Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Are you a prankster? Or even if you're not, have you ever pulled off a prank that was really funny? Today, we'll take a look at our Top 5 pickleball pranks, discover a pickleball facility that's open 24/7, learn the keys to hitting a backhand flick, and a whole lot more!

Let’s do this! 👇

As we all know, pickleball is a lot of fun. But you know what else is fun? Pranks. So why not combine the two? Here are our Top 5…

Hide Someone's Paddle: Sometimes people have to go to the bathroom — and most people leave their paddle on the court. That's when you take their paddle, hide it somewhere and wait for them to come back. Of course you and the other players have to pretend like everything is normal. When the person comes back from the bathroom, you'll see them looking around for it. How long you keep them looking is entirely up to you. 😁

Use a Cracked Ball: The next time you come across a cracked ball, keep it and put it in your bag. Make sure the ball is very cracked so that it won't bounce correctly. When it's your turn to serve, use the cracked ball. 😆 When your opponent hopefully swings and misses, they'll check the ball and see that it's cracked. Use the real ball for the next point, but maintain that the last point counted. Enjoy their reaction, and then you can admit what you did.

The Nasty Nelson: No list of pickleball pranks would be complete without the "Nasty Nelson." Many of you know what this is, but if you don’t, it's when you purposely serve the ball at your opponent standing directly ahead of you at the kitchen. If you hit them in the air with the ball, the point is yours. This prank is super funny, whether you’re able to pull it off and actually hit your opponent, or even if you miss but startle them a bit.

Play with an Odd Paddle: Have you seen those tiny training paddles? Well, put one of those in your bag (or you can use an actual frying pan) and during your match, swap it out with your real paddle. Don't mention it and see how long it takes for anyone to notice. Depending on how good an actor you are, you can also just show up to an open play with one of these mini paddles and say it’s just the paddle that you always use. 😀

Put Firework Poppers on a Pickleball: You know those little firework poppers made of paper that you throw on the ground and they make a loud noise and a little explosion? How about taping one or two of them to a pickleball and serving it. Rather than returning your serve, your opponent will be thinking that you hit the ball so hard it exploded. 😂

So there are our Top 5 Pickleball Pranks. We haven’t exactly tried all of them out, so just make sure that you’re doing these pranks to people who can handle a joke. ⚠️

Grip Pressure on the Paddle

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being a death grip on the paddle and 1 being the paddle is about to fall out of your hand, you should be holding the paddle with a grip pressure of about a 3. This is easier said than done, especially for beginners because the natural inclination when learning new movements is to grip the paddle tightly. That being said, the key to this game is relaxation, especially considering the importance of soft touch!

After the guy in the blue hat fell down, was there anyone rooting for the other team? 😁

The Legend of Andre

Yogi Berra, Muhammad Ali. Roger Federer. It's not every day that a sports legend is born. Because not only does this person have to be one of the all-time great athletes in their sport, he or she also has to have something else — a charm, a presence, an "it" factor.

Tennis star, Andre Agassi, is undoubtedly a sports legend both on and off the court. From teenage rebel to the embodiment of calm and focus, Agassi transformed himself in order to stay on top. But through it all, he always had a kind heart and an iron will. When Agassi commits to something, he gives it his all.

Fortunately for us, his latest commitment is to pickleball and to growing the sport around the world. That's why he teamed up with JOOLA, and he has a new line of paddles that can't be ignored. Check them out here.

Located next to a year-round creek, surrounded by towering pine trees, and just steps away from the shores of Lake Tahoe, sit 15 beautiful pickleball courts, which are part of the Incline Village Tennis & Pickleball Center in Incline Village, Nevada.

The courts are open from the middle of May until October, which makes sense since Lake Tahoe is known for its skiing in the winter. But the next time someone invites you to hang out there in the warmer months and suggests golfing or boating, you can say, “Not so fast! How about some pickleball?” Well, you don’t have to include the “not so fast” part, especially if you’re staying at their place. 😉 But at least you know that pickleball is an option.

24-Hour Pickleball

There is something absolutely thrilling about a place that's open 24 hours a day. Is it open now? Yes. What about 8 hours from now? Yes. And 8 hours after that? Yes.

The answer is always "yes," which is amazing. These places literally NEVER close. In the past, 24-hour establishments were mainly convenience stores, gas stations, hotels, and diners. 

Unfortunately, many diners have stopped the whole 24 hour thing since Covid, but that's a story for another day. 

You know what they say, though. When one door closes, another one opens. So who is taking the place of those diners who gave up on being open 24 hours a day?

A pickleball facility! No, we're not kidding, and YES, that's amazing!

An indoor pickleball spot called Pickle Parlor is set to open in the Monroeville Mall, located just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

It will have three pickleball courts and a hi-tech camera system offering instant replays of points. We wonder what else you could do on a pickleball court in the middle of the night. 🤔 

Make s short film? (As long as you're not charged extra for more people to enter the court.) Pull an all-nighter studying for final exams? (It's not fun cramming for a test, but mixing in some pickleball would make it a lot better.) 

You can always bring in some of that diner food we were talking about too. But the 24/7 cameras kind of make all of these ideas a little tough to pull off. 😀

Anyway, good luck Pickle Parlor, and hooray for 24/7 pickleball! 🥒

Just because it worked once or twice against weaker players DOESN’T mean it’s a good strategy.

Your Ultimate Guide to the UTR-P Rating

Pro Rob Nunnery is breaking down everything you need to know about the UTR-P Rating, the rating created by UTR Sports and utilized by the APP and USAP.

All of your rating questions are answered in this comprehensive guide (watch above), including: What is the UTR-P Rating, and how is it calculated? How do you get started with UTR-P, and how do you improve your rating? And more!

Claim your free UTR Sports account now to join thousands of other pickleball players, find clubs and events, enter tournaments, and connect with players all over the world.

As you get better in pickleball, you’re going to need to have weapons. In other words, you’re going to need to be able to attack and end points because if you don’t, your opponents will. Enter the backhand flick, a great weapon to have when you’re up at the kitchen line. Good thing we got pro pickleball player, Richard Livornese Jr., to show us exactly how to hit it. 👇

Key takeaways:

• Stay right up at the kitchen line, stick your butt back and lean forward.

• Assess the height of the ball. If it is in the yellow or green zone (from above your knees and up), you can attempt to flick it. If the ball is in the red zone (at or below your knees), don’t attempt the flick.

• Get the tip of your paddle down and loosen your wrist.

• To actually hit this shot, flick your paddle up using your wrist and finish pointing it in exactly the direction that you want the ball to go.

You know you're doing something right when commercials are being made about you, especially the most expensive ones in the world — Super Bowl commercials. Last year, E*Trade made one featuring babies, and this year, Catherine O'Hara and Willem Dafoe starred in a pickleball-themed commercial for Michelob Ultra.

It's not the first alcohol brand to feature pickleball, though, as Matthew McConaughey and wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, made a pickleball commercial last year to help introduce their new Pantalones Organic Tequila.

All of the ones above are great, but our favorite might actually be one that wasn’t shown to a national audience. It's this one, featuring some Seattle Seahawks for a Washington State lotto commercial.

Thanks for reading. See you out on the courts!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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