Happy New Year from Dinkville! 🎉
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Hey Dinkville Community,
We’re fired up for 2026 and can’t wait to kick off the year fast, happy, and full of pickleball with our community. This year is all about more play, more laughs, and more unforgettable moments on and off the courts.
Make sure you’re getting out to Dinkville Under Broad at Nashville Yards and staying plugged in to everything we’ve got going on. With Pickleball Courts, Mini Golf, Skating, and food/drink for everyone to have a wonderful experience!
Dinkville Under Broad at Nashville Yards
Dinkville Winter Classic Jan 24-25 at Pickleball Kingdom Hendersonville!
We’re starting 2026 the right way — with a big, high-energy Dinkville tournament weekend! The Winter Classic is officially open for registration, and we want YOU on the courts.
🎾 Bracket Options for Everyone:
• Saturday Jan 24th Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles
• Sunday Jan 25th Singles and Mixed Doubles
Whether you’re a first-time tournament player or a seasoned competitor, there’s a bracket ready for you. Grab your friends, find your division, and get ready for two days of fun, competition, and community.
✨ Why You Don’t Want to Miss This:
• Kick off the new year with a bang
• Play at one of the best indoor facilities in Middle Tennessee
• Meet new players and level up your game
• DUPR Rated Games
Secure your spot today and be part of the first big Dinkville event of 2026.
We can’t wait to see you battling it out on the courts!
📲 Sign up now and lock in your bracket!
DINKVILLE WINTER CLASSIC PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT JAN 24-25
Dinkville is proud to be sponsored by Selkirk, and we highly recommend their exceptional products and strong commitment to the future of pickleball. Make sure to use code ADV-LHALLAM at Checkout to receive a FREE GIFT!
Today In Pickleball Brought To You By The Dink
12 Drills to Play Your Best Pickleball in 2026
Here’s a dose of truth serum before you hit the courts in 2026…
It’s not enough to just show up and hit balls anymore – you need a plan, and that plan should build progressively from simple to complex and focus on the core skills you should have mastered by now.
Top coach Jordan Briones has that plan: 12 of the most effective drills laid out in sequence from simple to sophisticated. Take them one at a time and you’ll start to notice your skillset improving in turn.
Master them all and you’ll be a force to be reckoned with in 2026. Here are three of our favorites.
🎯 The Initiator Attack Game introduces a competitive element to drilling. One player is designated as the initiator and can attack off balance or out of the air, while the other can only counter. It's a clever way to practice both offensive aggression and defensive patience simultaneously.
🎯 Three and Go (Transition) has you standing in transition while your partner pressures you below the waist. You must hit three resets minimum before advancing to the net. This drill directly addresses one of the most common weaknesses in intermediate play: navigating the transition zone.
🎯 Lob Retrieval Drill is where things get fun. Players dink normally, but at any moment, one player lobs the other without warning. The lobbed player must let it bounce, track it down, and then play it out. It's chaotic in the best way, forcing players to stay mentally sharp and ready for anything.
The Biggest Stories of 2025
This year has been a truly bonkers rollercoaster ride in the world of professional pickleball. Ups, downs, and everything in between… we’ve truly seen it all.
To put the past 365 days into a bit of perspective, we rounded up the 25 biggest stories from 2025. Like Quang Duong getting the boot for repeated contract violations. Or Queen Anna Leigh setting the new record for most golds ever.
The list is full of surprises. Here are ten that made the cut:
- adidas signs Federico Staksrud, then they split six months later
- Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau call it quits
- USA Pickleball countersues JOOLA
- A $60,000 UPA-A paddle testing machine goes missing
- The JOOLA MOD hits its final nuke
- Ben Johns gets traded from the Carolina Hogs
- The ‘Cinderella’ Sliders shock the world
- An egregious cheater is suspended for 90 days
- Fake paddles flood the market
- The UPA terminates three pros
And that quite literally ain’t even the half of it.
Anna Leigh Waters Removed from Paddletek Website
Rumors have been circulating for months that #1 ranked women's pro Anna Leigh Waters could be moving on from longtime sponsor Paddletek.
Some have speculated she'll land at JOOLA in what would certainly be a blockbuster deal. Those rumors have not been confirmed yet, but we’re working the phone lines night and day to crack the case.
What we do know is this: Anna Leigh, once the poster child of Paddletek, is no longer listed anywhere on the company's website.
Not the homepage. Not the paddle page. Not the "Team Paddletek" page. Nowhere.
➡️ Her signature paddle is still for sale… for now.
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Thank you,
Landon Hallam
Dinkville Founder/CEO