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

What's Cooking in the Kitchen This Week:

• Why Margin Over The Net Is Your Secret Weapon

• Can Collagen Actually Help Your Knees?

• DRILL OF THE WEEK: “Freeze & Fire” Transition Game

• Fitness Expert Glenn Dawson: Are You Struggling With Your First Pull Up?

• Catching Up With Tennis Star Turned Pickleball Pro Genie Bouchard

• Joola Files Paddle Infringement Suit Against 11 Brands

• Pickleball Reality Series 'Partners' Served Up by Shutterstock Studios for Prime Video

• Pickleball Injuries: How To Prevent And Manage

• Blazing Paddles — Milwaukee Firefighters Embrace Pickleball at Firehouses

• HUMOR: We Need To Get Focused & Stop Pointing Fingers!

• Coach Mary: How To Hit An Aggressive Drop

🥷SKILLS

Why Margin Over The Net
Is Your Secret Weapon

Most unforced errors in pickleball have the same root cause: players try to hit too close to the net. They aim for a ball that barely clears the tape, thinking that lower equals safer. In reality, that’s where rallies fall apart.

A ball that skims the net has almost no margin for error. A tiny change in paddle face, a slight misread of spin, or a fraction of late contact sends it into the tape or just over into a perfect attack for your opponent.

The players who make fewer mistakes and control more points aren’t the ones hitting the lowest balls. They’re the ones who consistently give their shots a bit more height over the net than everyone else. That extra margin is their secret weapon.

What “margin” actually means

Margin over the net is the difference between where your ball actually crosses the net and where it would hit the tape.

• Low margin: The ball crosses 1–2 inches above the net. One small error and it’s in the tape.

• Healthy margin: The ball crosses 6–12 inches above the net (sometimes more, depending on the shot). You can absorb small mistakes and still land it in.

This isn’t about looping everything high and slow. It’s about choosing a height that keeps the ball safe while still being hard to attack.

💪 Health & Fitness Section
Can Collagen Actually
Help Your Knees?

If your knee hurts in game three and aches on stairs the next day, collagen may be worth a try. But there's a catch. 

A 2025 study looked at 80 adults ages 40 to 75 with mild wear-and-tear knee pain. One group took collagen each day. The other group took a look-alike powder with no active ingredient.  

After 6 months, the collagen group had less pain and better knee function. The change was large enough to matter in daily life. 

A total of 11 studies with 870 people show the same pattern. Collagen does better than the placebo (fake powder) for knee pain and knee function. 

What Collagen May Do 

Collagen may help your knee feel better and work better. In the 2025 study, people had less pain and moved better after a long test period. 

That matters for pickleball players. Most of us do not care what a knee looks like on a scan. We care whether we can play, recover, and walk down stairs with less pain. 

🥷 DRILL OF THE WEEK

“Freeze & Fire” Transition Game

You’re moving through the transition zone, ball coming fast, and you’re still on the run when you swing. That’s when the pop-ups happen, not because of bad technique, but because your feet never stopped long enough to give you a real shot.

This “freeze and fire” game forces a split-second pause before every hit, so you actually choose between a soft reset or a controlled counter instead of guessing mid-stride.

Practice the exact footwork and decision pattern that turns midcourt chaos into controlled resets and counters.

 🏋️ STAYING FIT with
GLENN & BRIANNA

Are You Struggling
With Your First Pull Up?

🏓 PRO NEWS

Catching Up With Tennis Star
Turned Pickleball Pro:
Genie Bouchard

Genie Bouchard is trading Wimbledon finals for ESPN prime time pickleball, teaming up with Anna Leigh Waters to face Andre Agassi in a $1 million “battle of the sexes.” But what caught her off guard wasn’t the pro tour, it was how many players at events care more about getting on court than watching from the stands.

Hear what surprised her most about the switch, and why she thinks pickleball’s growth looks nothing like tennis.

⚖️ LEGAL NEWS

Joola Files Paddle Infringement
Suit Against 11 Brands

JOOLA, one of the biggest names in pickleball equipment, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against 11 paddle brands — and the list includes some names you've probably seen on the court. The complaint, filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in early April, targets Franklin Sports, Engage Pickleball, Paddletek, Adidas Pickleball, ProXR, Diadem Sports, Volair, and four others for allegedly copying JOOLA's proprietary "Propulsion Core" technology — the same tech used in their top pro paddles like the 3S, Pro IV, and Pro V. In plain English: JOOLA says these brands took the engineering that makes their paddles perform the way they do, and used it without permission.

What does this mean for players? Potentially a lot. When the ITC gets involved, it has the power to block imported products from entering the U.S. market — which could pull some of these paddles off shelves entirely while the case plays out. JOOLA CEO Richard Lee framed it as a matter of principle: "We cannot accept the unauthorized use of our technology that we worked years to develop." Whether you play with one of the named brands or not, this case could reshape what paddles are available — and at what price — in the months ahead.

🤩 ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

Pickleball Reality Series ‘Partners’
Served Up By Shutterstock
Studios For Prime Video

A breakup, a contract dispute, and a finals match can all hit in the same week on tour, and now there’s a camera in the middle of it. A new series is following 25-plus PPA pros through a full season, capturing everything from training sessions to dating drama and those awkward mornings after a loss.

Go inside the moments players usually keep off the broadcast, and see what life on tour actually looks like, click here…

 👏 COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Blazing Paddles -
Milwaukee Firefighters Embrace
Pickleball At Firehouses

Pickleball is exploding, and in Milwaukee it’s showing up in places you wouldn’t expect, including inside firehouses. You’ll hear how it’s helping crews form important bonds while flexing their competitive spirit, all while the sport spreads fast across the state.

Watch this episode Open Record: Blazing Paddles here…

⚕️ HEALTH NEWS

Pickleball Injuries:
How To Prevent & Manage

Pickleball injuries are rising fast — and research shows recreational players are getting hurt more than most people realize. A sports medicine physician breaks down the most common injuries, how to prevent them, and exactly when you need to see a doctor

Read Whole Guide here…

🏓 HUMOR

We Need To Get Focused
& Stop Pointing Fingers!

RALLY RUNDOWN:
LOCAL HIGHLIGHTS

ASHLAND, OR: Ashland Parks Commission Strikes a Compromise Between Tennis & Pickleball Players
SAN JOSE, CA: Vacant Big Box To Become 11-Court Pickleball Palace
ORLANDO, FL: Maxwell: Pickleball Popularity Dethrones Golf Tourney For Orlando Charity
NEWPORT BEACH, CA: Newport Beach PPA Challenger Recap
DECATUR, GA: Rotary’s Daybreak Paddle Battle Pickleball Tournament Set For April 25th
LEXINGTON, KY: 7 Places To Scratch Your Pickleball Itch During National Pickleball Month
BOSTON, MA: New Courts For Padel And Pickleball Open In Middle Of Seaport District


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

  💪 How To Hit An Aggressive Drop

Tanner Tomasi invites guest player Casey Diamond to demonstrate his signature shot:  the backhand drop, with two hands.

Step 1:  Make sure you are getting low with the ball, and your shoulders and your feet are pointing towards your target.

Step 2:  Be sure to contact the ball on the rise and explode towards your target.

Step 3:  Be sure to finish over your right shoulder, which will create the arc of the ball over the net.

Tanner explains that this shot is important to have, because of the topspin, which makes it more aggressive.  You are taking control of the point, instead of using slice, which is more defensive.

This technique can be used for third shots, dinks, and speed ups.  The topspin makes it a great weapon to put your opponent on defense.

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