September 2024 Issue 7

Shari's Tip:

Using Other Sports to Help with Pickleball

Many people come to pickleball from other sports. I say don’t fight it, use it. Of course, those that come from racquet sports have lots of skills that transfer over to pickleball. Mainly eye hand coordination and racquet to ball connection.

Any golfers out there? I took a lesson many years ago. The thing that stuck with me that I apply to pickleball is that I was told to not hit the but to hit through the ball. That is what I think when I hit the ball and that is what I teach my students. Don’t think about hitting the ball. Think about hitting through the ball as if there are 3 balls and you need to make contact with all 3.

How about baseball or softball players.  I gave a lesson to a friend who played varsity softball. She was missing the pickleball with careless swings. She was not in the right place with her footwork to make the right shot. As soon as I had her make the connection of the softball glove to the paddle things changed. She got ready sooner with her anticipation so her body and paddle were in the right place when the ball came over the net. She also got her paddle down for those low balls remembering what her coach said about having the glove low so that softballs won’t go through your legs.  

Do you bowl or play cornhole? The swing motion will help with your serve. Bring the arm back and then swing through the ball. Make sure that you follow through just like you do when you bowl or toss the beanbag. Your arm should end high.

I have used the football analogy before. This is more a mental part of the game. Just like football teams have an offensive and defensive team that have totally different goals so should you and your partner. Be offensive when you are the serving team. Your goal is to score points. The other team cannot score while you are serving so go for it. When you are the receiving team, you are on defense. Your job is to stop the serving team from scoring. To do that you can’t giveaway points. That means no, or at least fewer, errors.

So, use your skills from other sports to help with your pickleball game.

Paddle Drills to Improve Eye-Hand Coordination

Here's a video with great drills you can do at home to work on your eye-hand coordination. That's something you can use in almost every sport.



Click the image to play the video.

PG Pickleball Club News

Tentative Schedule for Rest of the Year

• Sept. 24: 1st day of indoor season (new daily charge $5).
• Sept. 24: begin candidate recruiting for board members.
• Oct. TBD: membership meeting.
• Oct. 24 - 31: Gym closed for early voting.
• November TBD: Club elections.
• December 14: Holiday Party.
• December: Begin 2025 member registration.

Bowie Gymnasium

There are not only shiny floors at the Bowie Gymnasium but we are excited that there are also permanent pickleball lines. Yes, the long awaited lines have finally been painted when they redid the floors this summer. The gym will be back open for pickleball starting Monday, September 23rd for open play. The open play pickleball hours will be 10am-1pm every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be rented by the PG Pickleball Club. The fee is only $10 or free for seniors that live in corporate Bowie. Come check out the new lines!

Now that the kids are back in school many of the community centers are back open for pickleball.

Several community centers have adjusted their schedules and already reopened for pickleball while others are opening in the next week or two.

Be sure to click on the schedule to download the updated schedule. Many of the Facility Directors confirmed the pickleball schedule. There are a few that I didn't hear from so I left the days they had from last year. All information on the schedule is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. It is recommended that you call before you go.

Also remember that when schools are closed or students have half days many of the community centers need to cancel pickleball for childcare programs. So be sure to call before you go.

Newsletter May Not Continue

I hope you have enjoyed receiving the newsletter over the years. I have enjoyed creating it. But the cost of the newsletter has increased several times and again just recently. It has gotten too expensive for me to put out this free newsletter to about 800 people. The time I spend doing it and the costs are making it not worth me doing. I will either be stopping the newsletter all together or dropping about 300 subscribers to get the number of people I send the newsletter to under 500. That will drop the cost significantly. Several people have already contacted me about not receiving a July or August newsletter. I was glad they noticed that I did not do one. While this is a free newsletter it is financed by Pickleball Plus. Pickleball Plus supports the pickleball community and it would be great if that was reciprocated and subscribers support PB. That would allow me to continue putting out a free newsletter each month. PB prices beat all retail prices. Guaranteed!! SO why not buy from a local, woman owned company that supports the pickleball community.

Remember to save your cracked and warped and put them in the recycling bin. If there is not one at the site where you play please contact me so we can make arrangements to get one there. Also, please be sure to only put pickleballs in the bin. No other recyclable things.

At any time you can go to pickleballtournaments.com, pickleballden.com or pickleballbrackets.com to search for tournaments by date or state. Here's some of the local ones coming up.

• Kent Island Classic  Sept. 7-8, 2024, Stevensville, MD
• Chesapeake Classic October 5-6, 2024, Millersville, MD
• APC Annual Pickleball Tournament  Sept. 27-29, 2024, Annapolis, MD
• Ocean Pines Ocktoberfest  Oct 11-13, 2024, Ocean Pines, MD
• YMCA of the Chesapeake Tournament, the 2024, Fall Brawl Oct 26-27 2024, Easton, MD
• Ocean City Fall Pickleball Tournament, Nov 2-3, 2024, Ocean City, MD

Pickleball Plus

For All Your Pickleball Needs

Turn Your Pickleball Shoes into Slip-Ons

Tired of bending down to keep tying your laces. Here's the solution. XPand laces. Two styles available. Rounds and flats. I have them in my pickleball shoes and they are great. Slip-on and slip-off. Comfortable and secure. Come in multiple colors. They work in all shoes not just pickleball. Give a call to get yours now.