I can't believe my eyes, as I write this, light from a setting sun is streaming into my "office" area.  Just in time for the holiday weekend.  While there may be some hit and miss showers on Saturday, Sunday and Monday are looking pretty nice.  For me, I am taking the opportunity to head to Maryland and do some biking on Saturday.  I hope whatever your plans are, the weather cooperates for you.  Regardless, take a moment to reflect what the nature of the holiday represents and give thanks to those that made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.  So let's get those hamsters spinning those turbines and take off for the Pickleverse.

1. Memorial Day - both The Centre and C3 Sports will be closed on Monday but the weather looks good for outdoor play.

2. Clinic Grads - safe travels to the readers of the Pickle Jar that ventured south to North Carolina for a week of intensive pickleball training.  Early reports from one attendee indicate they all had a great time and learned new skills and honed others.  I hope they don't punish us too badly when they are back on the courts with us.  There were even polar plunges in a mountain stream to aid in recovery.  I feel confident saying that each participant would be happy to share their opinion as to the value of their experience.

3. Next Step? - I have been venturing out of my comfort zone a bit and trying a couple of programs through the State College YMCA.  One is an intermediate ladder session and the other is a DUPR play session (which also employed a ladder pairing system).  A very quick explanation of a ladder is that courts are numbered 1 - "x".  Teams play one game and then the winners then split and move "up" a court.  Losers split and move "down" a court.  The concept is that this keeps players of comparable skill playing together more frequently.  The DUPR session is a group that while using the ladder format have their scores entered into the DUPR rating system.  Click for more details about DUPR.  It takes several games to get a reliable rating and I saw my rating bounce like a ping pong ball before settling on day one at a 3.144, this was after going 3 wins and 3 losses with the point differentials considered and what the rating of my opponents were.  I'm a numbers geek at times so to me this was fun.  In the fall perhaps this is something that can be added, and/or the ladder at The Centre or C3.  FYI - I have no intent of displacing open rec play.

4. Skinny Singles - one of the clinic attendees is returning as a skinny singles advocate so that might be another program we can look to add in the future.

5. Tournaments - the information sheets for some upcoming tournaments are attached.

6. Great Cycle Challenge - THANK YOU!  Thanks to many of my pickleball friends I have achieved my fundraising target of $1500 already.  Having met my goal is always a relief and it allows me to focus on preparing for riding those 500 pledged miles and then doing it.  Just because I hit my target, I would love to continue to raise more money for pediatric cancer research.  In my signature at the bottom of the blog you can click on the banner and to my fundraising page which provides you with more information of what I am doing and why I am doing it.

7. Tip Of The Week - The mental game.  On Thursday it was near the end of the drop-in and I had an 11:00 AM PT session scheduled at Energy Rehab.  I hate being late for appointments so I did not attend to play one last game but there were 3 players that needed a 4th and I did have 15 minutes.  I saw how the pairing was lining up and I figured the other team would whoop our butts pretty quickly so I opted in.  The first couple points were sort of back and forth and then I started to tell myself "Hey, we can win this thing".  Something in my head clicked and the "last half hour" tired legs disappeared, my focus on the ball was laser sharp, and I was running down shots that normally at that point in the session I would have said "maybe next time".  My partner dropped 3 defensive dinks (one on the right, one on the left, and one in the center of the kitchen) and that inspired me even more.  This scenario reminded me how important the ability to focus and be in the right frame of mind can elevate your game.  Some time ago I did a tip of the week where I mentioned using the paddle like a laser pointer to track the ball.  I have experimented with that and I am becoming a fan of that strategy.  So if you are hitting crappy some day, relax, take a breath and work on upping your focus and committing you mind to achieving your best. 

I hope you have a great holiday and week!  See you soon on the courts.

C3 Sports:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-57054009-c3pickleball

The Centre:  https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BA5AA28AB9-57054008-nvsc

Randy Hoffman

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