Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

You can meet someone anywhere — so why not make it a pickleball court? Today, we'll take a look at pickleball mixers, pickleball being taught in school, Katy Perry's pickleball event, and a whole lot more!

Let’s go! 👇

A news story from this past week focused on pickleball entering the physical education curriculums of schools in Michigan.

That’s great news — what started off as a sport for senior citizens has made its way to middle-aged folks, then down to young adults, college kids, and now to children.

That story sounds good, except it's not really true. Why? Because pickleball has been in physical education curriculums in schools across America since the 1970s!

How do we know? One way is that the person writing this story had pickleball in his gym class at a public high school in a small suburb outside of New York City in the late 1990s.

Random, right? Well, not really. It turns out that one of the sport's founders, Barney McCallum, actively sought to get pickleball in schools by traveling to the National Physical Education Recreation show in Kansas City and recruiting teachers to be pickleball advocates in their schools.

That effort didn't exactly work in terms of launching the sport, but who knows, maybe McCallum was playing the long game and knew that fifty years later, there would be a worldwide pandemic that would help catapult pickleball into the national spotlight. 😂

Hopefully your newfound knowledge that pickleball was taught in schools for almost 50 years should dispel any notion that the sport was brought here by aliens in 2020 — albeit nice aliens who determined that the way to finally bring about peace on earth was through pickleball! 😉

The Two-Handed Backhand Is All About the Non-dominant Hand

On the two-handed backhand, all of the power should be generated by the non-dominant hand. I.e. for a righty all of the power should come from the left hand and the right hand should just act as a guide. The shot is essentially a lefty forehand. This works because you’re stronger when you push vs pull. If you wanted to move a heavy piece of furniture, you’d have an easier time pushing it rather than pulling it. On the backhand, the dominant hand would pull relative to the ball and the non-dominant hand would push, allowing for more power output.

Ready for a fight? How about a firefight? 🔥 

Can You Have Too Much Fun?

Pickleball (like life) should be about having fun and feeling good. That’s what’s going on in the video above right after a clinic with some 3.5-4.0 pickleballers. These players love getting energized with Jigsaw Health’s Pickleball Cocktail, a delicious sugar-free, orange-flavored beverage with as much potassium as two bananas.

Oh, and having fun and feeling good? That’s literally what Jigsaw Health is all about. In fact, they believe in it so much that they made it their motto: “It’s fun to feel good.” We can all drink (a pickleball cocktail 😉) to that! See for yourself why we’re such big fans of Jigsaw Health, and use code “clinic10” at checkout for $10 off.

Pickleball’s greatest player of all time, Ben Johns, did a little Q + A with us…

The Pickleball Clinic: How do you pick out an opponent’s weakness?

Ben Johns: Opponents’ weaknesses are largely pattern recognition. You can easily analyze when errors are made, why they’re made, and the frequency of the pattern causing it. Just try to be mindful of the why behind errors and see if that pattern is repeatable.

Be sure to follow Ben on Instagram and YouTube.

Doubles for Singles 😘

These days, it feels like everyone is into “organic.” Not only do you have to eat organic foods, but things have to “feel organic,” not forced, and they have to “happen organically.”

One area you’ll hear this a lot is in the world of dating. People want to meet each other organically. Well, you can go ahead and do that (and risk it taking 20 years), or you can be proactive and try to intentionally meet someone.

That's what just happened at Montclair Pickleball, a New Jersey based pickleball academy, when nearly 40 singles between the ages of 25 and 35 came out for "Doubles for Singles."

As you can imagine, it was hours of playing pickleball with a variety of partners, along with food, drinks, and a post-pickleball cocktail party to end the night. It was a tremendous hit and there are already similar events scheduled for ages 35-50 and 50+.

Not single? No problem! Actually, there is a big problem if you show up to the singles events if you're married. 😀 What we're trying to say is that if you're not single, there are events for you too.

Called "Doubles for Couples" (pictured above), Montclair Pickleball hosted one of those nights this past weekend as well. Same fun time with food, drink, and music — just no exchanging of numbers, the only swinging that occurred was on the court…

All jokes aside, using the game we all love to bring singles and couples together is pretty cool.

Just think, it could bring in new players who may not have even been interested in pickleball, but are interested in dating. (Plus, if two people get married after meeting at your event, they may name their kid after your facility. 👍)

We’ve heard almost every excuse out there, but keep going, maybe you’ll come up with one we’ve never heard before. 😄 

If You Can’t Beat’em, Join’em

I, the writer of today’s newsletter, recently played in a 4.5+ men's doubles prize money tournament. It felt like at least half of the players were using JOOLA's MOD-TA 15 paddle. And not only that, but among the better players in the tournament, the 5.0+ players, it was way more than half.

I even overheard a player saying that without that paddle, he felt like he was at a disadvantage. So what did I do after the tournament? You’re darn right I got myself a MOD-TA 15. It turns out that my level of play is my disadvantage, 😀 so I'm not sure I would have done much better in the tournament. But at least now I understand why most of the players were using it — it’s got amazing pop and control! Get one for yourself today.

One of the best pickleball players in the world, Andrei Dăescu, sat down with us to talk pickleball. Andrei is from Romania and was a professional tennis player before he got into pickleball. Today, he talks about his favorite shot, how he stays calm under pressure, and where he sees the sport going in the near future. Check it out below. 👇

Katy Perry was at it again with the 2nd Annual Light Up the Court Pickleball Tournament at the Montecito Club in Santa Barbara, California, where Katy grew up.

All proceeds from the event went to the Firework Foundation, which was founded in 2018 by Katy and her sister, Angela Lerche, to empower children from underserved communities by igniting their inner light through the arts.

Celebrities at the event included Ellen DeGeneres, Orlando Bloom, Charlie Puth, and Rob Lowe. Plus, pro pickleballers and sisters, Mary and Maggie Brascia, teamed up with Katy and Angela to play. Katy and Mary beat Angela and Maggie 11-9 in a close and exciting exhibition match.

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

Join the conversation below! ⬇️