Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Have you ever played pickleball with your left hand? (And no, we're not talking to you lefties out there. 😄 What we really mean is your "non-dominant" hand.) Today, we'll find out why Ben Johns is using both hands to play pickleball, get the dirt on what happened at one of the biggest pro tournaments of the year, discover the best way to hit a backhand flick, and much more.

Let’s go! 👇

Fortunately for us pickleball fans, there are a number of professional or senior pro pickleball tournaments going on each week for us to watch high-level pickleball. And when you include amateur tournaments, the number grows exponentially.

But there are a handful of annual tournaments that stand out among the rest—massive tournaments that bring together the very best pros and amateurs in the world. One such tournament is the Pickleball World Championships, which just finished last week.

Held each year at Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, the tournament is the most important one on the PPA Tour calendar.

Celebrities have been part of the action in past years, where athletes including Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki and PGA Tour Champion Scottie Scheffler, played in exhibition matches alongside pickleball stars like Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters.

This year's celebrities included Mark Wahlberg, Jeremy Piven, former tennis star, John Isner, and former UFC Champion, Sean “Suga” O'Malley. But let's get to the pickleball pros...

In Men's Doubles, JW Johnson and Tama Shimabukuro came back from two games down to ultimately defeat Christian Alshon and Andrei Daescu in the final. If you don't recognize the name, Tama Shimabukuro, it might be because he's only 15 years old! 

At this event last year, Shimabukuro was playing on the Major League Pickleball Junior All-Star team. This time around he won the pro tournament! “This is crazy," said Shimabukuro. "I never thought I’d be here the next year winning this event.”

Shimabukuro wasn't the only teenager to have success at the tournament. 13-year-old Natalia Simson pulled off a big upset when she beat pro pickleballer (and former tennis star) Genie Bouchard in women's singles.

John Lucian Goins won the mens' singles tournament, and (as always 🙂) pickleball's GOAT, Anna Leigh Waters, won another Triple Crown, meaning that she won the women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles draws in the same tournament—something she's only done 46 times!!!

Play Within Your Abilities

An old tennis coach of mine used to say, “Good players try to play great. Great players try to play good.” The lesson? Winning doesn’t require spectacular shots. The best players rely on solid fundamentals and consistency. Chasing highlight-reel winners might earn you a few impressive points, but it can also lead to errors that give points away. Know your strengths, choose shots you can execute reliably, and make your opponent earn the win.

Who said there’s no diving in pickleball? 💪👇

If you still think that ice packs or bags of frozen peas are what you need after playing pickleball, then you're stuck in the past. Because when it comes to the power of compression and hot + cold therapy, no one comes close to TheraICE. They use the best materials and state-of-the-art technology to provide comfort and relief.

Plus, pickleball players love TheraICE because their bands treat the parts of the body that get sore after playing pickleball, including knees, backs, wrists, ankles, and shoulders. TheraICE is also still offering a bundle: buy 2 products and get 15% off, buy 3 products and get 25% off! And when you use code (TPC15), you get an additional 15% off the entire order—or if you just want a single sleeve, you also get 15% off when you use that code!

If you happened to watch any of Ben Johns' singles matches from the Pickleball World Championships, you would have noticed something out of the ordinary.

Instead of hitting a backhand drive, Ben Johns chose to hit a lefty forehand! Yup, that meant he was always hitting a forehand when he hit a drive, which is extremely unconventional and generally frowned upon from a coaching perspective.

But there is a backstory. While Ben Johns did not play professional tennis, he trained with his brother, Collin, who did play on the professional ATP Tour. So we can only imagine that Ben was a very good tennis player.

When Ben played tennis, he evidently played in this manner—by using a lefty forehand instead of a traditional backhand. Ben even used this technique in his early singles pickleball days back in 2016 and 2017.

However, Johns then adopted more of a cat and mouse style where he would hit drops to get up to the kitchen. He is very good with his backhand slice drops, so he chose to employ the drop from his backhand side and essentially abandoned the lefty forehand. Until now.

Because of changes to paddle and ball technology, Johns believes that drops in singles aren't as effective as they used to be because the ball often sits up off a bounce and your opponents can create more power and spin with their paddles than ever before. 

So Johns decided to return to the lefty forehand drive last week at the Pickleball World Championships. How did he do? He won one match and lost the next one. Not so bad. But what about you? Should you consider using this approach? 

We have to preface our answer by saying that the game is constantly evolving. It really is, which means that shots that were looked down upon in the past are now being used, and vice versa. So our answer may change over time. But at this point, unless perhaps you are truly ambidextrous, our answer would be "no."

Why? Because Ben Johns isn't your average player. He's the greatest male player of all time 😄, AND he used a lefty forehand for years in tennis. 

Plus, keep in mind that even when Ben Johns uses a lefty forehand, he still uses his backhand for dinks, volleys, and drops. He just uses his lefty forehand on drives, where he is standing near the baseline.

When you hit a drive from near the baseline, you have time to switch the paddle from one hand to the other. When you are closer to the kitchen, and don't have as much time, then switching hands isn't as efficient as using a backhand.  

Let’s put it this way, the number has a LOT of digits! 👇😂

There are many accessories that make playing pickleball easier, safer, and more fun. But then there are things that if you didn't have, you actually could not play the sport. Those are a court, a paddle, people to play with, and... balls.

Yup, ball sports without a ball don't really work. And that's why you want to use a ball made by a company that's been creating the highest-quality balls across countless sports since 1946. We’re talking about the Franklin X-40, the most balanced, consistent, and durable ball in the world. Get some Franklin X-40s today, and use code (clinic15) for 15% off.

The backhand flick is a powerful weapon that's not only fun to hit, but extremely effective when hit properly. That's why we got one of the best players in the world, Richard Livornese Jr., to show you exactly how to hit it. Check it out below. 👇

Remember the Pickleball World Championships from above? Well, before that tournament was held, the Inaugural Major League Pickleball (MLP) Nations Cup took place at the same venue. The format consisted of two groups: Group A (Asia Domestic, Europe-West, Canada, USA) and Group B (Asia Int’l, Australia, Europe-East, Latin America). The tournament was taken seriously by pro pickleballers, as evidenced by the fact that the United States, for example, was represented by players including Ben Johns, Anna Bright, CJ Klinger, and Kate Fahey.

Of the eight teams, four advanced to the knockout round, which included the USA, Latin America, Asia Domestic, and Europe-East. USA defeated Europe-East in the semi-finals and met Latin America in the finals. Despite being pushed in some of its matches, the USA beat Latin America comfortably in the final to win the first-ever Nations Cup.

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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