There Ain't No Crying In Pickleball!
Members Playing All Over Tennessee Regardless of Temperature
If it's not windy or raining, out members will be out there playing all over Tennessee. With regulars playing at Municipal Park every morning or evenings at the new courts at Mundy Park, members are 'Dinkin daily! Get connected with your local community and start playing today. Sign up for free at Dinkville.com to join the #1 Pickleball Community in Tennessee. See pictures below from this weeks play.
Get To Know Dinkville Member Sherry Hipps
Who are you? Sherry Hipps
When did you start playing pickleball? 2015 - I was playing Badminton at the Tennessee Senior Olympics and saw Pickleball being played.
How did you get started with Dinkville? Learned of Dinkville from other players at Charlie Daniels Park and Old Hickory Center last summer. Dinkville is great for connecting players!
Why do you love pickleball? Fun with friends and great for exercise and competition.
What’s your favorite shot in Pickleball? Poaching a ball just as it clears the net!
What’s your goals this year in pickleball? Drill and play more to improve my shot consistency.
What’s your advice to new players? Play as much as you can and have fun!
Up Your Game Brought To You By The Dink:
Two Versions of the Erne
Not all ernes are built the same. Let's take a look at the two most common ernes you see in play.
To differentiate between the two, we've named them the leading and lagging erne based on where your paddle is in the motion. And for simplicity's sake, we will imagine that you're right-handed and playing the left side of the court.
The most common is the lagging erne: you jump over the kitchen and your paddle lags behind to execute a forehand erne. The main benefits of this shot are power and reach.
It requires an early read and commitment from you to get your body in motion before the ball crosses the net. The descent of your jump amplifies the power of the forehand erne.
In contrast, the leading erne is executed as a backhand. The paddle leads in front of the body as you jump over the kitchen.
It is usually a sign that the erne read was late or disguised. There was not enough time or conviction to clear the kitchen and set up a forehand, so you have to settle for the backhand.
The shot is not as powerful but leaves very little reaction time for an opponent. Unlike the lagging erne, there is no sign that you are cooking a leading erne until it is too late. The contact point is very close to the net, providing the opponent with almost no time to recover or prepare for another shot.
It takes time to build the erne into your game, but now that you know what you're looking for, hopefully you can skip ahead of the rest of your class.
Today In Pickleball Brought To You By The Dink:
More Big-Name MLP Investors
What did we say a few days ago about assuming we'd have huge pro scene news every week? This time: exciting investors come to claim another MLP league.
Tennis star Naomi Osaka and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes are the next big names to invest in Major League Pickleball.
It is unclear how much they invested, but MLP’s recent expansion fees from other deals have ranged between $1 million and $3 million.
Osaka and Mahomes’ new MLP team is also said to be co-owned by tennis star Nick Kyrgios, NBA super-agent Rich Paul, tech billionaire Soichiro Minami, and billionaire Matthew Pritzker.
According to Forbes, Osaka has ranked as the world’s highest-paid female athlete for three straight years.
Naturally, we have more coverage of the news here.
The Picks Are In
Major League Pickleball revealed the 48 players selected to the Premier League for the first three events of 2023. Live from Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas strip, commissioner Brooks Wiley announced the picks.
Gary Vee and the New Jersey 5's won the draft lottery and received the first overall pick. With it, they selected one of pickleball's biggest stars, Anna Leigh Waters.
In true Gary Vee fashion, he proclaimed "The delta between her and everyone else is substantial."
The Seattle Pioneers drafted second and landed pickleball GOAT, Ben Johns. Possibly the most shocking development in the draft was that Collin Johns was not paired up with his baby bro despite being available for the Pioneers' last pick. Instead, they opted to take Tyler Loong as the 40th selection overall.
New to the league for 2023, each team will select a host city. So last year's Mad Drops are now the LA Mad Drops; Team BLQK is now the California BLQK Bears. Four completely new franchises were introduced to the league, including Lebron James' New York Hustlers and Tom Brady's Las Vegas Night Owls.
See the full list of 48 Premier League players & their teams here.
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Thanks,
Landon Hallam, Dinkville Commissioner, Landon@dinkville.com