The Most Annoying Things in Pickleball

Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Now that summer is unofficially here, we can start to fully embrace the great outdoors — at least unofficially. 😄 Today, we’ll look at the most annoying things in pickleball, find out which cities have the most outdoor park pickleball courts per capita, and visit one of the world’s great pickleball tournament venues.

Let’s go! 👇

There are tons of things to love about pickleball — after all, that’s why you’re reading this. But as with anything, there are some things we could do without. 😡Here are our Top 5 Annoying Things in Pickleball, in no particular order.

The Paddle Hitter

To the person who taps paddles way too hard, we have a message: “It’s called a paddle TAP — not a paddle HIT!” Have you seen the price of paddles these days? We don’t need you damaging our paddles after every point! 😂

It’s Raining Balls

We’re surprised this actually doesn’t happen more often, but have you ever had a few points in a row interrupted by balls from other courts rolling onto yours? Talk about a buzz kill after a really good point — or one that you’re just about to win. 😁 

The Advice Giver

Unless there’s a huge discrepancy in ability (like two full rating points), then we don’t need you to give us advice. And even if you are much better and want to give some helpful tips, first ask if it’s OK, and do so NICELY! We also don’t need sighs every time we make a mistake. 😡 (If you’re as good as you think you are, then you wouldn’t be playing with random partners anyway. 😂)

The Net Dribble

This is when your opponent’s shot hits the net and then the ball slowly dribbles over onto your side such that you have no chance of getting to it. This is EXTRA annoying if 1) it happens after a long point, 2) it comes at a crucial point in the match, or 3) your opponent doesn’t offer an apology or at least some sign of sympathy. (If your opponent gives a fist pump after this, it may be grounds for a fight. 😂)

From Bad to Worse

This is the partner who completely gives up on you during a match. Your team gets down a couple of points, and they just check out emotionally. Their attitude, body language and everything about them totally crashes and they stop even trying. These people don’t even fake it. Here’s our advice: FAKE IT! 😄 Doubles is a team game — if you’re only a good partner during the good times, but not the bad, then maybe doubles isn’t for you.

So that’s our list. Which ones did we miss? Which ones did we nail? Reply and let us know. 👍

Work on Your Reset

If you are an intermediate or advanced level player who wants to get to the higher levels of the game, prioritize working on your reset. Being able to reset when attacked, especially from the transition zone, is one of the major skills that separates 4.5+ players from players 4.0 and under. You can start by working on automatically resetting every attack (rather than counter attacking) in order to get the hang of it. Once you’re comfortable with your resets, the next step is to judge whether you should reset or counter when attacked.

If the Shoe Fits 👟

Would you use your winter glove to play golf? How about your oven mitt to play softball? We’re hoping you answered “no” to both questions — although if you could pull that off, it would be pretty impressive. 😄 The point is that you wouldn't use those things on your hands because they’re not designed for the sport.

So why are our feet any different? And why are we using sneakers made for other sports to play pickleball? For most of us, the answer is that you didn’t know any better — but now you do, because Diadem’s Court Burst sneakers are here, and they were designed for pickleball! They are fast, stable, and comfortable shoes, and as you can see, they’re easy on the eyes too. Get yourself a pair today, and use code “clinic10” at checkout for 10% off.

Adam Stone or “Coach Adam” is the head writer for The Pickleball Clinic newsletter and a pickleball instructor at Montclair Pickleball in New Jersey. Today, he reflects on his experience in this past weekend’s Zimmer Biomet APP NYC tournament.

“This past weekend, I played in the APP NYC 4.5 40+ Men’s Doubles at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, the long-time site of the tennis U.S. Open. As a junior tennis player, and someone who didn’t miss attending a U.S. Open for about twenty years, it was an incredible feeling to play on those courts.

The setting aside, one great part about playing tournaments is that they always teach me something about my game. In the past, I’ve learned valuable lessons that confirmed well-known pickleball concepts. But my takeaway from this weekend did not confirm pre-existing knowledge. In fact, it did just the OPPOSITE. Basically, my partner (Daniel Chernin, pictured above on the right) employed a strategy that is not the "right" way to play. He sped up dinks at the kitchen about 90% of the time, and on most of them, he was hitting from well below the net.

As we know, that is an extremely difficult and traditionally low-percentage shot because for most people, that speedup will either go into the net or out. But there’s one important distinction — he’s REALLY good at it. Against pros, this strategy probably wouldn’t have worked. But up to about the 5.0 level, he was winning exchanges like this at probably a 75% clip — meaning he either body bagged people or induced a pop-up that won us the point.

So he kept doing it, I stayed as ready at net as I could, and we took home the silver medal, losing in three games to the gold medal winners who we beat in the early rounds of the draw and split our four total matches. So the take home-point is this: If you can do something really well — and it’s working — then keep doing it. Sure, you want to make your game more well-rounded, but when you’re trying to win a tournament match, if you have a weapon that your opponent can’t handle, then use it!

Follow Adam’s (comedic) pickleball journey on Instagram.👍

Now THAT’s anticipation. 💪 (He must be good at pickleball, that guy. Looked like his last name was “Johns,” or something like that. 😂)

It’s almost summer, which means you should be saving your money to go on vacation! (Or to pay for your kids’ expensive sleepaway camp. 😲😂) Whatever you’re spending your money on, it shouldn’t be for full-price pickleball gear. Why? Because we’ve got amazing discounts on the best brands in pickleball! Check them out HERE.

Bravo, Park Pickleball!

In the last seven years, the number of outdoor public park pickleball courts in major cities has gone up by 650%, according to the latest report by the Trust for Public Land.

Back in 2017, less than half of the largest U.S. cities had pickleball courts in their parks, but since then, more than 3,000 courts have been built throughout 100 of America’s biggest cities.

“There’s nothing that comes anywhere close to that growth among major park trends,” said Will Klein, associate director of parks research at the Trust for Public Land. “When you look at playgrounds, ball fields, basketball courts, you know, you see very modest increases. So this is off-the-charts growth.”

According to the Trust for Public Land, below are the cities with the highest number of outdoor pickleball courts in public parks per capita. The figure in parentheses represents the number of courts that city has per 10,000 residents.

1. Louisville, Kentucky (3.8)

2. Madison, Wisconsin (2.3)

3. Honolulu, Hawaii (1.9)

4. St. Petersburg, Florida (1.8)

5. Port St. Lucie, Florida (1.6)

The data above is just referring to park courts. As we know, there are tons of privately operated pickleball courts at indoor clubs, gyms, and other facilities throughout the country.

As for this remarkable growth in courts throughout the country, we have three words: Long Live Pickleball! 💪

The holy trinity of pickleball. 😂

Start Throwing Some Shade 😎

It’s time to start throwing shade — and we don’t mean figuratively. We’re talking shade on your face, specifically in your eye region. 😄 Yeah, we’re talking sunglasses, those beautiful things that not only make the outside world look amazing, but also make you look amazing! 😎

That’s where 96 Shades comes in. With more than 15 brands and 1,000 models to choose from, 96 Shades is the place to go for all your sunglasses needs — whether it’s Oakleys and Ray-Bans for pickleball or Pradas and Ralph Laurens for later on.

In fact, we like 96 Shades so much that we made their sunglasses the official shades of The Pickleball Clinic.👍 Check them out today, and use code “clinic10” at checkout for 10% off.

It’s great to practice with a partner, but you don’t always have one around. And even if you do have a partner, they’re only human, which means they’re going to miss. Well, you know what never misses? The Dink Master. Coach Matt and Coach Aaron demonstrate exactly how to use the Dink Master — both with and without a partner. If you want to get one for yourself, click here and use code “clinic15” at checkout for a discount. 👍

Key takeaways:

• Work on speedups and getting ready for counter attacks.

• Practice dink patterns, followed by speedups and put-aways.

• Incorporate a partner by dinking to them crosscourt, and then speeding up to the Dink Master before putting away a pop-up.

The APP (Association of Pickleball Players) hosted the 2024 Zimmer Biomet New York City Open this past weekend at the famous USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, site of the U.S. Open, one of the four annual grand slam tournaments in the sport of tennis. More than 1,400 players participated, including 250 pros, and it was the third consecutive year that the APP put on a tournament at this venue.

Plus, two U.S. Open champions (Ivan Lendl and Kim Clijsters) competed in the tournament! Megan Fudge earned two gold medals, Chris Haworth won his third men’s singles title, and Mario Barrientos, Jack Munro and Yana Newell each got their first APP Tour gold medals of 2024.

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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