Friday Pickle 'n' Potluck Features the Pickle Pickers
Rain at the first Friday Pickle ‘n’ Potluck (aka Play & Stay) didn’t stop players from gettin’ down. The Pickle Pickers: Din, Charlie, Neil and Gayle were the featured act at the Marshdale Lounge. As Jerry Beth Owen reported, “Great food, music and company.”
Bring your dish to share with setups and beverages (beer and wine allowed) every Friday, 4-6 pm at Marshdale.
Get Your Registration in for EPC Summer Round Robin June 21
EPC’s Summer Round Robin gives every player a chance to compete against evenly matched players. With up to 8 groups of 8 players each, skill level within a group is fairly consistent. And you sign up to play as an individual - no partner needed. You’ll play 7 games to 11, win by one. Prizes awarded to top three finishers in each group. Tuesday, June 21, 9 am at Marshdale.
Non-refundable $10 registration fee. Open to EPC members. If you’re not a member already, go to 2022 Membership Registration.
We need volunteers. If you’re not playing, let Pat Theno know you can help herd cats.
Round Robin registration closes June 16.
Pingles Tomorrow at 12:30 at Marshdale if You’re Looking for a Singles Game
Linda Jacobsen declares, “Hear Ye, Hear Ye, from this day forward Pingles on Wednesdays will begin at 12:30pm, no prior notification or updates shall proceed; use your own judgment on weather. I’ll be there most Wednesdays, including the ‘morrow”’
“Let’s try Saturday Pingles play at 3:00pm, again no notification, just show up!”
Now You Can Text Players When and Where You Want to Play; Get the App Today
Pickleball players in Evergreen now have an app for letting everyone know who’s playing when and where. Go to teamreach.com to download the app to your cell phone. Find the group evergreen CO pb and use the password Pball 80439 to connect with other players. You can message the entire group or just the people you want to play with. No emails required.
As of today there are 40+ players active on the chat. Let’s get everyone signed up.
Dinkheads.com: Where Inquiring Minds Want to Know (the Dirt)
Maybe we’re late to the party but there’s this website dinkheads.com that’s setting out to be the National Enquirer, the TMZ, the PageSix of pickleball. With shocking headlines, lots of exclamation points and intentional controversy they scream headlines such as:
“Punta Gorda Pickleballers Beg for More Courts, Ready to Protest”
“Ben Johns: National Was ‘Catastrophe’ Run by "‘Dictatorship’”
“Controversy Over Clay Courts in Palm Beach”
“How to Be the Most Annoying Pickleball Player in 7 Steps”
”The Big V or Un-V Question: UNCENSORED!
And they seem to have it in for USA Pickleball, the governing body calling it a secretive, oligarchical ‘good old boys club’. Juicy.
EHS Yearbook Says Pickleball Isn’t Just for Old Folk
When EPC donated 30+ paddles, three nets and a couple dozen balls to Beau Brake’s PE classes at Evergreen High School in 2018 and 2019 we hoped to expose the game to high school students. Every semester Mr. Brake brings his class to Wulf to play against the “old folk.”
After losing games to Owen Ellis and Bob Taber this winter, Jake Lewis, EHS varsity tennis player, conceded in the 2022 yearbook, that pickleball isn’t as easy as it looks.
Imagine a Retail Store Dedicated to Pickleball; It’s Pickleball Giant in San Antonio
Pickleball Tip of the Week from Hiwan Pro Tom Karas: Court Positioning – Where should I stand?
When first timers play pickleball, they often stand at the baseline and hit pretty ground strokes, just like in tennis. Unfortunately, nothing good happens from this strategy. A pickleball court is much smaller than a tennis court and the ball moves much more quickly. You don’t have time to take a big backswing like a tennis groundstroke and it’s difficult to place a winning shot from the baseline.
To understand court positioning, let’s create an analogy between a house and a pickleball court. Think of the baselines as the front and back doors. If you,re going to a friend’shouse, you start at the front door. This is where you start the game as you must serve from behind the baseline and the serve must bounce in the opposite quadrant before your opponent can return it. His return of serve travels back to the front door where it must bounce again before the serving team strikes the ball again. After this point in the rally, no more bounces are required.
Now, think of the area between the baseline and the kitchen line as the hallway, it’s just a place to pass through to get to the kitchen where all the action takes place. Most often people hang out in the kitchen because a lot is happening there. On the court, after those first two shots, you want to move quickly through the hallway to get to the kitchen, where the fun begins.
You and your partner should move up together and create a wall at the kitchen line. Occasionally, you may have to move back into the hallway to get a lob for example, but you want to get right back to the kitchen line where all the fun takes place. Why, you ask? Because the team that positions together at the kitchen line wins 80% of the rallies. They have the advantage to block shots, use the angles and return shots before their opponents get in position.