Everyone have their sunburns treated and now have remembered to carry sunscreen in their bag?  Pretty good week for outdoor pickleball (and bike rides)!  By the way, if you ever taught English, composition, grammar or such, Grammarly would probably suggest I apologize for my assault on composition standards.  I do humbly apologize but I ain't gonna change.  Let's explore the Pickleverse.

1. Free Pickleball Session at The Centre:  As you may remember, the video shoot was cancelled but The Centre opted to keep the free session in place to say thanks to those that volunteered via the sign-up.  I just looked and there is one space remaining.  If you want to grab that one spot, the link for the sign-up is below.  We will only have the 4 courts in the small gym and up to 20 players so we will use the usual 2 out/2 in rotation we use in drop-in during the weekdays.  If you can't make this session, please delete your sign-up so someone else has an opportunity to jump in.  If you cannot figure out how to delete your sign-up, email me and I will handle that.  The Centre is hoping to reschedule the video shoot for sometime in June.

2. Pickleball 101:  I will be holding a Pickleball 101 Session on May 14 (Tuesday) from 1:00 to. 3:00 PM at the Centre.  This will be the last one until October.  I will post the sign-up for this session later in the week.

3. Possible Paddle Donation Request:  I am assisting with instructing pickleball at a Bellefonte High School Community Ed program.  I try not to be a paddle snob but what the school has for paddles is S-A-D!  I mean I'm talking about one piece molded plastic.  I have to determine the proper protocol for making this happen at the school end, but I would like to collect some decent paddles, I will re-grip them and then donate them to the school for Comm Ed sessions and for high school gym classes.  What I need to know is if there are paddles out there to be had.  Message me via email, TeamReach, or in person if you have a decent paddle you would be willing to pass along.  I AM NOT collecting just yet, once I determine I have the paddles to work with I will formalize the donation with the school and then make it happen.

4. Bernel Road Park:  One natural element often made itself known this past week at Bernel - the wind. The guideline I like to keep in mind when I look at weather reports is if the wind speed is 0 - 5 mph, the impact is minimal.  Should winds pick up and range in the 6 - 10 mph range, you will see some effect on the flight of balls that are hit higher and nudge that down the line shot in or out depending on direction so you may want to calculate that into how tight you shoot for a shot.  When the winds jump to 11 mph and over, the fun does begin.  You need to take note as to the direction and modify your shot based on whether you are hitting into the wind or if it is at your back.  And if the ball gets elevated as in a lob or a mis-hit, strange and amazing things can happen so be ready for anything.  BTW if you can side spin your serve and the spin carries with the crosswind, you can drive your opponent bonkers.

5. Great Cycle Challenge 2024:  For those new to the Pickle Jar and me, for the past 6 years I have participated in a month-long charity called the Great Cycle Challenge to raise money to research and prayerfully defeat pediatric cancer.  In the month of September I will attempt to ride 400 miles and raise $1258.00.  The reason for the odd target for the money raised is that is the amount I need to collect to achieve a 7 year total of $10,000 in fundraising.  The first year I did this, I never dreamed I could ever accomplish anything close to this, especially with the pandemic and dealing with the pre-surgery bum knee last year.  A very large part of the success I have had comes from the wonderful donations I have received from my pickleball friends.  It is humbling to watch so many people open their hearts and wallets to support this cause.  No amount is too small, every dollar gets us closer to a child being cancer free because of research funded by this charity.  This is the link to my page where you can learn more about the rides, monitor my progress and if you wish, make a donation.  Randy's Great Cycle Challenge page:   https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/RandyHoffman

6. Tip Of The Week:  When partnering with a Karen (man do we have a bunch of them - in a nice way) we worked on having her take more volley shots when we were up at the NVZ (aka The Kitchen) because our opponents were pressing hard on her with forcing her to take a step or two back to play a dink off of the bounce.  Whether if on a serve or a dink or a drive, if I see I am coercing an opponent into having to step back, I feel that I have gained the upper hand.  When you are moving backwards it is harder to generate an offensive shot and  you are usually left with a defensive or at least neutral shot where you hope for the best.  Taking the ball out of the air (a volley) serves a couple of positives for you.  First you are keeping your weight forward and leaving you in a better balance position for going on the offensive.  Secondly if you volley ball back your opponent has much less time to watch and analyze what you might be up to.  The fatal flaw of this occurs when you elevate your shot into their "Hulk smash" zone.  I keep a stack of Solo cups in my bag that I use in Pickleball 201 that I use for playing a game I call Defending the Tower.  The cups (I usually use 3) are lined up at varying intervals a few inches inside the kitchen line.  Two players then start a dinking game directly across from each other and dink back and forth trying to outlast each other if a player hits a dink into the net or out of bounds (trying to keep the ball in the kitchen on your half of the court) the lose that point.  The interesting part is if you hit one of your opponent's Solo cup (a tower) you get 3 points.  To the defend a tower you may have to volley your kitchen shot and make sure it lands over into your opponent's kitchen.  You can play what ever number sounds good to you.  BTW - when Karen started to playing the ball instead of letting the ball play her, the tide started to turn our way more.  We lost but we were competitive.

Be it inside or be it outside, I hope to see you on the court soon.  Have a great week!

Free Saturday Session:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-49358650-free#/

C3 Sports:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-49503417-c3pickleball

The Centre:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-49503426-nvsc

Randy Hoffman

Holbrook PIckleball Ambassador

https://holbrookpickleball.com/

Discount Code = RANDYHOFFMAN20