We’ve all heard it repeated at our local open play sessions: The middle ball belongs to the player hitting a forehand.

But is that actually the best course of action? Are there cases where players should be looking to hit a backhand on a middle ball?

In today’s newsletter, we’re tackling this common misconception and outlining the instances where it’s OK (even recommended) to break this “rule.” Learn more below.

In this issue:

• The funniest pickleball clip you’ll see today 🤣

• FLiK Pickleball putting players first 🫡

• MLP Quarterfinals start TOMORROW 🏆

• Proton’s latest innovation: Project Coyote 🐺

Let’s cook! 👨🏻‍🍳

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Now this is great court awareness

Today’s highlight is one of the funniest clips we’ve seen in a while.

You might notice in the screen grab above that there are three players on the far side of the net. That’s because the player who is off to the side of the court had to track down a tricky drop shot and couldn’t stop his momentum in time, so he just kept running onto his opponents’ side of the court.

A split second later, he was getting tagged with the ball. If only we could all have the court awareness required to pull off this legendary move.

🔗 Check out this week’s highlight on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok

FEATURED STORY

FLiK Pickleball putting players first as company sees rapid growth

Fred Robinson’s business philosophy is very simple: If you make a good product that actually helps the people you’re trying to help, the money part will take care of itself.

That was the driving force behind Robinson’s first sports equipment company – Body Helix.

As a high-level tennis player who had battled through his share of injuries, Robinson noticed that the compression products being marketed toward athletes simply weren’t providing a benefit to those athletes.

So he teamed up with Dr. Tom Parker to create high-quality compression wear that didn’t cut corners. Body Helix is now trusted by thousands of athletes across a wide range of sports.

Robinson, Parker and COO Joann Nicodemus took the same approach when they started making pickleball paddles, first under the Body Helix brand and now under FLiK Pickleball, which they spun off into its own brand earlier this year.

DIFFERENT PADDLES FOR DIFFERENT PLAYERS

FLiK currently has two paddles that are very popular among players of all levels.

FLiK F1: The F1 was released in 2025 and is one of the most powerful paddles on the market. It features a “Gen 4” EPP foam core, and the elongated model is relatively light compared to most elongated paddles (it has a swingweight of ~114).

FLiK F3: For players who want to play a more rounded style and prioritize precise placement, FLiK earlier this year released the F3, which is constructed using a triple-layer foam core. The paddle uses three different types of foam – high density, mid density and low density – and those layers work together to produce a reliable response across the face.

🔗 Learn more about FLiK Pickleball here and shop all FLiK paddles here — use code “KITCHEN” for 10% off!

THE PROS

Major League Pickleball Playoffs: Quarterfinal matchups, analysis and schedule

We’ve reached the second weekend of the Major League Pickleball Playoffs, and there are eight teams remaining.

One of the most interesting wrinkles of MLP is that the higher seeds get to select their opponents in the playoffs, and the top teams were faced with some difficult decisions ahead of this round. Below we’ll break down each matchup and dive into why teams might have made the decisions they did.

MLP QUARTERFINALS FORMAT

• Best-of-three match series.

• Series winners advance to the semifinals in New York later this month and are re-seeded based on regular season standings points.

Quarterfinal matches start at 2 p.m. PT Friday from the Tennis and Pickleball Club in Newport Beach, California.

QUARTERFINAL MATCHUPS

No. 1 New Jersey 5s vs. No. 7 Palm Beach Royals: This is a tough matchup for the Royals, who have relied on the strength of their women’s doubles team (Tina Pisnik/Sofia Sewing) throughout the season. There are only three women’s doubles teams in the league that have a better winning percentage than Pisnik/Sewing. Unfortunately for Palm Beach, one of those teams is New Jersey’s Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson.

No. 2 St. Louis Shock vs. No. 8 Texas Ranchers: This was likely a pretty easy decision for the Shock. They’ve played the Ranchers three times this season and won all three matches handily (4-0 on May 23, 3-1 on June 17 and 3-0 on July 11).

No. 3 Los Angeles Mad Drops vs. No. 6 Dallas Flash: The Mad Drops could have opted to play Brooklyn, who they are 3-0 against this season. Instead they chose to play Dallas, who they are 1-1 against in 2026, with the Flash winning the most recent matchup on July 18 in a Dreambreaker.

No. 4 Columbus vs. No. 5 Brooklyn: Columbus didn’t have their choice of opponent because Brooklyn was the only team left. The Sliders have arguably the strongest roster on paper, but to this point they haven’t played up to that potential. That said, we learned a valuable lesson in the MLP Postseason last year: Bet against Playoff Andrei Daescu at your own risk.

🔗 Check out our full preview of the MLP Quarterfinals

INSTRUCTION

3 big myths holding your pickleball game back — Part 2

Last week Coach Tony Roig helped us debunk the widely held belief that you are supposed to move with your partner on the pickleball court. If you missed it, here is the article breaking down several instances where that’s actually bad advice.

In Part 2 of Tony’s series tackling common myths that are repeated at rec courts across the country, he’s discussing the middle ball. Specifically, whether the middle ball always belongs to the player hitting a forehand.

WHY NOT A BACKHAND?

The Forehand Middle rule assumes the forehand is always the stronger wing. It isn’t. We guesstimate that more than 25% of players are actually stronger on their backhand side. Think about the group you play in. We’re betting that you can think of at least one player who prefers to take shots with their backhand.

The best men’s doubles player is Ben Johns. What is Ben Johns’ most potent weapon? It’s his backhand roll. He has even said that his strategy is to dink until you give him a ball that he can attack from the backhand wing. Forehand Middle is built on the idea that the forehand is always the stronger wing, and that premise is flawed.

DOES OUR COURT POSITION MATTER?

Consider a team with two right-handed players. Player A is on the left side, making their way through the transition zone. Player B, on the right side, is already up at the kitchen line. The shot coming toward the team is traveling through the middle. The team has to choose between:

• Player B can volley the ball back from the kitchen line, albeit with their backhand.

• Player B can let the ball through so that Player A takes it from the transition zone, alas with their forehand.

We think it’s usually better for the team if Player B volleys the middle shot from up at the kitchen line than if the ball is allowed to travel back to Player A in the transition zone. Forehand vs. backhand is, at best, secondary in this fairly common situation.

🔗 Learn more about why Forehand Middle isn’t always the best plan

GEAR

Proton Project Coyote now available for pre-order

Proton turned heads last week when it announced that the brand’s latest paddle — Project Coyote — was officially available for pre-order.

Here’s what we know about it:

Foam-reinforced perimeter: Adds stability around the paddle face while helping create a larger and more forgiving sweet spot.

Polypropylene honeycomb core: Provides a familiar combination of control, responsiveness and dependable power.

Consistent response: Designed to maintain stability and deliver predictable performance, even on off-center contact.

Balanced performance: Built to support soft resets, controlled dinks, powerful drives, and quick exchanges at the kitchen line

Great value: This paddle is available for $195, which is a significantly lower price point than previous Proton releases.

🔗 Shop the Proton Project Coyote here

QUICK HITS

• Legend: Anna Leigh is sometimes down but never out

• IQ Level 1,000: Now this is a smart play

• Woah: This basketball legend’s daughter can ball

• Crazy: We’re not sure if this is luck or skill