Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Hey Pickleballers. Labor Day has passed, the pools are closed, and the kids are heading back to school. But don’t get sad about that. Focus on brighter things like pickleball in jail. 😄 Yup, today we’ll see how pickleball is being taught in prison, take a look at a pickleball record that is hard to believe, and a whole lot more.

Let’s do this! 👇

Pickleball can be played outside or inside. But did you know that it’s being played “on the inside”? By that we mean, in jail.

Inside the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in Suffield, Connecticut, Angelo Rossetti regularly arrives to teach prisoners the game we all know and love.

Rossetti is a coach for the Pickleball for Incarcerated Communities League (PICL), which is a national organization trying to bring pickleball to America’s prisons in an effort to rehabilitate those who are incarcerated.

While the inmates are extremely grateful and appreciative of the coaches, many of them are serving time for violent crimes including murder.

“Sometimes you gotta put yourself in an uncomfortable position to make a difference in someone's life, and if that's what it takes, then I'm fine with that,” Rossetti said.

“One of the inmates, a 20-year-old male, had said to me: ‘You mean you don't see me as a criminal?’ And I replied: ‘No, I see you as a person,” Rossetti said.

One inmate, Caesar Oneil said, "So you see one person show a little empathy, and that little empathy went a very long way, and I'm grateful for that every day."

At least half of Connecticut’s correctional facilities offer pickleball, according to Eulalia Garcia, the programs and treatment director for the Connecticut Department of Correction.

“We've seen more positive interactions with other individuals from our participants that are participating in pickleball; we've seen a healthier outlook on their future,” Garcia said. “It's something that they value, that they look forward to, that brings them happiness and motivates them to be better.”

Yet another example of pickleball bringing positivity to the world. (Plus, if you ever find yourself behind bars, at least now you know there’s something to look forward to. 😂)

Target Your Opponent’s Feet

One of the hardest spots to hit from is when the ball is bouncing right by your feet. Not only is it difficult to time, but you have to hit the shot with an open paddle face, causing the ball to travel up at an extreme angle as it is returned. You can aim for the feet on dinks, volleys, overheads, and even drops! If you can get the ball to bounce right in front of your opponent’s feet it will be incredibly hard to return.

Power and finesse? Yup. Slice and topspin? You got it. Offense and defense? Oh yeah. The best players are constantly mixing it up from shot to shot. 💪

The Future Just Arrived

Are you ready to meet JOOLA’s latest line of performance-designed paddles? (Well, they don’t actually talk, that’s a few years away. 😂)

Welcome to JOOLA’s 3S line of paddles. What do you want in your paddle? A solid and stable feel, right? Check, the 3S has it. How about strength and power? You bet. Come to think of it, these are qualities you should want in your pickleball partner too — sorry, the JOOLA 3S can’t help you there. The 3S line also comes in the classic Hyperion, Scorpeus, Perseus and Magnus shapes, and they’re UPA-A certified.

So what have we learned today? That the JOOLA 3S is not a person who can give you strength and stability in your life — but it can provide those things for you on a pickleball court.

Wyatt Stone is a 19-year-old professional pickleball player from Texas and turned pro at age 16. Today, Wyatt talks about what it’s like to be a professional athlete at such a young age.

“Starting out at age 13 as a novice to racket sports, I knew the first time I played pickleball that I wanted to play it professionally. Being so young and playing at a professional level in pickleball has opened doors that I never imagined possible. Competing in an average of 20 tournaments each year since 2019 with seasoned players allows me to learn and adapt quickly, picking up new strategies and refining my skills at a rapid pace.

The experience of traveling for tournaments not only broadens my perspectives but also builds my resilience and independence. It’s exhilarating to know I’m carving a path and making a name for myself in a sport that many people my age haven’t even discovered yet.

Moreover, starting young puts me in a position to have a long, fruitful career. With ample time to grow and develop under the guidance of top-tier coaches and mentors, I have the advantage of laying a strong foundation early on. The pressures and challenges on the professional circuit teach me valuable life skills, such as discipline, time management, and teamwork, all of which will benefit me in every aspect of life.”

Be sure to follow Wyatt on Instagram.

10,000 Volleys WITHOUT Missing!

Do you remember a few weeks ago when we mentioned that a pair of identical twin pickleball coaches was planning to set a pickleball record?

Well, they did it in Stamford, Connecticut by hitting 10,532 volleys back and forth to one another without missing. 🫨

Now before you start connecting the dots in your head with “Connecticut” and “pickleball coach,” we’ll save you the effort and tell you that YES, one of the twins is none other than Angelo Rossetti, the coach who teaches Connecticut prisoners from the story above!

You may be shocked to hear that, and hey, so were we! In fact, we don’t think we’ve ever featured one person in two stories from the same newsletter before. But hey, Angelo deserves it!

And so does Angelo’s brother, Ettore. Not only did the brothers break the record to help raise money for the charity, Save the Children, but they also did it to honor the memory of their late mother who passed away from pancreatic cancer two years ago.

In what can only be described as one of the sweetest things you will ever hear, the twins paper-clipped two pictures of their mother to the net during their rally, one facing Angelo and the other facing Ettore.

"Whenever I felt nervous or fearful that we might miss, I would do it for my mom. I would glance at the net at her photo," said Angelo. (I’m not crying, you’re crying. 😭)

Congratulations Rossetti twins — you guys totally rock!

We know when we’re getting hustled, and we don’t like it. 😂

What IS the UTR-P Advantage?

The UTR Pickleball Rating (UTR-P) is backed by over a decade of experience in developing accurate and reliable player ratings. Designed for players of all ages and skill levels, UTR-P delivers a more precise assessment by focusing on points won, not just games, and it updates every 24 hours. Unlike other ratings, UTR-P ensures fairness by separating verified from unverified results and providing distinct ratings for singles and doubles.

UTR-P is built to prevent sandbagging. Players with fewer than six matches don’t impact the ratings of those with more, ensuring that every match is competitive and fair. Verified results from trusted sources like USA Pickleball are the only ones that count toward your official UTR-P Rating, providing the most trustworthy assessment of your skill level.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced player, UTR-P gives you the trust and competitive edge you need to take your game to the next level. Learn more about the UTR-P Rating.

Adding spin to your serve can no doubt take it to the next level. You can’t spin the ball with your hand or off your paddle, but once you toss the ball, how you decide to make your paddle face come across the ball is entirely up to you. Coach Matt demonstrates below. 👇

Key Takeaways:

• Sidespin: Cut under and across the ball using a “U”-shaped motion. A righty’s sidespin serve is effective for targeting a returner’s backhand (assuming they are also a righty) because it will bounce in that direction.

• Topspin: Start under the ball and swing up such that you brush over the ball. This spin brings the ball down quicker so you can aim higher over the net.

Pickleball was just played on the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere. As part of a promotional event to raise awareness for sun protection, professional tennis players Frances Tiafoe, Madison Keys, Taylor Fritz, and Alex De Minaur all took to a pickleball court, which was set up on “The Edge,” a deck that sits at the top of a sky scraper located in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards.

Just to give you an idea of the height we’re talking about, the court was 100 floors up in the air, or 1,100 feet high. (Hopefully none of the players were afraid of heights. 😱)

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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