And just like that, March sneaks into the picture.  A friend posted some photos recently of a couple of early Spring flowers already popping out.  March can be such a cruel month though.  It will throw a few nice days at you and then crush you with ice, wet heavy snow, and winds that are like icy razor blades.  We have pickleball to buoy us through those challenges and with more courts and more sessions than ever before we shall endeavor to persevere.  Does anyone recognize the movie quote in that last sentence?  OK the US put a ship back on the moon so let's take that cue and explore the Pickleverse.

1.     Chris S. has been hard at work creating a website (thank you Chris) that will provide information and links to all things pickleball in Centre County and perhaps the surrounding area.  Part of that will be the Pickle Jar.  So if you BOOKMARK the web address I will give you in a moment you can just open it and find the current SignUpGenious links instead of having to search back through your email to find the current Pickle Jar.  With that in mind please consider checking out this link and bookmarking it:  https://www.centrepickleball.org/

2.     C3 Sports:  On Wednesday C3 will have some of their courts offline.  The SignUpGenius has been adjusted to reflect that.

3.     The Centre:  I checked the schedule for the coming week and Friday night is the only night with evening pickleball.  There is a 6:30 to 8:00 PM and 8:00 to 9:30 PM session.  With the students heading out for Spring break, it may be a good evening for dinks and drinks.

4.     The Centre:  Just a heads up that private court rentals are becoming more popular so once you have a group don't hesitate to make your reservation.  As a follow-up to that, if you can't use that reservation, call The Centre and advise them so the court can go back online for rental.

5.     The Centre:  Ray ordered and received 3 dozen Penn 26 balls.  My one request, if you are drilling on the wall behind courts 1 - 4, use an orange, yellow, or blue ball.  If we lose one to the void behind that wall, better one of our training balls than one of the game balls.

6.     Tip Of The Week:  The 2 of 3 philosophy.  If you think of your side of the pickleball court in doubles you have 2 people trying to defend 3 sections of the court, 2 sidelines, and the center.  What partners need to do is determine what are the two most effective sections to defend.  Very often that can be determined by where the ball is going to come from.  If the ball is coming from your left side of the court your best position is usually guarding the left sideline and the center.  You give up the right side of the court but that is a much more difficult shot for your opponent to hit.  If the ball goes to your right, as a team you slide right with one watching the sideline and the other covering the middle.  The key is to be like water.  If we are partners and I am on the odd (left) side and get pulled wide left, my partner needs to flow to fill some of the void.  If I dink back cross-court, my partner needs to slide to the even (right) side to protect the sideline and I need the flow into the center void to protect it.   Give it try this coming week if you are playing and see if you can pick off some easy putaways or force your opponent into errors trying the more difficult shot.

7.     Pickleball 101:  I will post the sign-up for Pickle Ball 101 in a day or two.  It will be March 12th from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM at The Centre.

8.     Video (Maybe):  I invested in a label mic and will be trying my hand at creating some short videos of the drills and games I have been using in the beta sessions of Pickleball 201.  This could get interesting.

Time to wrap it up for the night.  Have a safe weekend and I hope to see you on the courts soon.

C3 Sports:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-48156874-c3pickleball

The Centre:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-48156867-nvsc

Randy Hoffman

Holbrook PIckleball Ambassador

https://holbrookpickleball.com/

Discount Code = RANDY20