It was a busy day at The Centre with 6 courts running and 3 players waiting to rotate in. Winter mode has arrived. As I looked around at the group playing I didn't see too many full season snow birds so I am anticipating that the weekday drop-ins will be popular, especially on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The 11:00 AM reserved court session had 2 courts in use. The 1:00 PM session was empty. I was very happy to see a couple players that normally play in private groups attending giving drop-in a try. When queried at the end they indicated they enjoyed the session and we may see them again. Many thanks to all the regular drop-ins that are able to provide a fun yet competitive environment where folks feel welcome. You guys are truly the best! By the way - the pickleball was really good also. I am impressed with the improvement that so many have made. I was able to witness many entertaining rallies. Three-two-one let's blast off to the Pickleverse!

1. Strike Wipes - Yesterday the deluge of items I bought on Black Friday/Cyber Monday began to show up on my doorstep. The first item I received was the paddle wipes I mentioned in the last Pickle Jar. There is a photo of a package of them attached to the blog. After typing the alphabet soup of ingredients I asked Google to list other products that contained the 3 main components. What popped up in the results were facial and other body area cleaning wipes for the most part. The biggest difference was that the paddle wipes did not contain aloe or moisturizing oils. I used a couple today to wipe down a couple of my paddles. Since I have been playing inside, the paddle faces don't get as dirty as they did out at Bernel so I can't attest if it did any deep cleaning that was not visible to my vision. The wipes didn't eat away at either of the carbon fiber paddles so at this time the best I can say is they could be useful but it will be Spring before I can get a full test. In the meantime I left 3 packets at The Centre. They can be found in the storage area of the paddle rack where the portal bungees are. Check them out and let me know what you think.

2. Dinking In The New Year - The DITNY Tournament is beginning to flesh out. A number of our local players have already entered. If you are looking for a good tournament to get your feet wet, Donna runs a great event.  Depending on some carpal tunnel work I may even enter.  Here is a web link where you can look at the event and see what is set so far:  https://app.pickleballden.com/external-tournament/3241865

3. C3 Sports - C3 Sports will be offline on Friday.  The SignUpGenius has been adjusted to reflect that.

4. Tag Sale - A couple of players have asked me to advertise pickleball items (paddles and shoes) they would like to sell. I think I may have a better idea to help them out than publishing it in the Pickle Jar. Give me a couple days and I will notify you on how to check the items out.

5. Tip Of The Week - With all of you getting so much better I have had to raise my game. Besides a new knee and lens in my eyes I am working to improve my speed ups. A speed up shot is usually an attacking shot when you have been in a dinking rally and you get a dead dink that bounces just a bit higher. The shot is one of the few times that you stray from the swing from the shoulder only. To make this shot effective you bring the wrist into play. It is essentially a min-topspin shot. It starts like most of you shots should wil a good solid athletic stance. To make this work it is best to hit the ball just out in front of you. FYI I almost always do this with an open stance where I am facing the net. I have noticed that even at the baseline I have almost totally abandoned my old tennis closed stance especially on the forehand side. So now that you have yourself set and the ball sighted in you want to make your contact point just south of the equator of the ball. Here comes the tricky part. Instead of swinging up just with your shoulder you roll your paddle up over the ball towards the North Pole with a flicking motion of the wrist. Start slow with this and gradually build up speed. If you can do this off of a volley, even better. The goal is the catch your opennet off guard with the change of pace. When starting out with trying this shot go for the middle since the net is 2 inches lower there. Depending on how much "sauce" you put on it the ball should land behind your opponents. As this becomes easier for you, you can try to chicken wing the person across from you or other options. When you can do backhand down the lines with this, you will be a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully my explanation makes sense. If you see me at the courts and want to do a little mini drill with me let me know.
   
   

That's it for the week. I hope to see you on the courts soon. Stay warm. Forty degree days are headed our way soon. Below are the indoor drop-in sign ups for The Centre and the drop-in and reserved courts for C3 Sports.

The Centre:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-53816407-nvsc

C3 Sports:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-53816429-c3pickleball

Randy Hoffman

Holbrook PIckleball Ambassador

https://holbrookpickleball.com/

Discount Code = RANDYHOFFMAN20