Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Have you ever wanted to come up with a pickleball shot or name an existing one? Well, today we’ll name 5 new pickleball shots, check out the latest place where pickleball has appeared, discover a 24-hour pickleball extravaganza, and a lot more. 

Let’s go! 👇

Pickleball is known for having some silly names for things. For starters, there's the name of the sport, which is itself a bit goofy. 🥒 Then there's the kitchen, the Erne (and the Burt), the body bag, and who could forget the Nasty Nelson?

But there are many other shots or situations in pickleball that aren't yet named, and we think they need to be. So here are 5 New Pickleball Shots — or at least 5 new names for them.

Birth Ball: You know when you're serving, and the score is the numerical version of your birthday? So maybe the score is 4-1-2, and your birthday is April 12th. Or your birthday is June 22nd and the score is 6-2-2. When this happens, the server should say "birth ball," and if the serving team wins the point, they should get two points. Plus, later on, you can brag that you "birth balled" someone. 😀

Double-Troubled: Speaking of serves, how about those times when not only do you miss your serve, but then your partner proceeds to miss his or her serve right after yours. As you get better, hopefully this won’t happen too much, but hey, it still can. Well, now you have a name for it! We envision it being used a lot in the past tense. Something like, "We started off well, but then we double-troubled and lost our momentum." 😁

The Eye Gouge: The body bag is pretty morbid, so here's our dark new name. The Eye Gouge is when you purposely hit a lob to someone who will have to look directly into the sun in order to hit it. It's a pretty nasty thing to do, especially if you do it a lot, hence the harsh term. Here it is in a sentence: "They tried eye-gouging us, but luckily it got cloudy so it stopped working for them." ☀️

The Moses: If you know anything about the Old Testament, you'll probably remember that Moses parted the Red Sea. He opened it up and created a gaping hole through it. Well, when a player rips a drive right through the middle of the court and neither of the opponents even touch the ball, that player hit a Moses. "She hit a short return so I hit a sweet Moses on them." 💪

A Dunk: While we're on the subject of hitting balls by your opponents without them touching it, let's introduce our last shot. You know when you hit a dink on such a good angle that your opponent can't even put their paddle on it? That's a nice feeling, and something to be proud of. So let's not overthink this — a great dink like that should be called a “dunk.” When you do that, you would say something like "I dunked on him three times in one game." 🏀

There you have it, our 5 New Pickleball Names. Try using some on the courts, and hopefully one of them will stick. If they do, just make sure you tell people who came up with them. 😉

Correlate Your Swing Length with Your Proximity to the Net

The closer you are to the net the smaller your swing should be, and the closer you are to the baseline the larger you can make it. The closer you are to the net the smaller the distance that the ball has to travel, so the more compact the swing needs to be. The farther you are from the net, the larger you can make your swing because you need more power to get the ball to the other side.

Looks like we missed a shot above. 😀 Can you do the “flying squirrel”? 🐿️

Introducing Engage Pickleball Camps

Are you tired of Wendy and Wanita whooping your butt? Or of Jim and Jen constantly slamming your pop-ups down your throat? Well, don't get mad, get even! How? With Engage's pickleball camps. Get ready for the highest-level coaching on two or three day camps held at locations around the country!

You will get 14-18 hours of intensive training that focuses on every kind of pickleball strategy you can think of. The coaches are phenomenal, and you're probably going to learn some things that will literally change your game forever.

Engage pickleball camps are separated by level: Advanced Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced — and they are in locations including Naples, Florida; San Diego, California; Amherst, Massachusetts, and more! 

Pickleball’s greatest player of all time, Ben Johns, did a little Q + A with us…

The Pickleball Clinic: Are there any new shots you’re adding to your game?

Ben Johns: Lately I’ve been working on a two handed backhand at the kitchen line a lot. With the topspin you’re able to put on balls with current paddles it’s definitely a worthy addition.

Be sure to follow Ben on Instagram and YouTube.

The Crossword Puzzle Court

Pickleball is cool. There, we said it. 

By cool, we don't mean in the passing fad kind of way. We mean that it has arrived and has entered our culture. 

Super Bowl commercials are featuring pickleball as a backdrop for their products, celebrities are playing, comedians are discussing it, and just this week, it was featured in the New York Times crossword puzzle.

Yup, as you'll see below, the word was "court." And the clue was "Pickleball venue." Not basketball or tennis, but pickleball.

East and west, north and south, young and old, people are gravitating to the sport. Whether for socializing, exercising, or just having fun, people want to be around pickleball.

It's no wonder why vacation spots have added pickleball courts to their resorts or cruise ships. It's because the pickleball revolution is here — and people don't want to be left out.

Sure, pickleball is relatively new, and of course it would be naive to expect it to stay this hot forever. But that's OK, there will always be something new and different.

What seems to be happening with pickleball, though, is that it's firmly taking its place in American culture.

It's here. Maybe it will be in the golf/tennis lane, or perhaps the bowling lane (pun intended 😉). Who knows, it could also explode in popularity at the professional level too?

That's what makes our sport so special. It has several lanes and is flourishing in many different types of communities.

On that note, long live pickleball!

Just be honest with your spouse — the cover-up is always worse than the crime. 😄

Easy on the Eyes

Look at this good-looking young couple. Well, they're probably not a couple, but rather models/actors. They are young and good-looking, though. It would be a shame to risk seriously damaging one of their eyes because they didn't wear protective glasses. And hey, even if they weren't young or good-looking, it would still be a shame.

OK, let's start again. 😁 We don't care what you look like, how old you are or anything else about you. (Wait, that doesn't sound nice either. 😀) What we're trying to say is that everyone, no matter who you are, should protect their eyes!

We recommend protective eyewear from BLUE CUT, the Official Eye Protection Partner of the Pickleball Clinic. With their durable elastic frames; clear, prescription or UV-protection lenses; and anti-fog coating spray, these glasses are really a no-brainer. Plus, as you can see, they look amazing too. Visit the BLUE CUT site now, and they’ll send you a code to take 20% off.

JOOLA recently released their Pro IV line of paddles. To start off, JOOLA released their classic Perseus model with the rest of the line coming soon. It’s the biggest paddle release of 2025, and the whole pickleball world is super excited to see how they play. Well, that’s why Matt is here to give a complete paddle review of the Perseus Pro IV. 👇

Key Takeaways:

• The Perseus Pro almost knows the shot you’re hitting and how to respond — meaning it gives that soft touch for dinks and drops, but then provides pop on harder shots like drives and serves.

• These paddles are more durable — the cores will not crush or delaminate like they did in previous models, which led to a different paddle feel over time.

• The Pro IV line of paddles are dual-certified by both UPA-A and USAP.

• These paddles use TechFlex Power technology, which increases dwell time, flexibility and feel.

To celebrate its 1 year anniversary, the Indianapolis Pickleball Club is hosting a 24-hour pickleball charity event to raise money for the local Riley Children's Hospital, which provides pediatric health care in Indiana.

Called the "Rally for Riley," it will be a pickleball extravaganza all day and all night. There will be a tournament, open play, and lessons, along with inflatable costume play, cosmic pickleball, yoga, and a silent auction.

The owner of the Indianapolis Pickleball Club, Chris Sears, has a personal connection to Riley. "Both of my children spent an extended amount of time in the NICU," said Sears. "I feel like we owe our children to Riley." This event sounds incredible! Have fun, and drink a lot of coffee. ☕

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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