Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Everyone knows their birthday or their anniversary, but do you know your pickleball birthday and anniversaries? Today, we'll explore the most important pickleball milestones, learn about public pickleball courts that had more bizarre incidents than you'll believe, find out about a new Guinness World Record, and much more.

Let’s do this! 👇

Milestones are a big part of our lives—and for good reason: they mark the passage of time, which allows us to experience nostalgia, track our growth as people, or both.

But what about pickleball milestones? Do you think of those? There can be quite a lot of them, so we think you should. For starters, there's the time when you first played. Much like a birthday, this is when your pickleball journey was born.

You might not know the exact date that you first picked up a paddle (or maybe you do!), but it's probably a good idea to know about what season, or at least what year you started to play.

Your pickleball birthday is just the beginning, though. What about locations? How many pickleball venues have you played in? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? If you've played at a lot of facilities, then how many states have you played in? Or countries?

Moving on to pickleball shots, have you ever hit an Erne? What about an ATP? If so, how many have you had? Have you ever hit someone with a Nasty Nelson? Or been on the receiving end of one? (Hopefully both of these numbers are pretty low. 😀)

Then there's pickling a team or getting pickled yourself. What about getting pickled and then playing one of your opponents down the road—but this time beating them! (Now THAT feels good—especially when you look at the shocked expression on your opponent's face.)

Let's not forget about competition. Do you play in a league? If so, have you ever been #1 in the league or in the top 5? What about tournaments? Do you remember your first? How many tournaments have you played? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?! What about medals? Have you won a medal or a gold medal? How many? And at what level?

Whatever the milestones are that you want to track for yourself, we suggest that you do. Because like the other milestones in your life, they allow you to reflect on what you've done in the past and set goals for what you would like to accomplish in the future.

Keep Your Dink Follow-Through Compact!

If you want to stop popping up your dinks, focus on keeping your follow-through short and controlled. Your swing should be just long enough to bring your paddle back to your ready position. A follow-through that’s too high or too long can cause you to hit the ball too high, giving your opponent an easy attack. It can also slow down your recovery and leave you unprepared for the next shot. Keep it compact, stay ready, and make your dinks harder to attack!

It’s not that easy to hit a pure winner off a dink—especially at the pro level! 😮👇

When RPM Pickleball was created, it didn't just arrive, it exploded onto the scene. But that wasn't an accident. PPA Champion, James Ignatowich, and his team knew what kind of materials, design, and testing needed to go into making a world-class paddle. So that's exactly what they did. And that's why thousands upon thousands of players, from pros to amateurs at every level, swear by their RPM paddle.

Whether it's this past year's RPM V2 or Q2 series, or the latest Jade series (which comes in 14mm, 16mm, elongated, and widebody), you simply will not find a paddle that gives you better spin, power, and control. The all-new RPM Jade is a Gen 4 full foam paddle with long-lasting grit designed to maximize dwell time and spin rate. RPM tested more than 150 prototypes—yup, you read that right, 150—before finally landing on this absolute gem of a paddle. Pre-order yours today, and use code (clinic15) for 15% off.

You know the expression, "you can't make this stuff up"? It might just be the perfect way to explain what happened this summer at the public town pickleball courts in Lavallette, New Jersey.

Of course, one could make up what happened, but if someone wrote a script with all of the insane incidents that took place, the script would be dismissed as being way too bizarre to believe. Well, here goes...

The eight bayside pickleball courts in Lavallette opened daily at 8 a.m. this summer, but nearby residents began to report that players were arriving more than an hour early—not only hitting balls, but also blasting music. In response, a lock with a code was put on the courts, but then the code was leaked out, which made the lock useless.

So a police officer was then tasked with opening the courts each morning with a key. That solved the issue of people coming too early, but then there was the issue of people using the courts for activities other than pickleball, such as aerobics, skateboarding, and as a dog run—which meant pet waste was left on the courts. 💩

Needless to say, the pickleball community didn't appreciate finding animal urine and feces on their playing surface. This resulted in tension between the two groups, which led to fake tickets being issued and placed on people's cars!

Yup, people wrote out phony parking tickets in an effort to scare others away from using the courts! 😀 A+ for creativity! We wonder how real the tickets looked?

As one might expect, security cameras were then installed at the courts to help monitor the area and to hopefully deter people from entering the courts to do something other than play pickleball.

But in an act of defiance against the surveillance equipment, one man took his pants down and "mooned" the cameras. The man (and moon 🌕) was identified as an out-of-town resident and was issued a summons, which requires him to appear in court.

Sounds like an exciting summer! 😄 We hope the situation gets straightened out for next season—although we greatly appreciate the entertainment value it provided from this past one!

We all know the feeling! 😲

Crush Yard Pickleball Bar & Lounge, Brentwood, TN

Welcome to Diadem's newest Crush Yard Pickleball Bar & Lounge. Court Kings was proud to build all eight brand-new cushioned pickleball courts for Nashville’s first pickleball “eatertainment” destination. Designed for comfort and performance, the cushioned courts give players a high-quality playing experience while helping reduce impact during longer sessions.

Beyond the courts, Crush Yard offers golf simulators, a restaurant, lounge and event spaces, creating an upscale entertainment destination where guests can play, eat, drink and hang out. Court Kings was proud to have helped bring this cool, fun, and upscale concept to life!

The better you get at pickleball, the better your opponents will be. That's a good thing because it usually means longer and more exciting points. But it also means that you're not going to get as many easy putaways. So when you do get a putaway opportunity, you MUST take advantage of it. In other words, you want to hit your putaways hard enough to end the point. How can you generate that kind of power? Coach Matt explains below. 👇

Last December, Renee Sipos, Andrew Hunter, Steve Dunham, and Steve Lesko, set the Guinness World Record for the longest consecutive pickleball match ever played. The existing record was 34 hours, and they broke it by playing for 48 hours. But unfortunately for them, another group played for 49 hours shortly thereafter. 

So the group was back at it last week with the goal of playing for 60 hours straight. Duce Middleton replaced Renee Sipos, but the other three players were the same. The rules were such that after every hour of play, the group was entitled to a 5 minute break. On September 27th, the group broke the record in Enola, Pennsylvania! They also raised money for Warriors and Quiet Waters, a nonprofit organization that empowers post-9/11 combat veterans and their loved ones through nature-based experiences and long-term personal growth.

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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