Pickleball Newsletter

PPA Recap, Countering Tips, Off Arm Balance

Author

Alex Matathia
January 14, 2025

PPA - The Masters Tournament Recap

Results:

  • The John’s brothers win their last tournament as partners (for now), the 34th they’ve won together 🏆

  • Anna Leigh Waters gets another triple crown 🏆🏆🏆

  • Federico Staksrud wins men’s singles but loses the men’s and mixed doubles finals 🏆❌❌

    • This is Federico’s last tournament with Joola. He’s rumored to be signing a deal soon with Adidas.

What’d you miss?

  • Quang Duong switched from his sponsored Selkirk paddle to a Proton paddle mid-match, prompting a cease and desist from Selkirk for breaching his contract

  • Ben Johns attempts to take Quang’s head off hits a warning shot after Quang Duong repeatedly attempted to body bag Ben:

  • Funny outburst after a bad line call to end the game:

  • Alshon snaps his paddle after giving up a 10-4 lead in the final game of the mixed semi finals:

Next PPA Event:

Next MLP Event:

Pro Tip - Elbow stays close to body when countering

Pro Ryan Fu discusses tips for countering speedups:

1. Don’t take your arm back that much

2. Keep your elbow close to the body

3. Meet the ball out in front of you

Pro Technique - Off Arm Balance

  • Senior pro Scott Fliegelman discusses the benefits of keeping the shoulders level. You can do this by picturing a tray of champaign glasses on your shoulders that you don’t want to spill. Use your feet to better prepare yourself so you aren’t reaching for the ball too much.

Are you paying attention to your off arm?

  • Take a look at Ben Johns who always seems to have his off arm up for balance when hitting a variety of shots:

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