Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Like with anything, there's a certain etiquette that is expected of you when you participate in an activity. Today, we'll take a look at the rudest things people do while playing pickleball, find out how pickleball was featured in Times Square New York, watch The Pickleball Clinic's co-founders face off against one of the best players in the world, and a whole lot more.

Let’s do this! 👇

If you follow our Instagram, Facebook, or are members of our Facebook Group (the largest online forum in the world for pickleball), you’ll know that we like to ask our community (you!) fun pickleball-related questions. And you always give us amazing responses!

Our most recent question was “What’s the Worst Etiquette Mistake on the Pickleball Court?" Wow, did we get a lot of responses. So let's check them out...

One of the most frequently mentioned etiquette violations was giving unsolicited advice to other players. (So for those wannabe coaches out there, we suggest setting up a business and charging before giving out free pointers. 😀)

Another commonly mentioned etiquette mistake was walking through someone else's court to either get to your court or to retrieve your ball. That's a no-no everyone. Wait until the point ends on a court before walking through.

Other examples of poor etiquette included cheating (which is more an example of low character than poor etiquette), serving without calling out the score or before your opponent is fully ready, and taking calls or looking at text messages on your digital watch. 😄 (Let's try to have a little work/life balance out on the courts.)

OK, we can't end this without mentioning one of the funnier responses. One person wrote: "Greeting someone with 'what’s your DUPR?' instead of hello. 👋" 😄 (Wow, that person's first question on a date is probably "How much do you make?")

So there you have it. While most of these demonstrations of poor etiquette should be intuitive, not all of them are. So if you're a nice person who just didn't know any better, then hopefully the above responses have shown you some things you should stop doing.

If you’re rude on purpose, though, then keep doing it. This way, we’ll all know who you are and can treat you accordingly. 😠

Don’t Lift Your Head Too Soon

Keep your head down as you swing, especially on hard shots such as drives and serve returns. You should keep your eyes on your contact point for a split second after you hit. If you lift your head up too early, your paddle will probably come up as well, leading to a mishit!

We have to put this shot into pickleball. What would it be called, though? 🤔 Reply and let us know!

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

No one wants to get hurt playing pickleball. That’s why if you’re smart, you’ll stretch and get warmed up before you play. It’s why you also won’t dive for a ball and land hard on the ground. It's common sense really. So if you're going to use common sense to protect the rest of your body, then you should also protect the most vulnerable part of your body while playing pickleball — your eyes.

When it comes to protective eyewear, we always recommend BLUE CUT. With their durable elastic frames; clear, prescription or UV-protection lenses; and anti-fog coating spray, they make the best protective glasses out there. Visit the BLUE CUT site, and they’ll send you a code to take 20% off.

In this section, we often feature courts that are in far off places — remote islands with picturesque landscapes. And hey, those are pretty cool. But today, we're going in another direction. Today, we're visiting an urban pickleball oasis with 24 public pickleball courts called Sawyer Point in Cincinnati, Ohio.

First off, how cool do these courts look? They're laid out in a slight CURVE! That's awesome! Plus, they are extremely public. What do we mean by that? We mean that they are open to everyone for a cost of $0! You heard that right. Anyone can play on these beautiful courts with LED lighting and a professional sound system from 8am to 10pm for free! That's amazing. Good on you Cincinnati Parks Foundation, the Sawyer Point pickleball community, and the city of Cincinnati for building and maintaining such a sweet pickleball facility.

Bright Lights, Big City

Pickleball has come a long way in a short period of time.

From virtual obscurity just 6 or 7 years ago, it now has several professional leagues, a TV channel devoted to it, and has been the fastest growing sport in America for five years in a row.

Moreover, celebrities all around the country rave about it, tennis is scared of it 😀, and it's been featured in Super Bowl commercials each of the past two years.

Well, it's time to add another feather in pickleball's cap. Its most dominant current player, 18-year-old Anna Leigh Waters, was recently featured on a billboard in Times Square!

"Is this even real?!?" wrote Waters in an Instagram post. "Pickleball has given me so much and now I can say I have been on a billboard in TIMES SQUARE NYC! I’m soaking up each and every moment. 🫶🥰"

As you can probably see, the billboard calls Waters "the most dominant athlete in the world."

With 151 gold medals on the PPA Tour and 34 triple crowns (which means she won the women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles brackets in the same tournament), it's getting harder and harder to argue with that statement.

Unless all of your overheads are ATPs 😆, then hitting them OVER the net is kind of important.

So Many Uses!

Have you ever used your Franklin X-40 for another purpose? Like you can put it in your favorite cocktail, stick a straw through it, and voila, your drink now looks so much cooler! 🍹 Or you can string many of them together and make a nice flotation device. 🛟 Heck, if you put enough of them together, you could probably make a nice floating lounge chair.

We’re not telling you how to use your Franklin X-40s, but our advice is to use them for playing pickleball. 😉 Why? Because the Franklin X-40 pickleball is the gold standard for pickleballs at every level of the sport. It’s the most balanced, consistent, and durable ball out there, which is why it’s the Official Ball of The Pickleball Clinic, USA Pickleball and the APP Tour. Get some for yourself today and use code “clinic15” for 15% off.

We often demonstrate pickleball shots in this section with Matt or with guest touring pros on professional pickleball tours. Well, today, we’re combining the two! One of the very best players in the world, James Ignatowich, stopped by and actually played some games with our very own 5.0+ players, Matt and Aaron. Want to see how they did against him? Check it out below. 👇

On November 1, Washington State's Department of Licensing will begin to issue new license plates featuring 13 new designs. One of them will feature, you guessed it, pickleball!

Our sport was created in Washington State back in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum on Bainbridge Island. Pickleball became Washington's official state sport in 2022, and in the fall, it will have the nation's first pickleball license plate. There is an initial fee of $40 for these special plates and a renewal fee of $30. Proceeds will be used for the construction and maintenance of dedicated pickleball courts throughout the state.

Thanks for the read. See you out on the courts!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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