The Pickle Jar
July 7 - 11
Welcome to an early edition of the Pickle Jar. I will be traveling for the holiday weekend so I wanted to get this out early. With the kid now set up in her own abode in Drexel Hill we lost our dog sitter so we had to research and find a new kennel since our favorite is booked for the holiday weekend and often booked up for the summer by February. We toured the place last week and I saw what may have been a sign that this could be Sadie's new weekend resort, they had a pickleball net at the side of the building. Have to be good people right? Dropped Sadie off today and it was like the first time we sent Natasha to overnight camp. With laundry to do and packing to start let's blast off to the Pickleverse!
Congratulations Part 1 - Congratulations to our Court Reporter, Mark B. for his silver medal showing at the Summer Showdown at Lehigh Valley in men's singles (that is full court, not skinny singles gang) in the 3.0 bracket, ages 50 and over. Well done sir, well done. A podium photo can be found here.
Congratulations Part 2 - Congratulations to Amy J. and Kyle K. for grabbing the silver medal in the Summer Showdown at Lehigh Valley in mixed doubles, in the 3.0 bracket, open age group. A podium photo is also here.
Portage Park Pickleball Tournament - Tuesday the 8th is the final day to register if you want to play in this tournament which is next weekend. A flyer can be found here.
One Day Fun Day Tournament - This is a mixed doubles tournament in Tyrone on August 2nd. This tournament is not only for individual glory but can also be for team glory. The Bernel Briners are the defending champs. Blair County and Tyrone will be working hard to take our trophy away. We have a couple good "high intermediate" teams (3.5 - 4.0) entered or about to but what we need to do is flood the low intermediate group (2.5 - 3.49) which is where a great number of our readers would fall into. It is a fun day of play and with the team format you have your teammates cheering you on. We need some more teams to qualify for the team challenge so give it some thought. If you are unsure what level to enter I can probably give some reasonable advice. A flyer with information is here.
Johnstown YMCA Dogwood Tournament - If you prefer to play same gender doubles on August 2nd then you can register to play at the Dogwood Tournament in Johnstown. On Sunday, August 3rd, there will be mixed doubles. A flyer can be found here.
Just Announced Tournaments - I just got word about 2 other tournaments. I don't have flyers yet but I can give you some details for your planning: August 16 and 17 @ Friendsville, MD a round robin format (guaranteed 5 games, the usual skill levels in men's, women's. and mixed. Age groups will start at 49 and under and 50 and over but may be flexed depending on registrations. Registration is $20 plus $10 per event. The first 50 registrants get a pickleball key chain. Medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Here is a link for more information and how to register: Friendsville Pickleball Tournament
Just Announced Part 2 - October 11 and 12 at Westmont High School to benefit the Grove and Walk of Hope cancer mission. The event will be managed through Pickleball Den and when a link is set up for that event I will list it. It will be a DUPR event so the matches will be imported into DUPR.
Tip Of The Week - I recently read an article about what to do when your partner refuses to come up to the NVZ line. I have played with experienced players and novices that are hesitant or have decided that they do not want to be just over 7 feet away from the net when the balls start banging. This may be more true now as players and the paddles they use have made the game speed up. Perhaps vision issues or slowing reflexes have pushed a player to move back or to stay back. I have always been the "you be you" way of thinking so what I need to do is adapt my play to make our team stronger. Me being at the NVZ and my partner being back by the baseline or deep in the transition zone will open up attack alleys for our opponents so I have to think about how to counter that. I'm not the speediest guy so I can't camp out at the baseline with my partner so I will cheat in a few steps to be able to go after the shorter balls. I will probably poach a lot more than I normally do. The type of game our opponents play will have an impact on what we need to do. The bottom line, I'm going to accept what my partner is comfortable with and adapt. A key is that I communicate with my partner and we have a plan.
Have a great holiday weekend and I hope to see you on the courts next week. Below are the SignUpGenius links for indoor play.
The Centre: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-57459226-nvsc
C3 Sports: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-57459218-c3pickleball
Randy Hoffman