The Pickle Jar
October 6 - 10
The body is an interesting structure. In pickleball I am able to get to get into the flow of movement and reactions within the first game but then comes the witching half hour after 90 minutes of play when it feels like I'm wearing a weighted jacket. In biking, when I start I'm grumbling to myself what's wrong with me, don't I have grass to mow. After about 5 miles things start to click and I start to feel like Forrest Gump when the braces broke away from his leg's and the rest of the 3 or 4 hours are bliss. Maybe the endorphins just kick in faster in pickleball. Let's kick start this rocket's engines and head off to the Pickleverse.
Dink For Pink (Johnstown) - The brackets are beginning to fill up a bit more but there is still room in all the brackets for more teams. October 13 is the deadline to register; however, they are probably getting close to the deadline to register and still get a tee shirt. From playing a couple of tournaments with this group of organizers, I have found them to provide decent quality tee shirts. Here is link to register and more information: Dink For Pink Johnstown
The Buzz - So the buzz around the courts are new ones that will soon be available at Tussey. I don't have details yet but I did reach out to them and they are excited to provide information to the Pickle Jar. So hopefully I will be able to share details soon. I saw a couple of photos of them and there are 5 outdoor courts and they look really nice. My GUESS, is that they will be pay to play. Whether it will be a membership, drop-in fees or a combination time will tell.
Bernel Road Park - On Monday there were 31 players at Bernel. Twenty seven drop-ins and a group of 4 that wanted to play just within their group. The paddle saddle went into effect when we had 5 players waiting to play and it went smoothly. Tuesday we had a similar situation will about 28 drop-ins and a group and it also went well. As the early birds departed and the numbers dropped we got down to a point were the group could play and we only had 2 waiting to rotate in. Everyone seemed to get their share of pickleball. If you are new to Bernel and never had to use a paddle saddle just ask one of our seasoned veterans.
CRPR Pickleball Class - I had fun helping with Bo and Drew and some others at Bernel with a beginners pickleball class. CRPR registered 26 students but due to no-shows there were perhaps 21. So you may see some new faces at the courts, please make them feel welcome and help them develop their game as those that helped you develop yours. At the end I was talking to a small group when one asked, "Are you the guy from the magazine" (the article). Kind of caught me off guard. She liked the article - so Diane (the author), if you are reading this, thank you for spreading pickleball love.
Proposed Rule Changes - The window to propose rule changes closed in June so I thought I would take a look at some players had suggested. Keep in mind usually there are only a few changes that adopted after the rules committee evaluates them. One popular one was an attempt to make the volley serve easier to judge if a violation as to motion has occurred. One proposal even suggested banning it and nothing but drop (bounce) serves be allowed. If you like, you can take a look to see some others: Proposed Rule Changes
Big Thank You - I want to express my appreciation to everyone that donated to my fundraising to combat pediatric cancer through the month of September. I rode a personal best of 516 miles but more importantly, in large part thanks to my wonderful pickleball friends, raised a personal record of $3301.00 with one or more donations expected to be coming in soon and a 8 year total of $15,240.24. As group the Great Cycle Challenge raised over 6 million dollars and rode over 1 million miles. Thanks again to everyone for your donations and encouragement. But if I say I'm riding 500 miles again next year, someone slap me. Randy's Final (?) Stats
Tip Of The Week - OK, it's been a couple weeks but then I haven't been around to much. One of the things I was seeing several times this week was players bending at the waist to hit a low ball to such a degree that if you are keeping your eye on the ball, all you were seeing was the ball and the court. In a sense you are hitting blind and often the ball elevates and allows an opponent to make and aggressive return shot. While it is critical to track the ball to your paddle being able to bend more at the knees, drop the bottom, widen the stance will give you a good look at the ball but give you what could be called "second sight". While you focus is on the ball you can still detect motion like someone sneaking over to the middle to try a poach. So if this is an issue for you work on a better addressing of the ball.
That's all folks. Have a great week and I hope to see you on the court soon. Sign-ups for indoor play are below.
C3 Sports: Indoor Play At C3 Sports
The Centre: Indoor Play At The Centre
Randy Hoffman