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Was this the best point ever?
Reviewing the new JOOLA shoe Ben Johns wears
A couple times a year there’s a pro point or match that breaks through the picklesphere and goes viral.
We were spoiled this week at MLP Orlando (the last event of the regular season), with arguably the best point in pickleball history involving the game’s two undisputed best players, and then a match between the league’s two best teams to decide the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
A true embarrassment of riches. We break down all the action below.
In this issue:
Jay Devilliers has seen it all in pickleball 🎧
Debunking pickleball myths 🤔
Win a stay at this epic pickleball house đźŹ
Reviewing the JOOLA pickleball shoe đź‘ź
Let’s cook! 👨🏻‍🍳
GIVEAWAY
Win a private pickleball getaway at AMAZING pickleball vacation home
We’ve teamed up with Kaizen Pickleball to give one lucky group a 2-night stay at the Blue Ridge Pickle Barn in the North Georgia mountains.
HOW TO ENTER
1. LIKE this post
2. TAG a few friends (every tag is a new entry!)
3. FOLLOW @kaizenpickleballclub and @thekitchenpickleball
4. SHARE this post to your stories
BONUS ENTRIES: Enter your email here for up to 500 bonus entries!
The giveaway ends Sunday, Aug. 9.
MORE ABOUT KAIZEN
The Blue Ridge Pickle Barn in Georgia is the first of several planned properties that combine luxury hospitality, active lifestyles, game improvement and meaningful social connection.
The group behind the project is currently seeking investors to help expand the concept to other locations in the U.S. Get in touch here.
Kaizen Pickleball will also have a booth at this week’s Major League Pickleball event in Dallas — stop by if you’re at the event and want to learn more!
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
We might have seen the best point in pickleball history
It’s always a notable event when Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns play against each other in Major League Pickleball. We only see the head-to-head matchup between the longtime PPA Tour partners a couple times a year, and on Saturday it lived up to the hype.
It was a close game throughout, and at 10-10 we saw arguably the best mixed-doubles point of all time. Khlif/Waters ultimately won that point (a 100+ shot rally that featured incredible resets and multiple hands battles) and clinched the game to put New Jersey in control of the match, which they went on to win.
🔗 Check out this week’s highlight on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok
PICKLEBALLERS
Jay Devilliers on watching pickleball go global
In case you missed it last week, Jay Devilliers — aka "the Flying Frenchman" — joined Pickleballers to discuss his early rise in pro pickleball and how he has managed to stay near the top of the sport for over half a decade.
It was the final episode of Season 4 of Pickleballers, and one that covers many of the players and events that shaped pro pickleball into what it is today.
They cover his longtime partnership with Pat Smith, his rivalry over the years with Ben Johns and Collin Johns, and how he's stayed relevant through injuries and the sport's rapid evolution.
đź”— Check out the full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts
THE PROS
MLP Orlando delivered incredible matches, high-stakes drama
The New Jersey 5s and St. Louis Shock came into this week’s Major League Pickleball event in Orlando tied at the top of the regular-season standings.
After both teams went undefeated in Group Play, they met Sunday in the 1 vs. 1 matchup, and the stakes couldn’t have been more black and white in the final regular-season event of the year: Win and you’re the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs, which in MLP means you get a first-round bye and get to choose your opponents in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
The 5s and Shock proceeded to deliver one of the best matches of the season in front of a packed crowd of 2,500 fans, with New Jersey ultimately winning 3-1 and claiming their fourth-straight event title.
The first mixed doubles game between Noe Khlif/Anna Leigh Waters and Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright will go down as one of the best games in league history, with multiple momentum swings and several game points for both teams. In the end Khlif/Waters outlasted Patriquin/Bright 15-13 to take a 2-1 lead in the match and set the stage for 5s newcomer Federico Staksrud to close the deal alongside Jorja Johnson.
Staksrud gave New Jersey the boost they were looking for when they traded for him, going 5-1 on the week in mixed doubles with Johnson and 3-2 with Will Howells in men’s doubles.
PLAYOFF MATCHUPS SET
In MLP, the higher seeds get to select their opponents from the lower seeds in each round of the playoffs. For the first round, the Top 4 seeds get a bye into the quarterfinals, while the No. 5-12 seeds will play a best-of-3 match series.
No. 5 seed Brooklyn had their choice of opponent. Here’s how the first-round matchups shook out:
No. 5 Brooklyn vs. No. 10 SoCal
No. 6 Dallas vs. No. 11 Las Vegas
No. 7 Palm Beach vs. No. 12 Chicago
No. 8 Texas vs. No. 9 Atlanta
Playoff matches will start Friday from Pickler Universe in Carrolton, Texas. Series winners advance to the quarterfinals in Newport Beach and are re-seeded based on regular season standings points.
We snagged the last JOOLA Rally Rocket paddles — and they can be YOURS
JOOLA has officially run out of their Rally Rocket paddles, and you can’t get them on the JOOLA website anymore. Luckily for you, we got our hands on a batch at the last minute, and we are currently selling them from our shop!
INSTRUCTION
Move with the BALL — not your partner
You'll hear a lot of pickleball advice thrown around at the rec courts. Some 3.5 players love nothing more than telling other 3.5 players how to play.
One of the biggest myths we hear constantly is that you should move with your partner. We think this is actually bad advice, and here’s why:
Let’s say you and I are partnered. You’re serving, and I’m standing behind the baseline diligently waiting for the third shot. The return is hit deep and directly at me – so the third shot is mine. I line up behind the baseline (it was a deep return after all) and hit an amazing third-shot drop towards the middle “T” spot.
Our opponent pops the ball up and you … Wait a minute? Why are you still here at the baseline with me? Oh no!!!!! You are under the “move with your partner” spell. So, naturally, you were waiting for me to move forward so you could go.
Would it not have been better for you to have moved forward ahead of me to put the pop up away? Most players would want you up there capitalizing on the amazing third-shot drop.
There are lots of situations when the “move with your partner” advice simply doesn’t work in reality. So how come when you watch the pros play it looks like they are moving together? Great question. The answer is because they are moving with the BALL.
THE BALL IS OUR NORTH STAR
If the ball is hit to the left, we move left. To the right, we move right. If the ball is lobbed, we go back and get it.
That is what the pros are doing. Each partner is independently moving with respect to the ball. The reason it looks like they move together is that they are each moving correctly relative to the ball. If the dink is hit toward the left side of the court, the left-side player slides left, and the right-side player also slides left. Almost as if there were a tether between them.
But when one pro player drives a third shot off an attackable return, their partner doesn’t hang back and wait to move with their partner. Instead, they move forward and attack any resulting pop up.
GEAR
We tested the new JOOLA pickleball shoe Ben Johns wears
Earlier this year JOOLA released their first-ever pickleball shoe, and we recently got our hands (er, feet) on a pair.
In this video, we share our real-world experience after spending time on court with the new JOOLA R4LLy shoes, which are currently being used by several top pros, including Ben Johns.
We cover the fit, comfort, weight, stability, traction, durability features, and the one issue we’ve experienced so far, so you can decide if they’re the right pickleball shoe for your game.
QUICK HITS
Incredible story: Down 200+ pounds since playing pickleball
Drama: This Dreambreaker delivered
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