Pickleball is making malls cool again

Tips 💸

• 5 tips for adding power to your pickleball game (PCKL blog)
• Ben Johns, the best pickleball player in the world, said he’d rather have power than fast hands. Easy to say when you have both. But how do you actually increase your power? We share five simple tips for powering up your game. 
  
  
• Your guide for pickleball grips (YouTube)
• Do you know what a continental grip is? No, it’s not holding onto a hotel breakfast. The best picklers put thought behind their game — starting from the moment they pick up their paddle. Pickleball guru, John Cincola, made a video that tells you everything you need to know about how to hold your paddle — including grip pressure and where to put your fingers.
  
  
• What’s more important: power or spin? (Pickler)
• Our initial response: por qué no los dos? But if we had to pick a side, we would agree with the team at Pickler who says if you have to focus on power or spin, choose power. Power increases the pace of the game, which means less time for your opponents to react. And less time leads to more mistakes. 
  
  
• How to find your pickleball rating (PPA)
• Pickleball ratings are the new GPAs. But without teachers giving you a number in red ink after every game, how do you know where you stand? Playing in tournaments is a great way to find out how you rank, but if you need to know now, check out this guide by the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA). 
  
  
• A skill for 4.0 players to develop (YouTube)
• In this 2-minute video, Zane Navratil, a top player in the world, shares a skill that will help you go from 4.0 to 4.5. He notices 4.0 players let too many balls bounce deep into the kitchen when they could be taking it out of the air. Dink volleying gives your opponent less time and a smaller margin of error. 

Gear ⚙️

• PCKL Elite 40: the cast-iron skillet of balls  (The Dink)
• The Dink tried to break our balls. Their team played with one PCKL Elite 40 ball exclusively for two months straight. Against bangers. In New England temperature. The result? “It still plays like it did when I took it out of the package.” Try out our most durable ball here.
  
  
• How much of a difference does your paddle actually make (Reddit)
• The man makes the suit. And the paddle. Your skill is the top differentiator of your gameplay. Heck, we’ve seen Ben Johns beat players with a frying pan. Yes, your paddle is important, but it should match your level of play, not determine it. It should also match your style of play. That’s why we make high-quality paddles based on every skill and style. 

AI 🤖

• AI is boosting pickleball analytics (Reddit)
• PB Vision is using machine learning to evaluate data from pickleball play. It’s in the early days of tracking player performance, court positioning, and trends. Soon enough, you’ll have a bot tell your partner their mistakes so you don’t have to.  

Fun Reads 😁

• Pickleball is making malls cool again (The Smithsonian Magazine)
• Remember the days when people walked through malls for exercise? Us neither, but we saw it once on Better Call Saul. People are now returning to malls to dink. The pandemic and rise in ecommerce turned malls into the ghost towns you see in apocalyptic movies. Developers are bringing life to the underutilized spaces by building courts where there used to be Hot Topics. We’re cool with it as long as Auntie Anne’s can stay. 
  
  
• Can you get a scholarship for pickleball? (Best Colleges)
• DUPR, the official rating system of picklers, is accelerating the growth of pickleball with Gen Z by investing half a million into college campuses. In their second year, they’re hosting 12 regional tournaments for students, where players can win up to $10,000 in scholarship money. And Utah Tech is poised to become the first college to offer pickleball scholarships. Way to live up to your mascot’s name, Trailblazers! 
  
  
• Pickleball slang you should know (The Dink)
• Vibe check. Are you up to date with pickleball lingo? The sport is evolving — including its lexicon. Stay in the know by checking out a baker’s dozen worth of slang terms. A pedicure is when you hit your opponent’s feet. Then there’s a manicure. And a full wax, well, nobody wants that.

Thanks for reading PCKL 11. 

Dink Soon!

— Team PCKL