There are only 46 days left in the year to get out onto the pickleball court, which is not much compared to one Florida resident that has played pickleball for more than 1,000 days straight! Nevertheless, heading into Thanksgiving 🦃, we are grateful for every day on the pickleball courts with you and the rest of our pickleball community! Thank you for sharing the sport with us.

To give you a quick preview, this pickleball newsletter is loaded with tips to help your dinking game and help you be a better dinker... just in time to eat, dink, and be merry this holiday season. Plus, we have your gift guide 🎁 for the pickleball enthusiast to help you be the best partner on the pickleball courts!

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#1. PICKLEBALL DINKING STRATEGIES - 7 TIPS TO WIN THE DINK BATTLES

Assuming you have mastered the steps to hitting the perfect pickleball dink (more on this below 👇), how do you make the most out of your dink? You and your partner worked so hard to get to the Kitchen line (as most points are won there!), but now how do you win the point?

​Click here to learn 7 pickleball strategies and pickleball tips to help you win the dink battles on the pickleball court. 💪

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#2. 11 STEPS TO HITTING THE PERFECT DINK

Need help with your dinks on the pickleball court? Get ready to beat those dinkers at their own game! 👏

​Click here to learn the 11 steps to hit the perfect pickleball dink and master the foundation to be a great dinker on the pickleball court.

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#3. EAT, DINK & BE MERRY: BEST PICKLEBALL GIFTS FOR THE ENTHUSIAST

With only 11 sleeps until Black Friday, 14 sleeps until Cyber Monday, and 40 sleeps until Christmas 🎄, it is "match point" for holiday shopping. And, this year may be a bit crazier due to a supply chain that is gummed up across industries, including the pickleball industry. Not to fear though, we have made your holiday shopping a bit easier with our pickleball gift guide! 🎁

​Check out the best gifts to give to your favorite pickleball player this holiday season (which may even be yourself!), so that the only thing left for you to do is eat, dink, be merry & play more pickleball.

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#4. WOMEN'S CORNER - MELISSA MCCURLEY & HER MISSION TO SERVE OTHERS THROUGH PICKLEBALL

Since acquiring PickleballTournaments.com in 2014, Melissa McCurley has been on a mission to serve others through the sport of pickleball. And, with over 1,000 pickleball tournaments planned for the 2022 calendar year, McCurley has certainly impacted hundreds of thousands of lives through the sport... including you if you have ever played in a pickleball tournament, or plan to!

​Click here to learn what motivated McCurley to jump head first into the sport of pickleball in 2014, about her mission to serve others with PickleballTournaments.com, and her picks for the must-attend pickleball tournaments in the 2022 calendar year. 🤗

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#5. QUICK TIP - BACK UP FOR THE RETURN

Have you ever been at the baseline ready to hit a return of serve, and then your opponent hits a serve that you can barely react to? Serves in pickleball are becoming bigger and more aggressive (with both more spin and more power). As a result, it is important to give yourself as much time to react to the serve as possible. ⏱

To do this, consider starting in your ready position about 2 to 3 feet behind the baseline when your opponent is serving to you. In other words, back up to give yourself more room and more time to react. Back up as much as you need to (even consider touching the fence behind you if you are playing on an enclosed pickleball court), but make sure that you can still react to a short serve or a wide serve if your opponent has the ability to mix up speed and location of his or her serve.

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#6. WATERS SPOTLIGHT - LEIGH / LEE COME IN THREES

The last two weeks were busy (to put it mildly) for Team Waters. 💦 The mother-daughter duo competed in two events, which included the inaugural event for Major League Pickleball (which featured a team-style event) and the last PPA event of the year (the PPA Masters).

Starting with Major League Pickleball, Anna Leigh Waters traded one "Leigh" (her mother) for another "Lee," as she was paired with Lee Whitwell in the new team format. Lee's style and personality of the court seemed to jibe well with Anna Leigh's, making them one of the most exciting teams to watch. And, despite being the oldest competitor at the event at the age of 47, Lee stole the show, taking down the young guns and claiming MVP 🏆 of the event, while, at the same time, really exemplifying what the sport of pickleball is really about.

Looking at the PPA Masters, Leigh and Anna Leigh rejoined as teammates, but not before the third match-up in just 7 days across the net from each other in the PPA Masters' pro mixed doubles bronze match 🥉, where Anna Leigh took home the victory over her mother for the third time (if you read Leigh's article on the "trichotomy of pickleball," then you know this is a tough dynamic). Anna Leigh also added to her winnings 💰 and her "queen of the court" title with another pro women's singles gold medal. 🥇

Looking ahead, Team Waters will celebrate Thanksgiving 🦃 and give thanks for their wild ride with the sport of pickleball, before looking to defend their title as National Champions. Mark your calendars 🗓 to watch Leigh and Anna Leigh defend their title at the USA Pickleball National Championships on Thursday, December 9th through Saturday, December 11th! And, continue to follow Leigh's and Anna Leigh's journey here in Pickler's free pickleball newsletter, as well as on Instagram and Facebook.

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#7. THANKFUL FOR PICKLEBALL

With Thanksgiving upon us, we at Pickler are certainly thankful and grateful for the sport of pickleball and everything that the sport of pickleball brings. This includes you!

We wrote this article this time last year, but everything is still true today. Click here for some things we are thankful for still today.

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Are you thankful for pickleball? Since we may not speak to you before Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving and we hope you make it out onto the pickleball courts! 🦃

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#8. HEADLINES FROM THE COURT

Serving up the pickleball headlines from the past two weeks to catch you up quickly on the news from the pickleball community... 🗞

• The sport of pickleball is getting some serious love from the mainstream media. Coming off the big spread in Vanity Fair and feature in Live with Kelly and Ryan (discussed in our latest newsletters), pickleball had further coverage in the last two weeks, including a large segment on the Today Show (where the anchors challenged each other in a little competition) and a feature in USA Today.
• The International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) now has 67 member countries, which is just 8 behind the number of member countries needed to be considered for an Olympic sport.
• The Utah governor set up a pickleball court in the Rotunda at the Utah State Capitol. Pickleball can literally be played anywhere!

• Pickleball facilities - and pickleball-focused restaurants and bars - are popping up like wildfire 🔥 across the country. From the well-known Chicken-N-Pickle restaurants, to other similar concepts like the PKL pop-up in Boston and Pickle and Social coming soon in Atlanta (which just partnered with top senior pro pickleball player, Dave Weinbach), we hope that one of these hits your town soon! The more opportunities to play... the better!
• In the world of pro pickleball, a new format was unveiled at Major League Pickleball, which featured teams of 4, as well as mics 🎤 on all of the pro players. To say the new format was a hit is an understatement. The new format really showcased what the sport of pickleball is all about and infused new excitement into being a spectator for the pro events. Lee Whitwell (as noted above 👆) stole the show and took home MVP of the event. Whitwell showed off her personality on the court, while taking down many of the top players - both male and female. However, it was Team BLQK (Ben Johns, Irina Tereschenko, Andrea Koop, and Rob Nunnery) that took home the championship. 🏆 Team BLQK played some amazing pickleball and showed some class along the way, as Irina Tereschenko even used a challenge to review a line call she made in her favor, when the other team was out of challenges themselves. 👏
• The other main pro event, the PPA Masters held in La Quinta, California, did their best Wimbledon impression, as the courts were painted all green and players were required to wear all white. The venue looked beautiful and there seemed to be quite a few spectators on hand for the event. The PPA Masters also included a celebrity pro-am, which likely will help bring further awareness to the sport of pickleball with the celebrities' social media reach and influence. 😎
• Congratulations to the 2021 Pickleball Hall of Fame inductees, and thank you for all you have done to help grow the sport of pickleball 🙌:
  • Keith Bisel
  • Steve Wong
  • Gigi LeMaster
  • Yvonne Hackenberg

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#9. RULES REFRESH - QUICK SERVE PROBLEMS?

Have you ever been quick served on the pickleball court by your opponents, so that the serve felt as if it was already on your side of court before you were ready? Fortunately, this should not happen too often, as the rules of pickleball provide that the score in any pickleball game should not be called until both the server and the receiver are (or should be) in the correct positions and all players on the pickleball court are (or should be) ready to play.

To help indicate that you are “not ready” for the score to be called or to prevent the quick server from serving the pickleball before you are ready, either (1) raise your pickleball paddle, or non-paddle hand 🤚, above your head, or (2) completely turn your back to the net. However, be aware that any “not ready” signals will be ignored if they are triggered after the start of the score being called.

If the quick server intentionally continues to quick serve you, then:

• For recreational settings, either (a) up your own readiness and anticipate the serve immediately when the server touches the pickleball, or (b) avoid situations where you are on the pickleball court with the quick server.
• For tournament or other organized competition settings, either (a) up your own readiness and anticipate the serve immediately when the server touches the pickleball, or (b) consider requesting a referee or the tournament director/organizer to help resolve the dispute.

For a deeper breakdown on all of the rules of pickleball, check out Pickler's Ultimate Guide to the Rules of Pickleball.

Have you had an interesting rules issue on the pickleball court? Send it to us at stacie@thepickler.com, so we can share with the rest of the pickleball community in a future newsletter.

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#10. MIXED DOUBLES IN PICKLEBALL: BALL HOG OR GOOD STRATEGY?

When a mixed doubles pickleball match 👫 is going on, we often hear bystanders ask why the male partner is coming over and "taking" the female partner's shots. As an unknowing bystander, it can be easy to think that the male partner is being a “ball hog." However, this actually is not the case. In fact, this is good pickleball strategy. Click here to learn why now!

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#11. LESSONS FROM THE PICKLEBALL COURT

Life lessons come from all places - even unexpected places, like the pickleball court.

Have you ever had a partner that gets angry or belittles you after you make a mistake? Maybe this partner even rolls his or her eyes, or is overly critical and coaching you on every shot to the point that you feel nervous and out of your element? This may not be the best pathway to success on the pickleball court...

​Click here to learn why positivity is the best way to get the best pickleball play out of your partner in doubles pickleball. 👏

Bottom line: Positivity breeds positivity!

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HELP YOUR PARTNER OUT!

Know someone that could benefit from a few pickleball tips? Maybe you'd like your pickleball partner to learn to play better pickleball? If so, share this newsletter! We provide this newsletter for free and rely on word-of-mouth to grow our audience, and we've made sharing easy!

Plus, if you serve up referrals, we will send some awesome rewards your way! For just 3 referrals, you will earn a $10 gift card to Pickler's shop, for 20 referrals, you will earn a $50 gift card to our friends over at Fromuth Pickleball, and, for 30 referrals, you will earn access to Pickler's pickleball video lesson collection (value of $134.95)!

Just be sure to use your unique referral link below:

Also, don't forget to follow us on all of your favorite social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

BALL'S IN YOUR COURT...

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