There are lots of lessons to be learned from watching pickleball at the highest level. The recent PPA Tour Lakeland Open in Florida was no exception. This lesson is about the mental side of our sport – an aspect that influences much more than you may think at first (there’s a pun in there I […]
Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin won gold last weekend at the PPA Tour Pickleball World Championships (and the 3,000 ranking points that came with the title) after handily beating the No. 1 seed Ben Johns/Gabe Tardio in the semifinals and then pretty decisively following that up with a win over the No. 4 seed JW Johnson/CJ […]
Pickleball challenges us. This is one of its great attractions. Every time we play, we are faced with adversity and puzzles to solve. And we do our best to work through them. But as you interact with pickleball and do your best to work through each game, strive to be as constructive as possible. This […]
Whether you’ve been playing pickleball for several months or several years, you’ve probably encountered the following scenario: You hit a volley that lands very close to the baseline. I mean, the ball is right on (or next to) the line. You think your shot landed in. But your opponent sees things differently and calls the […]
Mixed doubles success often boils down to two factors: 1. How steady the female player is.2. The male player finding the right balance in how “big” he plays. “Big” in this sense refers to how much of the court the male player will take. If they hesitate to take attackable balls and put them away, […]
None of us has unlimited time, energy, or focus. By extension, we can only do so much. If your goal is pickleball improvement, then you will improve more quickly by identifying areas of the game that will give you the greatest return on your investment. A helpful concept we use in our coaching is to […]
Picture this: You have a nice high juicy popup heading your way. Your team is up 10-8 and this is it. Game point. You slide over toward the ball, ready to hit the winner and close out the game. The shot feels good coming off your paddle. A clean hit. Great. But … wait … […]
Twins and pro pickleball players Jade and Jackie Kawamoto have been at the game for several years. They are fan favorites and great ambassadors of the sport, but had yet to win a PPA Tour title until they won the Cincinnati Showcase earlier this month. They defeated the No. 1 seed Anna Leigh Waters/Anna Bright and […]
So you’re playing pickleball and you miss an easy shot. Maybe even your best shot — forehand drive, dink, volley? Naturally, you’re disappointed. You shouldn’t have missed that shot. The ball was just sitting there. So what went wrong? The answer: nothing. Well, nothing except the unrealistic expectations you created for yourself. In this article, […]
Bruce Lee famously said “I fear not the fighter who has practiced 10,000 kicks one time. I fear the fighter who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” The idea here is that you can become good at most things by gaining mastery over only a few parts of the thing. Adherence to this tried-and-true premise is […]
