Top points and matches of 2024!

You won't see better pickleball than this

December 26, 2024

We hope the 76% of you who told us in last week’s poll that you were playing pickleball on Christmas won all of your games and even pulled off a few Ernes and ATPs just for fun.

The pickleball community has been extra fun this year. Just look at the creative seasonal decor a few folks shared in our Facebook group:

Looking ahead to 2025: we’ll have more giveaways, tips & tricks, and more exciting pickleball coverage for you than ever before.

Thank you for reading and being a part of the best pickleball community around.

In this issue:

  • 2024’s best points AND matches

  • Pro pickleball’s biggest year yet

  • RULE CHANGES you need to memorize for 2025

Let’s cook. 🧑‍🍳

GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY — TEN brand new JOOLA 3S paddles of your choice!

We are excited to partner with JOOLA to give away TEN of their 3S pickleball paddles. Some of our favorites on the market.

THIS IS A NEWSLETTER ONLY GIVEAWAY… so CLICK HERE and follow the steps to enter! 

BONUS MULTIPLIER: INVITE 5 friends to this newsletter to earn additional bonus entries!

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

Our picks: the best points of 2024

We may not be pros ourselves (yet), but we watched a lot of pickleball in 2024, and we have some convincing picks for the best points played in each division:

  • Best Mixed Doubles Point: Thomas Wilson, we miss you, get well soon! The world needs more dynamic points like this.

  • Best Men’s Doubles Point: Our jaws dropped to the floor at the array of shots demonstrated here. Our most viral point of the year.

  • Best Women’s Doubles Point: Allyce Jones & Tyra Black didn’t win this point against CP/ALW … but they kept them off-balance for most of it; a real masterclass in moving the ball around.

  • Best Women’s Singles Point: ALW’s most underrated skill of MANY skills? Her scrambling ability.

  • Best Men’s Singles Point: It was Federico Staksrud’s year in singles…but Connor Garnett got the best of him in this stunning moment.

  • Honorable Mention: The pros in all white? You know it’s gonna be good.

Want something to watch on your holiday break? Find our Best Matches of 2024 by scrolling below 👇️ 

POLL

🔍️ What are your pickleball-themed New Year's resolutions?

Hit “reply” to this email to share your thoughts.

INSTRUCTION

Why you should consider lobbing tall players

We know, we know — that sounds like a crazy idea. But there’s some sound logic behind it.

If tall players are using their height to their advantage, they will be leaning forward, looking to take every ball out of the air when dinking. Friend of The Kitchen and pro player Roscoe Bellamy, who is 6-foot-5, recently gave a good demo of how this looks.

In the clip, Bellamy has a wide base, his weight on the balls of his feet, his butt back, & he’s leaning forward with his upper body. It’s what he should be doing.

BUT there are a couple downsides to this:

  1. It’s hard to jump from this position.

  2. It’s hard to move backward quickly from this position without great footwork.

And those are two things tall people generally are not good at to start with.

Think about a center in basketball: In most cases, they don’t have explosive jumping ability and they also don’t have great footwork (relative to their shorter, quicker counterparts).

So go ahead, give it a try. Throw that sucker up there & watch it sail over their head before they have time to gather themselves and jump up for an overhead.

Then tell them The Kitchen sent you.

Important note: If you’re playing a tall opponent who also happens to be very athletic, like Bellamy or this guy, then forget everything we just said.

FEATURED STORY

The best pro matches of 2024

Each year, the level of play in pro pickleball seems to make a significant jump. That proved to be the case again in 2024, as we saw exciting matches nearly every week on the PPA Tour and in Major League Pickleball.

  • The men’s divisions were defined by unprecedented parity as the Johns brothers were challenged like never before and new faces emerged to vie for the top spot in both doubles and singles.

  • On the women’s side, Anna Leigh Waters continued her multi-year run of dominance, but the gap closed significantly in women’s doubles in the last half of the year.

These dynamics made for some amazing matches, and with the year coming to a close, we looked back at a handful of the best ones we saw in 2024.

Here were a couple of our favorites:

  • Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau vs. Anna Bright/Rachel Rohrabacher at the Rate Championships in Las Vegas. Watch here.

  • Dallas Flash vs. New Jersey 5s – Premier Final, Match 3 in Orlando. Watch here.

PADDLE(S) OF THE WEEK

Play with a paddle preferred by top pros

The JOOLA 3S has become the paddle of choice for several top pros during the second half of 2024. Top men’s doubles player Ben Johns and top men’s singles player Federico Staksrud both use the Perseus 3S model, while Collin Johns and Anna Bright choose the Scorpeus 3S. And then there’s Tyson McGuffin, who looks to the Magnus 3S to get the most out of his “Ferrari forehand.”

Pickleball Central also just exclusively released new “Chroma” colorways in the Perseus and Hyperion models!

Pro pickleball advanced more in 2024 than we’ve ever seen — more than many thought possible.

→ Over 1 billion minutes of pro pickleball watched in 2024
→ $260,000 = average salary for women players, making it the most lucrative sport for women
→ One PPA Tour stop drew an audience of 501,000, outpacing even the MLS Cup final

🔗 More stunning facts about pro pickle’s growth

DON’T MISS THIS

Rule updates about to take effect

The 2025 USA Pickleball Rulebook has landed, and it’s time to unpack the changes that will shape the way we play on the court next year.

Here are the most notable changes you need to know about:

No more spectator line calls. Spectator input has no official value anymore (at least not in formal settings). The wording shifts from “should not be consulted” to “shall not be consulted,” eliminating any gray areas. This means players can neither ask for nor accept line call input from bystanders, closing the door on distractions & potential drama.

Rally scoring’s provisional debut. The format made popular by Major League Pickleball was provisionally introduced for doubles in the newest USAP rulebook. However, traditional side-out scoring remains the official format for most tournaments.

Clarifying the volley. The updated rules redefine when a volley begins and ends to eliminate confusion around partner interactions. Now, the volley starts when the ball is struck in the air and ends when the player’s momentum stops. Partners can’t touch each other during a volley if one is in the kitchen.

🔗There are a few more rule changes you should know. See all of them.

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