strength to lower the body and bring it back up, push quickly in different directions, slow the body down, and repeat those movements throughout a session.

Strength training for pickleball does not need to imitate pickleball. A few basic movements away from the court can make the movements required on the court easier to control.

Getting Low and Getting Back Up

Players spend a surprising amount of time in partially lowered positions. They bend to handle dinks, drops, low volleys, and balls at their feet, then have to push back up and recover for the next shot.

🥷 Drill of the Week:

The Transition Reset Drill

The transition zone isn’t somewhere you can avoid. The trouble starts when a ball arrives there and you’re still charging forward, off balance, or trying to do too much with it. This drill teaches you how to reset from three different spots, adjust as your reaction time shrinks, and earn your way to the kitchen instead of racing there.

See how the Transition Reset Circuit can make one of the toughest parts of the court much easier to handle.

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

Prevent Knee, Hip & Ankle
Injuries With These 2 Moves

⚕️HEALTH NEWS

Can Pickleball Help
Prevent Frailty As We Age?

Pickleball is often promoted as an ideal way for older adults to stay active, but researchers wanted to know whether it could actually reverse signs of physical decline. In a randomized controlled trial, 72 pre-frail adults with a median age of 67 were split between their usual lifestyle and an eight-week pickleball program, with researchers tracking everything from strength and walking endurance to sedentary time and quality of life. The differences that emerged were striking.

See what happened after just 16 pickleball sessions, and why researchers say the sport could have a role in healthier aging.

⚙️ GEAR REVIEWS
Titan ONE Pickleball Machine

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 the Titan ONE Pickleball Machine 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!

🧠 MENTAL HEALTH NEWS

Pickleball Meditation &
Snakes and Ladders

A Harvard Medical School professor says pickleball has taught him something surprising about the brain: the best shot often comes when you stop rushing and wait. He connects what happens under pressure on the court to research on stress, meditation, and the brain’s ability to pause before reacting.

See why he believes pickleball and just seven minutes of meditation can train the same powerful skill.

 🏓 PRO NEWS
MLP Pre-Season Power Ranking
Versus Final Regular Season Standings

Todd Boss put his MLP predictions on the record back in March. Five months, 121 traded or waiver-claimed players, and plenty of roster chaos later, he went back to see just how well those preseason power rankings held up.

See where Boss nailed it, where he missed badly, and which teams surprised him most.

🤣 HUMOR

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

PAGOSA SPRINGS, CO: Fourth Annual Bob Howard Memorial Pickleball Tournament Honors Theater Patron
CHARLOTTE, NC: Hornets Player Brandon Miller Hosting Celebrity Charity Pickleball Classic On August 22
COON RAPIDS, MN: Number Of Pickleball Courts In Coon Rapids Will More Than Double
NATCHEZ, MS: Pickleball Community Celebrates Opening Of New Courts After Raising $80,000
CINCINNATI, OH: $64 million Greater Cincinnati community with 90 homes, pickleball courts breaks ground
BERKELEY, CA: Pickleball in the sky: A New Berkeley Club pPays 6 Stories Above Downtown
COLUMBIA, MD: How A Driveway Pickleball Game Grew Into A Maryland Community
DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX: 11 Best Places to Play Pickleball in Dallas-Fort Worth


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

  💪 The Dink Movie Reviews
(Spoiler Alert!!!)

Here is my review, my student’s comments and notes on what I researched.

Critics describe it as a predictable yet charming and big-hearted film, focusing on Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen as a former disgraced tennis star and a new senior Pickleball player.  They pair up to practice and play and develop a charming friendship.   Ed Harris does a good job as the overbearing father, and Patton Oswalt, Ben Stiller, John McEnroe offer up some good laughs.  Jake ends up playing against Andy Roddick in a Pickleball match, winning with a “dink.”

Here are some of the comments from my students, and online reviews

·    “Breezy, slapstick, cliché, reminds me of older sports comedies.”

·    “Predictable.”

·    “I wish it had leaned in harder on the actual sport.”

·    “I had to turn it off after 20 minutes.”

·    “Should have been more like “Dodgeball.”

·    “Good jokes about eating in the Kitchen from the older ladies.”

·    “Cringeworthy with the romantic situationship (sic).”

·    “Cheesy comedy, but the Pickleball could have been higher quality.”

·    Funniest line: “Pickleball is the COVID 19 of sports.”  (From Ed Harris, who was great as the dad.)

·    Ben Stiller prescribing Pickleball as therapy for a tennis injury!

·    Cowgirl Classic song, and line dancing scene were fun and show the friendship and comradery of Pickleball peeps.

·    The kids in the tennis lesson were funny!

·    The enthusiasm, relationships and pure joy on the court – this is so right on for Pickleball.

Facts:  Tennis and Pickleball had a huge conflict over court space, noise and need for more facilities.  That started prior to COVID 19, when Pickleball started having bigger tournaments and more interest.  The movie does a nice job on that aspect.

Older players discovered a new sport that came along just in time.  Something motivating, social, fun and a reason to get up in the morning.  People lost weight, made new friends, and found a way to meet that was not in a bar. 

During the Pandemic, it was something you could do outside with just a few peeps.  What a lifesaver!

The Pickleball skills in this movie do not do the sport justice.  They could have added more competitive play as part of the plot, with real athletes competing.  Most of my advanced players agreed with this.

One thing is for certain.  This movie coming out means Pickleball has arrived and will continue to grow and grow.  Paddle up!

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