The Pickleball Cabin

Tennis Dying? Video is self explanatory...    

  So... I went along to the Franklin Premier Pickelball League draft/try out and pickleball festival yesterday... Got a bit of a shock with most players there were 4.2+ and playing how we generally play just didn't cut it!  The techniques I've been taught to coach - up to 3.5 level - just don't work A Long-Dink, for instance, as third shot, just gets pummeled as the players whip the ball adding top spin from balls beneath the level of the net... And anything slightly high turns into a volley-battle... Lots still to learn... It was great fun though - I learnt a lot through losing.. And hope to be back next year, to see how much I've improved (IF my legs can cope).. 8 hours of pretty non-stop play has left me hobbling a little today - by the 17:00 I was struggling to waddle up to the NVZ...   A number of players were using the REAL Ben John's Perseus IV -  to which my 'knock-off' got compared favourably! (even without JOOLA written on it - though probably not ...

 OMG... I got my new paddles through (from Ali-Express and AliBaba) the other day, and was able to try them out for the first time yesterday...   What a difference.. The Ben Johns Perseus clone feels so close to the real one - it looks, feels and sounds exactly the same (to my unpracticed ear), so much so that I think the blurb on the site might be true - and that this is essentially a pre-press of the real thing - it even has Ben's Signature on it... Now I KNOW how easy it is to put whatever graphics you like on a paddle (see my upcoming Pickleball Cabin Paddles - but that's another blog), but this feels real.. AND I can do a *proper* banana server with it - the first time I tried I was astonished!   At the weekend I was playing at the Premier Pickleball League event - Draft/Festival, a senior coach/player asked me to take a look at my Ben John's paddle commented that it seemed exactly the same as the REAL one... but said I'd not be allowed to use in a real tourney.......

Today I ran two training sessions using techniques from the PbE level 1 course, only the second recorded, 'cos I'm a Muppet.    Photo from the first session Not sure how to attach the video to here .. here's a link to it:  video of training session...

Usually the 2nd sequel is less than stellar, I won't disappoint on this front...   Straight back in to the action... Running a tournament... Ouch.. didn't quite know what I got myself in for... I thought: just put it on pickleheads, if you build it they will come... And then.... Floodgates didn't open... I asked around, verbally, checked with people at Friday night pickleball etc... but only a trickle of people interesetd... so I needed to do more.   I reintroduce myself to Facebook, joined various Pickelball Groups (e.g. Pickleball England), and used Canva (and it's AI) to generate a Poster for the tournament - called it the Two2 tournament (on 2nd Feb)  and started posting on Facebook in groups, etc.. not just about the tourney, but about sessions we were having. Meanwhile I managed to get myself invited to a tryout session at Surrey Downs Pickleball Club (because I posted an ad for the tourney there) - went along, and held my own enough to get asked back. Started sha...

     After L1 day last week I opened the floogates for some free coaching. Now I have 12+ people coming to my first ever coaching session...  Remembering IDEAS (Intro, Demo, Explanation, Activitiy, and Summary) I wrote a lesson plan for Dink (SWEEP) and Long-Dink (PEAKER), over my lunch break. And STEP - Space, Task, Expectation(?), and People   Then I checked who was coming and I have a few complete beginners, so will have to take it back to fundamentals to start with... So what the NVZ is (2D area not allowed into while volleying), Ready Position (paddle up just above height of net), and basic Pendulum.  The latter will be used extensively in the lesson.  Remember, to start, no spin needed.   Not talking about serve at this stage - that's another lesson. Nor scoring.   I'm planning to video the session so will be posting it (or extracts) here later...

 What a day, so much to take in, and an exam to take once Trevor sends the invite out.   Immediate thoughts... knackered...  Then I posted to Facebook generally and my group specifically (via WhatsApp) that I would be running a free coaching event prior to our Open Play on one of our evening sessions for the next two weeks, partly as this is needed for the full certification, partly 'cos enough people had already asked for it... Within about an hour of posting I have at least 7 signed up for coaching both weeks....   So lesson plan needs building over the next few days. I will have at least one beginner, so my immediate thought is to take it right back to basics, teach the pendulum swing dink,  (SWEEP) and long dink (aka third shot drop) to start with. Find some videos about this to pass on to players after.   Then second week the volley and the block volley.  IDEAS STEP  Think of some games as well... Will depend on how many players, but somethin...

 Starting to get drawn in...    ... (I told you I had a thing about ellipses...)  The WhatsApp group(s) agree: it would be great to play 1) more and 2) inside, and a pretty even split between Wednesday and Thursday arise.    I approach a few local schools and church halls and manage to get a session on a Thursday night at the local college (over the road from me), with 4 badminton courts, so I book 2 of them for two hours and put the word out.... starting mid-November. First week we had, I think 6 people... most of which said they'd rather do Wednesday... So, I manage to get a 2nd location - Merstham Park School - for a couple of hours on Wednesday, and again put the word out... At a loss for the first few weeks I run both Wednesday and Thursday night, with very few coming on Thursday, but many more (10 ish) coming on Wednesday - meaning I need to get hold of some more Nets... Fortunately the Tennis Club have allowed me to acquire 2 nets for them which I ca...

Pickleball and me, how did we get here? Pt. 1    Well, it's the age old story: boy meets pickleball, boy plays pickleball, boy falls in love with pickleball and gives it all his money (and time).... The Tennis coach at our Tennis Club (Dave Earl of Boom) got together with one of the committee and painted an extra line on the mini tennis courts at the club (Redhill Tennis), put up a (largely misleading) introduction/rules of pickleball on the net and create a Saturday Spond session starting in October 2024. A few of us rock up and start playing, disagreeing in our interpretation of the rules but having so much fun!!! So, bit between teeth , away I go, download and read the rules, (and so much more) come back the next week and check the net height, to start with... too low...  Check the dimensions of the court (just right) - and more people have turned up to play, some with their own paddles (ooh...)... More fun ensues, but everyone agrees we need to get right height nets i...