Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Newsletter!

Let’s do this! 👇

Do you use Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Because whether we like it or not, it is already a major part of our society and will only continue to be embedded into almost every aspect of our lives, from home and work life to transportation and healthcare.

In one way, it's kind of like pickleball, in that it's been growing for quite a few years now and there’s no turning back, it’s here to stay. Not only is AI staying, but it is currently the central focus of technological advancement around the world.

AI will most likely be as disruptive as the Industrial Revolution and the Agricultural Revolution before that. On the one hand, AI should bring about a tremendous amount of good: improved healthcare and more efficiency in everything, which may allow us to spend more time on things that are truly important to us, like family and pickleball. 💪 

On the other hand, there is a lot of potential danger associated with it as well. Joblessness is a major concern since it's only a matter of time until AI will be able to do a better job than humans at almost every job that exists.

Granted, while previous technological revolutions certainly eliminated some jobs, they also created others. So it is possible that AI does the same and simply changes jobs rather than eliminate them.

Of course, there is also the possibility that the many sci-fi books and movies from years ago become completely true as AI becomes so smart that it overrides any of our requests, decides to take over the world, and even eliminate all of humankind.

But many people are aware of these pitfalls and are working to implement guardrails to hopefully prevent AI from getting too far out of hand.

With all of that said, there are some industries and activities that will be harder to replace than others, and we would argue that pickleball is one of them.

Sure, AI will enter pickleball in the form of automated line calls, advanced coaching, and opponent analysis. But pickleball may not change as much with AI because its key elements, such as community, exercise, and friendly competition are fundamentally human.

Keep Track of Your Progress!

This tip is for tournament players who want to keep track of their goals and progress. Try keeping a journal. It could be a physical notepad or just an app on your phone, but use it to keep notes on your game. After a tournament, win or lose, write down what caused the outcome. Maybe your thirds were too high or you were missing too many returns and that was a big factor in your loss, or your drives were impeccable and that led you to a win. Either way, logging notes right after you play while the match is fresh in your mind will help you know what to work on and become a better player.

Keep your ATPs low because you don’t need to clear the net. But if you can hit them hard like Jorja Johnson, then go ahead and do that too! 👇

The Story of Thanksgiving

Imagine that you have never heard of Thanksgiving before. How does this sound for a description? “Thanksgiving is an American holiday where people stuff themselves with food, including turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pie. It's all about seeing family and friends and being grateful, which is actually pretty cool. Some people eat or drink too much, which makes them either fall asleep at the table or engage in political conversation that usually leads to an argument with someone else in the family.” 😄

Oh, and there's one more thing — SALES, big sales starting the day after Thanksgiving and continuing until the following Monday. Like a 25% sale off everything at Picklebalm, the topical pain reliever specifically made for pickleball players to provide targeted relief and support faster recovery. With Picklebalm, you can play more, hurt less, and stay on the court for as many hours and years as possible. Get some right here or just use code (pbclinic25). 

Last week, we featured a pickleball court in California that wasn’t a public court or one located at a resort, but rather a court that can be rented out through companies like Airbnb. That was fun, so we figured we’d do it again, this time in the Mediterranean Sea on Greece’s biggest island of Crete. The property is called “Villa Athena - Crete Pickleball Paradise,” it has 4 bedrooms and a pool, overlooks the sea, and is in a town called Vamos. We’re not sure if “vamos” means anything in Greek, but in Spanish, it means “come on!” or “let’s go!” So we really don’t have much of a choice to go there — it’s already built into the name of the town. 😀

The Top 5 MOST Annoying Things in Pickleball!

We think it's pretty safe to say that we all love pickleball around here — otherwise, you probably wouldn't be reading this newsletter. But that doesn't mean it's all sunshine and rainbows. 

Why? Because sometimes people do things that are downright annoying. So here's our list, in no particular order, of the Top 5 Most Annoying Things in Pickleball...

1. Players Who Call the Ball Out BEFORE It Lands. A line call is not a prediction of what you think will happen. It's a factual report of something that already happened. So let's all wait until you actually see the ball bounce before you make your call. Thank you. 🙏

2. Not Apologizing After You Hit Your Opponent with the Ball. Pickleball is not football or rugby, meaning that hitting your opponent is not part of the game. Sure, it might happen sometimes, but in that case, it's only polite to give the classic stop sign gesture to indicate that you meant no harm.

3. Walking Behind a Court While a Point Is in Play. The custom is that you wait until a point ends before you walk across to get to your court. Granted, if there is some sort of fence or other barrier behind the court, then it may be acceptable.

4. Giving Unsolicited Pickleball Coaching. When people come out to play, they're looking to have a good time, not to have some other player point out all the problems with their game. Plus, 9 times out of 10, the type of person who gives a lot of unsolicited advice is NOT very good themselves. 😂

5. Delayed Replay Requests. If a ball rolls onto your court during a point, it is perfectly acceptable for any of the four players to call "ball" and replay the point. However, you need to address it as soon as you see the ball roll on — NOT when you're just about to lose the point. (If you were truly distracted, then you wouldn’t have been able to hit the last five shots after the ball rolled onto the court.) 

So there's our Top 5 Most Annoying Things in Pickleball. Do you agree or disagree? Which ones did we miss? Write back and let us know!

If you don’t know why your pickleball partner left you, then you may want to watch below. 😂👇

A Pro Pickleball Player Has Never Done This Before

As many of you may know, our good friend and top pro player in the world, James Ignatowich, recently launched his paddle company, RPM. When his new paddle first came out, we gave him a groundbreaking idea: to send a personalized video to everyone who buys his paddle. James is not only the first pro pickleball player to do this, but he may even be the first pro athlete to do it with his own brand.

When you buy an RPM Friction Pro from now until Sunday, December 7th at 11:59pm, you will get a FREE Cameo from James Ignatowich, himself, and you can ask him to say WHATEVER you want — as long as it's within reason. 😉 You can grab an RPM right here, be sure to use code (cameo), and in addition to getting 10% off one of the very best paddles in the world, you will also be asked what message you would like James to say in your very own personalized video. 👇

If you watch pickleball on TV, you'll notice that almost all pros "stack," which means that they always position themselves on the side that they specialize in — either the left side or the right side. Today, Collin Johns, probably the most accomplished right side pickleball player of all time, speaks with Matt about being a high-level right side player. (Keep in mind that the advice below generally applies to two righties.) 👇

Key takeaways:

• As a right side player, you need to be comfortable with the mindset that you are the less aggressive player, the one who is more deferential to your partner and often the “setter,” or the one who is setting your partner up to finish the point.

• When you are dinking, work on understanding angles. If the ball is coming through the middle, the player who the dink is coming toward should often take it, especially if it's their forehand. 

• When you speed up down the line, your left side partner should come across to your side of the court and look to put away your opponent’s counter with their forehand.

• Similarly, when you are receiving a speedup, try sliding to your right so you only have to worry about hitting a backhand counter, which you will ideally hit back straight and down. Then your partner can put away the next shot with their forehand. 

Who thought that two founders in Colorado would be able to take on Tinder and Bumble? Plus, they’re doing it in conjunction with the social and fun activity of, you guessed it, pickleball.

It's called PickleMatch, and it allows users to match with one another based on pickleball-specific preferences, such as skill level and preferred courts. The co-founders live in Colorado, and that is where the app is currently active. But it has expanded to cities including Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and it’s expected to keep growing to more and more cities throughout the country.

Hope you enjoyed the read. See you next week!

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic

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